Natural, Scientific and Medical Wonders

Bird making a booming call - the Crow Pheasant!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:02:00 +0000

When I was a child, elders told me to listen to the sounds coming out from a nearby grove and alerted me about it like this: 'it is the sound given by a snake as it is now incubating its eggs; don't enter into the grove' For many years I was made timid by this sound as my peers were also done so - until I found out myself that it is not a snake making that sound but a bird! Yes, it is the Crow Pheasant (Southern Coucal, Centropus parroti, 'Sembotthu' in Tamil). It is a crow-like bird; but is a weak flier. It is seen mostly in open lands walking and flying low to safety on small trees, when seen by intruders.

Its peculiar booming and repeated call is like this: 'kkhouwk khouk khouk khouk khouk khowk.' Its wings are chestnut brown; body is black. Eyes are ruby red in colour. It feeds on insects, birds' eggs, snails and sometimes snakes. It also eats fruits - I have seen it eating guava fruits. The female bird is slightly larger than the male. They breed here in Tamil Nadu after monsoon; lay about five eggs that hatch in 15 days. The young ones are dull black in colour and have spots and bars on their body.
It is a wonder bird that reminds us about its presence near us with its calls - saying that it is not a snake!

Rats living in community - Naked mole rats!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:39:00 +0000

We see ants, termites and bees live a social life sharing tasks among themselves. But a mammal too leads such a eusocial life! It is the Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glabra, Desert mole rat, Sand puppy). It is a burrowing rodent that lives underground in East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia). Its adaptation to desert life is surprising. It has protruding teeth to dig the earth. It has a low metabolic rate. It doesn't have hairs, a mammalian characteristic feature! If you prick its skin with a pin it won't move away - it has no pain sensation! Its eyes are small and so, has poor vision that is an adaptation to its underground life. Only a queen rat and a king rat reproduce in the community! About 12 pups are born in a litter; the queen nurses them for a month; but next the worker rats begin to feed them with their faeces! The main diet of these rodents is the tubers that are mined underground. They also eat their faeces (coprophagia) like rabbits do. It has been also shown that they are resistant to cancer!
Such a wonder rat has also the longest longevity - it lives for about 28 years!

Merry-go-round, Earth and train are interrelated!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:02:00 +0000

Science teacher at school explained why trees grown along the sides of railway track seem to 'run' back as one travels in a train. But I did not expect at that time that that explanation and my realisation will help me later in life to understand easily a mega event that happens daily! What is it?

It is the daily movement of our own Earth - its spin, its rotation around in its own axis by itself! Daily we see our big star, the Sun, move overhead and set; Moon to rise in the East and set in the West; Stars to appear on the same location at each day's night as do the Planets also. These all are not their own movements; but they are due to a single movement - rotation by the Earth!

Like a traveler inn a train we travel each day placed on the Earth in its spinning movement - exactly like that of a Merry-go-round. Unlike in train travel (where we travel in distance and don't see the same trees appear again and again!), we see the Sun, Moon, Stars and the Planets appear again and again - we move around ourselves; spin fastened to the spinning Earth!

It is a wonder experience that we have each day both at daytime and night time though we are unaware of it!

A crawling wonder on back!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:46:00 +0000

At school, as boys we used to play on its sandy ground. Then we were often stunned by feeling some creature crawling up between our shirt and the back. As soon as we understood it to be a 'biting ant' we pulled out our shirts and brushed away this ant - to avoid its agonizing bite. Yes, this is a special type of 'ant' that looks like an ant; but it is a different one: a Flightless Wasp! (Eupelmus vesicularis, 'Rail vandi erumbu, Soogai erumbu' in Tamil).

