Natural, Scientific and Medical Wonders

An insect that prays! And also preys on!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 13:17:00 +0000

Have you seen an insect that prays? Yes, there is such an one! It is that insect called as Praying Mantis. Its forelegs are like hands When it stands up on its middle legs, it looks like a human! It puts forth its forelegs in front, back and in sidewise repeatedly. Thus it is seen as if it is praying. So, it is named as Praying mantis (Europian Praying Mantis, Mantis religiosa). Sometimes its whole body moves from side to side! This rocking behaviour of it is actually for escaping from its predators: it mimics a leaf moving in the wind breeze!

Its types are seen in different sizes and colours. It has a triangular head, that is flexible, with eyes that are protruding and big. So, it has a stereoscopic vision like humans! Its forelegs are full of spikes with which it can seize its prey, cut it and eat! Females eat the males after copulation! Female lays eggs in autumn and dies. It lives for a year.

It is a wonderful insect that can hear sounds and even hear the ultrasound waves also! It is also kept as a pet animal. A real wonder insect in Nature!

Toad, your companion in the backyard!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:49:00 +0000

Toad is different from a frog. It lives mostly a terrestrial life. It is usually seen at dusk moving out from its hiding place and search for its prey. It is greyish brown in colour merging with the soil's colour. Skin is rough and dry unlike that of the slimy frog. Female toads are larger than the males.

They are seen in the fields, forests and country sides having dry areas. At daytime, they are usually seen under stones camouflaging with its surroundings. They live for even 10 years long!

They are said to shed off their skin repeatedly and eat it! Their preys are slugs, beetles, caterpillars, earthworms, flies, ants and spiders. You can detect about its presence somewhere near, by noting its poops found dropped on the soil. Watch a video on it here:

These poops contain the most of these parts - ant heads, beetle wings that are thrown out as undigestible food.

They dig pits in the moist soil at dusk, to keep themselves cool in the hot Summer! Watch a video on it:

Female toads lay eggs on the pond water. The hatched out tadpoles grow into small toads before they hop on to the land to survive as an adult. Toad's predators are rats, cats, crows and herons.

It is the CommonToad (Bufo bufo). It bloats up its body to make its body big when it is attacked. Thus it tries to threaten its predators displaying about its big capacity to offend them! Funny, poor thing.

A different mammal that excites you!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 12 May 2024 17:23:00 +0000

A mammal was introduced to me by its laughing voice! Hyena. It is a wolf-like animal that has high front legs and short hind legs. It has special teeth that can crush even bones of its prey! Apart from its laughing sound, it has many other sounds for communicating. It hunts in packs, often at night time (nocturnal). It can eat the carcasses of dead animals that are left out by the hunting animals. So, it is a scavenger of their forest territory in which they live in. It has an anal pouch that produces a white secretion with which it marks its territory on the grasses! Female hyenas are larger than the males in this kind of Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta, Kazhuthai puli in Tamil). Females dominate males. They have penis-shaped clitoris and a urogenital canal for copulating with male. Born cubs begin hunting in the first year of age itself! This hyena is said to be resistant to Rabies virus attack, as it has antibodies for that in its saliva! So a bite by an infected rabid animal cannot produce Rabies disease in it. There are many stories about this hyena – like taking away children sleeping on open grounds. This strange and different mammal, the Laughing Hyena, lives in a den that has many entrances on the ground, like that of mouse!

Quite wonderful this second world - our Moon!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:59:00 +0000

Our Earth's Moon is ever enchanting both to humans and other living things, the animals and plants present on this Earth. Though this natural satellite of our planet is revolving around, it is said to be formed out of Earth either due to some forcible impact by asteroids or by parting away due to Earth's centrifugal force when it was rotating. It is still a wonder how the moon keeps it's same side towards the Earth in all it's rotation about itself during its revolving around the Earth in it's orbit!
It is said to be done so by it's synchronizing it's rotation with that of it's revolving (it's own rotation period is equal to it's own revolving period around the Earth!). Nobody on the Earth has ever seen the other side (far side) of the Moon! Due to it's rotation, moon has 14 days (24 hours of Earth's one day period) as it's one (lunar) day and similarly, 14 days as it's one (lunar) night!

