Amateur Photography | Nature Pictures

Two-tailed Spiders

2009-11-15T02:47:00.000-08:00

Two-tailed Spiders (Long-spinnered Bark Spiders) are a genus (Hersilia) of tree trunk spiders in the Hersiliidae family. They are known as Two-tailed spiders, because of their two enlarged spinnerets. They can't be found easily, because of their brown color that camouflage the tree bark very well. They have long striped and spiny legs. They live on a tree trunk and don't build web or shelter. They sit on tree trunk all the day and night waiting for their prey. Below are the pictures of a same spider taken with and without flash.

Two-tailed Spider Pictures

Lifestages Of The Butterfly-Common Emigrant

2009-11-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures representing four stages of the life cycle of common emigrant butterfly.

1st stage-Eggs

The female common emigrant butterfly lays its spindle shaped yellowish eggs individually on the back side of the host plants (Cassias). The main host plant in our area is sickle senna (Senna obtusifolia).

Common Emigrant Butterfly Eggs

2nd stage-Lava (Caterpillar)

The caterpillar of common emigrant has agreen rough body with tiny black spots and a white lateral line sandwiched between an upper black spotted-line and a lower olive green stripe. The caterpillar reach a maximum length of about 35mm. The mature caterpillar generally stuck itself head-up under the leaf of the hostplant. A silken girdle helps it to stay in an upward position. The larval stage is completed in about two weeks.

Common Emigrant Butterfly Cats

Pre-pupa cat

3rd stage-Pupa (Chrysalis)

The common emigrant butterfly pupa (measuring 20mm in length) has bright pale green color, having a yellow color line on each side running from head to tail. There is also a yellow line on the top of thorax. The color become dark with the passage of time. As the pupa mature, it's become transparent. The pupa stage lasts for about 6-7 days.

Common Emigrant Butterfly Pupa(Chrysalis)

4th stage-Adult Butterfly

The Common Emigrant (Catopsilia pomona), also called the Lemon Emigrant or Lemon Migrant, is a medium-sized (wingspan: 45mm-60mm) pierid butterfly found in Asia and Austrealia. This butterfly gets its name from the migration habit.
They have a great variability in colors and marks. Both the male and female have pale white upper side with a black spot at the distal end of the forewing cell though this spot is sometimes absent in the male. In the male, the upper side of the apex of the forewing is narrowly black and continues partway along the termen and costa. In the female, the black bands are wider and are continued along the entire length of the costa and termen.
The male has a sulpher or pale green underside with or without a radish-brown spot on both the forewing and hindwing. The female has pale yellow underside with radish-brown spots including three or two white centered spots. In both sexes, except for a small area on the lower half of the forewing, which is unmarked, the remaining areas are marked with very fine brown lines.

Adult Common Emigrant Butterfly (female)

Adult Common Emigrant Butterfly (Male)

Adult Common Emigrant Butterflies Mating Pair

Leaf Curling Spider

2009-10-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Leaf Curling Spiders (Phonognatha graeffei) belong to family Araneidae (Orb-weavers). The spider here is a fresh leaf curling spider. They build their retreat with fresh green leaf. Most of the time they remain in their leaf retreat. They build their web near the retreat and when a prey fall on its web, it quickly pick it up from the web and go back to its retreat. The spider has a green color from under including legs and white abdomen from top. It has a yellowish-green head. It has some black spots and wavy lines on abdomen. It also has yellow and blue colored strips on abdomen. Here are some pictures of the spider taken from different angles, hoping you will like them.

Leaf Curling Spider

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar

2009-10-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Lime Butterfly caterpillar passes through 5 different instars before pupation. The first few instars of the caterpillar look like bird droppings and this is nature's way of protecting them from predators. In the 5th (last) instar, the caterpillar becomes pale green with a yellow sub-spiracular band having brown and bluish marking and a pair of false eyes. An additional yellow band is developed on the 4th and 5th segments with bluish spots on it.

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (1st instar) eating egg shell

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (2nd instar)

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (3rd instar)

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (4th instar)

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (5th instar)

Lime Butterfly Caterpillar (pre-pupa)

Blue Pansy Butterfly

2009-10-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Blue Pansy (Junonia orithya) belong to family Nymphalidea, is a medium size butterfly with a wingspan of about 40-50mm. It's a sun-loving species, which can usually be found on grassy patches in open areas, often sitting on bare ground.

Blue Pansy Butterfly

Mating Pair of Blue Pansy Butterfly

Blue Pansy Camouflage

Lime Butterfly Eggs

2009-10-16T03:05:00.000-07:00

Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus malayanus) lay her eggs singly on the young leaves of the host plant (various Citrus species). The egg has a round shape and measuring about 1mm in diameter. Its color changes from white (transparent) to yellowish and then brown with the passage of time. The eggs take about six days to hatch.

Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus malayanus) eggs

Bug Art

2009-10-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Often we see a leaf eaten by a bug in very interesting pattern, that looks like an artwork. Some time we observe the bug near his/her artwork, however most of the time we see artwork done by an anonymous bug. Here are some pictures of artwork done by an anonymous bug.

Bugs Artwork Pictures

Rick On Fire

2009-10-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

A farmer helplessly watching his wheat straw rick burning. It could be the result of a smooker negligence or most probably a mischievous person set his rick on fire.

Rick On Fire

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly

2009-10-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures of Male Danaid Eggfly butterfly (common eggfly or the diadem butterfly) . I never observed a female Danaid Eggfly butterfly or probably I confused it with plain tiger, because female of the species mimics the plain tiger. The Danaid Eggfly (Hypolimnas misippus), is a medium sized butterfly (with a wingspan of about 70-85 mm) belong to family Nymphalidae. It is well known for polymorphism and mimicry. The Upperside of male is velvety dark brownish black, with two oval white patches, one on the forewing and the other on the hind wing. There is another smaller white patch below the apex of the forewing. These pitches are surrounded by blue or violet rings which extends towards the center of the white patches. The underside has a beautiful golden brown color, with white bands and spots on each wing. The underside wings have black wavy margins with white spots.
This species is very rare in our area and I observed only three butterflies so far in the last one year.

Male Danaid Eggfly Butterfly (open wings)

Male Danaid Eggfly Butterfly (closed wings)

Lightning

2009-09-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

For an amateur photographer like me, taking lightning pictures is rally a difficult task, particularly when you don't have any knowledge of photography and quality equipments. Here are few pictures I took during a thunder storm about two weeks ago with my Cannon Powershot SD 770 IS camera. With some other drawbacks you will also observe hands shake while taking these pictures.

Lightning Pictures

Pupa Stages of Common Leopard Butterfly

2009-09-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Common Leopard butterfly chrysalis has a beautiful green color with shiny projections of sliver, blue and red colors. It has a length of about 15mm. The pupal stage last for about 5 days. In the first four days the pupa remains green in color without any remarkable visible changes. In 5th day, a few hours before its emergence the pupa becomes transparent to show the butterfly .

Common Leopard butterfly pupa

The below three images are taken at the fifth day with a gape of about 3 hours. In the first image the wings are visible, but having white spots and streaks. In the last two images the spots and streaks turned to its original black color. The butterfly emerged after an hour the last picture was taken.

Mature Chrysalis

Common Leopard Butterfly Larvae

2009-09-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I brought home two leopard butterfly caterpillars with a branch of weeping willow tree. At the night one disappeared and the other turned into pre-pupa stage. The common leopard butterfly caterpillar has a dark orange color with black and white spots. The color turns paler as the caterpillar mature and finally becomes green. It's black colored sharp branched spines with yellowish spot at the base of each spine. The caterpillar main food plants are willow trees (family: Salicaceae).

Common Leopard Butterfly Caterpillars/Larvae

Common Leopard Butterfly Mature Caterpillar

Common Leopard Butterfly Pre-Pupate Caterpillar

Common Leopard Butterfly

2009-09-22T22:47:00.001-07:00

The Common Leopard Phalanta phalantha (Drury) is a medium sized butterfly (wingspan of 50-60 mm) belong to family Nymphalid (Brush-footed Butterflies). This species abounds where its caterpillar food plant, the willow tree (Salix tetrasperma), is found. The upperside of the butterfly has a tawny orange color, marked with black spots and wavy lines. The underside is pale and having a bluish or purple sheen. It visits lantana, duranta, meyenia laxiflora, gymnosporia montana and thistles flowers regularly. The pictures here are of newly born butterfly as I never had a chance to shoot this butterfly before.

Common Leopard Butterfly

Pale Grass Blue Butterfly

2009-09-07T04:38:00.000-07:00

The Pale Grass Blue (Pseudozizeeria maha) is a small and common butterfly belongs to the family Lycaenidae (Blues family), subfamily Polyommatinae. The male has a wingspan of about 24mm. The female which is smaller in size has a wingspan of about 22mm.

Pale Grass Blue Butterfly (male)

Pale Grass Blue Butterfly (female)

Pale Grass Blue Butterflies (mating couple)

Pale Grass Blue Butterfly (open wings)

Sunflowers-Helianthus Annuus

2009-09-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant in the family Asteraceae and native to the USA. Sunflower seeds are mainly used to extract edible oil from it. Its "whole seed" are used as a snack food. It's also used as a food for birds. Sunflower serve as the national flower of Ukraine.

Sunflower pictures

Ploughing Painting

2009-08-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

I took this ploughing painting picture at Lahore museum. I liked this painting because it shows a part of our culture, which is now almost out of practice. I'm not sure whether it is an historical painting or just a painting shows an old method of farming, where our farmers used to plough with the help of oxen. When I was a kid we had two pair of oxen and I saw my father ploughing all the day. But now you will hardly see any farmer in the village keeping oxen.

