Camouflage of a caterpillar

A few months ago I saw a caterpillar beautifully camouflaged on a shrub. It was resting near a dry leaf. The caterpillar had the colour and texture of the dry leaf only. When I rushed to bring my camera, it had moved away from the dry leaf. And this is the video of the caterpillar.

One thing which is beyond my comprehension is, 'How these creatures know that they have similar colour and texture of the part of a plant, where they take shelter.' The camouflage is either for self protection or for attacking a prey by ambush. Aren't they clever than us, human beings?

Dendrobium orchids

Do not buy any orchid plants even if they are in full bloom or showing no sign of wilting when healthy white roots not growing above the planting medium.

Dendrobium orchids have thick spongy roots. These roots are capable of absorbing moisture through humid air. These roots cannot tolerate compact and constantly wet/soggy planting medium; they need good aeration for respiration. That is why these plants are never planted in soil. The planting medium for them can be mixture of brickbats, charcoal and a few pieces of coco chips (pieces of coconut outer skin with fibers attached to them). In nature, they grow on tree trunks or even on dead wood. They are not parasites; they cling to plants only for support. Such plants are called as epiphytes.

Do not buy any orchid plants even if they are in full bloom or showing no sign of wilting when healthy white roots not growing above the planting medium.

Crow pheasant - भारद्वाज.

Crow pheasant or Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis) is a large bird compared to its other close relatives - Cuckoo birds. It is native to India and some other countries of Asia. These birds are seen in jungles but are quite common in many city gardens. Though quite large in size, they are weak fliers. When on trees, they are seen mostly on lower branches. Quite often one can see them walking on ground or walking among tree branches.

Adult bird

Feathers on their body are black but the wings are chestnut brown. They have long tail feathers. Eyes of this bird are red. Young birds have speckled white spots on the black feathers. It feeds mainly on insects, caterpillars, snails, small reptiles and eggs /chicks of other birds too.  It also consumes fruits. Its call is booming, something like that of Langurs. Quite often duets of male & female birds can be heard, with female call being a bit softer. While calling they have habit of bending down their heads (like old humans coughing). In many parts of India its sighting is considered as a good omen. Common name for it in Marathi is ‘Bharadwaj’ 

Butterfly caterpillar with 5 pairs of legs?

We all know that the insects have 3 pairs of legs. The photograph is of a caterpillar of a butterfly; as such it must have only 3 pairs of legs. But in the image posted, you can clearly see that this caterpillar has 5 pairs of legs. Can you guess why?

5 pairs of legs?

It is true that all insects have 3 pairs of legs. What we see as 5 pairs of legs are not legs at all. They are called as 'Pseudolegs' -- false legs. With these false legs the caterpillar grips the surface on which it crawls. Keep a caterpillar on your hand and you will understand how firmly these pseudolegs hold your skin. True legs of an insect caterpillar are quite small and are incapable of gripping and for walking. At maturity, pseudolegs disappear and only true legs remain. In the caterpillar stage true legs are quite small. You might have notices that even newborn human babies have very short hands; if raised they just reach the head.

It has only 3 pairs of legs

Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor)

Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) is declared as  "State Butterfly of Maharashtra". The butterfly is feeding nectar of Musa velutina flowers.

Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) is declared state butterfly of Maharashtra.

Ants do dairy farming

Do you know that ants also do dairy farming like human beings? In dairy farming, cattle need to be fed regularly to get milk from them. Cattle are often released in pastures for them to feed and ruminate. Ants do exactly that; of course their cattle are certain insects. Mealy bugs and aphids are regularly nurtured by ants. Mealy bugs and Aphids are pests on a plant. They continuously suck the sap of plants on which they feed. Though Mealy bugs and Aphids are insects, they are almost immobile. As such, they remain in one place and suck the sap out of a plant till the plant dies.

Mealy bugs

Wingless Aphids

Winged Aphids

Many types of ants come to their rescue. Ants lift younger generation of these insect pests and deposit them on fresh growth of a plant. Now, why do the ants do this? Are they doing social work to save the insects? Not at all! In nature no one helps others unless they have some benefit. These pests are nurtured by the ants because, when these pests feed on plant sap, they exude a sugary drop from their rear end. This sugary drop is called 'Honeydew'. Ants greedily feed on Honeydew. As we milk the cattle, ants also do that. They tickle hind parts of these insects and as a result honeydew is secreted.

Red ants tending Mealy bugs

Due to immobility of the pests and their continuous sapping plant juice, the branch on which they feed dies. If the branch dies, the pests would not get food. If pests do not get food, they would die. If the pests die, ants would not get honeydew. So ants always go on lifting the immature pests and deposit them in “Fresh Pastures”. This is called as symbiosis.

I was lucky to capture the sequence of this process. The ant in the photograph is a small black ant. Earlier I had a wonderful but simple digital camera. The camera could record many things, which would not be visible to human eye, without a magnifying lens. When I took series of these photographs, I could see only an ant and a few mealy bugs. Only after loading the snaps on my computer I could see the honeydew secreted by the mealy bug. In first shot, the ant is approaching a mealy bug, in the second shot the ant is tickling the mealy bug and in the third shot one can see the secreted honeydew.

1-Ant approaching Mealy bug; 2- Tickling it. 3- Extracted honeydew