All Creatures Great and Small

The Blue-throated Barbet (Psilopogon asiatica) is one of the commonest birds on our campus. This photo shows the rich colouring of this beautiful bird. It is also an example of an ideal bird photo – head turned just right with a good ‘bokeh’ in the background.

This is a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (Clamator coromandus). Cuckoos are known to lay their eggs in the nests of other birds – brood parasitism. This species lays its eggs in the nests of the necklaced laughingthrushes.

One of the common birds of our campus, the White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) – it has a beautiful song. A recording of its call is here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/248160

One of the night owls, the Brown Boobook (Ninox scutulata). It is very difficult to get a daytime photograph like this one.

One of our campus orchids (Eulophia zollingeri). Orchids are one of the two largest families (along with Asteraceae) of flowering plants. This one is a terrestrial orchid (growing on the ground). The first orchids discovered were terrestrial and had two tubers underground – they were therefore named orchids due to their resemblance to testes.

Another common campus species, this time an epiphytic one – growing on trees – Cymbidium bicolor

Aeginitia indica is a root-parasite. The shoots come up from the forest floor in the monsoon season and soon produce the colourful flowers.

Forests inside our campus are home to all sorts of flora. This is an unusual fern, Helminthostachys zeylanica.

Forests are full of fungi of all sizes and colours – including these tiny vivid red mushrooms – Hygrocybe sp.

North East India is home to unique herpetofauna. This is a pit viper from our campus – Trimeresurus erythrurus

Our campus is home to large non-venomous snakes as well. This is a Burmese Python – Python bivittatus

All living creatures employ a number of measures to survive, including mimicry. This tiny frog looks like a bird-dropping on a leaf – Theloderma baibungense

The largest bats in the world are found across India. This is the Flying Fox – Pteropus giganteus – a mother bat breast-feeding an infant inflight.

One of the common squirrel species here in our campus is the Pallas’s Squirrel – Callosciurus erythaeus

A family of Asian Small-Clawed Otters – Aonyx cinerea – found in our campus as well as in surrounding areas. These are the smallest species of Otters in the world.

One of the common species of Mongoose in our campus, the Crab-eating Mongoose – Herpestes urva

North East India has seen a lot of elephant-human conflict in recent years, not surprising as people encroach into their habitats. These are wild elephants – about to enter a tea-estate bordering jungle.

Makunda has a wonderful arachnid biodiversity. This is one of our tarantulas – Chilobrachys assamensis – about the size of one’s palm.

Another ground-level view of the same tarantula – showing iridiscent blue colouring on its legs. Tarantulas are kept as pets in some parts of the world.

Spiders come in all shapes and sizes. This is a tiny one that mimics ants – Amyciaea forticeps

This spider looks like a piece of thread – Ariamnes sp.

A rare colourful spider. This one is Platythomisus octomaculatus – rediscovered in India after 120 years by members of our “Makunda Nature Club”. The story is here: http://diversityindianews.blogspot.com/2017/02/rare-spider-spotted-in-remote-hospital.html

There are cunning spiders too. This one is a Portia sp. – known to be an ‘intelligent’ spider, this one uses different strategies to fool and eat other spiders, including drumming on a web to appear as prey.

Many butterflies are named after Shakespeare characters and ranks of the Armed Forces. This is a rare one from our campus – the Harlequin – Taxila haquinus

We have many colourful dragonflies. This one is especially bright and beautiful with a mettallic iridescence – The Greater Bluewing – Rhyothemis plutonia

I’m closing this post with a snail. This one has small spines on its shell and belongs to the genus Endothyrella. I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them and learning about these creatures – great and small, the Lord God made them all.