Just for interest, added cycad seeds being sorted . Nobody seems to know who brought them in or where they came from, but many of the seeds have similar holes, similarly empty. None of our cycads have cones now, so thinking this beastie came in with the seeds.
ಜೇಡ ಲೋಕದಲ್ಲೂ ಇರುವಳು ನೋಡಿ ಕುಂಬಾರ ! ಕುಂಬಾರ ಕಪ್ಪೆಯ ನಂತರ ಇದೋ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನೋಡಿ ಕುಂಬಾರ ಜೇಡ. ತನ್ನ ಮೊಟ್ಟೆಗೆ ಮಣ್ಣಿನ ಲೇಪನ ಮಾಡಿ ವೈರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ತನ್ನ ಸಂತತಿ ಆಹಾರವಾಗದಂತೆ ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಬುದ್ದಿವಂತಿಕೆ , .
Here is a Kumbara / Potter from SPIDER WORLD. Most of Nature enthusiasts are aware of Kumbara Night Frog, Nyctibatrachus kumbara. Here Male frog take care of eggs laid by female. male covers egg clutch by mud . perfect plastering , so that no predators can identify these egg clutch . It was amazing discovery by Gururaja k.v & his team 18 years back (2006) . I always wanted to witness this marvelous event atleast once, but i was not that lucky ! But , this July 2024, I was there on a day visit to my native , puttur. It was raining badly & frog sounds were coming from land, bushes & tree . Though frogs tried to drag their attention through their impressive call/song my focus was restricted towards spiders . ye I failed to be holistic !Its really painful to spot those frogs on bushes.so i felt its not my cup of tea & decided to be strict with just spiders. But KUMBARA was always in my mind & I got it this time. BUT , its not a frog. It SPIDER again ! Yes Land dweller, Africactenus genus from ctenidae family , very common spider from westenghats was seen guarding her eggsac . Freshly made egg sac was just like freshly emerged mushroom ! female soon had plastered mud over eggsac very similar to that of Kumbara night frog ! Hence Africactenus is our new potter from KARNATAKA july 2024, puttur.
This fly is a mimic of Rhynchium brunneum and this one was found dead and covered in fungus.
Mites on Beetle (Nicrophorus nepalensis)
Beginning my journey here with this incredible transformative fish that develops a unique perspective in life after the transformation. Inspiring! Also the interplay of the words Sole with Soul with Soles of feet is great.
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Please feel free to correct me where I'm wrong as I'm not trained and I would love to get to know what the actual thing is if I've misidentified a species 🙌🏽
Wondeirng what is the use of those orange patches near legs?
Parasitic wasp on a caterpillar
Seen many individuals mating , eating and flying around
Found plenty of these larvae in my compost pile. Also this adult. Thought it to be dead, till I took it in my hand. It extended it's legs and started walking around.
Plant, , AWW, Turahalli Tree Park, 070124
Size: less than two cm
The village where it is found is the peripheries of Thangjing Hill, Manipur. It is found in a raring cage where chicken & ducks are keeping in captive..
This series shows Watshamiella alata watching Sycoscapter cornutus oviposit into a Ficus burkei syconium (fruiting body) for over seven minutes; after the Sycoscapter female departs, the Watshamiella female proceeds to oviposit into the same hole. Compton et al. (2009) described this behaviour for different species of Watshamiella in Uganda and Kenya on Ficus sycomorus and Ficus artocarpoides.
Compton, S.G., Van Noort, S., McLeish, M., Deeble, M. and Stone, V., 2009. Sneaky African fig wasps that oviposit through holes drilled by other species. African Natural History, 5, pp.9-15. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230580629
Dressing/looking like a stronger - Best way to defend oneself .
Yesterday i went for small trek along with parents of my kid’s school (Arivu Vidhya samste). We went to trek small hillock near uchangi . Easy trek, but it’s not easy to walk with macro enthusiasts as we peep over every plant, turn every leaf to explore insect diversity.
Trek was very fruitful for me as I got many unusual sightings of spiders & insects along with scenic view of westernghats. There were many existing moments & its usual tendency to post the best in the begging of photo story. I thought of posting one interesting crab spider or one ground spider with its unique hunting technique. But just a phone call with my friend vipin made me to post this!
Yes.. This was my highlight from yesterdays walk.
While returning from Hill, we took stop near water stream & quenched our thirst. My son Amathya was little faraway searching for insects. He never call me, unless its unusual. Amathya kept on calling me. come fast. Here is something interesting . A hornet with its first pair of leg like praying mantis. I want near it. oh. a hornet.
Just a month back I had got painful sting from Hornet . This memory was very active so i decided to photograph from little distance . two to three pic, Hornet disappeared.
Today I was saying about this Hornet to vipin over phone & simultaneously I sent an image too. Looking at the image, he was super exited, which i was not on field !
ohh... you got a jackpot.
This is a Mantispidae/ mantidflies. Never seen such a Mantidfly which is total mimicry of Hornet, almost looking like dangerous. Vespa tropica.
I looked over image again.. oh.. i was fooled .. its not a Hornet . Batesian mimicry was successful. This mimicry fools many predators, just like how I was fooled.
( Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both)
Thanks to Amathya for spotting & Thanks to vipin again :)
Decemeber 2023
Uchangi
Kodagu.
About 25 mm long. Matthew, I have emailed you re these.
we still not confirm about This Russells viper because of russells viper geaographic range.. and there is only manipur state we found russells viper in north east india (7 sister).Russells viper ventral scale i showed in picture & we are doing study on it and trying solve this mystery.
Indian Grey Mongoose with Russell's Viper kill, Bannerghatta Walk, 021023
Golden-backed Frog
Mushroom grown on frog body
A pair of rock agamas mating
Observed incapacitating and subsequently feeding on a giant millipede
With wasp kill
Pteromalidae parasitoid wasps on stink bug eggs .
Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
September 2022
Parasited caterpillar (Parasitic wasp laid eggs on its back)