Nature Comes Alive

Everything that amuses my eyes and makes me wonder.

[nature-comes-alive]

Enallagma parvum (Azure dartlet) - female

The Azure Dartlet (Enallagma parvum) is a species of damselfly. There are three described subspecies: Ischnura aurora aurora (Brauer, 1865), Ischnura aurora rubilio (Selys, 1876), Ischnura aurora viduata (Lieftinck, 1949).

Male

Eyes: Black half moon like cap above, olive green to dark olive below, which fade to pale olive beneath. Two azure blue spots are present behind the eys. Thorax: Shining black with two pale grass green stripes. Sides are light green and white below. Legs: Pale greenish white with vertical stripe on femur, just above femur - tibia joint. Wings: Transparent. Wing spot: The wing spots are different in fore and hindwings. It is rose-red in forewings and uniform pale grey in hindwings. Abdomen: Bright yellow. The second and seventh segments has upper narrow and broad black marks respectively. Segments 8-10 are entirely azure blue. The 10th segment has an upper black spot.

Female

Eyes: Brown half moon like cap above, green to pale green below. Thorax: Shining black with two orange stripes. Sides are pale green. Legs: Pale white with vertical black stripes on femur, just above femur - tibia joint. Abdomen: A broad black stripe runs along the upper side of abdomen. Segments 8 - 10 do not have azure blue markings.

Distribution

Asian and Australian regions. Also found in remote oceanic islands probably carried by air currents.

[nature-comes-alive]

Striped Keelback (Amphiesma stolata) Assami- Bamuni saap | Bangla- Hele | English- Buff-Striped Keelback | Gujrati- Patawalha sap | Hindi- Seetalati, Seeta ki lath | Marathi- Naneti | Malyalam- Theyyan Pampu, Padakooti, Daivathankutti | Oriya- Mati biradi

Behavior- Striped Keelback is a diurnal species and is active only at day time. Lives in vegetation, gardens, brick piles; prefers wet surrounding. Famous for its hibernation in groups.  Generally silent, on provocation rise its “fake hood” by stretching its front body above the ground; can bite in “chewing” manner but mostly will try to escape. It is not such a good climber and likes to remain on the ground.  Feeds on frogs, toads, lizards, small rodents, snails and insects etc. 

Reproduction - Striped Keelback can reproduce whole year depending on different geographical area. Female lays 4-16 eggs. Young mostly seen from June to October. 

Rescue Situations Striped Keelback is one the most common snake found in India. In many parts of country people don’t assume them as “Snake” and generally don’t call for rescues. In other words they don’t feel any problem of presence of Striped Keelback around them. Rescuers can release this species in any close area which has vegetation or gardens. It prefers a wet surrounding so presence of water body is a must in any case. Relocation and traveling of such small, harmless and shy species should be avoided in 100% cases.

[nature-comes-alive]

Owlflies are dragonfly-like insects with large bulging eyes and long knobbed antennae. They are neuropterans in the family Ascalaphidae; they are only distantly related to the true flies, and even more distant from the dragonflies and damselflies.

Scientific name:Ascalaphidae

Owlflies are readily distinguished from dragonflies because the latter have short bristle-like antennae. The closely related antlions (family Myrmeleontidae) have short, clubbed antennae, smaller eyes, and very different wing venation.The sole living member of the subfamily Albardiinae, the Brazilian Albardia furcata, also has short, clubbed antennae, but its typical reticulate ascalaphid wing venation demonstrates its actual relationships.

Found: Jaydev Vatika, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Time: Morning 10:34 hrs

[nature-comes-alive]

The Common Jay (Graphium doson) is a black, tropical papilionid butterfly with pale blue semi-transparent central wing bands that are formed by large spots. There is a marginal series of smaller spots. The underside of wings is brown with markings similar to upperside but whitish in color. The sexes look alike.

Location: Bhubaneswar | July, 2012 | Morning 10:40 hrs