csbandi's Favorites

Risking it all - Anil's bush frog

While I was photographing this pair of Anil's bush frogs in amplexus I noticed a beetle wander into the frame. I thought at least one of the frogs might make a quick meal out of it. The Beetle was scurrying all over the leaf when it stumbled upon a soft moist obstacle in its path - the pair of frogs in amplexus. It quickly climbed on the frogs and without giving a second thought nibbled at the male frog's eye. The male frog immediately winced and closed its eye lid forcing the Beetle to scurry away.

I am sure the male was ready to risk his life and limb for some love that night :-D

Spiders have tendency to mimic ants :)
Here is one which is mimicking Mutillidae .
Mutillidae wasp family are known as velvet ants,because females are wingless and they resembles large hairy ants.
Wasp itself looks like an ant and here is a spider mimicking that wingless wasp!
Here is
Velvet-ant Mimicking Spider
Coenoptychus pulcher
From grasslands of Mysuru.
January 2023.

This male Drongo sang for at least 7 minutes during which I managed to record at least half of it, grab a few photographs and a short video.

I haven't cropped the audio as it demonstrates the Drongo's range of musical note and it's incredible ability to mimic, not just birds but cats too.

A shieldtail snake was observed feeding on an earthworm, on a road. The earthworm was about the same length as that of the snake, and was slightly thinner than the snake. The snake first was observed to have caught the hold of the earthworm, later the snake started swallowing the earthworm. It took about an hour for the snake to swallow its prey. At first, both were on the edge of the road, afterwards the both of them went just beside the road - in the battle between prey and predator, twisting, curling around each other, dragging one another. Even when about 80% of the earthworm was swallowed, still its body and tail were seen moving and twisting.

Links to the video documentation (videos on youtube):

1. https://youtu.be/1iJsjhacRXU
2. https://youtu.be/oGQjA_84hmg
3. https://youtu.be/tXPUyQU1ilA