As my friend Janhvi was going to do a trek to Turahalli State Forest as part of her Corporate Social Initiative (CSI), a few of us decided to join in.

True to the lacklustre response from her company, the usual number of people (two!) turned up….and we promptly hijacked the trek into a nature outing.

Here we are, at brefus before beginning the walk:

Akash, Janhvi, Anand, Subbu, Shoba, Padma and Ramaswamy

We started our walk from a point not known to regular visitors….and the lesser-travelled path proved to be extremely productive.

Several tiny flowers caught our eye.

Andrographis serpyllifolia:

Commelina sp:

Ground Orchid, Habenaria roxburghii:

The “Argyreia cuneata” name of this flower won’t stick in my mind, but its common name, “Mahalungi” will, for the wrong reasons!

We were lucky to find this Ceropagia candelarbrum:

Tiny flowers of the Dodonea viscosa:

Some of us took a break to look up things:

Unknown:

We were also enchanted by some of the six-footers we saw. Sometimes the insects and flowers were together.

Blister beetle (on Clerodendron flowers):

Ants on Leucas species:

Sarcostemma acidum:

Crinium, or the Spider Lily:

Stachytarpeta, the Devil’s Coach Whip:’

Such small beauties:

Gulaganji, or Abrus precatorius:

The tiny flower of the Bastard Sandal:

This Puffball mushroom had broken, showing beautifully-speckled spores:

A tiny fly on the Sarcostemma plant:

A Common Wanderer female:

A Bagworm Moth pupa:

A Hoverfly (that huge part of the head are just its two compound eyes!)

A Plain Tiger caterpillar:

A Geometer moth:

A Peninsular Rock Agama coming into breeding colours:

We did go over a few rocks:

Eggs on the Bastard Sandal:

A Shield or Stink Bug:

Even the Giant Wood Spider was smaller than usual!

The insects got tinier:

Of course, one of the highlights of the morning was sighting not one, but two

Atlas Moths

Very satisfied with all that we’d seen, we went home…looking forward to the next outing!