musings

My previous post was on one of the most powerful predators in the world of arthropods, the Jumping Spiders. This one is about another family of arthropods, that are as much, if not more, notorious of hunters, as the jumpers. They are the Mantises. Mantis, more popularly known as the Praying Mantis ( owing to the way it’s front pair of legs are held, raised up, as if in a position of prayer ) also relies on powerful vision and stealth for hunting and has the necessary equipment for getting the job done....

Jumping spiders are right up there as one of the top predators among arthropods. If at all a comparison of sorts is needed, I think it would be safe to say that they are the ‘Tigers’ in the world of arthropods. They don’t build webs to capture their prey. Majority of the jumping spiders don’t lie in wait for the unsuspecting prey to come by. Instead, they actively go looking for one....

Came across this big group of individuals swimming around in a small stream in Coorg. They could easily have been mistaken for a school of fish and I did too. However, they seemed to be swimming on the water’s surface, with the upper half of their bodies outside, unlike most fish. Looking closely, realized that they weren’t fish at all, but a completely different kind of creatures. They were insects, more specifically, beetles....

One evening, while playing with my daughter outside our house, she noticed something big come buzzing around. She started pulling me and said, ' It’s a bee, let’s get inside ……. ' I tried correcting her saying ' That is not a bee, it’s a Hornet, a Greater Banded Hornet, see how much bigger it is when compared to a bee… ' She cut me short and said, ' I don’t care…....

Spiders are fascinating creatures to observe. Among all the arthropods, they, along with the praying mantises, seem to have an uncanny ability to, in a way, interact with their observer. When you look at them, they look straight back at you, as if trying to communicate something in a very subtle way. On and off, for a few months now, have been observing this beautiful, colorful spider and was fascinated to see most part of its life cycle unfold before me !...