This was a family holiday, not a field trip. But in the Kundasang highlands, at Kinabalu Park, the hot spring and the Sabah Tea Garden, the little creatures kept stopping us in our tracks. A pale green moon moth with long tails, a spider that looks just like an ant, a beetle shining like a green jewel. Many of them my family had never seen before, so out came the cameras. Here they are, day by day, with the date and place printed on each picture.
Thursday 10 December The first surprise
On 10 December, a little green crab spider was waiting for us at Seaside. It sat perfectly still on a leaf, the same green as the leaf itself. One spider, one photograph, and the hunt was on.
1 spider photo · Read the day’s holiday story
Friday 11 December Up in the cool hills
Our first day around Rose Cabin, and the busiest day of all for the cameras: 38 photos. Out among the Rose Cabin plants before seven in the morning, on to Kinabalu Park and the hot spring, and four moths at BCCM after eight at night. Hairy caterpillars, a katydid as green as a leaf, a crane fly with impossibly long legs, a red-winged wasp, and spiders of every shape.
19 spider photos, 19 insect photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Saturday 12 December The moth wall
Moths everywhere! The photos labelled BCCM on this day are mostly moths, resting on white walls and window screens: leaf-shaped ones, golden ones, a bright orange one with a black net pattern, and a pale blue-green one. Out at Nirvana and Kinabalu Park the jumping spiders posed for us on a hand and on a red surface.
5 spider photos, 17 insect photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Did you know?
- Spiders have eight legs and insects have six. Count the legs and you can tell them apart at a glance.
- A harvestman looks like a spider, but its body is one round piece and it cannot spin silk.
- Some jumping spiders, such as Myrmarachne, look and even walk like ants.
Sunday 13 December Spiders on our fingertips
A quieter day for insect-spotting, but still four spiders, one of them a round little orb-weaver, Eriovixia, sitting on a fingertip, and a long-legged spider found after nine at night.
4 spider photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Monday 14 December Tea garden and hot spring
A full day out: Sabah Tea Garden, the hot spring and BCCM. At the tea garden we found crab spiders and spiders that look just like ants, and at the hot spring one ant-like spider was put on graph paper for a closer look. Back at BCCM, the moth wall was busy again, with a moth that looks like a curled leaf and another with eye-like patterns.
19 spider photos, 18 insect photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Tuesday 15 December The moon moth morning
At half past eight in the morning, a pale green moon moth with long trailing tails was resting at BCCM. A black beetle with long curved jaws turned up too, and a black beetle with orange spots. In the afternoon the Sabah Tea Garden gave us a lemon-yellow crab spider and another ant-like spider on graph paper.
9 spider photos, 14 insect photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Wednesday 16 December Kinabalu Park, last big day
Early morning brought three photos of one big huntsman spider at the tea garden. Then the forest of Kinabalu Park: harvestmen with tiny round bodies on long thin legs, orb-weavers, a two-tailed spider flat on the bark, a jumping spider on a hand, and the star of the day, a big metallic green scarab beetle.
26 spider photos, 2 insect photos · Read the day’s holiday story
Date not on the picture One more surprise
A praying mantis climbing a window, and a cream moth with black dots whose date is cut off the label (the other photos in its folder say 12 December).
Names in the captions are the family’s own labels or a broad group only; most of these creatures have not been identified to species. Times come from the camera. The letter X or Y on each picture shows which camera took it: X the Canon A480, Y the Canon A470. Photos from the folder “ByXing” are credited to Xing.