Fatal Attraction

I was trying to test Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM which was courteously provided by Shivashankar with my Canon EF 1.4x II Extender when I spotted these mating Common Grass Yellows(Eurema hecabe) on a Peacock Flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) plant. On closer inspection there was this dark brown spider stuck on the head of the male. I wanted to capture the whole sequence so I quickly changed to my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro with Canon MT-24EX macro twin light flash and captured the whole sequence. I have posted 4 most interesting shots from this sequence.

Fatal Attraction

This Adanson’s House Jumper (Hasarius adansoni) had caught hold of the male by the head while in the act of mating. It had killed it and is now proceeding towards the female which was still stuck to the mate.

Fatal Attraction

It was a precarious perch for the spider as it had to manage the dead body of one and struggling butterfly on the other. The female was desperately trying to escape from the clutches of the spider but was unable to do. Spider manage to twist and turn the body of the dead male and lurched forward to reach for the female.

Fatal Attraction

After nearly 15 minutes of struggle the female managed to tire out the spider and gain the upright position. With bit more struggle she was able to release herself from the mate and fly away free and alive. It was such an awesome sight that I was amazed how she managed to do that.

Pill Millipede

This Pill millipede was found when I went to Charmadi Ghats recently. it was crossing the State Highway 64. I picked it up and curled into a nice ball. I left it on the other side and proceeded towards Mudigere in Chikmagalur District. It belongs to genus Arthrosphaera under Sphaerotheriidae family od order Sphaerotheriida.

Pill millipedes make up two orders of millipedes, often grouped together into a single superorder, Oniscomorpha. Pill millipedes are short compared to other millipedes, with only eleven to thirteen body segments, and are capable of rolling into a ball when disturbed. Evolutionary importance of Pill millipedes is that even though the northern and southern hemispherical pill millipedes evolved separately, both developed capability of rolling into a ball when disturbed. This is an example of parallel evolution, rather than homology.

The Order Glomerida is found in the Northern Hemisphere and includes species such as Glomeris marginata, the common European pill millipede. They have from twelve body segments, and lack the defensive repugnatorial glands found on many other millipedes.

The Order Sphaerotheriida is a Gondwana-distribution taxon, with around 100 species in southern Africa, Madagascar, Australasia and south-east Asia. They have thirteen body segments, and possess repugnatorial glands releasing nasty chemicals like rest of the millipede family.

Male Common Mormon Butterfly

Here is a male Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) butterfly which was resting at night on Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) leaf. I was not able to focus the butterfly at all as it was very dark. I used a 8 LED torch held in my left hand to focus and shoot with Canon EOS 5D mark II using Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro with Canon MT-24EX macro twin light flash from right hand. As the butterfly was perched high on the tree this was a great acrobatic task.

The Common Mormon Papilio polytes is a common species of swallowtail butterfly widely distributed across Asia. This butterfly is known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females which mimic inedible Red-bodied Swallowtails, such as the Common Rose and the Crimson Rose. The male are monomorphic dark-coloured swallow-tailed butterfly. The upper fore wing has a series of white spots decreasing in size towards the apex. The upper hind wing has a complete discal band of elongated white spots. It may or may not have marginal red crescents. The males are smaller in size than the females.

The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs.
Female form romulus is similar to the male, differing in that it always has strongly marked red crescents. It is the least common of the three forms. It is normally abundant where the Common Rose or Crimson Rose do not occur, such as in Himachal Pradesh around Shimla; although a few specimens of form romulus have also been caught alongside.

Form stichius of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.

Form romulus mimics the Crimson Rose and is common over its range. It is not such a close mimic as the previous form being duller than its model, the Crimson Rose. It is easy to differentiate the mimics from models by the colour of their body – the models are red-bodied and the mimics are black-bodied.

Common Mormon in Sepia

Here is the same mormon shot converted to Sepia tone in Adobe lightroom.