Thursday, January 9, 2014

Uncommon Insects

Happy New Year! I have been out for a while in posting here during the holidays. But i post in my other blogsite. When you are at home in the province, things to do seem to be endless. That includes propagating my hoyas, watering them, looking at them, managing their vines, photographing them and cleaning their leaves. You might think those are not work enough, but i tell you, intently looking at them and going back and forth to them checking if the developing roots or developing flowers have already gone big, is time consuming. Doing these never stop in one day, until i realized that the two weeks already finished, and it's time to go back to my normal world in the city, the normal world which doesn't look normal at all. Now I am confused!

The above litany didn't end there, aside from the hoyas i still chase butterflies, spiders, insects and anything that comes to attention in front of my eyes! Do you think there is a semblance of any normalcy in these activities? The sad thing is, or probably the unusual thing is, these are the things i love to do. I hope there is someone who pays for doing things like these! But at the moment, i have to go back to the abnormal world, the cement jungle, the pollution, the traffic and the unwanted! Anyway, all of these will pass! Time will come!

One day my sister brought me this larva on a leaf. She doesn't know if it becomes a butterfly or a moth, but I don't know either. I photographed its many angles, until both I and the larva got tired and stop.

 I put it on a palm leaf, and it started putting the whitish materials from its saliva, apparently it is doing a lining on the leaf to be made as its cocoon. It is enclosing itself by folding the leaves unto itself. When i touched the leaf it detected the movement and it ran for its life, it went away to another parts.

 In the morning in another plant, we found this folded-rolled leaf seemingly hiding something. Apparently it was able to make a cocoon-house for itself secured from outside intruders like me.

 This is how it looked like inside. The larva seems to be quiet and resting. It also shed its outer white fluffy covers leaving the greenish larval skin. I guess it has entered its pupation stage, and endless sleep. Unfortunately, we missed the eclosion of this larva, so we will not know how it looks like as an adult.

Search from the net, it looks like the wooly butternut larva. However, we don't have butternut trees in the tropics, i wonder what alternative hosts ours has been munching on. And if my guess is true, it is not a moth nor a butterfly, but one of those stingless wasps. Moths and butterflies are Lepitopterans but wasps are Hymenopterans, they have very different parentage or to be exact, different orders.

This is a leaf of Caesalpinia pulcherrima or Pride of Barbados or dwarf poinciana. Those scattered eggs are from the yellow Eurema hekabe. I've been watching them while egg laying, which is so fast that i can't even get a nice shot. I didn't know egg laying can be so easy!

At the same plant in another older leaf has another groups of eggs. They have the same shape, but laid under the leaves in contrast with the Eurema hekabe eggs. Now i wonder what laid these, as i didn't see the owner while doing its thing here!

Two days later, i saw the new hatchlings, the very small larvae crawling just where they attached as eggs. I searched for other leaves looking bigger ones from previous layings, however i didn't see any. There are also no eaten leaves although eggs are being laid in every newly formed leaves. I am now in a dilemma what happened to the larvae, whether they were eaten by what predators! Apparently, i will not be able to see any adult emerging from these two forms of larvae. They either die and not able to reach adulthood, and I am already in the city not being able to look for them if ever anyone of them survived!

Lastly, at the corner of a tree somewhere is a lone big spider, waiting for the prey to be caught in its wide web used as a net for catching food.

You will not be bored in the province, a lot of things can be observed and done. It actually is time that is lacking. Till next time!

30 comments:

  1. Quite dramatic photos Andrea, you take great pics!

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  2. How interesting. The first picture of the caterpillar looks like a knitted toy!! It would be really interesting to know what it is going to grow into. Eurema are my favourite butterflies. We don't have them in Europe, but I associate them with lovely warm countries! What a shame you are not there to see if any of the caterpillars survive. Often the caterpillars spread out after a few days, but as you say, you would normally find chewed leaves. It would be very unusual for predators to manage to find all of them. My only thought, if they have all perished, is that the eggs had been laid on the wrong food plant. There isn't any chance that the plant has been sprayed is there? Life in the province would suit me perfectly!! I could spend all of my life watching insects and other wildlife!! Thank you for sharing this in your post.

