White caterpillar collected from Kollam, Kerala

MY OBSERVATIONS

24-09-1991 – Kollam, Kerala

CATERPILLAR

White in colour

White hairs covered with white powder throughout the body

PUPA

Pupate by rolling a coconut palm leaf

Inside the roll, white power was there

The pupa is hanged by a web like thread

DIFFERENT STAGES OF PUPA

27-9-1991 – Eyes of the pupa was white

At 9 PM  the colour changed to red and looks like two red beads

28-9-1991 – The wing portion’s yellow colour changed to brown and red spot are seen there

Sway to sides when touched

29-9-1991 – 7 AM  Eyes and red spots changed to brown

9 PM  Colour of the wing portion changed from brown to black

ADULT

30-9-1991 – 7 PM Emerged out

Eyes and proboscis red in colour

Body length 4 cm

Orange spots are there in the upper side of the  wings 

Moth from yellow black caterpillar

MY OBSERVATIONS

Food Plant : Lannea coromandelica ("Uthi" in Malayalam)

CATERPILLAR

Yellow  colour with black strips

Length 3.5 cm

Length of hairs 2 cm, and white in colour, only on black strips

Body width 0.4 cm

PUPA

Pupate in soft wood

Made a cage like covering (cocoon) with the bark of the wood

Starting the cage making at night (only in the dark) around 8 pm

If  we pointing a light source, it stops the work

Very small pieces of bark pasted to make these cage

Starting the cage from the middle portion of the body

Taking the bark from left and pasting it in the right

After finishing the half portion caterpillar turns and starts making the other portion

ADULTS

Emerged at night at 10.45 Pm

Excrete dark orange and thick liquid just after emerging. It hardened after few seconds

The curled wings takes 3 to5 minutes to open completely

Wings are dark brown in colour outside and brownish grey inner with white lines and black markings

Half portion of the under side of the wing is orange from the top

Inner side of the leg is orange and outer grey

In front of the black eyes there is two hornlike organ and in between them a yellow sucker is spiraled

Having segmented antenna

There is spin  in the joints of legs

FROM THE TIME OF PUPATE IT TAKES 16 DAYS TO EMERGE AS ADULT

Wasp

MY OBSERVATIONS

11-5-1993 – Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

Eggs are pasted together and pasted in a metal line

Exact round in shape, 1.5 mm in diameter

Difficult to count because pasted one over another and not in a particular order

A brown spot at top

Light brown lines in two sides

13-5-1993 – All eggs hatched at 8.30 PM

Like black ants but having Transparant wings and flying

Having antinae

0.5 mm length

MICROSCOPIC VIEW

Lacewing

GENERAL

Lacewings are insects in the large family Chrysopidae of the order Neuroptera.

There about 85 genera and (differing between sources) 1,300–2,000 species 

Green lacewings are delicate insects with a wingspan of 6 to over 65 mm

The bodies are usually bright green to greenish-brown, and the compound eyes are conspicuously golden in many species.

The wings are usually translucent with a slight iridescence

EGGS

Eggs are deposited at night, singly or in small groups; one female produces some 100–200 eggs.

Eggs are placed on plants

Each egg is hung on a slender stalk about 1 cm long, to keep them from eating one another when they hatch, usually on the underside of a leaf. Immediately after hatching, the larvae moult, then ascend the egg stalk to feed

LARVA

Lacewing larvae look like little alligators

Lacewing larvae are grey-brown in color and very tiny when just hatched, so you may need a magnifying glass to see them

The larvae are also called aphid lions, because they devour aphids

Larvae have either a more slender "humpbacked" shape with a prominent bulge on the thorax

Larvae growing up to 1/2" long need about 1–3 weeks to pupation which takes place in a cocoon

ADULTS

Adults are nocturnal. They feed on pollen, nectar and honeydew supplemented with mites, aphids and other small arthropods

Adults range in size from 1/2-3/4" long

Adults live 4-6 weeks

MY OBSERVATIONS

1-3-1993 – Observed some eggs hanged in an orchid leaf

The hanging thread is thick enough that if we reverse the leaf it stands erect

Eggs halfwhite in colour and below 1mm in length, oval in shape

5-3-1993 – Eggs hatched at 4PM

                             Viewed through microscope

Moth

My Observations

Caterpillar

01-11-1991 – Found the caterpillars in Olea plant.

