Male House fly

Common Housefly (Musca domestica) photographed on a Hardwickia binata leaf. I have used Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macr lens with Canon MT-24EX macro twin light flash.

Indian Robin

I photographed this Male Indian Robin using on Canon EOS 5D mark II using Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM on very cloudy evening. Female was nearby but I could not get a good shot of her.

The Indian Robin (Saxicoloides fulicatus) is a species of bird in the Muscicapidae family. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The males of northern populations have a brown back while those of the southern populations have a black back. They are found in open scrub areas and often forage along the ground and perch on low shrubs and rocks.

This bird is found in open stony, grassy and scrub forest habitats. The tail is held upright and the vent is brown or dark chestnut. The males are glossy black with a white shoulder patch while females are smoky brown with grey underside. The nominate race is found in southern Peninsular India. Race leucopterus is found in Sri Lanka. Race cambaiensis of western India and erythrura (erythrurus) of eastern India have the males with brown backs. Race intermedius is found in central India and parts of the Deccan region. A race munda was named for a specimen from Punjab but is now considered synonymous with cambaiensis. Older classifications include a race ptymatura for the population in southern India with the typical form being considered as being from Sri Lanka. The species is often found close to human habitation.

They feed mostly on insects but are known to take frogs and lizards especially when feeding young at the nest. Individuals may forage late in the evening to capture insects attracted to lights.

Males sing during the breeding season and males display to females by lowering and spreading their tail feathers and strutting around the female.

Nests are built between rocks, in holes in walls or in a tree hollow. Nests are lined with animal hair and it has been noted that many nests have pieces of snake sloughs. The eggs are of regular oval form, but many are elongated and a few pointed. They have a fair amount of gloss. The ground-colour is white, often tinged with faint green or pink, and this is rather closely spotted, speckled, streaked, and mottled, with rich reddish or umber-brown and brownish yellow, with some underlying lavender. The markings are denser at the larger end of the egg, where they form an irregular cap. Some eggs are blotched with dark reddish brown at the large end. Eggs measure from .76 to .84 in length, and from .55 to .62 in breadth. There is anecdotal evidence of them laying their eggs in the nests of Turdoides babblers. Chicks have black down.

The breeding season is December to September but varies according to region and usually begins with the first rains. Males sing during this season. They may sometimes peck at their own reflections during this time. Peak breeding in northern India is in June and is earlier in Southern India.In Sri Lanka it breeds in March to June and August to September. Cyclic changes in melanin pigmentation of the testes associated with breeding have been noted. Three to four eggs is the norm but clutches of up to seven have been noted. Only the female incubates. Eggs hatch in about 10 days. Both males and females feed the young and males sometimes feed the female at nest. Nestlings are known to be preyed on by the Rufous Treepie(Dendrocitta vagabunda).

Common Mime

The Common Mime (Chilasa clytia) is a Swallowtail butterfly found in South and South-east Asia. The butterfly belongs to the Chilasa group or the Black-bodied Swallowtails. It serves an excellent example of a Batesian mimic among the Indian butterflies. Wingspan of 90-105 mm. This is butterfly has dimorphism for both sexes – there are two different colour forms for each sex. The lighter form dissimilis mimics the unpalatable Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace) while the darker form clytia mimics the unpalatable “Crows”. This is clytia form which looks like Common Indian Crow (Euploea core).

The upper sides and under sides of clytia are a rich dark brown – the colour towards the margins of the wings is much paler. There is a series of creamy to white markings towards the outer margins, many of which are chevron shaped. The spots on the margins between the veins are creamy and small. Towards the outer margins of the hind wings, there are two rows of cream coloured chevrons, the outer being much smaller than the inner. The margins of the hind wings have orange yellow spots between the veins; the ones on the lower side are much larger. This specimen had the wings damaged so the the markings are not very clear.

The ground colour of the wings of dissimilis is blue-gray, with heavy black markings along the veins, giving it a somewhat reticulate appearance. The chevron shaped markings towards the outer margins are similar to those of form clytia.

This butterfly is found in India from Kangra to Sikkim, from Assam to Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Peninsular India and the Andaman Islands. It is also found in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Southern China (including Hainan), Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, peninsular Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia (Flores, Alor, Timor and Moa). Several regional variants and forms are recognized.

It usually flies within a few feet of the ground when searching for nectar or larval host plants. However, it is not uncommon to see it nectaring on blooms high up in the canopy. It prefers wooded areas with open spaces. It is not uncommon in home gardens.

It resembles its unpalatable Danaid models exceptionally well, not only in its markings and general coloration, but also in its behavior. For instance, when flying, it glides for a considerable distance after taking a few leisurely wing beats. After settling on a flower, it keeps its wings quite still like the models and does not continuously vibrate its wings like a typical swallowtail. Like its models, it sleeps with its wings folded over its body, often hanging onto a twig.

It is interesting to note that form clytia in Sri Lanka differs from its subspecies in India in almost the same way that the Indian Common Crow in Sri Lanka differs from its subspecies in India, illustrating the evolutionary selection pressure exerted on the mimics to look more and more like the model in their own environment.

The larvae feed on species of Litsea, Cinnamomum and Nauclea. The pupa of this butterfly is remarkably well camouflaged and resembles a broken twig so well that if a bird were to memorize its image, it will probably pick many dead twigs before it gets it right!