Praying Mantis Photoshoot

The first one is the first praying mantis I saw. Looked like he was thinking that if he stays completely unmoved, he becomes invisible. after a while I realised that his static pose may be due to he not feeling comfortable with me around and I moved on. Next two shots are of an individual I found few days later only few meters away from where I spotted the first one, but think he is a different individual. second and third shots are taken at two different times, two different lenses. Third is taken with 400mm and not macro. Unlike the first, this individual didnt think much of me and went on with his business.

'Ignore Me if You Can' and other monsoon insects

Impossible to miss if you come across them. I notice them each year when they turn up just before monsoon in huge numbers, specially around silk cotton trees. When I first saw them few years back, they were in such a large numbers that it was very difficult to walk around with they covering most of the ground. This year however, their visibility seemed lowest. Dont know if its some routine variability or indicates different monsoon or some other factor, so not speculating on that.
 
Red bug (Pyrrhocoridae) are quite beautiful,  at least nymphs of the bug. Bright Orange/Red and wearing the same innocent look that is shared by youngs of all species.

I couldn't really understand their behaviour but each one of them was constantly trying to move up by climbing whatever they found nearest to them to climb. Probably that's how they reach to their food.

This is more of an intermediate stage. By the time they are adult, they are not so photogenic and I realise I haven't taken any shot of an adult this season.

As I look around on web, see that they are referred as stain bugs and are called Pests. A Pest is defined as a competitor to humans (Wikipedia). Any competition however seems one sided when they are up against the tallest of all competitors like human. say, when the bugs feed on cotton that humans wants to use, humans lose economic value out of cotton and when humans use the cotton they are feeding on, bugs lose their lives. Dont know which one's interest is beneficial, if at all, from the cotton's own perspective as well as from the other third party stakeholders of ecosystem as it stands today.

Sorry, I got distracted. this post is just to share monsoon insects I see around me. Those who call attention to themselves using the best colour suited for the task - Red and, those who prefer less visible existence.

Another insect I found wearing the bold red was this. Not too shy despite its size.

I think this and two other below, all are Weevils

Despite having contrasting colours, this wasnt all too obviously visible to me due to its size.

This looks like a younger version of the previous.

Another small one. As I watched, it started feeding on this leaf. (Did not manage feeding shot with reasonable focus) Could not see clearly if it was sucking juice from the leaf or eating something from the surface or was eating leaf itself. 

Yet another beautiful weevil. not very brightly coloured this time.

Not everyone wanted to stand out. This strange looking insect was not very easy to spot when on leaves. Big and acted lazy, not shy and the way it was eating the flower, looked less like an insect and more like a grazing Mammal (Sorry entomologists if this sounds irritating description for an insect.)

Both the times I found it, it was quite low light situation. Would like to take a look at this creature in good light conditions. I hope it will make a good photo subject.

If there is a contest of looking strange, this fly like creature with one horn can also give good fight to others. Dont know what it is but it looks quite ugly to me.

There of course are more insects already around and even more to come as I could see lots and lots of rolled up and sealed leaves.

Spiders

I probably was never introduced as fast to anything else as to jumping spiders. from being only in enviable shots of others, they went on to become most commonly seen creature everywhere around. and no wonder. Wikipedia says there are some 5000 species of jumping spiders alone. so all you need is ability to see them, they are there anyways. but even after my illusion of their rarity was shattered, they were still the most attractive subjects. Its just wonderful to see their big and so many eyes, and watching them watching and interacting with you, sometime withdrawing but at other times jumping towards camera, evaluating your interestingness or simply ignoring you. and, I just love it when they (or anything else) continue showing interest even after apparently concluding camera/me is no threat (no signs of fear or aggression) or a possible meal. i.e. when curiosity meets curiosity :-). One fascinating thing about spiders in general is sizes they come in. I haven't been successful at photographing very very small ones, but have already seen some unimaginably small ones within first few weeks of having macro range lens in hand.

Noticed the below one while trying for a banded phintella, much smaller than and unlike banded phintella, this one wasn't too camera shy. 

Like the below one for its tones and carefree pose of the spider.

Seeing an ant mimicking spider was high on my wish list. and last among the findings so far, but it did show up.

Butterflies

Butterflies are like many other things. So very illusive to get when you are after it desperately and when you arent looking for them, they come and sit almost on your camera. or, butterflies were like that with me at least. I still remember time when after trying to photograph them for many days, I had given up and now, few days back, as I was shooting with lens where they dont even fit in the frame, came and insisted I take a shot. 

Striped Tiger

    

Hiding in Plain Sight - Life on a tree trunk

I recently got a friend's 18-55 kit lens to experiment with (Reversed lens) Macro photography and as expected, it changed the world around me in an instant. I started seeing things I never saw before. In one such instance, as I was standing near a tree, saw a tree trunk spider. They are so wonderfully camouflaged (or so I had thought when I saw it first time. Now, I see it readily actually.) and look almost fossilsed and even acted like that. if you see one and dont have camera with you, you can easily return few hours later to take a shot. 

(okay, I can improve quite a lot with them with focus stacking - something I have promised myself to do some day.)

it occurred to me that if a habitat is found useful by one life form, likely that same is case with others too. I only had to look for some more time to find few others.

Next find, the Jumping spider was quite opposite to the tree spider in activity level. It was  moving constantly but not too shy. After some initial curiosity and shyness, it went on with his running around and allowed me some shots. 

Jumping Spider

Jumping Spider

  
  
Below unknown creature was strangest of all. it was smallest and best camouflaged  so well that it was very very difficult to notice it even when it was moving. I think however, it was already bored with its hiding capability and had developed a yellow tip on its tail that when it swings it, it revels itself very effectively. The picture cant capture it but it was so very beautiful when it wagged its tail gracefully.

Unknown creature

  
Most challenging creature I found there was this praying mantis. It was only slightly bigger than a big mosquito, it ran away swifty as soon as it noticed me. I could even notice it in first place as I was looking at the thing second time. first time being not on a tree trunk but on the ground. not so good capture, but probably identifiable as parying mantis shot from the first sighting also appears below.

Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis

  
I am sure there is lot more out there and next time I look at tree trunks, may be able to see something new.

Every birder's first friend?

I was mostly interested in only birds till very recently before macro subjects were added to the list. but the subject that has most attracted my attention irrespective of there is a camera in my hand or not is neither of these category. Always playful, full of energy and never running out of antics, so very endearing and innocent looking, I tend to believe squirrels could be first and most observed subject of every birder, not just me. so, as I asked myself, how I should start at this new place, answer was quite clear. by sharing some squirrel pictures.

First picture below is a fresh one and others are from archives - some of the moments I enjoyed both watching and capturing.

Its eating Bel fruit and I think enjoyed posing for a shot.

 
Below one is from spring time. Probably I had my tiny contribution in earning this shot. this tree was full of flowers and there was enough for everyone. but a group of rosy starlings were occupying it and not allowing anyone else to settle down for long. I was standing too near to this branch for rosy starlings to come to and this young squirrel probably chose to feed here so she can use me as a shield and enjoy the treat.

Time of Plenty

 
And, one of my old favourite. This baby had been on its own for around a week now and had never shown any sign of being so young in its behaviour, in food finding or managing itself. It was only its size that gave away its age. This is the first time however, when another squirrel was in front, it got jittery and went and stood near this elder, which I assume should be its parent.

Mom, I feel safer near you.