The Wildlife of Richards Town 6
I am fortunate to live in Richards Town, a locality in Bangalore that has a good density of trees and relatively open spaces. The residents share this area with members of the animal kingdom on whose lives they have a direct impact. It is up to the residents to decide if this impact is to be positive or negative. The first step, of course is to be aware of our wild residents. In this series I present to you the wild residents of Richards Town.
The Praying Mantis
A couple of weeks ago I found myself spending my mornings at the Nava Spoorti Kendra on Cookson Road. My daughter Tara is usually my constant companion on tese visits and I have often photographed a variety of butterflies, birds and squirrels . One day I decided to spend my mornings wandering around the grounds.. The Kendra has a lot of green cover with flowering shrubs and large trees. At least this part of the green cover in Bangalore will be spared from the development works in progress.
One morning after photographing a few butterflies, I was taking a break when I noticed a lovely bush in flower. After a while I walked over and noticed to my delight that there was a lot of butterfly activity around the bush. The butterflies were not alone, a few birds were also busy feasting on the flowers, and these included the Pale Billed Flowerpecker and Purple Rumped Sunbird. However on closer inspection I noticed something different. A Praying Mantis!
A Praying Mantis is an insect of the order Mantodea. They are long and slender and are very efficient predators. For this reason we very often misspell them as’ Preying ‘Mantis. They look very similar to grasshoppers and get their name ‘Praying’ from their typical “prayer-like” stance. They are carnivorous insects that feed mainly on other insects including butterflies and even bees!
Some Interesting Facts on Praying Mantis.
· They have excellent eyesight and can see up to about 50 feet away. Their eyes are made up of tiny compounds.
· It is believed that the female mantis will eat the male after mating since the protein helps in egg development.
· It is the only insect that can rotate its alien-like head almost completely around. This flexibility helps with their hunting.
· The praying mantis is actually more closely related to the cockroach than to grasshoppers.
· The earliest fossils of the Praying Mantis are from Oligocene, a geologic epoch dating around 23 to 34 million years ago.
· The word “mantis” comes from the Greek word meaning prophet.
· In Turkish and Arab cultures, the praying mantis is considered to be pointing to their religious center, Mecca.
· In French culture, the praying mantis can supposedly guide a lost child home.
· In China, their roasted eggs were eaten to treat bedwetting.
· Southern Praying Mantis is a form of a kung fu praying mantis style that originated with the Hakka people who migrated to Southern China and settled into the Punti communities.
Praying Mantis are very well camouflaged in the foliage and it is very difficult to spot them. They use this to their advantage while hunting. They blend in to their surroundings and then wait patiently for their prey to come within striking distance. Once within striking distance they use their vice- like front legs to snatch the victim and devour them alive. Praying Mantis are solitary hunters and they do not scavenge.
While observing my friend in the bush, I was not only fortunate to witness this technique over a couple of days but was actually able to photograph it in action. Day after day it would take up its position on the bush and wait for its unsuspecting prey to appear. The killing strike was fast and precise. I only saw it miss once.
The Praying Mantis is in turn preyed upon. They are very often the prey of large frogs, monkeys, large birds, bats and snakes. As they are cannibals they also prey on each other especially after mating. There is an interesting fact when it comes to the bats. Male Praying Mantis fly at night as they are attracted by light and while do this when the bats are up and about looking to feed. Bats use ultrasonic sound waves to track their prey. According to some researchers (Yager and May) the Praying Mantis is able to hear these sound waves and when they hear a bat getting close they dive down at high speed towards the safety of the ground making a downward spiral or acrobatic loop.
Observing the Praying Mantis go about its work was a fascinating experience and one which I would strongly recommend to everyone. As mentioned earlier I was able to take some photographs which I now share with you. My prayers however were for the prey rather than the Praying Mantis, for I am sure they needed them more than the mantis.
Life Cycle of the Praying Mantis
The life cycle of the praying mantis consists of three main stages. These are the egg stage, nymph stage and adult stage.
1. The Egg Stage: After fertilization the adult female praying mantis will lay 100 to 400 eggs. She secures the eggs on a safe stem or sturdy leave with a frothy liquid that hardens and becomes a protective casing for the eggs called ootheca. For each egg in the ootheca, there is a compartment-like space. To assist their hatching, these compartments contain small one way valve-like structures. The baby Praying Mantis breaks out of the casing.
