Orienting to the Garden Lizard!

As a child I came to know about a wonder thing that kept on raising itself above the ground and dropping down to the ground. When there was a disturbance I was able to identify it to be a living thing - it ran away using its legs! It is the Oriental Garden Lizard ( known also as Crested Tree Lizard, Calotes versicolor, 'Onaan' in

Black Drongo chases Crows!

Still I remember the song (call) given by this bird about forty years ago! It is so melodious that it is pleasant to hear it every time. This bird’s monotonous call can be heard first at dawn before any bird could start calling. This bird is our Black Drongo (King Crow, Dicrurus macrocercus, ‘Karichaan Kuruvi’ or ‘Rettaivaal Kuruvi’ in Tamil). Anyone can identify this small black bird with its longer and forked tail. It sits higher on perches like electric lines, or rides on cow’s back, darting down now and then to catch insects and grasshoppers seen on the ground. Its delicacies are the Flying Termites at Monsoon season. And at summer time it is also seen near burning grasslands catching flies that escape out of fire.

This bird lays small eggs in cup like nest in April and the eggs hatch out in fifteen days, and the young ones fly out on the sixteenth day!

The bird chases away in flight even crows or mynahs that come near its nest! In doing so it makes a lot of noise alerting other birds.

I have seen this wonder black bird sitting on electric lines even at dusk, and near street lights catching insects at night!

Flying Termites of the Monsoon Season

In villages, here in Tamilnadu of India, people, especially children are sportive in collecting Flying Termites (Alates or Swarmers and ‘Eiesal’ in Tamil). They sing a song to threaten them, and blow air into the opening to their nest present underground! The song contains the following message: “There is snake inside the nest of these flying termites! Won’t they rush out vacating the nest?” As the flying termites come out by themselves (!), one by one, from their underground colony, they are collected in a tiny basket! One can hear these songs of the children in villages after each North East monsoon shower: at these times these creatures swarm around the places. In a few hours they shed their brown membranous wings, and then they are seen in the vicinity running one after the other in pairs. These flying termites are the reproductive forms of the Termites. They, the kings and queens from the termite colony come out of their nest, fly in air, mate with each other and settle down somewhere else inside the ground to establish their own termite colony!

Ok. What the children do with the collected flying termites? In the early part of 19^th century they simply put them on the top of the ‘Hurricane lantern,’ roasted and then relished. Elders used to roast them with fried Bengal gram (Chick pea), onion and puffed rice to make a snack for the rainy season! Now the flying termites are consumed as a side dish by the pregnant women for their high mineral contents. Their content has a good taste like that of yellowish butter and is a nutritious delicacy to all. These flying delicacies are wonderful and delicate insects indeed!

Red Velvet Mite - to Please You!

As the North East Monsoon brings rain showers, here in South India, we see now a beautiful crawling creature. It is seen after each shower, moving on with its legs softly on the fine sand brought out by the storm water. It has velvety shining skin with dimples on its back. It is so soft that you are tempted to touch on its back. This is the Red Velvet Mite of Trombidium species! (It is called as 'Paappaathee Poochee' or 'Pattu Poochee' in Tamil language). It usually comes out of soil just after the rains, in sunshine, as do also the mushrooms at this time. As children we used to collect these mites in match boxes, with tiny bits of grass added as its diet! But I have seen these mites as predators too, preying on Flying Termites ( 'Eiesel' in Tamil) that also come out of the earth at this time of monsoon.

These Red Velvet Mites live in the layer of fallen leaves in wood lands or farm wastes. They eat small insects, and eggs of other mites and insects. The females get fertilized as they sit on the ‘Love Garden’ made by the male with its semen! The larvae of them live as parasites on other insects like Grasshoppers. The mites live for more than a year.

It is a wonder mite that wondered children and is wondering all the children every year at this time of monsoon here! If you have anything to say about this mite you can share it here by clicking on the Comments.