Mitey start of Monsoon

Monsoon start in north India comes in two varieties. Much celebrated variety is grand opening with refreshing downpour that brings temperatures down by 10 – 20 degrees and ends the Summer in an instant. Other one is, mild showers for few minutes and clouds overhead causes humidity jump that more than offsets some reduction in temperature and cause feel-like temperature to worsen. This year happens to be of the second variety. Life other than the humans however doesn't seem to be making much distinction between the two varieties and surroundings has started turning green at usual rapid pace.

First monsoon creature I noticed was this. Saw them for the first time since my school days and was happy to see them - even though not many of them and only for a day or two. Didn’t know their name and was surprised to find that they are not only named Giant red velvet mite, they actually are Mites. Now, aren’t mites supposed to be very very small? anyhow, their size was source of disappointment also for the reason that they were too big for my reverse lens macro set up – the one I was carrying then.

I saw one of them trying to dig into ground. Could not understand what it was trying to do and wondered if it was to lay eggs there? Googling however tells me that they actually live mostly under the ground and come up on surface only for few days. I fail to imagine how such a big creature can live inside what looks like solid earth.. but probably its ok as I don’t see myself as very imaginative being. It however reminded me of yet another story. ‘Fires within’ by A C Clarke this time.

When I was taking the first picture above, I didn't think much about some parts of the brick on which the mite was walking being blue. but that small insect on mite’s head was more difficult to miss. I soon found that blue was not just colour of brick but lots and lots of insects. I was taking a shot of green algae just starting to appear and saw these blue things. I thought they were even smaller than Mites I had seen previously (less than 1mm) and certainly not bigger then them.

As if to give me sense of size, a mite actually appeared in frame. While shooting, the mite appeared much bigger than the blue insects – but probably it was optical illusion because of its speed and legs as in the photo it appears smaller – that is, if you can spot the mite in the photo in first place (its already a cropped shot).

Green algae is my current attraction - I had seen it through macro set up only towards end of last monsoon and had got a feeling it could be interesting to watch that world. I was therefore waiting for them to start growing. As I was walking to pick the patch of algae, saw this another subject I didn't photograph last year - not because I didn't notice them. it wasn't an option as there were thousands and thousands of them. I didn't take a shot thinking it could be done any day and then they disappeared. As I was watching some millipedes walking by, one of them stopped, spiraled itself and moved around its own center for a moment, straightened again and continued in same direction it was originally going. That appeared a very strange thing to me and once it was gone, I regretted not being fast enough and shooting the behaviour. just then, another millipede comes, stops at same point, does similar spiraling act, uncoils, starts walking - all I managed was to say 'wow, I missed it again'. before the third one came however, pattern recognition part of my brain started functioning and I had my camera pointed at that place even though no millipede was in frame. and surely, nature is unimaginative at times. a third one walks-in in a moment, spirals, uncoils, walks away.

As I upload above shot here, I google to see if such spiraling is normal or not. It says its their defense mechanism - but that leaves me more confused. what i saw didn't look like one. they appeared under no threat. the spot where they came to get spiraled was more sunlit than area around - but they walked up to there themselves and appeared in no distress while walking under the Sun elsewhere. probably some other problem with the spot that wasn't visible to me..

Coming back to algae, while watching a patch of it, I saw this something feeding happily on it. it was incredible to look at that tiny something through macro lens. I guess, in nature amount of details is not scale independent but as things become smaller, more detailed they become. I know it can be shot in much better way but being first of such a creature for me, I find this also fascinating.

Not all details are so well done however. some do look ugly even with lots of details. plus these below things are not being kind to my Tulsi plants either. (as usual: better shot next time)

and lastly, main sighting of this post. These black-red mites (unless they are something else and not Mites), whatever their name may be. Incredible to watch them running around. and happy with these shots for now. btw, I find that algae also are different at different places. - not unexpected, just an observation.

once in a while two of them would come face to face and in one such encounter, they did what appeared a wonderfully done sword fight. lasted only a second and then I think winner was decided or whatever, but they went in different directions.

as if getting Mites, even if only partially in focus wasn't good enough, I got to see and capture this young one too. for sure it becomes the smallest thing I managed to capture so far.

That's what I have for this update. If temperature/humidity goes down a bit and my computer allows me to work for longer, should be back to my usual posting frequency soon.