Tuesday 22 June 2010

What's bugging me!

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My camera, OK more probably my photographic skills, aren't really up to photographing the wildlife I see around me but I'm so intrigued by the various insects and other animals which I find in my house. Some are such fast movers  - like that rat, like the gecko or jitty pitty as it is locally called, which has just had several babies,  like the bearded lizard called a nduå,  which inhabits our forecourt area and merges its colour to the reds and browns of the iron struts waiting to be used in the next phase of building works to the house. It is currently about 15 inches long and still growing. Then there is the 5 inch long red tailed skink which I found on my doorstep one morning - I had to quickly check whether it was poisonous or not, but thankfully no, still I didn't fancy having that in the house - it has a face like a snake, with an elongated body on short legs like a lizard, and half its length is made up of its bright red tail. But it is impossible to snap any of these they are too fast and too camera shy! 

Of course I basically recognize some - I mean a frog is a frog after all, except in fairy tales - but what species of frog? a grasshopper is a grasshopper or gintika  in Oriya, but what is the correct name for the beautifully elegant one with the thin elongated 3 in body of deep forest green one that visited one evening?  What on earth is the 1-2 in long multicoloured hoppers, pictured above, that all over our exterior walls and are now venturing indoors,with their most marvelous green, yellow and black speckled bodies with red spots and stick like legs with sucker like feet pads which enable them to cling and climb up vertical painted metals railings? And when had I ever seen jumping spiders? P3260124-crop

In addition, there are the inevitable annoying profusion of beetles, large and small, flying ants, an insect a bit like a dragon fly but only 1 in long, whose wings are twice the size of its body and are an almost see through shade of bronze, but not that many true flies surprising.

 

 

 

 

P3010184Aside the unexpected, and as yet only one visit, by the rat, the biggest thing so far to even think about venturing in is the crow/Kau, who sits on the wall outside my door and looks intently at what ever it is I am doing, eyes following my round the room, until some sudden movement or sound makes him fly off.

Luckily there are some animals that I have yet to see - my landlady caught me coming back in a few days ago to warn me there was a snake / sapå  around and it hade been right up to  our gate - she'd put down bleach powder and salt to repel it - she described it as a large one several feet long and about 6 inches in diameter by all accounts, poisonous and it had slithered away under the walk way up to the house.

Try as I may my photos just don't do the smaller creatures justice but here are some.Insect-cropP6170001-cropP6200028-crop

Trawling the web trying to find out proper names I  tumbled across some sites that can help with identification, so if you are being invaded by a bug or just curious I recommend you take a look What's the bug? and  The Bug Guide   they are intriguingly hypnotic to browse

5 comments:

  1. I have very mixed feelings about that first bug. I felt like passing out when i first saw it! But it wonderful markings isn't it? I am not totally afraid of bugs...just wouldn't want them crawling on me...

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  2. That first bug is beautiful and you have some very good shots of some of the creatures you describe

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  3. That first one is pretty. But I like them outside and not sharing my indoor space - even if my space is indoor/outdoor open. I have a "spider cup" in the pantry that I use for scooping the little (and not so little) buggers up and returning them outside where they can reunite with their friends and chat about their grand adventure indoors.

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  4. I think the 2nd picture is of an Assassin Bug. Not a very clear pic, but if it has a "cogwheel" appearance behind its head, then Assassin Bug it is.

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  5. Tx Anon alwways nice to know what things really are.

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