Tag: insects

Marsh dart damselflies

Damsels in love ;-)
Coromandel Marsh Darts mating

Marsh darts are slender and small damselflies with varied coloration. These non-iridescent damselflies rest with wings closed over their body. The wings are transparent and rounded at the tip. The long and slender abdomen is slightly longer than the hind wing. Some of the smallest damselflies like the Golden Dartlet (Ischnura aurora) is from this family. Marsh Darts are found throughout the world. World over, this family is represented by about 1147 species. Within Indian limits, 65 species are known and in peninsular India 25 species are recorded. The marsh darts breed in a variety of aquatic habitats like ponds, marshes, streams and rivers. Though most of the species are closely associated with aquatic habitats, some species like the Common Marsh Dart (Ceriagrion coromandelianum) can be found far away from any aquatic habitat.

If you are interested you can download the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Peninsular India – A Field Guide. An excellent book which has been released under a Creative Commons license by the Indian Academy of Sciences

P.S. I know about the book because it has some pictures taken by ‘Yours truly’ – including the one depicted above

Common Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus)

Papilio demoleus
Papilio demoleus - the most common of the swallowtails

Taking this picture day before yesterday was a gentle reminder for me that one need not always have exotic subjects to create good looking photographs

Read some info on Lime Butterfly

Damsels in love

Damsel flies mating

Had initially considered putting this post behind a LJ-cut but that according to some would be a very cruel joke 😉

Anyways… I caught these yesterday morning on our Sunday morning bird walk and like it so often happens with me – The camera had the wrong lens – The EXIF on the picture is
Exposure Time: 1/100 sec
FNumber: f 8
Flash: Flash, Auto-Mode, Return light detected
Focal length: 400 mm

Can anyone ID these?

The new bride

Velvet mites

Known variously as Velvet Mite, Rani Keeda, Rain Mite, Beerboti and Bir Bahuti. These insects are related to mites, yes the same mites which you can find on dogs! Scientific name – Trombidium grandissimum. They emerge from the ground just after first rains and are found almost through out the central Indian plains…

As children we use to go to the grave yard to collect them and make them race, keep in glass jars – we knew that they are used in traditional medicine and felt very yuck!! who would want to eat them.

It turns out that amongst it purported medicinal property is some similarity with Viagra… in fact the name Bir Bahuti – literally meaning “the new bride” is an allusion to that very myth.

This myth will probably be the cause of its ultimate destruction – over the years a huge international market has emerged for it and they are collected not few at a time but by kilograms!! They are then dried in sun and shipped to Varanasi where there are Bir Bahuti oil extraction factories.

These specimen were collected by Aasim from a location where I suspect that a population of them is thriving unknown to these collectors – I just hope it remains that way.