Moon's size exactly fits on the sun's face (disc) at times of Total Solar Eclipse! How is it planned and done? And who did make it happen so, ever? The Moon, that attracts humans has been approached and also visited by humans. Not only living things are influenced by the moon, especially it's full moon and new moon phases, but also by the Great Oceans too, exhibited through their tides!

While many wonders in the far distant space are attracting, our wonder Moon, that is near us, has many more such loads of wonders to be revealed, and hence to revisit it often!

Wonderfully exciting - Piezoelectricity!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 19:31:00 +0000

In 1960s, I listened to Gramophone machine with wonder, how it worked, as its arm danced on a grooved disc that rotated round and round! When the operator of this machine (player) lifted up its arm in changing the disc, I noted a needle under it. I had been wondering about it till I studied Physics at college. Yes, that needle (stylus) produced electrical signals as it went up and down the grooves of the disc, (called as record). It did it through a crystal mounted inside the arm's head (called as pickup). This stylus and the pickup did the whole magic in the gramophone record player - producing Piezoelectricity!

A striking force or pressure on a material such as a quartz crystal, can produce this piezoelectricity. This electricity was found out by French Physicists, Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie in 1880. This piezoelectricity is also used in Inkjet printing, in SONAR and Radio Telephony. Earlier, I knew well about some devices that produced sparks - cigarette lighter and the gas stove lighter. Now, I know that they use this piezo effect in them! Do you know that piezo effect is also used in watches and radio wave transmission?

The reverse of this piezo effect has been also discovered to work for us! It produces Ultra Sound waves when an electric curent is applied on to a crystal!

I am going on learning and learning about new uses of piezo effect: it is used in cars for echolocation of objects!

So, it is a wonder-full Piezoelectricity that is also exhibited by cane sugar crystals, ceramics and even by our bones!

Terrorizing wonder - Mirror!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 14:47:00 +0000

We see others in front of us. Can others see themselves as we see them in front of us? Yes, they can see themselves with a mirror held in front of them! When a baby sees first its own face in a mirror, it will be some another person or an object; but later, it understands, learns and identifies it as its own image!
Mirror receives visible light rays coming from a person standing before it and reflects them back to him as it is, without any alteration. So, he sees himself in the mirror as others see him. With wonder to know what the mirror is made up of, I opened the frame of a mirror in my childhood. As I removed the padding on its back, I saw nothing but a reddish yellow paint on its backside! Later I learnt that it is a layer of silver laid on the glass plate and then coated with a scratch-preventing paint over it. A clear and good glass having a smooth and even surface is the basic component of a mirror; but the glass itself doesn't have much reflecting power; it needs the reflecting coating of a metal. Present day mirrors have evolved through centuries of research and developments from a polished stone (Obsidian), through polished metals and several modifications of the nature of glass.
The ancient man might have been in terror on seeing a monster on the floor of a cave that was 'created' by the wonder (water) mirror - with his own wonder face!

Sweeter but a sticky fruit, Lasura!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 14:50:00 +0000

