Monday, June 17, 2019

Springing back to life! The transition from Summer to Monsoon

Summer this time was particularly harsh. Also noticed a marked decrease in insect/activity.

The dry surroundings with their own adaptations

A gorgeous stick insect
Stick insect, Phasmidae

The striking boxer mantis
Boxer mantis

Sleeping blue-banded bee
Sleeping blue-banded bee

The ants rule the roost
Weaver ants carrying back a dead stink bug

This wonderful seed-pod of an Indian kino tree, the root-like structure within representative of the power and promise of life
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An amazingly camouflaged Plataspidae nymph
As flat as one can be! A pentatomidae - Plataspidae nymph

An un-ID'ed Salticidae
ID unknown, Salticid

The transition of summer to onset of monsoon..greens begin to emerge

Grasshopper, blend mode ON!

Non-biting midge,Chironomidae male with it's plumose antennae

A bark mantis
Bark mantis


The first drops being lapped up by this Ichneumon wasp
Wasp for ID

Fireflies out in numbers!
Leaf beetle, Chrysomelidae

Cicadas being their noisy best, after a long subterranean extistence
Cicada, likely Platypleura octoguttata

Leaf beetles seen in plenty
Leaf beetle, Chrysomelidae

The mites not letting go of the opportunity
Bugged by mites! A leaf beetle with mites

The rains also meant an increase in mosquito numbers, here's one sucking blood from my left hand. The proboscis and engorged abdomen turning red with blood.
Mosquito gorging itself on blood

With insect life bouncing back in good numbers, predators made the best of it

The two-tailed spider, Herisilia sp on the bark
Two-tailed spider, Hersilia sp with kill

This two-striped jumper, Telamonia sp female feasting on a blue bottlefly
Two striped jumper (Telamonia sp) female with a bluebottle fly kill

A Lynx spider, Peucetia sp predating on a mantis
Peucetia with a mantis kill

It's a spider-eat-spider world! A Rhene jumping spider predating on a Bomis sp crab spider
Rhene with a crab spider kill

Robberflies rule the aerial space
Robberfly with kill

Robberfly with kill

Keeping the mosquitos/midges in check
Robberfly with midge


Almost every perch/vantage point had a robberfly on it, truly the season!
Resting robberfly, head ON!

Robberfly close-up

The compound eyes which enables such high degree of precision
Compound eyes of the robberfly


The forest floor with the Tmarus snacking on an ant
Tmarus (?) crab spider with ant kill

This season also brings out some spiders rarely seen

The oh-so-colorful Chrysilla
Chrysilla sp, one of the most striking jumping spiders

Asemonea sp
Asemonea jumping spider

Cyrba sp, saw this striking little beauty for the very first time!
Cyrba sp - a Stunning little jumping spider

A curled-up millipede showing how nature works with classic design
The Fibonacci spiral! Rolled up millipede

A lot of arthropod life-cycle revolves around reproduction, fascinating to watch the life stages

Single egg of a common emigrant butterfly
Common emigrant butterfly egg

A caterpillar ready to pupate
Ready to pupate - backlit

But nature had sinister plans, this was affected with a virus known as the "Black death". This caterpillar will not pupate successfully
Ready for pupation, but infected - Black death

A rarely seen caterpillar stage of the Double branded crow butterfly
Double branded crow caterpillar

A looper caterpillar of the Geometrid moth
Looper! Geometridae moth caterpillar

Pupating ladybird larva
Ladybird pupa

A weaver ant queen looking at expanding the colony
Weaver ant queen

Owlfly larvae with those intimidating mandibles
Owlfly larvae

An Ammophila sp wasp carrying back a paralyzed caterpillar to lay eggs inside and bury it. What a welcome gift to the progeny!
Ammophila wasp carrying back a caterpillar to lay eggs and bury!

A Brettus sp jumping spider with her spiderlings
Brettus mom with her spiderlings

Got lucky with this full life-cycle of Coreidae (shield bugs)

Eggs
Hatched coreidae eggs, the patterns and symmetry is amazing!

Coreidae eggs

Freshly hatched nymphs
Freshly hatched Coreidae nymphs

Coreidae nymphs

The multi hue/colors indicate how recently the nymph has moulted. Red is recent, green/yellow is older..how cool!
Coreidae nymphs

Hope you enjoyed these, it was fascinating and amazing to me, no matter how many times I experience this..oh, the wonders of nature!

Adios till the next one.

Cheers!
Hayath