2. The Nymph Stage: The freshly hatched babies are now called nymphs and they stay near the egg case for a little while. Some of them will try to eat each other during this time. After a while they start hunting for small insects. During this stage the tiny mantis are particularly vulnerable to other larger predators and as with many insects, not all the nymphs will survive.
3. The Adult Stage: The adolescent praying mantis will spend the first few months hunting and eating .They grow at a steady pace, shedding their exoskeleton as much as ten times in a process known as molting, until they reach their full size in another few weeks. Before each molt, they usually become sluggish and will not eat for some time. They select a solid branch to secure their footing to assist with the shedding. Each individual shedding process can take a few hours. Sometimes they get stuck in the old skin during this process and perish. When they come out successfully from the molting process, they are quickly able to regain their strength and become bigger and stronger than before.
The Striped Rodent
The word ‘Rodent’ usually makes the hair on the back of our necks stand up. We associate the word with rats and mice which we occasionally encounter in and around our homes and which makes us reach out for our Rat Traps and Rat poison. In our minds they are unwanted pests that need to be dealt with severely. However there is one rodent that we find extremely cute and which lives in our close proximately. I am referring to the common squirrel which can be found in any part of Bangalore.
Squirrels are a family of rodents distinguished by their large bushy tails. Their main characteristic besides their thick bushy tails are their short muzzles, large incisors and arboreal lifestyle. Taxonomists divide squirrels into two sub — families, namely, Sciurinae and Petauristinae which in turn comprise of various tribes.
Our common squirrel or to give it its proper name — The Three Striped Palm Squirrel (Funambulus palmarum) is from the Funambulini tribe within the Sciurinae sub — family. There are six striped squirrels in India out of which two have made their homes in an urban environment. The second one is the Five Striped Palm Squirrel of North India.
There is a story behind those stripes, they have been earned. Legend has it that our friend helped in the construction of the Adi sethu (bridge) across the Palk Strait to Lanka. As we all know the bridge was being constructed by Lord Ram and his Monkey Army in their attempt to invade the kingdom of Ravan the Lord of Lanka. Our friend played his part by rolling in beach sand then running to the bridge to shake the sand from its back, all the time chanting Lord Ram’s name. Lord Ram was so pleased by his dedication that he stroked the squirrel’s back in a show of affection. While stroking its back, the mark of Ram’s fingers were left on the squirrel ever since.
The Three Striped Palm Squirrel is a very adaptable species and is endemic to Southern India and Sri Lanka .It is widely distributed and found at elevations from sea level up to 2,000 meters above mean sea level. . It is diurnal and semi-arboreal. They are found in tropical and subtropical dry deciduous forest, mangrove forest, grasslands, scrublands, plantations, rural gardens and urban areas. In urban areas they can be found in gardens, parks and near human dwellings usually single or in pairs. They are frequently seen scampering among trees, walls, across streets and sometimes even enter our homes. They can be quite bold and some may even take food from our hands. We usually observe them chasing and grooming each on the branches of trees. Being fairly vocal, their call is frequently heard. They give out a call that sounds roughly like “chip chip chip “when alarmed. Next time you come across them do keep an ear out for their call.
While they usually feed on fruits and nuts they have turned opportunists in the urban environment taking food consumed by humans. They are extremely active and their activity reaches a peak during the mating season. The females build soft and fluffy nests on tree branches using fiber from dead leaves and grass, etc. The gestation period is a little over a month (approx. 34 days) and usually two to three young are born. The young one feed on their mother milk for a period of about ten weeks and then they take to solid food. They reach sexual maturity at nine months and then live independently of the parents.
The good news is that due to its adaptable nature and its ability to survive in a human dominated landscape their numbers are thought to be on the increase. However their main predators are domestic cats and Rat Snakes. Crows are known to snatch juveniles from the nests too. The species is not protected by any legislation because of its wide distribution which is expanding, presumed large population, occurrence in a number of protected areas, tolerance to some degree of habitat modification, and because the population is increasing. This is one of our wild neighbours who seem to be thriving in our company and we can look forward to his continuing and increasing presence. Never have we had a more engaging neighbour than the Three Striped Palm Squirrel.
I wrote this series for our neighbourhood newspaper ‘In & Around Richard’s Town’. While they were written almost ten years ago they still remain relevant today.
