Deepthi's Journal
Monday, 3 March 2025
Reading in the time of digital distractions
Tuesday, 22 February 2022
The Hungry Caterpillar
My neighbourhood has several Pongamia pinnata trees, commonly known as Pongamia or Honge mara. The presence of these trees keeps my neighbourhood cool and shady. In the months of January and February, when the tree is in leaf flush, it offers a pleasant sight for the residents. Three to four years back, a Pongamia sapling started germinating in front of my house, the seed was from a nearby tree. I allowed it to grow, hoping it would provide shade to my car underneath it. This year, the young tree had reached a good height but was not providing enough shade for the car, as the leaves were being eaten away by some insect. When my husband had to take the car out, he found there were tiny black balls and the insect all over the car. On closer look, he found hordes of caterpillars feeding voraciously on the young leaves in the tree and the tiny black balls were the caterpillars’ fecal matter. The voracious eating caterpillars reminded me of the popular children’s book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ by Eric Clare.
Caterpillars and their faecal matter. PC: Paramesha. M |
Leafless branches of Pongamia. PC: Paramesha. M |
Some of the neighbours were worried looking at the leafless branches and were also looking for options to spray pesticides. Well, there is nothing to worry about the caterpillars, as they are a part of the food web. Further, the trees will produce new leaves sooner or later.
Pongamia is a host plant for the caterpillar of Common Banded
Awl butterfly. Host plants are plants on which the butterfly lays eggs,
caterpillars feed on it and build pupa. Also, different butterfly species have
different host plants.
Common Banded Awl butterfly (https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2010/10/life-history-of-common-banded-awl.html?m=0) |
Caterpillar and pupa of Common Banded Awl butterfly.
PC: Paramesha. M |
Of the thousands of eggs laid by the butterflies, not all of them will make
it to the adult stage. These caterpillars are food for crows, bulbuls, tits and
other insectivorous birds. If we spray pesticides and get rid of the
caterpillars, we will be disrupting the food web and insectivorous birds will
be losing their food source. Nature has its way of maintaining ecological
balance.
The happiest of the lot are the crows in my neighbourhood as they are
feasting on the caterpillars for the last one week!!
Monday, 3 May 2021
S G Neginhal – The Urban Forester
S G Neginhal – The Urban Forester
(01 May 1929 to 01 May 2021)
After my Masters while I was volunteering for A Rocha India, I came across the book ‘Golden trees, greenspaces and urban forestry’ authored by S. G. Neginhal. Whenever I was in A Rocha office, I would search for the names of trees that I would see around. Later, while I was working in ATREE for compiling a field guide on dryland trees, I remembered this book and thought of adding it to the collection that our lab had. It was not available in stores. Finally, a friend Daniel Sukumar suggested that he knew the author and we could buy it personally from him.
Daniel spoke to Neginhal sir and fixed and appointment. When I met Neginhal sir, he was in his 80’s, nevertheless when I said I was from ATREE he recollected meeting Savitha Swamy who had worked on urban parks. I was amazed that he still continued to write books despite his age. We were there for buying ‘Golden trees, greenspaces and urban forestry’ book but he said it’s out of print and showed two other books ‘Forest trees of the Western Ghats’ and ‘Sanctuaries and Wildlife of Karnataka’ authored by him. I was disappointed, I wanted golden trees book as I was compiling information for dryland trees of Karnataka. Upon enquiry if there will be a reprint, he said no and suggested the other two books are also equally good. We bought the other books for ourselves and extra copies for our friends.
Over a period of time, I realized it is these field
guides that help non-taxonomists to identify trees, unlike floras. The book ‘Forest
trees of the Western Ghats’ immensely helped my colleague and friend Vimhaseno to identify Western Ghats plant species for her doctoral research.
Many of us know that Neginhal sir was responsible for greening of Bangalore with colourful flowering trees. With reckless cutting down of trees, we might end up seeing these trees in his book and not in the real world. Today we don’t have Neginhal sir amongst us, but his knowledge and experience has been transferred into these priceless books. Books that continue to fascinate youngsters into the natural world.
Sunday, 26 April 2020
Garbage worriers and garbage warriors
Monday, 18 June 2018
Blood donors vs blood suckers! An interaction with leeches in the wet evergreen forests of Western Ghats
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Leech (Haemadipsa sylvestris) PC: www.gettyimages.in |
Wednesday, 3 January 2018
EVERY TREE MATTERS!
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A full bloom Baccaurea courtallensis
PC: Anurag N Sharma
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We also found a tortoise shell indicating the presence of the animal here
PC: Vimhaseno Neikha
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Baccaurea courtallensis trunk covered with tubercles PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah |
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Flowers of Baccaurea courtallensis
PC: Vimhaseno Neikha |
A close up of flowers PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah |
Inflorescence arising on the trunk called cauliflory PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah |
Fruits of Baccaurea courtallensis
PC: Navendu |
Thursday, 24 August 2017
Darwin Scholarship Programme: feeling evolved!!
With Jenni Duffell with her botanist husband Mark Duffell PC: Shrikant Gund |
Victorian style buildings in Shrewsbury |
Colourful flowers along the streets of Shrewsbury |
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Cwm Idwal PC: Sandeep |
Vertical rocks at Llanymynech |
Down House: Charles Darwin's house |
Largest larva (of a beetle) on earth |
Herbarium collection which are yet to be sorted and identified at Darwin centre in Natural History Museum |
Successful small mammals trapping experiment posted on twitter by Debbie Alston |
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Variety of tasty food served during Darwin Programme |
Darwin Scholars 2016 - Born to conserve! PC: Shrikant Gund |
Saturday, 1 April 2017
Beauty and the Bees!!
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Field notes: A field researcher's most important asset. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha |
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Coffee in bloom. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha |
Beyond the waters: Riparian forests along river Cauvery. PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah |
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Beauty and the Bees: Honey bees pollinating coffee flowers. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha |