Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

This male Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) dragonfly was sitting in the garden basking the afternoon sun. Light was quite harsh on the dragonfly. The position it was sitting was also awkward so I had not much of chance of getting a good frontal pose. What I decided is to get a nice wing vein details from where I could take picture. I used my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens and used existing sunlight to take this photograph. As the Sun was harsh you could notice the dark contrasty shot in the side photo. For the other two shots I used a semi transparent umbrella (shoot through umbrella) to cast shade on the dragonfly. This method was short lived as it startled the dragonfly and it flew off after few shots.

In Males eyes are dark reddish brown paler towards lateral and undersides. Thorax is dark chocolate brown above, which pales to golden olivaceous-brown on sides. Legs are black. Wings are transparent and tinted with deep golden amber at base. In the hind wings the amber tint encircles a black opaque area. Wing spot is blackish brown. Abdomen is bright red contrasting with blackish brown thorax.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Early morning and late evening sun are the best to take photos as the light is softer and directional. Mid noon sun gives strong light and dark shadows which look horrible on photos. Either choose a cloudy or overcast day or shoot photos under shade.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) is a medium sized dragonfly with brown black thorax and bright red abdomen. The face is covered with short and stiff black hairs. This is a common and relatively unattractive dragonfly species. It is not easy to get a nice shot as they are usually quite sensitive to human.

Male abdomen is bright blood-red; frons bright scaret-red, clypeus reddish brown; wings hyaline, with a pale uniform brown and a dark golden-amber spot at base of hind wing.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Female thorax is pale brown, creamy yellow on dorsum; abdomen brownish yellow marked with a mid-dorsal brown stripe and an obscure stripe at both sides.

Female generally comes to water just for laying eggs, but male usually take the chance to mate. They are very wary insects and hardly to get closer except when they are in copulation.

Eudocima hypermnestra on a broomstick

This beautiful moth is a fruit-piercing moth (Noctuidae: Calpinae [sometimes included in subfamily Ophiderinae or Catocalinae]) in the genus Eudocima. There are several similar looking species in India, but I believe this one is probably Eudocima hypermnestra.

I found this moth on a broomstick near the window inside my house. It was quite camouflaged in olive green color and was acting like a leaf. But when it took to wings the bright yellow underwings showed as a contrast. This was probably to startle their predators by the sudden burst of color.

The moth was quite docile and allowed me to handle easily. So I was able to coax it to pose me on a white sheet of paper. After posing for me for a short while it must have got bored. It flew and sat on the window pane where I was able to get few more pictures of this lovely moth before flying away. I used my trusted rig of Canon EOS 5D mark II fitted with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. For illumination I used ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter fitted on Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash.

Frontal View of Eudocima hypermnestra

The fruit piercing moths are very widespread, being found in Africa, India, South-east Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. A wide range of fruits is attacked, particularly banana, citrus, guava, mango, papaya and tomato. The adult moth is active at night. It lands on the ripening fruit, pierces the skin with the tip of its proboscis and sucks out the juices. The tip of the proboscis is armed with saw teeth. A brown, circular, rotten area develops round the tiny puncture hole.

This moth is a known vector of Oospora citri, a fungus that rots the fruit and has a penetrating odor that attracts this moth. Other microorganisms that gain entrance into the fruit and cause rotting include Fusarium sp., Colletotrichum sp., and several types of bacteria.

When moths are abundant green fruit is attacked, causing premature ripening and dropping of fruits. On oranges, a green fruit turns yellow at the site of the piercing and fungi soon develop within the wound. On tomatoes, the puncture of the tomato skin causes the fruit to turn white and quickly rot. Incidence of damage by this moth is normally low, however when outbreaks occur, most of the crop is affected.

Eudocima hypermnestra

Sometimes the rotten fruit falls from the tree. To distinguish the damage caused by the fruit-piercing moth from that caused by fruit-flies, the fruit should be cut open; in fruit-fly damaged fruit, the grubs (larvae) can usually be seen and the fruit flesh has far more liquid than in fruit damaged by the fruit-piercing moth, which are soft and mushy.

The adult moths are about 3.5-5.0 cm long, with a wing span of8-10cm. The body is pale- to purple-brown with a dull yellow abdomen. The fore-wings are of an olive-brown to red-brown color often flecked with green and white. The under-wings are edged with a black border which has white dots along the edge, and have an inner orange area with a black comma-shaped mark inside it.
The female lays up to 300 eggs at a time.

Side View of Eudocima hypermnestra

Closely related to this Eudocima hypermnestra is another moth belonging to the same sub family Calpinae, which was in news for wrong reasons. It was named as Vampire moth as it was one of the rare species of moth which fed on blood. A widely distributed moth species, Calyptra thalictri, in central and southern Europe known to feed only on fruit. Siberian variety was fed on blood experimentally to prove that they do feed on animal products. You can read more on this National Geographic article on Vampire moths.

Eudocima hypermnestra Showing the Bright Undere-wing

Kambala the buffalo-race

I had enumerable calls inquiring dates of Kambala this year. Since many of you are interested in taking photographs of Kambala which is traditional traditional buffalo-race held in different places of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, I have collected dates from the Kambala Samithi which organizes them every year at 18 different places. Most of them fall either on Saturday or Sunday. The traditional Kambalas are not held on Amavasya (New Moon) and Sankramana days. If you are interested in either watching or photographing them, please visit them.

Kambala the buffalo-race

Kambala to be held in 2010-11:

Dec 4: Shirva Nadibettu
Dec 11: Baradi Beedu
Dec 18: Bangadi Kolli
Dec 26: Mulki Seeme
Jan 2: Aikala Bava
Jan 9: Miyar
Jan 15: Adve Nandikur
Jan 22: Moodbidri
Jan 29: Venur Permude
Feb 6: Puttur
Feb 12: Pilikula Nisargadhama
Feb 19: Katapady Beeedu
Feb 26: Edu
Mar 5: Puttur
Mar 12: Uppinangady
Mar 22: Talapady Panjala

Kambala the buffalo-race