We get this wasp on our body whenever we sit under Peepal tree (Sacred Fig) to play in its shade. It crawls on the tree up on its high branches and falls (jumps) down between our neck and collar of shirt! It is a honey-coloured wasp with black head and abdomen. It has an enlarged apical spur on each of its middle tibiae which is a jumping device - a compensatory structure for its loss of flying capacity.
I had transported more than sixteen kilometers one of this wonder wasp on my back to my house where I went all around behind it to click and trap its image into my camera!

Garden Wonders!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:14:00 +0000

Though some plants are thorny, they bear beautiful flowers and have also medicinal properties; you see a flower of Tack weed (Tribulus terrestris, 'Nerunji' in Tamil).
A blue flower with thin petals from a weed that has also tinnier leaves:

Again here is a bunch of flowers from Lantana:

Kid's delicacy - from a tree that bears these viscous and sweet berries:

A pinkish wonder flower that you cannot see with naked eyes in garden but that you can see here in this close-up!

Twins wonder us. What about plants? You see here Peacockflower twin seeds first and their pod next!

A pure white flower attracts with its wavy petals here: a white Table rose flower:

So far you have seen wonders from my garden. Shall we switch over next to our posts on wonder Nature? Get ready to follow!

Another visual treat from garden!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:14:00 +0000

If we get something unusual we are amazed. You see here the flowers of hybrid Cluster beans that were robust and grew up tall over a meter!

Garden has often winged visitors that it invites with its plants. Here are the pictures of a Locust:

Locust in close view

Plain white flowers invariably have pleasant smell that if you smell you will never forget it in your lifetime! A fragrant flower from Indian Mulberry tree (Morinda coreia, 'Manjanathi' in Tamil):

Even tiny flowers have their own attracting colours; but they go unnoticed by us. Here is a weed's flower:

A Rose plant bears a reddish flower - a Red Rose:

A wayside bushy plant that bears fruits for bulbuls and bunches of flowers of varied colours - a bunch from this Lantana:

Here is an orange Table Rose to enchant you:

Such garden wonders are to continue in my next post too! - are they most welcome?

Appealing wonders - Garden pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:12:00 +0000

An unusual colour excites and sticks well to your mind - a Yellow Shoe flower shows itself here:

Delicious fruits that were offered by my tree (that was uprooted by a downburst) - Guava fruits invite you here:

Some trees have all of their parts as useful to us - here we see Tamarind flowers that are beautiful and mouth- watering too!

We see often wonders on plants after a rain shower - a pearly water drop shining on Banana leaf:

A childhood wonder (but poisonous) got from a vine in my backyard - Coral Peas!

A starter for a child's garden - a Table Rose:

For appreciating excellence in Nature go closer to it; you shall see millions of wonders in it. Here is an example: Passionflower.

Is green always associated with leaves? No, leaves also display other colours for your eyes to feast on - Crotons, a visual treat!

Wonders are seen well than read - an easy job that saves time, isn't it? Shall I post more such wonder pictures? I shall!
Related posts in this blog:
My Guava tree - uprooted
Banana wonder
The deed of the Passionflower!

Downburst - a mighty nature of Nature!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:14:00 +0000

On one of the days in June 2010, the Guava tree in my garden was uprooted by the windy rains. That tree yielded delicious fruits twice each year; it gave me the fruits through the window of my house - I plucked them through the window itself! The tree was a wonderful place to both birds and animals that I used to click many pictures and posted them in this blog. It was a tall tree that had grown up for almost eight years then. I was sorrowful about the incident. How could it have been uprooted on a single day? I found out then an explanation for it: there was a heavy summer rain at afternoon on the previous day of the incident. It had made the red soil of the garden loose, soft and waterlogged with the storm water. On the day of the incident too it was raining at the afternoon; but it was accompanied with stronger and continuous flowing winds that easily uprooted my Guava tree to its one side on the ground.

