Orange Bush Fly and Friends

I started the day determined to get some pics of a specific species of bird that I've been wanting to share with you ... it stands to reason then that this post is about insects.

Of course.

Still, all in all it's been a great critter spotting sort of a day. From following a Hypolimnas charging round the joint laying eggs with wanton abandon to getting a photo of a Parotis marginata in the small hours of the morning - I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Here then are a few of the pics taken over the day:

Bushfly Dichaetomyia sp.

Painted Grasshawk Neurothemis stigmatizans

Hypolimnas bolina Seemingly unperturbed that she is laying her eggs on a rock

Parotis marginata

Polistes sp

I thought I'd add this Hemidactylus simply because I like it.

And - as always; Take Care

The Eggfly that I watched today really was quite something. She darted here there and seemingly everywhere. Sometimes touching her abdomen to the underside of a leaf and at other times simply depositing her egg straight on the ground or, as in the picture - a rock!. Now at first this might seem like a fairly haphazard way to go about kicking off the next generation but the more I thought about it - the more it made sense.

By placing her eggs randomly rather than in a group she is, for want of a better term, spreading the odds. Sure many, probably most; won't survive. But because she lays so many in such varied places - there is a good chance that at least a few will grow up to continue the species. In fact this must be the case, because unless my observations are completely wrong, (and she just had a terribly itchy bum) this butterfly would have died out aeons ago eh?.