Our Garden Dwellers

I am not good in shooting critters, which One of Onenezz is so good at. I am thrilled with her collages of dragonflies and butterflies in Tropical Nature Photos. There's a lot of critters too in our garden. I have tried many times to take their photos, but am always drawn to chase the butterflies. When butterflies are around, I forget the rest. However, this time I am fascinated by the works of some critters, mainly because they fully consumed many of our plants.

This big larva devoured all the leaves of a big periwinkle plant, which died eventually. I realized this plant is not so resistant to larvae's attacks. Some plants just produce more shoots again after the onslaught of larvae.

 This larva looks almost the same as the above, but it feasted on the chrysanthemum.

This young larva attacked the caladium, which together with another bigger larva finished 5 big leaves overnight.

YAICKS! Grrrr! Another one on the green caladium!

He looks so cute, with those beautiful "eyes" (sorry for the blurr, i dont have a better shot)

I got it from the caladium to pose for me with the help of my niece. I taught her to touch the larva without being scared. However, whenever it moves she made a loud shriek. Eventually, after a lot of caresses, she got so enamored with it that when the chickens came, she shooed them away or else they will easily have a piece of snack.

Some of the devoured caladium leaves courtesy of the cute brownish larva. It camouflaged itself near the petiole when the sun is already up.

The Colocasia above is an accomplishment of another larva, this time a black one (below)

It is so long but beautiful too! Can you see the two "antennae'' at its posterior tip. I don't know its name.

A hairy monster eating the Chrysothemis pulchelia, a few days later 3 plants were bald.

I believe this is the swallowtail larva, mimicking bird droppings when still at this stage. Eventually it will be a big green caterpillar too before it pupates. It might not however hide from the birds frequently seen above them. This plant is a species of citrus with very nice scent, but it doesn't produce fruits like the common citrus we know. It however is medicinal.

These okra plants succumbed to a lot of larvae which after eating the leaves make them as their blankets. Eventually, molds will grow from their excretions and the okra will die. 

This time i don't know if these ants are helpful to the plant. What i know is they make harvesting of the custard apple fruit very difficult. 

Now, i know this praying mantis might be helpful. However, its stance is a reply to my prodding so it will pose nicely for me! I don't know if this is the Chinese species which Randy Emitt beautifully photographed in his blogsite.

And these are the last enemies of our plants. The cats (we have 6), play hide and seek in the garden. In this photo they are in the amaryllis hedge. The dog is a little subtle, but it loves to rest and sleep there near some plants. I did not include here yet some chickens and the young goat kids.

Maybe you are thinking that our plants will not be able to grow well with these creatures plaguing them. But we still have lots of plants, so we still see the flowers and the fruits of those which survived their natural ordeals. Everyone is happy!

Some of our other unwholesome garden guests: http://abagillon.blogspot.com/2008/11/animals-in-our-farm.html

http://www.camera-critters.blogspot.com