godfreysigamata's Journal

I went out for a walk in my yard to find some new animal or plant and I certainly did!

At first, a shower happened and so I had to wait for the light raining to stop. When it did I finally took a step out for my new adventure.

I took a recording of birds somewhere at the edge of my yard and then I followed some twittering about at the coconut tree. A Bird! It was small and it had a light underbelly with clear fine line between it and the rest of the body.

Alas, I was not able to take a picture of it huhuhu

Then I proceed to look around the ground anticipating some of the lesser blues fluttering about, and then I saw this new butterfly! I wonder where it's from. Turns out it may be a darter, I'm excited to figure out what genus or subspecies!

Behind this was a little larvae, I wish I'd kept it but I wasn't ready to do so. maybe some other day when I find another one. I'm pretty sure this may be zizina otis (Lesser Blue)

And then I just went about and almost ended my search, when I spotted our fallen vase! I rushed to it a raised it up. Suddenly this little thing came on the leaf. I feel like it was pretty cautious about me, Cause I didn't really keep still at first and flew away after just one picture!

Oh well, this morning was exhilarating!

Later I'm going to Moalboal (a province just north of ours.) with my grandmother to a mall. Who knows! I may find something.

The classification of these glossy blue to gold flies are not exactly the easiest to figure! I think it would be best for me to find more specimens in different parts. Though I've never really gone out of town.

Besides, all that I've heard about these flies have been horrid! They're part of nature nonetheless, and thus are worth understanding!

Grandma didn't find it as cute though, cause these do cause quite an itch when you touch their hair. These are generally black with these brown hairs. Those white stuff around it must've just been stone sediments or something.

I just recycled some jars and so I wanted to keep this little thing! but grandma was like Noooo, it's not a risk we will take! They're pretty much a pest to us, cause our dear gardens would not want this thing eating them all up. No sir!

"Instead of that dreaded hairy thing, catch a caterpillar instead," Grandma insisted.

I found that thought to be really cool. I always wanted to take care of a caterpillar, we sort of did it before in our class. Yup, I'm gonna do that soon.

-Rusty Millipede-

I found a rusty Millipede while I was taking a walk in my yard! It had a reddish tint to it and I didn't have my phone with me at the time. So, I went running back to the house to get my phone.

I came back with it and it took me a while to take a picture of it because I had to find where it went first hahaha! I took a picture of it anyways and found some cute beady eyes (or are those eyes?)

I searched it up on google!

"Millipedes do not use their eyes very much. In fact, some scientists believe that millipedes are blind. They use their antennae to move around. If you watch a millipede you will see that they continually tap the ground as they move along, like a blind person with a cane."

"These millipedes inhabit moist areas, rotten wood and compost."

-Oriental Latrine Fly-

I found this while searching for another insect.

I've seen these a couple of times and the color lead me to be wary of them. As if they posed a much higher threat than the ordinary housefly.

According to wikipedia:

"C. megacephala have large red eyes, those of males being close together, and those of females farther apart."

I could assume this one was a female by that.

I always thought these guys were crows and when I'd sing in the yard they'd fly away (How rude.)

Asian Glossy Starlings - Aplonis panayensis

The black glossy feathers, a dominantly cool colored shine, and the red eyes! It all made sense.

In wikipedia they said:

The Asian glossy starling (Aplonis panayensis) is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan (introduced) and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical mangrove forest. There is also a huge number of this species inhabiting towns and cities, where they take refuge in abandoned buildings and trees. They often move in large groups and are considered one of the noisiest species of birds.

There are many mangroves in nearby areas. They are absolutely in a large group and actually do make a lot of sound. I'm not particularly annoyed by the "noise"

I saw a picture of an immature one and it had white feathers on its underside! I'll have to look out for it.

I kept wondering what these plants where when I was younger. I've always been told these plants weren't something we really cared about.

Yellow Cosmos - Cosmos Sulphureus

I found these flowers really pretty! Even insisted to pick them and offer them to Mother Mary during October, but grandma said they wilt too fast. We didn't plant them though, they just sprouted out of the blue. I had no idea what their name was.

When I first downloaded iNaturalist, these plants were long gone and dead. But I placed the pictures anyways. ID'd them wrong first but then found that they were indeed yellow cosmos. I've seen them in other areas and so I feel that they are after all indeginous.

False Shamrock - Oxalis Triangularis

These were so fascinating to me. The purple leaves and the fragile-seeming lavender flowers looked really pretty. I assumed they were purple heart because that was the first thing that came out when I searched purple leaves pink flowers.

Turns out that these were false shamrock! Alas, grandma thought these were weeds and pulled them out.

Recently tho! Some neighbors moved in and it turns out they've cultivated some false shamrock. Which made me wonder why our false shamrock had sprouted in our yard out of nowhere. Must have been bird dung or something.

Asthma Plant - Euphorbia Hirta

Turns out to be called Tawa Tawa here in our place and regarded as a medicinal plant! but I haven't heard what remedy this plant actually offers? It's super common on grassy plots here. We've been having so much of them in our yards.

Little Ironweed - Cyanthillium Cinereum

I just today learned that this plant may really be the Little Ironweed. The variation of whit and purple flowers, the thistled dandelion-ish part and the leaves all make sense. I just wonder what they do to the ecosystem and biodiversity here.

So I took a picture of this grasshopper I found in my yard on our Avocado tree and the first suggestion was Chondacris Rosea. But I searched it up and it had a different form and moreover had pink wings.

And then another ID was suggested by a user! Bird grasshoppers, Subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae.

I was skeptical at first cause I searched it up and found american bird grasshoppers and so I searched up Cyrtacanthacridae and found its Wikipedia page! It said:

"It includes species of locusts, short-horned grasshoppers that undergo phase polymorphism and are among the most important pests of sub-Saharan Africa;[4] they include the desert locust and the red locust,[3] with the related Bombay locust in Asia.[5]"

My eyes got to Bombay Locusts cause Bombay was something I'd heard in our region, being in a South East Asian country, and so I looked it up.

So many thing's lined up!

"The Bombay locust is found in India, Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia. Its range extends from India and Pakistan to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia."

"Newly hatched Bombay locust nymphs are green with black spots. After they have grown and shed their skin several times they become more variable in colour. Some are plain green, and others are either orange-brown or green with a black spot at the base of each wingpad." This one I found may have been a plain green variant.

Also we've had some recent reports of locust swarm attacks in our country, The Philippines.

Apparently at this point this locust is acting as an individual which may be evidence that the locust population in our area is scarce.

In the end this is still part of the Cythacanthacridinae family and even goes by Cyrtacanthacris succincta as a synonym scientific name.

I must admit, I was quite shocked upon finding a red insect on a leaf! Its color warded me away. It had black markings, a large one at the lower body and little ones as they go up to it's head.

Upon checking the suggest ID's I found Indian Cotton Stainers. I asked grandma about this insect and she went about asking how did this get to our yard. She said these are from the highlands (bukid/buntod) where natural cotton grow.

Natural cotton! If only I had the freedom to go ahead and roam these places and find cotton there to ID! How wonderful it is that nature leads from one thing to another.