In my childhood days, I had wondered about a nut that remained stuck on the eaves tiles. How had it gone there? Crow had swallowed it and ejected it in its droppings on to the tiles! Is it not digested? It is a hardy nut and hence it is not digested! What is the name of the fruit that contained this nut and was tasty to the crow?
Yes, it is the Lasura fruit (Glue berry, 'Virusampazham' in Tamil, Indian cherry, Assyrian plum). The fruits are borne in punches from May; they are of pinkish white in colour and end down at the bottom with a thorn-like point. On bursting a fruit between finger pads, it's skin breaks out and a sticky liquid oozes out from the gel-like interior! Both this liquid and the gel are smooth and sweeter in taste when the fruit is chewed. What then remains is the nut, a hard drupe. The crows after tasting and swallowing the fruit excrete this nut! What is the name of the tree bearing such delicious fruits? It is Cordia myxa. It grows well in the moist areas along the banks of streams. It flowers from March; fruiting season follows it ending in August. Are there any other uses of this tree? Yes, its bark is used as medicine, unripe fruits are pickled and the leaves are good fodder for the cattle.
Such sweet and wonderful fruits are borne on this wonder tree to relish on, even in my grown up years!

An insect and a worm from nowhere!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I had then found an insect walking out of a cut mango in my boyhood days. The mango seed was having a hole on it; from that hole black and soft grains had come out and spilled on the mango slices and lay strewn all around too. When the insect was touched with a stick, it folded in its legs and pretended to be dead lying still! After sometime it put out its legs and moved away hurriedly! How and when this insect could have entered inside the mango and how could it survive inside the mango? These were the questions arising in me.. Likewise, I had also wondered how worms could have entered in our body and make their living inside us!

That insect I found in the mango is Mango seed weevil beetle (Mango stone weevil, Sternochetus mangiferae, 'Maambazha vandu' in Tamil). The female weevil beetle lays eggs on the surface of the developing small mango. The hatched out larva enters the seed through the fruit and develop inside it to the pupal stage and then into adult. Then this adult weevil beetle breaks the seed coat and emerges out as this crawling insect!

The entry of worm's eggs into our intestines through eating uncooked food or through our unwashed hands is well known; it causes intestinal worms to establish livelihood in us. Then what is about the worms inside our skin, legs and hands! Yes. The Hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale, 'Kokkipuzhu' in Tamil) passes out its eggs from the intestine of it's host, a human. These eggs hatch out in the soil into larvae; the larvae bite and enter the bare foot skin of another host, a human, causing itching; it travels to the lungs and then to the host's intestine. On this route it may stay inside the muscles of the legs and hands, and take rest! But there are also other worms like Ancylostoma brazilense which usually infest only animals such as dogs and cats; but they also wander accidentally into human skin and cause itching and disease!
These two puzzling wonders in the Nature through these wonder insect and the worm really excite one and all!

Deliciously attracting fruit - the Custard Apple!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:55:00 +0000

Fruits that are available seasonally are the most desired than those available year round. One of such most desired fruits is the Custard Apple (Sugar Apple, Annona squamosa, 'Seethapazham' in Tamil)!
It is produced by a small tree that bears and gives this greenish yellow fruit. The petals of its flowers are fragrant. The fruit is covered with scale like divisions all over. It is green when unripe; turns greenish yellow when ripe with splitting of the skin in segments. The pulp of the fruit is white like custard with small granules. It is also aromatic. The entire fruit is formed from all the pistils of a single flower. The entire fruit is thus an aggregate type. The black seeds found inside the fruit are covered in a tough white sheath. The pulp is high in both Calcium and Manganese minerals. Eating this fruit produces calmness of mind and a good night's sleep in you!
Such a wonder fruit from a tropical tree is both sweet and tasty with added flavour and aroma that nobody will forget after eating it!

The ultimate nutrition supplier to the body cells - Capillaries!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 12:53:00 +0000

Small is not only beautiful but also essential to life! We take food to supply nutrition to our body. How and from where this nutrition is received by the tissue cells of our body? Do you know? We all know that our heart pumps blood from the body organs to the lungs, and then returns the purified blood back to the body organs. But there is also a microcirculation existing at a microlevel between arteries, arterioles and the venules, veins! The components of this circulation are the Capillaries. Only through the walls of these capillaries, the nutrition is received by the tissue cells!

