sriharsha444's Favorites

In the quiet stillness of the forest, a meticulously camouflaged moth, blending seamlessly with the tree bark, falls victim to the stealth and power of a formidable jumping spider. Despite the desperate attempts to escape the moth succumbs to the spider's unyielding grasp and fast acting venom.

Initially unsure of the identification (but see below). The tunnel is about 3 cm across. Noticeably flat appendages. I thought it could be Thrigmopoeus psychedelicus, described in 2014 by Sanap & Mirza. "A new iridescent tarantula of the genus Thrigmopoeus Pocock, 1899 from Western Ghats, India" Comptes Rendus Biologies 337 (2014) 480–486.
This name, Thrigmopoeus psychedelicus, does not appear to be in the species list within iNat (for now), and that is because the species is not valid, but rather a junior synonym of Haploclastus devamatha.

Cyrtarachne ixoides
Surprised to spot this Rarity at our indraprastha farm on Tree top at height of at least 50feet !
Never expected a snail mimic ( this has a man faced abdomen ! )at that height, spotted accidentally while cutting a dead tree.
ಥೇಟ್ ಹನುಮನ ಮುಖವನ್ನು ತನ್ನ ಬೆನ್ನ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಚ್ಚೆ ಹಾಕಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಜೇಡ, ಶಂಖದ ಹುಳವನ್ನು ಅಣಕಿಸಿ ತನ್ನನ್ನು ತಾನು ಹಕ್ಕಿಗಳಿಂದ ರಕ್ಷಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗೆ ಇದರ ಬೆನ್ನಮೇಲೆ ಹನುಮನ ಮುಖ , ನಿಮಗೆ ಬೇರೇನೋ ಕಾಣಬಹುದು . ಅದೇನೇ ಇರಲಿ, ಈ ಜೇಡ ಕಳೆದ ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನನಗೆ ಸಮ್ಮಿಲನ್ ಶೆಟ್ಟಿ ಅವರ ಚಿಟ್ಟೆ ಉದ್ಯಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರೂ ಅಡಿ ಎತ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು. ಭಾರತಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗ ಅದು ಮೂರನೇ ದಾಖಲೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಆರು ತಿಂಗಳ ಅಂತರದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೀಗ ನಮ್ಮ ತೋಟದಲ್ಲಿ!
ಅಂದು ಮೂರೂ ಅಡಿ ಎತ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದ ಜೇಡ ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಬರೋಬ್ಬರಿ ಐವತ್ತು ಅಡಿ ಎತ್ತರದ ಮರದ ಮೇಲಿತ್ತು . ಮೂರುವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಸತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಮರವನ್ನು ನಿನ್ನೆ ಕಡಿಯಬೇಕಾಗಿ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು . ಧರಿಗೆ ಬಿದ್ದ ಮರದ ತುದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಜೇಡ ನನ್ನ ಕಣ್ಣಿಗೆ ಅಚಾನಕ್ ಆಗಿ ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು. ಅರೆ.. ಅರೆ... ಈ ಜೇಡ ಇಷ್ಟು ಎತ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ. ಪರಮಾಶ್ಚರ್ಯವಾಯಿತು. ಒಣ ಕಡ್ಡಿಯನ್ನು ತುಂಡು ಮಾಡಿ, ಜೇಡವನ್ನು ಮನೆಯ ಮುಂದಿನ ಗಿಡದ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟದ್ದೂ ಆಯಿತು. ಅದರ ನಾನಾ ಭಂಗಿಗಳನ್ನು ಚಿತ್ರಿಸುವ ಸೌಭಾಗ್ಯವೂ ನನಗೆ ದೊರೆಯಿತು !
may 2024
Indraprastha.

Delhi Landfill Sludge Semal (Bombax ceiba) :With its feet in Delhi's sewage, a small semal tree grows beneath the bulky heights of Delhi's landfill- the destination for much of the city's waste stream.

I get it, gory death is a part of nature, and by all means I love to see the degrading corpse of a large beast, but only if it’s natural. If it was, say, flattened by a 16 year old girl in a Ford F150 at 2 AM while she was returning home from her boyfriends house that her parents let her go to because they don’t actually care about what she does, that ain’t natural no more. I just don’t like seeing car-squished animals, and I’m sure there are others who feel the same. I moved it out of the road too. I didn’t want any animals getting hit trying to eat it.

This is the first time i've ever seen an Mongoose in my life, and i certainly didnt expect it here. This is in Vellore Fort, center of an bustling busy town. So many tourists come to this place, yet, Mongooses casually co-exist with humans. At first, we were observing babblers while walking down, i saw a large large group of the birds all alarming on the same vegetation/area. I got a weird feeling. Then, we walked further down an bridge, Where we saw an individual which ran inside an extremely tiny hole which looked back at us, we sadly couldnt take pics of that individual, a few more seconds later, i spotted another individual near the vegetation patch/area, which, is the one photographed here. It tried hunting the warblers a bit, it then went under some scrub wood, we spent a few more minutes trying to find it, and we couldnt find it but not only that we ran of time ( as in, the fort walk was closing, its only open till 5), so we left the spot. I never thought i would see a mongoose in the center of my home town, and one hunting babblers.

And thank you @chayantgonsalves for the tip of the bird alarm call for herping, While i didnt explicitly use your tip for finding this, it did make my mind curious that something else was on the spot.

Babbler observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/215923936
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/215924727
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/215925237