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.
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.
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