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    1. Hi Nick, thanks for following my posts in my two blogsites. I post butterflies often! Regarding laying eggs onthe wrong plants, that doesn't happen with butterflies, they are very precise with the correct host plants, as well as the stage of the shoot that when they hatch the leaf stage is exactly the stage eaten by the larvae. They are amazing, arent they! It could be predators that pry on these larva the moment they are big enough. We have lots of predators here, no worries we have many host plants too!

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  3. You get such interesting photos. Don't know what that first thing is but it's different looking for sure.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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    1. Hi Cher, I posted it in the Biodiversity group for ID, but seems nobody knows it yet. THhanks for your visit.

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  4. so much life in your garden. only a trained eye can spot those. great job on the camera work.

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  5. You got some excellent photos during your stay in the province. I can understand how you could spend so much time with your hoyas -- our roses fill my days the same way. I hope you can soon return to the normal life of the province from the abnormal city.

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    1. Hi George, Happy New Year! Yes I know you can very well relate with me because you do the same with your pet plants! I wish we here in our country can indulge happily with our hobbies when we retire, but older people here dont get same privileges as you there!

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  6. interesting the white larvae; it reminded me of mealy-bug but I doubt they are long like this appeared to be, and I've only known them in the roots of ferns etc, rather than becoming entrapped inside a leaf like this one did. Great observation and closeups. Tks for your comment, yes indeed I can still access that part of my blog fortunately; I just can't create new posts with photos added. Photos can't be inserted until Blogger are able to create a fix.

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    1. Hi Carole, I hope your blogger problem is now resolved. When that happened to me I was terribky stressed!

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  7. Amazing and interesting pictures - I've never seen such an insect before (even not in books)

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  8. Very interesting. That caterpillar has some wild-looking hair! ;) And your photo of the eggs all lined up is fabulous. I've never caught an insect in the act of laying eggs. It must have been so very interesting to observe.

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    1. HolleyGarden, it really is interesting watching them. My frustration is in not being able to get photos of the actual laying of eggs because my lens needs to be very close to the subject as I did with the group of eggs when the adult is not there!

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  9. George can relate when it comes to caring for plants. He has to 'baby' his roses during the spring/summer/fall here --and it takes a lot of time and care… We are now in winter --so it's our 'easy' time . I am busy working on my Family History now… SO much to do!!!!

    Great set of photos.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Yes Betsy, I told George that. Now that you have strong winters you should think of spending them in more warm-blooded-friendly countries like ours. Haha!

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  10. A very interesting post and great images to it. :)

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  11. Oh I loved this Andrea..... I too wish you could have captured the entire process.... Michelle

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    1. Hi MIchelle, how are you now, hope you're doing fine! Thanks for hosting Nature Notes always.

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  12. Great set of pictures - the diversity of insects is remarkable.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  13. Your insect is interesting and the photos are amazing.. Caring for your plants is much nicer than being in a concrete jungle.. Wishing you a happy day and weekend! Thanks for linking up to Saturday's Critters.

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  14. Great photos of these unusual critters. I'm glad you had some time with your plants before having to return to work!

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  15. really amazing! the larva looks like carpet fibers. :)

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  16. that is a very interesting larva..wonder what it will become?

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  17. YiKeS!! you and tex today!! unusual, interesting images with very nice details!!

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  18. Hi, your pictures and writing are very interesting! Never seen that larva in my life.

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  19. I have never seen anything like these before. Fascinating photos and great shots!

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  20. It's a different world up close with insects. You have incredible patience, even if you missed the egg-layer!

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  21. Extraordinary images! With that first photo, I thought you were teasing us and that it was in fact a piece of torn/frayed towelling! Thank you for sharing your remarkable photography.

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  22. I thought the same thing Valerie thought! Seriously, that's a caterpillar? Incredible! And your macros are amazing!

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