Friday, September 16, 2011

WASP -6


Location – Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

MY OBSERVATIONS


08-9-11 – Collected some eggs in a leaf
                Eggs are only 2 mm in diameter
                                                        Enlarged view

14-9-11 – Emerged. There is a lid in the egg. The young one pushed opened it and 
               come out



Very tiny fly. Having 3mm in length.
                   When enlarged it looks like a wasp

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Giant Red Eye Butterfly (Gangara thyrsis thyrsis)


Location : Thuckalai, Tamilnadu

23-01-2011 – Caterpillar from coconut tree leaf. Grayish white in colour covered with white powdery hairs. Edges of the leaf is pasted together and stay inside it. For a little disturbance the pupa shivering with sounds (the sound is due to the hitting of the pupa against the leaf)
 The leaf is folded in such a way that if rain comes no water can enter inside the cover


Host Plant : Coconut tree (Cocos nucifera)

24-01-2011 – The leaf roll opened.



27-01-2011 – Emerged out
It is “Giant Red Eye” (Gangara thyrsis thyrsis)




Kingdom:      Animalia
Phylum:          Arthropoda
Class:            Insecta
Order:            Lepidoptera
Family:           Hesperiidae
Genus:           Gangara
Species:        G. thyrsis
Also check the blog White Caterpillar from Kollam

MOTH-3


Location : Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

MY OBSERVATIONS

13-1-2011 – collected a caterpillar. There are number of different aged caterpillars in the plant.


Host Plant :  Breynia patens (Roxb.) Rolfe
Common Name: Cup & Saucer, Peruniuri (Malayalam),    The plant grows as a shrub with spreading branches


17-1-2011 - Colour and shape of the caterpillar changed. Edges of the leaf is pasted together. So I think is going to pupate.


18-1-2011 – Become a complete pupa



28-1-2011 – Emerged out



IT TAKES 10 DAYS TO BECOME ADULT FROM PUPA



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Moth-2


Location : Palode, Thiruvananthapuram


MY OBSERVATIONS

10-01-2011 – Collected two cocoon


17-01-2011 – One emerged in the night.
Inside the cocoon cover there is one hard brown pupa cover also.








04-03-2011- The second cocoon is not yet emerged. So dissected. 

Inside the cocoon a baby wasp was found dead. So the cocoon is parasited.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Antlion


Location : Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

Kingdom:       Animalia
Phylum:          Arthropoda
Class:            Insecta
Subclass:      Myrientomata
Section:         Pterygota 
Division:        Neoptilota
Subdivision:  Endopterygota
Superorder:  Neuropteroidea
Order:            Neuroptera
Suborder:      Myrmeleontiformia
Superfamily:  Myrmeleontoidea
Family:           Myrmeleontidae

The larva always moves backwards.

The larva makes a conical shaped pit in the loose sand and waiting for a prey, usually ants and small insects, which passing through the sides of the pit and slipped into the pit. 

The angle of the pit is adjusted so that no prey can escape from it. Simultaneously the antlion flicks sand to the victim and grabs it when it falls near. 

The two powerful jaws of the larva is capable of grabbing the prey and injecting a liquid venom which liquefies the body parts of the victim inside its exoskeleton.
Larval stage takes about 2-3 years to become pupa. Pupation period is about 20 days. 
Adult emerging in the evening and comes to the surface and climbs to the nearby plant and takes nearly half an hour for stretching its wings fully.

Adult antlion fly is having a clubbed antennae. They do not eat ant or insects. Usually they may not eat anything. Its aim is to mate and reproduction. Its life span is only about 20 to 45 days.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

MATING FLIES


Location : Malayinkil, Thiruvananthapuram
8-6-11-  Seen mating in  grass at 12 noon

PRAYING MANTIS-3



Location: Palode, Thiruvananthapuram
MY OBSERVATIONS
19-5-2011 – Seen a praying mantis guarding its egg (oothaca) in a mangostein tree leaf. There is one more egg is there in another leaf.




7-6-2011 – Egg hatched
Large in numbers





                            Spread all over the tree



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