Section of a capillary tube

These capillary tubes do not empty their blood contents directly into the tissue cells. Then how does this wonderful transfer of nutrition take place? Large nutritive particles present in the blood of the capillary move through the cells of the capillary wall (called endothelial cells) onto the interstitial fluid found between the capillary and the tissue cells! From there they move on into the tissue cells! Smaller nutritive particles, gases like Oxygen, water and ions move to the interstitial fluid through the space present between the capillary wall cells! Likewise, waste products, like Carbon-di-oxide from tissue cells move into the capillary blood passing through the interstitial fluid and then through the capillary wall.

These capillaries are also newly formed at the sites of a wounds to supply nutrition to the newly forming cells in the process of wound repair and healing! You shall find that only less capillaries are formed in the heart of persons having Cardiovascular risk factors like smoking, and also in those already having Coronary Heart Disease!

This ultimate wonder network of these capillaries is thus really essential for maintaining the human life! Even the brain gets nutrition from the special capillary networks! That means that every function of our body is dependent on it!

Depicable? No; useful and beautiful - the Caterpillar!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:18:00 +0000

Tiny creatures moving differently often attracted me in my childhood. Unlike the insects' movements, they creep on the ground and move slowly, and don't fly at all. One of them is Caterpillar (Larva, 'Puzhu' in Tamil). These caterpillars are different from worms; they are only the intermediary forms in the development of insects from eggs to the adult forms, the insects.
Best examples are the caterpillars of butterflies and moths. They also have different features as in shape and size according to the insects they evolve into.

They have Y or V - shaped marks on their head and yet some of them have spiny bristles all over their body. Some caterpillars have body parts and colour patterns that threaten their predators. Still I have a crawling sensation on my body whenever I see a caterpillar! They are herbivorous and voracious feeders on leaves. And have strong mandibles to chew the leaves. Thus they often become pests in agricultural fields affecting the income of farmers. The Silkworm (caterpillar of Silkmoth - Bombyx mori), produces silk thread and spins it around itself to form a cocoon in its pupal stage of development. This silk is useful to weave attractive clothes. These caterpillars are food for many animals too, The Paper wasp seizes one of it and carries it to feed its own larva!
Such useful and wonderful caterpillars are the wonders in God's creations that they should be treated as organisms similar to a child in the mother's womb! They should not be valued as of lower order and debased as it is done everywhere!

Being excess may promote cell revolt - a Hypothesis!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 09:06:00 +0000

This following article points to the fact that one should not be excess and cross his limits in everything:
Body cells really tolerate your excesses. Most of the time your body corrects the altered chemistry due to that. And the body cells are satisfied with this correction and oblige to work as before with this satisfaction inside your body. But when these excesses become more and more, some of the cells revolt against getting the compromised supply of nutrition that results by such excesses.
While other suffering cells are mediated and become tolerant and calm, these few cells begin to behave violently even before or after such mediation failure. They rob the body of the nutrition by themselves, disagreeing and deviating from the 'general genetic code' of the body; they grow and multiply by themselves, limitless and uncontrolled - becoming themselves given to excesses! Thus they become malignant cells (tumour cells or cancerous cells). When the nutrition in their present area depletes, some of them migrate over to many other areas of the body to establish their aggressiveness there too. Thus they produce their secondary growth areas! So, do not do anything in excess - to stay healthy and save yourself from such cell revolts. You can also take healthy foods that oppose cell revolts or that do mediation!
This is a wonder hypothesis that may save many lives, if further research is done on it!
Caution:
Don't be scared; it is just a hypothesis only. And it is not a proven fact, but an indicator or alert, only to avoid such instances in you and make you to have and live a healthy, longer and enjoying life. So, the intention of this post is to promote only good habits in you!

