Treehopper

Location : Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

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

CICADA

The name cicada is derived from Latin which means “Tree Cricket”

Kingdom:      Animalia

Phylum:         Arthropoda

Class:            Insecta

Order:            Hemiptera

Family:          Cicadidae

There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world

Cicada do not bite or sting

Male cicadas are loud noisemakers . They making this noice by vibrating the membranes called "tymbals" on the sides of the abdominal base.Each species has its own distinctive sound.

The newly hatched nymphs drop to the ground and they dig the ground and burrow. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years.

After these periods it come outs to surface after a heavy rain and climbs in a tree branch and moulting and become an adult cicada

Cicada is very sensitive to sound and having effective eye sight in my experience


The Moulted exoskelton of cicada

PARASITED CATERPILLAR

Location : Palode, Thiruvananthapuram

MY OBSERVATIONS

17-05-2011 – Caterpillar in the flower of Acampe orchid

It can hung in its own web

23-05-2011 – Become pupa by making a web covering

01-06-2011 – Emerged a fly from the pupa

                        The caterpillar may be the parasited