Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Predators!


Although I get to see a few chrysalids around my small garden every year, not every butterfly can come into the world. There are predators lurking amidst the leaves. I started this blog with the birth of the Common Crow butterfly.These jewels look most striking when they're new and green. You can see how the colour changes as the days go by. After waiting eagerly for the final emergence, you can imagine my disappointment at the sight of the little opening on the chrysalis.


It must've been this spider lurking around here to suck the life out of an unborn butterfly.
And talking about spiders, looks like it's a spider eat spider world.
And here's a damselfly feasting voraciously on the remnants of what looks like a fly!

Posted by Picasa

7 comments:

Cyren said...

Sometimes it is not the spiders but rather, parasitoid wasps that have injected their eggs into the larvae. THe butterfly larvae grow like normal but inside them something horrible is happening, a wasp larvae is eating it from the inside out. When the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, the wasp larvae eats what's left of the butterfly, turns into a wasp and then bursts its way out of the chrysalis, causing the hole that you see in it. Its like a horror film!

On the other hand, a section of my research on Mythical Creatures involves a Hindu Goddess by the name of Kali. Do you know of her? Is she a significant figure in Hindu religion/folklore?

Anonymous said...

Nice pics! good work

Susie said...

Hey Kanak!

I like your new blog! Nice pics!

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Nature is fascinating and cruel. It is also the survival of the fittest, so we have interfered with that a lot. I find myself freeing a damsel from a spiderweb...by doing so depriving the spider of his food!

Ginny Hartzler said...

Oh, that spider is horrible looking! I have arachnophobia, am terrified of spiders! If I saw that, you would see me running and hear me screaming! But it is a very good close up picture, I did enlarge it.

Stephanie said...

Interesting to see the changes ;-) I have never watch how they grow. Thanks for posting such fascinating things!

lotusleaf said...

Spider eat spider! Such things happen in the insectworld. Interesting post.