Pleasing caller - the White-browed Wagtail!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 17:10:00 +0000

When I was living in an apartment house, I watched two small birds frequenting the top floor of the next house. They were of large sparrow-size, moving their tails up and down. I had seen such birds sitting on the overhead tanks of buildings; they sing for a few seconds and fly away. But I found these two birds to remain on the house for days together!
Then on one day, I heard chirping sounds from the next house! Their chicks were chirping. The birds had built a nest under the ledge of that house. This bird is the White-browed wagtail (Motacilla maderaspatensis, Large pied wagtail). Though it is not found inside the cities, I have found it often in suburban areas. It has pleasing long calls repeated like, 'sweetch, sweetch' with the slowly falling down volume. It is black with white belly; it has white edges on its wings and white eyebrows.

The female bird is brown grey in colour. They are insectivorous. They breed in the Spring and Summer. They build a cup-shaped nest, and the female lays about three eggs. The hatched out eggs are fed with caterpillars and spiders.
This is a wonder bird that I remember and identify by its call, its wagging tail and its walking style on the ground!

Sriking fragrance is here - from Marukkozhunthu!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 03 May 2015 09:11:00 +0000

Fragrance on the air makes you expect some flowers near you. But there is a leaf instead of a flower doing this fragrant job! In my childhood days I identified this leaf in a garland made for the Gods' worshiping. A few of these leaves were seen tied alternating with flowers.
These are called 'Marukkozhunthu' in Tamil (Artemesia pallens, Dhavanam, 'Marikkolunthu' (Tamil).

This plant is very adaptive in nature and it can grow even in arid places. It is an aromatic herb, raised from seeds or cuttings; fully grown in four months. It bears fragrant yellow flowers. Each greenish grey leaf of the plant is found divided into lobes.

They are fragrant containing the essential oil, the 'Oil of Davana.' The leaves are also used in making perfumes. It is also striking that they are fragrant even after drying!
This wonder fragrant leaf is native to India and I am proud of it!

The sky's excellence - Supermoon!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:09:00 +0000

Moon is the cool satellite for our Earth and its occupants. It influences the Earth's sea water, materials and also the minds of all the living creatures in it. It is needless to think further about the effect of the visible full moon. Now, this full moon is super in its size - Supermoon!

It is said the moon is 14% larger and brighter on this Supermoon day; here on this day, the moon is closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. That is why it is super in size. This position of the moon is called perigee. For every fourteen full moons there will be a supermoon. The earthquakes and tsunamis are linked to each supermoon's occurrence; but there are no scientific evidences for it.
We can view this wonder Supermoon on 9th September 2014, today (on the New World skies)!

Flying green dot - the Firefly!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:26:00 +0000

With my parents we went to Courtallam, the 'Spa of South India' quite often. We were on one such visit to this place of waterfalls in 1960s. At night, I was then shown a green dot of light that flashed on a bush by my elder sisters. In the dark I searched for it and found it.
I was delighted and curious as it was also moving. It is the Firefly! (Lampyris noctiluca, Lightning bug, 'Minminippoochi' in Tamil).

This flying insect belongs to the beetles family of insects. It's yellowish green light is produced by its lower abdominal segments. These segments contain the chemical called luciferin, that produces this light through a chemical reaction. This phenomenon of giving out light is called bioluminescence. The male insect is smaller; the female is larger but flightless. Both of them produce this green light signal for mating. Female lays eggs and dies. The eggs hatch into larvae in about three weeks' time. These larvae too emit green light to warn their predators to be away. They feed on snails and slugs; hibernate underground in the winter and come out in the spring. They pupate in one year to become adult flies. The fireflies are said to be carried by a male bird to light the nest it built as part of its courtship with the female bird!
Fireflies are such wonder beetles to me that I still continue to search for it whenever I visit Courtallam at this time of the year - in the month of July!

Devil's eyes? No, Nature's eyes - the Eyeshine!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 21:35:00 +0000

While I drive my two wheeler at night time, I often see two bright spots move away across the roads. Now I know what it is; but in the ancient times people interpreted it to be a devil out of their ignorance. It is the Eyeshine found whenever animals such as cats and dogs run across the road.
In the eyes of these animals there is a layer behind the retina, called as Tapetum lucidum. It reflects back the light that the retina receives. In such process, the pupils of the eyes appear to glow against the darkness; this produces this classical eyeshine!

