Elliot's forest lizard (Calotes ellioti)

That Sunday evening I was returning back home I noticed a slender lizard peeking out from the rainwater drain of my garage entrance. I quickly parked my car and pulled out Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM. My house has Mangalore tiled roof. I have fitted it with a Rainwater harvesting pipe which runs all around the roof edge and collects the rain water from the roof and routes it to our drinking water well after filtration. This has resulted in perennial water supply in our well which used to get dried by the end of summer months. The Rain water harvest pipe was good 8 feet from the ground where I was standing. So I lifted both my hands over my head so that I could get as close as possible to the lizard and took these photos. I let the camera auto-focus to do its job while shooting. To get the better depth of field I used f/11 and ISO 4000 as the light was fading. Luckily the lizard was on the west side of the house and thus received the evening light. The shadow area under the roof tiles gave the nice dark background to the lizard.

Elliot's forest lizard (Calotes ellioti)

The lizard which was peeking out through the semicircular water pipe was Elliot’s Forest Lizard (Calotes ellioti). Calotes ellioti also called Annamalai Forest Lizard is an agamid lizard found mainly in western ghats in Southern India, up to 6000 feet altitude in the Annamalai Hills. This species inhabits the Western Ghats and is found in the Anaimalai, Tinnevelly and Sivagiri hills and the Malabar coast (Smith 1935, Sharma 2002). Manthey (2008) mentions an isolated single record from Mahabaleshwar, in northern Western Ghats (Maharasthtra state, India). This brilliant photo of vibrant male Calotes ellioti in bright red color published on deviantArt by NEcrOMAnCERDEmON taken near Sinhaghad fort shows the northern extant of this lizard’s distribution.

Elliot's forest lizard (Calotes ellioti)

I don’t know how common this lizard is, in a city like mine. That too finding this lizard in my backyard was a great surprise. Studies have shown that it favors a degraded patch of the forest. Ishwar et al. (2003) surveyed the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and 14 rainforest fragments in the Anaimalai Hills, both in the Western Ghats mountains. They found that this species occurs in dry and moist deciduous forest, as well as primary rainforest and associated altered habitats such as tea, coffee, and cardamom plantations. This species dominated the arboreal reptile community in the protected area and, moreover, rose to be the most dominant agamid in the fragmented forest. This species is a habitat generalist and appears to be unaffected by forest fragmentation.

Elliot's forest lizard (Calotes ellioti)

Inger et al. (1984) questioned the specific distinction of this species and placed it within the synonymy of its closely related congener, Calotes rouxii Dumeril & Bibron 1837. But none followed their arrangement, and instead recognized C. elliotti as a distinct species. Günther, A. in 1864 in his book The Reptiles of British India first described this species differentiating it from Calotes rouxii as follows “Jerdon enumerates a C. rouxii in his list of the Reptiles of Southern India (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. p. 471); having seen a rough figure of this species in the collection of drawings in the possession of W. Elliott, Esq., I have come to the conclusion that this must be an undescribed species, having a pair of isolated spines immediately behind the orbit and a black fold of the skin before each shoulder. The male is represented as uniform blackish brown, with yellow head and neck: the female brown, with irregular dark cross bands. I propose for this species the name of C. eliiotti.”

Female Plain Tiger

I had written long back on Plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus) butterfly. At that time I was using Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM with 36mm of extension tube to photograph this Plain Tiger butterfly. Soon after the Scarlet Skimmer dragonfly photograph session which I published last week, I spotted a female plain tiger butterfly nearby. I used the same setup as I used in the dragonfly photography. My rig consisted of 1D Mark IV camera with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L + 1.4x tele-converter stabilized on a monopod. Beautiful evening sun gave me plenty of golden light to experiment around this butterfly. It was not at all shy in posing for me as was evident in the photos which is one of the great advantages of using a long telephoto lens for closeup shoots.