Ploughing with oxen painting

Black Banded Snake

2009-08-23T04:02:00.000-07:00

Last night, my brother called me "would you like to take snake picture". In spite of the fact that I'm really afraid of snakes, I ran away to the snake with my camera. This was the second snake we found in our house in one week. I took a few pictures in the state of fear, of course of very bad quality. This snake has brown color with black/dark brown bands and is consider to be very venomous snake. Both the snakes we found in our house were young ones, probably from a new hatch, measuring about one and half feet. The first one was almost band less, while this one has developed bands, but all are not turned black yet.

Black Banded Snake

The place where we found the snake first.

Carpenter Bees

2009-08-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Carpenter bees ( genus: Xylocopa, subfamily: Xylocopinae, family: Apidae) are solitary bees i.e they live individually rather then colonies. However some species have tendency to live in simple social group. They have large (up to one inch) hairy bodies and found in shiny black, yellow or metallic blue color. They are named carpenter bees because they bore tunnels in wood to make their nests. They feed on pollen and nectar from flowers and thus play an important role in pollination of flowers and trees. However they also damage wood. Their damage to wood initially is minor, however repeated use for many years of the same wood can eventually cause considerable wood damage as they enlarge an existing burrows. The male bee does not have a stinger and thus are harmless to human. The female carpenter bee does have a stinger, but sting only if captured or handled.

Carpenter Bees Pictures

Carpenter Bee Nest Picture

Wild Fig Tree

2009-08-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

This wild fig tree (Probably Ficus variegata) grows in northern areas of Pakistan. The strange thing about this tree is that the figs (fruit) grow on trunk and mature branches and that is why it is called "Trunk fruiting fig". Contrary to common figs which ripen in June, these figs ripen in August. It is called "Urmal" in local language Pashto in district Buner, NWFP.

Trunk fruiting fig tree pictures

Aloe Vera Plant and Flowers

2009-08-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Aloe vera is a species of succulent plant. It's is a stemless or very short-stemmed succulent plant growing to 60–100 cm (24–39 in) tall, spreading by offsets. The leaves are thick and fleshy, green to grey-green, with some varieties showing white flecks on the upper and lower stem surfaces. The margin of the leaf is serrated and has small white teeth. The flowers are produced in summer on a spike up to 90 cm (35 in) tall, each flower pendulous, with a tubular corolla 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long. Some other names of aloe vera are burn plant, lily of the desert and elephant's gall. For detail visit: wikipedia

Aloe Vera Plant

Aloe Vera Blooms

Brown Speckled Katydid/Bush Cricket

2009-08-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of an unidentified short-winged katydid/bush cricket (family: Tettigoniidae) sitting on a wild marijuana leaf. It has a greenish brown body with black/dark-brown speckles on its body and that is why I called it brown speckled katydid. It will be more suitable to name it as 'brown speckled short-winged katydid'.

Any help regarding the correct identification will be highly appreciated.

Brown Speckled Katydid/Bush Cricket

Yellow-Black Digger Wasp

2009-08-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

This yellow-black digger wasp (A specie of digger wasps) is a solitary wasp belong to family Sphecidae. They dig hole in the ground or use pre-existed hole to construct their nest. Females capture and sting the prey to paralyze it. The paralyzed preys are deposited in the burrow. The wasps lay their eggs in the provisioned nest, on the body of one of the prey insects. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the paralyzed insects. They are not aggressive and do not sting people unless they are aggravated or captured by hand.

Yellow-black digger wasps

Digger wasps nest

Flowering Pomegranate

2009-08-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few flowers pictures of Flowering Pomegranate (Punica granatum) also known as Noshi Shibari or double flower pomegranate. I brought the cutting of this plant from Gomal University D.I.Khan in 2000. As I plant the cutting in inappropriate place i.e under my grapes plant, therefore it took 9 years to start flowering. This plant generally produces flowers in most part of the year, but my plant stop flowering in July. It produces vibrant red colored blooms, which turn white with passage of time. This pomegranate does not bear fruits. My camera failed to focus on these flowers, that is why the pictures you see here are not very clear.

Flowering Pomegranate Flowers

Old flower

Harford’s Sulphur (Colias Harfordii)

2009-08-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures of one butterfly, probably Harford’s Sulphur Butterfly or a similar specie.
Harford’s Sulphur (Colias harfordii) belong to family Pieridae (Sulphur & White Butterflies) is a medium size butterfly. It is a greenish-yellow butterfly, with pink colored legs and antennae. The wings have also a pink colored margin. The underside of each hindwing has two white-centered spots.

Harford’s Sulphur Butterfly Pictures

Teddy Bear Bee

2009-08-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

Teddy Bear Bee (Amegilla cingulata) is an Australian native bee. It belongs to the anthophoridae family of insects. They have golden-brown or yellowish-brown colored furry body with black stripes across the abdomen. It's a solitary bee that nests in shallow burrows in the ground.

Teddy Bear Bee Pictures