What is the use of this reflecting layer in these animals? It helps them in their night vision; when there is dimmer light, it increases the light received inside and so, lets them see in darkness! Eyeshine colours seen, are different for different kinds of animals; the dogs and cats have green shine, while fowls and rats have red and horses blue!

We, human beings do not have this reflecting layer in our eyes; so we don't have this eyeshine; but we have used this nature in animals to our own advantage! Yes, we have raised pavement markers on our roads to mark lanes and aid drivers in the night- driving!
Such wonder nature - the eyeshine is really still exciting to us, who are both aware and unaware of it!

Camphor, that lights up bright God's face!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 18 May 2014 11:47:00 +0000

A white round sweet-like substance that smells pleasant and strong to the nose shall attract definitely any child towards it. When it is lighted up, its flame also attracts the child to touch it - but its heat makes the child to retract its hand back! It is our Camphor ('Karpooram' or 'Soodum' in Tamil).
Its natural source is the Camphor tree (Cinnamonum camphora). The raw camphor called as 'Patcha karpooram' in Tamil, is extracted from the wood of this tree. These trees are found to grow in South East countries like Sumatra. In the past, Indian merchants had sailed to Sumatra and traded for camphor on its west coast.
This camphor is also synthesized from Turpentine oil. It is mainly used in the Hindu religious rituals performed in temples - to light up and burn it and to show the light before Gods. It is also used as moth repellent. In the past it was used as a tincture with opium for the treatment of diarrhoea; but now its use is discontinued. Its content in steam inhalation medication (Vicks Vaporub) for treating the common cold is well known. It also makes tools rust proof by its coating on them!
This wonder camphor has so many such uses; but it is though attractive to kids, is a poisonous substance for them; so, avoid children handling it.

Switching on life with the Pacemaker!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 05:50:00 +0000

Recently there was news about an Indian-origin doctor implanting inside heart directly a miniature pacemaker, that is leadless - that too without surgery! Pacemaker is a device that stimulates heart when it fails to beat! Without heart's functioning, there is no life at all; so, this life providing device is much more important than anything else.

It substitutes natural pacemaker present inside the ailing/failing heart. Electrical impulses generated by it travels through electrodes to stimulate heart muscles. It was developed first in 1926 in Australia and went on further modifications several times. It functioned first externally outside the body with the electrodes (wires) fixed directly to the heart either through the skin or veins. They became wearable then due to the invention of tiny silicon transistor in 1956; later they became implantable in the body with the use of titanium encasing and the rechargeable Lithium cells. Now, permanent pacemakers are also used by placing it below the clavicle bone in the chest below the skin.

Recently, as noted in the news, the pacemaker has been miniaturized and placed inside the heart chamber itself! It is also programmable from the outside by using wireless controls!

But the functioning of pacemaker is affected by the magnetic fields present near arc-welding, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI scan) and head phone magnets. Even cell phones having more than 3 watts of power can affect it - thereby endangering the life of the patient.
Such a wonder device that keeps life going on from inside human body is really a wonder invention that makes one relive his past live life as before!

The artist of the soil, the Earthworm!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 08:18:00 +0000

I had wondered in my childhood about the straight lines found on the muddy soil: it was raining the previous evening; who would have drawn them overnight! As I grew up, I understood who it is: the lines were drawn by worms, the Earthworms! (term and names: Lumbricus terrestris, Rain worm, Night-crawler, Angleworm, 'Munpulu' in Tamil). Though these brownish worms are found in rainy season, their presence in summer can also be inferred by the mud-disrupted lines on the irrigated farm grounds.

