Fruits, waste or what?

The Tiup Tiup Path is one of my favourite paths on Bukit Timah Hill. I find this the most "primary" part of the forest, as exemplified by the presence of many Dipterocarp giants. The forest never cease to be interesting, revealing intriging "happening" every now and then.

On this recent trip, I encountered this heap of "fruits at the foot of a medium size tree. They are coloured bright orange, dry and roughly textured. The tree wasn't in fruit, though the nearby Tempinis and several others were.

However, just about a foot off the ground, I discovered a tiny hole with one orange "seed". This is the origin of these fruits.



These are not seeds or fruits but waste pellet that were push out from inside the tree. A larvae of some sort have bored into the wood. These are wood waste after having passed through the gut of the larvae. What the larvae becomes is yet to be seen. How much of the living tree it will consume also wait to be seen.

There was another tree, a Cinnamomum iners, near Dairy farm Hut, is similarly afficted.

Enclosed is also the top half of the affected tree, if you are keen to seek out the tree to have a closer look or see what eventually emerge.