Yesterday I took my son along for one of his favorite activity - "amber resin collection". By now he figured out that Silver oak trees secrete lot of resin, so we went to "Saul kere". He surprised me by taking out the nail cutter as his swiss knife for his resin collection from bark. We went with our regular snail like pace as we spotted one thing after another.
The surprise of the day was spotting this moth caterpillar.
I initially thought it's a puss caterpillar. However on further search and with the help of Insect India FB group, it turned out to be caterpillar of Carea angulata. Another blogger mentioned that the big head like thing is actually it's thorax! I need to find more information. The clue of Jamun tree where it's spotted helped in identifying it further.
The next surprise was my first spotting of a Mantid fly or Mantis lacewing. I expected the insect to be much bigger, however it turned out to be around 1-2 inches long. Despite of two quick sightings, it's quick to fly and evaded my camera. Reading further about it revealed how some species of mantidflies as larvae feeds on spider egg sacs! The insect world is definitely fascinating. I hope to click a picture of it some time soon.
Meanwhile, I noticed curled up leaves of the Jamun tree and I promptly picked one (my son isn't amused). I broke open one amazed by how nicely it's rolled. Here is what we found inside a dry one!
The surprise of the day was spotting this moth caterpillar.
I initially thought it's a puss caterpillar. However on further search and with the help of Insect India FB group, it turned out to be caterpillar of Carea angulata. Another blogger mentioned that the big head like thing is actually it's thorax! I need to find more information. The clue of Jamun tree where it's spotted helped in identifying it further.
The next surprise was my first spotting of a Mantid fly or Mantis lacewing. I expected the insect to be much bigger, however it turned out to be around 1-2 inches long. Despite of two quick sightings, it's quick to fly and evaded my camera. Reading further about it revealed how some species of mantidflies as larvae feeds on spider egg sacs! The insect world is definitely fascinating. I hope to click a picture of it some time soon.
Meanwhile, I noticed curled up leaves of the Jamun tree and I promptly picked one (my son isn't amused). I broke open one amazed by how nicely it's rolled. Here is what we found inside a dry one!
This made me very curious. The next day I was reading about weevils and read how leaf-rolling weevils make such nests for their young one. I spotted a weevil on the same tree and now I speculate if it's the work of an weevil. This mystery has to wait for another day. Will blog more about this once I find more details.
By then, my son was in a rush to get his resin and I managed to spot some more critters that includes the scorpion mimic jumping spider. Notice how the pedipalps are bloated suggesting a male, reminds me of a boxers glove! Spotted its resting place too and perhaps with a female inside.
What looks like an ichuneumon wasp also showed up in orange. It's amazing that one tree is good enough to spot so many things and spend hours together, if only we have an inclination to watch, question and ponder!
Green lynx spider, nymph of a lady bug family and a cool looking fly added to our sighting and before we knew we spent an hour
We collected some resin and spotted few more insects and returned home full (of wonder and excitement) and hungry for more!
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