Eats the leaf of the same plant

The caterpillars leaves in webs like spider

Usually the caterpillars moults.

The moulted skin was there in the web

Black in colour with yellow spots and white hairs 
in the body

Totally seven segments

Three pair of legs with sharp nails in the first three 
segments after the head

Third segments from the back there is a pair of suckers

Pupa

07-11- 1991 – Halfwhite in colour

Large spots are yellow in colour and small 

spots black

Hanging on a web connected from a leaf

Sways when touched

12-11-1991 -  Changes in the colour of the pupa slightly

Become slight brown and shiny like polished

The Eye spot projected outward

19-11-1991 -  Emerged at 7.15 AM

Female is large in size

Usually mating while minutes after emerging

White in colour with black spots

                      Flickering style of flight

Host Plant

Olea dioica Roxb.

Genus: Olea subgenus: Tetrapilus
Family: Oleaceae tribe: Oleeae. 

Habit :              Trees up to 15 m tall.

Trunk & Bark :          Bark brownish, rough; blaze pale brown.

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Edana; Etala; Irippa

Sting Bug

Scientific Classification

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Arthropoda

Class – Insecta

Order – Hemiptera

Family - Pentatomidae

Stinkbug, the common name for a family of insects. There are thousands of species, found in most parts of the world. Stinkbugs are so named because they secrete a foul-smelling liquid that is repulsive to most predators.

Some species are serious pests, others are beneficial because they feed on other harmful insects.

Like all true bugs, stinkbugs have no chewing mouthparts. Instead, they have tubelike beaks called rostrums attached to their heads. The rostrum has four thin, sharp needles in it.

Most kinds of stinkbugs suck the juices of plants. Some kinds suck the body fluids of insects. Others feed on both plants and insects.

When not feeding, stinkbugs hold their beaks underneath their bodies between their front legs.

Like most true bugs, a stinkbug has two pairs of wings. The back wings are so thin you can almost see through them. The front wings are thick and tough at the base and very thin at the tips. When a stinkbug rests, the tips of its front wings cross, forming what looks like an “X.”

A tough shell, or exoskeleton protects the bug’s entire body.

A stinkbug gives off a very bad smell if it is disturbed. The smell comes from a stinky liquid that flows from two glands on the bug’s thorax.

After mating, a female stinkbug lays batches of eggs. The eggs are usually laid on plant leaves. Stinkbug eggs look like tiny barrels

Microscopic View of the Egg

Stinkbugs, like all true bugs, change as they grow. Like all insects, they go through a process called metamorphosis

Nymph is born with a hard outer layer of skin that it soon outgrows. So the nymph molts. After the fifth and last molt, the wings are fully developed. A stinkbug nymph becomes an adult after about a month.

Several species of parasitic wasps have been found to attack stink bugs

My Observation

3-6-1993            Collected a batch of eggs pasted in a cycus plant leaf  in Palode, 

                         Thiruvananthapuram

The microscopic view of an egg  is shown above.

The eggs were attached to the leaf with a gum like material and the lid seems sewed with the shell by web

The egg is like a barrel having a lid at top

The black markings and the white spots were embossed from the shell

Moth from a caterpillar eating Jasminum grandiflorum

My observations

Caterpillar

2-11-1991 -  Caterpillar got from a Jasminum grandiflorum (Pichi-in malayalam) plant

Three pairs of legs in the front first segment with nails

There is a tail-like part in the last segment which stands bend upwards

Eating leaf in the night also

3-11-1991 – The green colour in the body changed to brown in some areas

4-11-1991 – In the night it made a cavity in the soil one inch below. The green colour totally changed to brown. If we touch in the body it moves quickly to and fro

8-11-1991 – Moulted once. After the molting the colour changed totally to pink

Pupa

19-11-1991 – The colour changed to blood red here and there

Skin toughened

The tail-like part’s colour changed to black

When touching, the last three segments moves front and back like a shock                        absorber

22-11-1991 – The red colour in the body shining in the night

23-11-1991 – In the morning 6’O clock found emerged. May be emerged in the night 

It was a moth