Aditya's Photography

  It is native to  India ,  Sri Lanka  and  Thailand , where it is a common and widespread species. It is a medium-sized dragonfly with brown-capped grey eyes.  Its thorax is  ashy grey in appearance , marbled, and peppered with black in a very irregular manner. Wings are transparent and black at the center and pure white at distal and proximal ends .  Female is similar to the male. Taking advantage of its well-developed camouflage, it always rests flat on slab rock or cement-plastered walls, where it almost invisible. Adults occupy habitat near water bodies, such as pools, irrigation channels, wells, and containers with standing water. It breeds in rainy hollows in the rocks or in wells and small cemented tanks. The species has been studied as a predator of the disease-carrying  Yellow Fever Mosquito  ( Aedes aegypti ). The larvae of the dragonfly consume the larvae of the mosquito in the standing-water habitat types that both occupy .

 The wingspan of the rounded pierrot is nearly 23-28mm. It is not a rare pierrot and can be easily spotted.  It is usually found in Nepal, Sri-Lanka, and India. It flies low over grasses and shrubs. In the Himalayas, it is found even up to 2,130m. It is active almost throughout the year.  The lower side of the wings is white with black spots, strips, and borders. The upper side is violet-blue with a narrow black border. They have a short tail on each hind wing. They are not as alert and aware of human presence as larger butterflies and go about their business without paying much attention to humans.

The Stagonomus amoenus belongs to a species that is generally called the stink bug or the shield bug.  They are called shield bugs in English and stink bugs in American English.  The term shield bug refers to the generalized body shape of adult bugs . The name stink bug refers to their ability to release a pungent defensive spray when threatened, disturbed, or crushed. The composition of this spray may vary between species, and even by sex or age, but generally includes  aldehydes  and  alkanes . Descriptions of the smells vary widely, and include oily, dusty, woody and earthy, and like  coriander . In some species, the liquid contains cyanide compounds and a rancid almond scent, used to protect themselves and discourage predators. They have a 5-segmented antennae , The body shape of adults is generally " shieldlike ," when viewed from above. They are coffee coloured and have two white spots on their back. They have small pores all over their body. Several stink bugs and

The B ar-headed Goose  breeds in  Central Asia  in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and during winters they usually breed in South Asia , as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It is known for the extreme altitudes it reaches when migrating across the Himalayas.   The bird is pale grey and is easily distinguished from any of the other grey geese because of the black bars on its head. It is also much paler than the other geese in its family. In-flight, its call is a typical goose honking.   The Bar-headed Goose has an extremely large range and can be found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh Bhutan, China, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam. They have also been introduced to Canada and Spain. These birds prefer high altitude mountain lakes.  Their powerful and constant flight helps generate body heat, which is retained by their down feathers. Such heat helps keep ice from building up on their wings when f

Other Names - Indian Python, Black-tailed Python, Asian Rock Python  The rock python's color pattern is whitish or yellowish with the blotched patterns varying from tan to dark brown shades. This varies with terrain and habitat. Specimens from the hill forests of the Western Ghats  and Assam  are darker, while those from the Deccan Plateau  and the Eastern Ghats  are usually lighter.  The Indian Rock Python occurs in India, southern Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and in the north of Myanmar. It is a non-venomous snake but has a powerful bite.   It lives in a wide range of habitats, including grasslands, swamps, marshes, rocky foothills, woodlands, open forest, and river valleys. It needs a permanent source of water. It hides in abandoned mammal burrows, hollow trees, dense water reeds, and mangrove thickets.  Like all snakes, Indian pythons are strict carnivores and feed on mammals, birds, and reptiles indiscriminately, but seem to prefer mammals.      

This beetle has a cobalt-blue exoskeleton. Both sexes range from 6–9 millimeters in length, with clubbed antenna. Its  body is oval in shape.  Both adults and larvae feed on milkweed plants. Adults typically feed on the foliage and flowers of the newly developed milkweed plant. When a large community appears, they consume a large portion of the leaf tissue from the plant, which causes significant damage to the plant. The adults eat holes in the leaves of milkweed , appearing in spring as the days become warmer and the milkweed leaves begin to develop. During the spring they disperse in large numbers on various plants within the same area of distribution.   Adults emerge in early summer and persist on milkweed plants in patches for approximately six weeks. Females are highly polyandrous .  The adult females lay their eggs on the leaves of the milkweed  plants; the larva consumes the leaf tissue between the veins, leaving nothing but a skeleton. On occasion, the larva also eats the root

 Another name - Fruit Piercing Moth  Distribution -   This moth is found in widespread parts of the world, mainly in tropical Asia extending to New Guinea  and Australia  as well as in Africa. Its wingspan is nearly 60-90 mm.  Male has a greenish-grey head. The male's forewings are greenish-grey with very numerous faint striated reddish lines.  Female much more prominently striated with rufous coloured forewings. Their abdomen is orange.   They are  considered a pest on citrus and other fruit, which they damage by piercing the fruit in order to suck the juice. The moth in the above pictures is a male,  the easiest way to distinguish between the two sexes is by viewing their forewing. The male has a shape that represents an oval on their forewing whereas the female has striated patterns on their forewing.  

This large stork has a heavy yellow beak with a down-curved tip that gives it a resemblance to an Ibis . The head of the adult is bare and orange or reddish in colour.  There is a distinctive black breast band with white scaly markings on them.  The rest of the body is whitish in adults.  The legs are yellowish to red  and t heir short tail is black with a green gloss.  Males and females appear alike but the males of a pair are usually larger than the female.  The young ones are mainly whitish with grey bills and blackish facial skin. The juveniles assume a brownish plumage and like most other storks reach breeding conditions after two to three years. Painted storks feed in groups in shallow wetlands, crop fields, and irrigation canals.  They feed mainly on small fish which they sense by touch while slowly sweeping their half-open bill from side to side while it held submerged.  They also take frogs and the occasional snake.  Image 1 - Adult  Image 2 - Juvenile Image 3 - adult feeding