I had already posted the pics of the Hawk Moth caterpillar (cognoscenti should call them “cats”, you know, but we ignoramuses still refer to the whole name!) when I realized that there were quite a LOT of “non-bird” pics that I wanted to post, and not wanting to burden my poor readers with a perfect avalanche of pictures, decided to do a separate post.

Given my level of knowledge about the insect kingdom, four letters are going to appear very often….they are U, N, I , and D! So let me start with an UN-ID, but exceedingly colourful bug that I found on a plant in one of the ditches which are, to budding naturalists, real treasures!

And a GRASSHOPPER (well, it looks pretty and painted to me but Karthik says it is NOT a painted grasshopper!)

Here is the nest-complex of the SOCIAL SPIDER, one of which can be seen nearby: Here's the web of the SIGNATURE SPIDER (Priya spotted this near our table in the restaurant when we were having brunch!)...the spider weaves a kind of "X" before beginning with the rest of the web (you can see one part of it on the lower left-hand-side)...hence the name... Here's another of those "four-letter" bug (un-id!) on the trunk of the Pongameia tree (the tree which is supposed to give us biodiesel!)...look at the excellent camouflage... Update: this is a PREYING MANTIS, id from Karthik, thank you! I took this shot of the shooter...here's Karthik focussing on a spider: Here's the spider that Karthik was "getting close" to: And while he was taking that, we also found this LYNX SPIDER: Looking at the shape of its body, KM christened it the "bhutta" (corn-on-the-cob) spider! Here's another spider which I haven't asked Karthik about yet...update, Karthik says this, too, is a LYNX SPIDER: (see? I simply titled it "another spider"...simple, until Karthik helps out!) A DRAGONFLY, no doubt an expert will tell us exactly what it is... And I got this LEMON PANSY by dint of careful stalking... some BUG NYMPHS..which ones ? Who knows? they looked so pretty, I just clicked: I am sure, though, that someone will give me an id to this butterfly..Update, thanks Karthik! It is a DANAID EGGFLY... And last AND least, here's the totally un-id creature who went all around, not worrying too much about id, genus, species or families, but just enjoying what could be seen... (pic by KM...there were no mirrors around!)