Female Plain Tiger Under Side View

As I photographed I noticed that the butterfly had a wound on the thorax at the base of the right hind-wing. The Plain Tiger is protected from attacks due to the unpalatable alkaloids ingested during the larval stages. The larvae pf this butterfly feed on host plants like milkweeds (like Asclepias, Calotropis) which are have toxic alkaloids. The butterfly therefore flies slowly and leisurely, generally close to the ground and in a straight line. This gives a would-be predator ample time to recognize and avoid attacking it. Inexperienced predators will try attacking it, but will learn soon enough to avoid this butterfly as the alkaloids in its body cause vomiting. The butterfly I was photographing also must have escaped such an attack on it.

Female Plain Tiger Side View

It was an old wound, the lymph had accumulated and clotted around the right side of the thorax. Even though injured the butterfly was flying normally and was resting like any other of its kind. Tenacity of this butterfly was amazing. The butterfly also has a tough, leathery skin to survive such occasional attacks. When attacked it fakes death and oozes nauseating liquid which makes it smell and taste terrible. This encourages the predator to release the butterfly quickly. The Plain Tiger thus has the ability to recover “miraculously” from predator attacks that would kill most other butterflies.

Female Plain Tiger Upper Side

Even though a macro lens and a flash setup is ideal to get extremely closeup photos of these butterflies, my tele-macro setup works nice. Drawback of this setup is that it needs a good light and is heavy and cumbersome. So it is not very portable. With that setup I can take quite a good amount of closeup shots with a very creamy bokeh effect. I can also using the same setup photograph birds and other distant object which is a real bonus as the same rig works as dual purpose setup.

Female Plain Tiger Closeup

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Photographing dragonflies is very rewarding experience. They exhibit a wide range of bright colors and present a challenge to photograph, at rest or in-flight. My favorite dragonfly photography lens was Canon EF 300mm f/4L telephoto lens as it had minimum focusing distance among all the large telephoto lenses I possessed. Now since I sold that lens for a brighter Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L I added a 1.4x teleconverter, for a bit of additional image magnification. You can also add 25mm extension ring and decrease minimal focus distance.

When I photograph dragonflies I like to have as much distance between me and the dragonfly as is practical. That is why I use this long telephoto lenses instead of a short macro lens. Photographing dragonflies from a distance does not disturb the dragonfly as you are least of a threat to it. It also gives me to better control the background in an image. Dragonflies are best photographed on plain, untextured backgrounds to reveal the intricate patterning of the wings. The wings of a dragonfly are quite transparent and the intricate veining of the wings can be lost against a background full of twigs, sticks, and gravel. Compare the first photo with the last one you will get what I mean.

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Dragonflies have a habit to come back to the same perch they were sitting. So if you keep focused on the twig where it was sitting you can get nice in flight shot without much of an effort. It is no use chasing them if you want to shoot dragon flies. Here are few links to know more about dragonfly photography.

• How I Photograph Dragonflies
• Dragonfly Photography 101
• Dragonfly Photography

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia) is a medium sized blood red or reddish yellow dragonfly with amber colored patch at wing base. It is also known as Crimson Darter, Oriental Scarlet, Ruddy Marsh Skimmer.

The male Scarlet Skimmer is blood red in color. Face is blood red. Eyes are blood red above, purple on the sides. Thorax is blood red to bright orange. Abdomen is blood red with a mid dorsal black stripe. Legs are reddish. Wings are transparent with a base which is marked with rich amber. Wing spot is dark brown.

The female Scarlet Skimmer is reddish yellow in color. Face is pale yellow. Eyes are brown above and olivaceous below. Thorax is dark brown. Abdomen is yellowish brown with a mid dorsal black stripe. Legs are dark brown. Wings are transparent and basal amber marking paler than in the males. Wing spot is pale yellow.

Male Scarlet Skimmer in flight

Habits and habitat: One of the commonest red dragonflies. Frequently found in ponds, puddles, rivers, big wells, tanks, ditches and paddy fields. This dragonfly perches on aquatic weeds and chases any passing by dragonflies.

It breeds in marshes associated with ponds, rivers and tanks. Seen flying throughout the year. It is extremely widespread species, occurring throughout mainland tropical and subtropical Asia, Japan, the Ryukyu Archipelago, the greater and lesser Sunda isles, the Philippines and Sulawesi. In the west it extends into Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Turkey. It has been accidentally introduced into Florida in the USA.

Male Scarlet Skimmer