On close look, the segments of this worm can be seen as rings all along its length. Clitellum, the thickening on the anterior segments, aids it in forming cocoon for its eggs. The segments from 9th to the 15th one bear sexual organs. The worm moves by contracting its longitudinal and circular muscles, assisted by the bristle-like setae that are found in all the segments. The organic matter that it swallows with the soil, is ground and digested; ejected out as casts after nutrients are absorbed. The worm respires through its slimy skin.

It is a hermaphrodite; but a pair of worms mate to transfer sperms and fertilize eggs mutually. The eggs are enclosed at the clitellum in cocoon that is loosened, passed and released away like a ring! This worm is preyed upon by birds, beetles, snails and snakes. It has a lifespan of about two years. It is also used as a bait in angling for fish, as it is a delicacy for fish. If it is cut, it can generate its lost part! It is a well known 'friend of farmers' as it aerates farm soil, and also fertilizes it with its worm-casts.

Such a wonder worm that intrigued me is a useful animal for the entire human society!

Arrow of the sky, the Asian Palm Swift!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 13:21:00 +0000

At evenings, whenever I walked on the outskirts of my hometown, I used to see small birds flying on the sky in darts here and there. I had wondered in my school days whether they are insects, bats or birds. These arrow like flying things are only birds known as Asian Palm Swifts (Cypsiurus balasiensis, 'Panaimara ulavaran' in Tamil).
They are peculiar in that they are not seen walking on the ground or perching on the trees! They cling on any vertical surface like walls and tree trunks holding with their weak short legs!

They are pale brown small birds having a slender body and a long forked tail. One can hear them utter a shrill cry while they fly. They catch insects on their flights; insects are their sole diet. They nest on the underside of palm leaf; their flat nest is made of feathers and fibres glued to the leaf with their saliva.

Female lays 2 to 3 eggs, glues them to the nest, again, with its saliva. After incubation, these tiny eggs hatch in 3 weeks and fly out of nest in 6 weeks.
This Palm swift is a wonder bird that spends most of its lifetime on the air!

A pet to man but enemy to snake - the Mongoose!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:52:00 +0000

In my school days, I have heard my elders tell stories about mongoose apart from that popular story, 'Riki-Tikki-Tavi.' One of such stories is here: the mongoose stole daily a hen from the hen house and left out the hen's body after eating its brain! It simply entered into the hen house burrowing down the earth next to the fence!
I have seen only a glimpse of a mongoose before I could recognise its presence there when it disappears behind bushes. It is called as Indian Gray Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii, 'Keerippillai' in Tamil). It is a small mammal weighing about a kilogram, having a long face with small round ears, and a long tail. It is a terrestrial animal active mostly at daytime. Males are larger than the females. It is an agile and skillful hunter. It eats rats, insects, lizards, scorpions, snakes, eggs and small birds. As told in the popular story it can be domesticated as a pet and used for the control of household pests. Snake-charmers use it to exhibit a road show of its fight with snakes. It is said to have resistance to the neurotoxins of Cobra and the Krait, so that it can kill these snakes easily without getting itself harmed! It is also said that it has colour vision unlike other animals that have only black & white vision! And they have also a strong sense of smell and keen eyesight!
It is such a wonder animal that it had also wondered Rudyard Kipling to include it in his 'Jungle Book'!

The hero of the night's sky - the Moon!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Mothers introduce our Moon to their children in their infancy itself: as they feed them each day with the dinner food, they point out at the serene moon. In the night's sky the moon is the sole attracting object than anything else. Each night it presents a new shape of its phases, that too at different times! It plays such for the kids, attracting them towards it :)
It is also the sole natural satellite of our Earth. It revolves around the Earth once in 27 days. It reflects the sunlight that falls on it like a mirror. Once in 27 days, at evening around 6 pm, we can see it as a larger moon rising in the East; it is seen as a yellow disc on the background of the blue sky. As the night crawls in, this Full moon ascends up and becomes whitish.

