The Lizard with Miraculous Feat

The Hindu puranas inform about the divine incredible powers of Holy Sages, Rishis and Siddhars – like walking on the water or floating on water etc. I know an insect that swims or surfs (or rests) on water surface with its six legs – the ‘Water Strider’! Have you heard of a lizard doing this feat? Yes, it is the Basilisk Lizard. When a predator chases, it runs on water with its two legs for about fifteen meters and escape! It has specially modified hind legs as that of a frog – webbed feet. Running with four limbs is tiresome, and with two legs, as we human do, it is quicker and easier, it seems – that too on water surface! A wonder lizard, indeed!

Descendants find their 'Roots'

Migration of birds for feeding and breeding are well known. These birds return back to their living places with their off- springs. The butterflies also do such migration; but there is a difference. In the migrated place they breed and bring up their generation; but they do not return back –they die there itself. Their next generation only returns to their original living place – without any guidance either from them or from anybody else! How is this possible? Do their generation have the replica of their brain to guide or do the generation have the ‘instinct’ (formed out of their parents’ past memory and experience) passed down to them genetically? Can any Zoologist or Genetics Scientist explain this wonder behavior of butterflies?

Wasp Nest with 'Live Feeds' encountered

This week I found a freshly formed nest of Mud wasp in the corner of a window. It was made of red soil. On breaking open it from the corner I found inside the cells three big wriggling larvae of the wasp brown, and yellow in colors and also --- 61 smaller larvae of some other insect! The smaller larvae were bright greenish in color, and lay paralyzed! They have been put inside the nest by the female of ‘Mud dauber’ (Black and yellow Mud wasp), after stinging them. I had seen before only paralyzed spiders in such nests. Now with this nest I find larvae of other insects too. Probably availability factor makes difference in the type of such live foods, it seems.
Inside another older nest of the same type of wasp I found fifteen mature wasp larvae with the remnant pieces of the smaller larvae!

I was risking the stinging by the mother wasps while I broke open the nests. But later I read that they do not return to the nests after sealing the last cell with mud!

It is really a wonder behavior in these wonder wasps! 

Sensing Dangers by Experience or Instinct

There is news about the ability of the human nose in the media: human nose could sniff out or distinguish between two closely similar scents – only when one of them was accompanied by a mild electric shock! It implies that we respond only at times of danger, that too only after having an experience before (that is, our childishness is converted into adulthood by our experience – for safeguarding our further survival).

It reminds me of canning by teachers (corporal punishment) that could help student to distinguish between ‘distractions’ and ‘study’ at school, when it is given mildly.

I was wondering how crows, mynahs and dogs give out alert calls on seeing a snake. Here it is different from the explanation given above for the nose: only their ancestor-parents’ experience (instinct) makes them to give an alert call, which aspect is passed down the generations! They may not have seen a death of their kin by a snake, which their ancestor-parents must have experienced. But yet they are able to sniff out the danger!

I have my own personal experience regarding this: I gave out a loud cry when the bike’s side stand was just pressing on my toe accidentally. But I there was no injury! I had a similar experience of being wounded by the bike’s stand sometime back. That painful experience has alerted me to take out the toe instantly and give out a cry.

‘Wonder experiences’ save our lives and preserve our health indeed!

The Fish that sleeps inside pond bed

 
When ponds dry up, the fish and every living thing in it die. But the ‘Lung fish’ does not die at such a condition. It burrows into the mud and forms a capsule around it and sleeps in it – aestivation! Its metabolism slows down drastically and it can remain in this state for up to two years. When it rains and the pond gets water it releases itself from the capsule and comes out to swim in the water! It is said that it is a primitive fish and that it breathes with its lungs taking in air by swimming up to the pond’s surface. Its lungs are the modified forms of swim bladders found in other fish (that keep their buoyancy in the water). It also has a longer life span than other fish! It is really a wonder fish.

The Scent to locate the Offender

A seventy years old man told me that he accidentally disturbed the nests of Asian Giant Hornets and was stung repeatedly. And that on seeing another squad of hornets coming towards him he ran and dived into the well water and escaped from further stinging by the hornets. It is said that the first stinging hornets leave behind some pheromones which the following- on squad of hornets detect and attack the targeted person easily – within seconds of the first attack! Luckily the man dived into the well water that blocked the pheromones. But the goats that were grazing nearby became the next available target of attack by the furious hornets, and as a result one of them died.

A Hungry 'Black line'

At a winter morning a ’black line’ was seen climbing up a distant leafless tree. The line was about ten feet length. On seeing through binoculars the black line turned out to be a snake! Yes, it was a Black Rat snake that was climbing up the tree to catch and devour the little birds that were perching on its branches! This Black Rat snake is an excellent climber. A climbing wonder!

The Wild Lily of Monsoon Rains

‘The Glory Lily’ flower is enchanting with its beautiful colors and curled arrangement of petals. Its botanical name itself tells about it: Gloriosa superba. I find it in the wild on the roadside bushes – only at a certain period of time of the year. Yes, it is seen here in the North East monsoon season only – that too for a few days only! I usually search for its first bloom in the monsoon and pat myself for having found it out first in the season. I am doing this search for this wonder lily each year for the past fifteen years. But peculiarly I could not spot it in the previous year. The reason is that the rainfall was inadequate!

The Keen Observation of Apes' Habits

Now there are many modern medicines that are the derivatives of crude drugs obtained from the parts of plants. Many such derivatives have also been now synthesized without accessing to plant sources. But the ultimate credit goes to our ancestors who had keen observations. They had watched and studied animals taking unusual plants peculiarly, at certain times (of illnesses), and reported about that and about the advantages the animals gained after such intake. Recently the African apes (chimpanzees) are in the news:

1. They swallow leaves to expel out worms.

2. They take soil to make the plant leaves already ingested have anti-malarial properties.

3. They take the pith of a tree for constipation to get purgation.

It is also said that the native people living next to the forests inhabited by these apes, have similar medical habits as that of the apes! This indicates that the benefits of wonderful keen observations of ancestors are being still availed by these people!