My Little Friends

It was one of my weekends in the province. I was scouting around for some subjects to photograph. I've finished with the flowers, which are not plenty anymore as the rainy season is already on its tail. In a few months it will be very dry again and very hot, as the dry season comes in. I have also been waiting for butterflies, but not many are visiting now, maybe the flowers are already loosing their nectars too.

This baby praying mantis is very visible as it is on the yellow heliconia. I wonder if there is not much predators for baby praying mantis. But birds are noisy on the tree canopies above, don't they see this. Or i guess it is still so small for the birds to waste their time. I looked for a bigger adult but i can't see any. 

I played with it, touch it with stick, prodded it to walk or jump, but it just moved up and down the heliconia flower or just moved the head left to right. It seems that its head is so big proportionately with its body. Maybe the head enlarge ahead of the other parts of the body, as even the adults have this size of heads. How long still before it develops its wings, i also am not familiar. But the sawed forelegs are already developed and scary.

I also turn around, and it flipped its back as if showing the inner surface of its lower abdomen. I hoped i know what flipping up the lower abdomen means. Probably, it is displaying some signals which i don't know. But recently a new friend who has pet mantises told me this type is more fierce than those with steady long abdome. Oh so maybe it got angry because of my teasing! Good i didn't put my finger close to it. 

 The above insect is barely more than a centimeter in length from head to the tip of the wings. I cannot anymore get a much bigger focus, but its head design is complicated, not the same with other insects i am familiar with. It is an insect decomposer i suppose as it is normally found on decaying fruits and barks.

And this more familiar one is hanging at the tip of a vine, swinging with the wind. It is a hawksmoth larva already nearing its completion for pupation. This larva change in color from emergence to the stage before pupa. Early on, i thought i've been seeing different species, but actually the colors are variations between instars. 

  

This little hairy larva is again eating the flower buds of my hoya, so i transfered it to a farther place. I hope it doesn't know how to ruturn. It could develop into a lovely moth.

 I've been looking at the web of this jumping spider. It has a very prominent design at the middle of its web, however the owner is very tiny that i had difficulty focusing it. There is a group of gathered debris at the center where it alights on, so make it feel very big to predators, and be a bit scary!

 

This golden orbweaver, Nephila sp., is as long as 2 inches.  And its web is even much bigger, about one meter in diameter. Look at that "face", do you think it can scare predators. I have long been seeing them in the wild, but haven't  seen it being eaten as a prey. 

Look at that web net, isn't it lovely! Can you see the single citrus fruit near its abdomen tip? Its presence in that citrus plant limits us from getting the fruits. 

Saturday Critters