In 1960s a Tamil film ('Patchai Villakku' - 1960) was released with a notable song in it; in that song, the hero informs about the progress that mankind had then made such as touching the moon's atmosphere ('Kelvi piranthathu anru ...'). More than that much progress had been then made later in 1960s itself: in 1969 July 21st, astronauts stepped on the moon itself in the 11th Apollo Space Mission!

Sometimes, this moon does not reveal its presence on the sky, one - as usually expected - on the New Moon day and the other one - not usually expected - at the time of its eclipse by our Earth's shadow on it (Lunar eclipse)! When it obscures the Sun itself totally, Solar eclipse is produced. In this regard, I have wondered how fitting the Moon is to the Sun. It is due to its fitting- orbiting distance from our Earth. I had also wondered in my childhood why there are turbulent, noisy and whitish tides on full moon days. These tides are due to the gravitational pull from the moon's side.

Another curious thing about moon is there: it is actually rotating around itself, but we don't see its all surfaces and see only its same face turned towards us always! How is it possible? It is due to the fact that it rotates once in the same time that it takes to revolve around the Earth once - 27.3 days! I wonder who made it so to move with such an accurate precision! God, perhaps :)
In Astrology, the position of the Moon in the constellations at the time of one's birth (Rasi) is important, as it determines the predictions about the person's whole lifetime!
Whenever I gaze at our wonder silvery moon, I wonder about the wonders it holds with it, getting also my mind calm in that with it!

Grey bug of moisture - the Woodlouse!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 06:23:00 +0000

Whenever I get some itchy skin rashes, my mother attributed it to the bite of a bug. Wondering about what it could be, I searched for it near me; but could not find one. One day my mother pointed out to that bug: it was greyish on its back and whitish underneath; its body was segmented; it was about 6mm in length.
It was not seen on open ground - but under moist clothes such as native door-mats that are drying out. When you lift up the edge of these clothes you shall see surely these bugs running here and there on the ground - both the adults and young ones. This bug is called as Woodlouse (Porcellio scabei, Woodbug, Slates, 'Baymootai' in Tamil). But here in South India, apart from wood source, it is also seen on the moist soil found below stones. It has fourteen jointed legs. It breathes through the lungs present in its hind legs! It moults in two stages unlike other bugs. It feeds nocturnally on dead plant materials. Female carries fertilised eggs in a sac under its body till they hatch into small white young ones. Woodlouse Spider is its main predator.
This wonder bug, though induces itchy feeling, does not produce any disease and it is a farmer's friend just like our earthworms!

An alert about Elephants in Musth!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:29:00 +0000

In my boyhood days we were cheered up by elders about elephants approaching us in the street whenever we heard its chiming bells. We rushed out to see these trained elephants with the mahout, the trainer, mounted on it. We also had heard about the stray incidents of such elephants turning aggressive suddenly, and thrashing down the mahout to death. We call these beasts as 'Madham pidditha Yanai' in Tamil; this violent nature of them though temporary is devastating to all those nearby.

Then we thought that only few of the elephants turn violent such. But now we know that all elephants, both in forest and in captivity, have it - but only males adults out of them! It is called 'Musth,' a state of male elephant having increased level of testosterone, the male sex hormone. Yes, musth is a sexual hyperactivity state that every male elephant have in their age mostly between 15 and 35 years. An elephant in musth has a strong smelling fluid running down its cheeks from its temporal glands. It walks with its head held high and also swinging it side to side; it moves along with a rumbling noise. It can even pull down a tree using its trunk and tusks! It is so aggressive that there are also encounters and contests between it and other bull elephants, in which it will be the winner always. Only an elephant having musth is allowed to mate with females that have estrous cycle. The fluid 'musth' is also a signal from a male to a female inviting it for mating. It is said that this condition in males avoids inbreeding within the herd. This musth may last even for up to four months.
This wonder nature in wild elephants enlighten us also about the parallel nature existing in their community in captivity - being more aggressive than them!