Creatures at Bheemannakuppe Kere

December 10, 2009

Yes, I am getting to the birds, but yesterday’s tooth extraction was particulary bad. My wisdom tooth had an extra root, which apparently curved deep into the jawbone…it took 45 minutes to extract it, and yesterday evening was one of the most ghastly I have spent so far….

But today I am feeling better, and let me first share the insects and other Life-Under-Foot photographs…

The trip to Bheemannakuppe was a learning process about

BAGWORM MOTHS

I had made

this post

which included a photo of the

EVERGREEN BAGWORM

That had been infesting a tree in my daughter’s garden,

but in Bheemannakuppe,

Sangeetha Kadur

showed us a couple of more varieties….

bagworm case 051209 b'kuppe

Look athe beauty of the wildflower on which the case rests!

and 2nd bagworm pupa 051209 Abhisheka Gopal, who works for ATREE showed me three stages of the Tortoise Shell , which is a variety of BEETLE Here's the beetle: tortoiseshell beetle b kuppe 051209 Look carefully, and you will see that the four black marks which look like legs are actually part of a rounded "ledge" all around the beetle! Its larva stage: tortoiseshell beetle larvae 051209 abhisheka Its pupa stage: t'shell beetle pupa 051209 Abhisheka was sorry that she could not show us some eggs which would have completed the photography of the life cycle of the beetle! Sangeetha also showed me this FAN-THROATED LIZARD fan-throated lizard 051209 We saw this CRICKET FROG sitting, showing beautiful copper eyes: cricket frog 051209 Nearby, I saw this un id CATERPILLAR making its way over the rock: un id worm 051209 I could not id this BUTTERFLY: Photobucket This one was a BARONET: baronet 051209 The same plant that had the cylindrical bagworm case had this SPIDER mimicking a Stick Insect: spider mimicking stick insect b kuppe 051209 The dragonflies were single: bheemannakuppe kere red d'fly dragonfly 061209 And sometimes double: mating dragonflies on mud 051209

mating dragonflies on grass 051209

Well, we did see lots more, but that’s all the Life-Under-Foot that I caught on camera! :)