The events at the time of the incident: then it was amazing to see such a fiercely blowing force of roaring wind that lasted for almost 20 minutes; I stood frozen and forgot to take a snap or video of it! After the raining was over, I went to my room and found it brighter than before! There was no Guava tree seen through the window. Frustrated I went out into the garden and found it uprooted and laid down on its side to the ground.
Now I come to know about this mighty villainous windy rain: it is called the Downburst - Microburst type. It is said to be formed by rain-cooled air coming down to the earth from the sky when there is a thunderstorm. The strong wind's speed may reach well above 240km/hr!
Later, on the next day to this incident, I found out that not only my tree was uprooted in the downburst but also many other trees within a distance of about six kilometers!
Nature sometimes becomes furious and fierce showing us its mightiness with such wonders like this Downburst - that came unexpectedly and pulled down my tree that stood high in my garden till that day! Its a nature of mother Nature!
Read here the related posts in this blog:
Koel is to sing its song here!
Common Tailorbird cobbling its nest!

The admirable marble wonder - Taj Mahal!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:59:00 +0000

My elder brother preserved rare articles that he collected. On demand by me (myself then a school-going boy), he shall take out them carefully and show them to me. He won't give them to me to handle; he will point and show their parts and describe about their beauty; then he will place all of them at the earliest inside his bureau and lock it. So, this bureau remained as a wonder chamber having many wonders within it! One of those articles was a Taj Mahal miniature model. As the Taj Mahal's name is mentioned, only its magnificent architecture comes to our mind. It had been built on a site of three acres near the river Yamuna in Agra of India. It is a large white marble building that rests on a square plinth made of marble. It has a large dome in the top with doorways on the sides and four minarets that stand on each corner of the plinth. It is a cube (actually an octagon) with 55 meters on its sides. Doorways have huge vaulted archways with arched balconies on either sides. Similar replications are also found there on the corner areas. Taj Mahal's main chamber houses the false graves of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; actual graves of them are at a lower level. Taj Mahal's dome is 35 meters in diameter and sits on a 7 meter high cylinder. There are also four smaller such dome on its four corners. Minarets are of 40 meters height, and were used then for calling to prayer. It took nearly 12 years to complete the plinth and the tomb. Building materials were brought from all over India and Asia. The translucent marble was got from the mines of Makrana of Rajasthan. Twenty eight semi-precious stones like agate, turquoise, onyx and jade were inlaid into this white marble. Cementing material used was a mixture of molasses, black gram pulse, curd, jute and soil, made with the lime mortar.
Such a colossal architectural perfection in all its perspectives makes the making of the Taj Mahal itself a wonder! This magnificent architectural masterpiece shall be felt and understood only when one makes a visit to Taj Mahal and when he/she nears the Taj Mahal.

Related post in this blog:
Love Sign - the Taj Mahal!

Protective strip, the Band-Aid!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:46:00 +0000

In my boyhood days I used to spend summer vacations at my brother-in-law's house. Being a pharmacist, he gave me cute medicine boxes from his medical shop. One of those boxes contained samples of medicated bandage strips. I took out one of the them and peeled out the plastic covers from it. It exposed a reddish orange coloured cotton gauze in its centre. The plaster-like outer parts of the strip stuck to my fingers. I wondered how this small pad containing the antiseptic, Mercurochrome 'heals' wounds and abrasions. This adhesive bandage strip was Band-Aid of Johnson & Johnson Co. It is used widely now in all parts of the world in all shapes!It is said that it gained popularity as it was then used in treating victims of World War II, and also given free to Boy Scouts. It was invented out of necessity. The idea about it was given by Thomas Anderson in 1920 to Earle Dickson as a solution to solve the problem of latter's wife, Josephine - she frequently had cut wounds while cooking. Dickson placed a long pad of thin medicated gauze cotton all along the centre of the entire plaster surface of the roll; rewound it on the spool and gave it to his young wife for on the spot use by her. Finding it very useful and convenient, he informed about it to his employer, James Johnson of the company, Johnson & Johnson. James produced then Band-Aid and marketed it successfully. Now a variety of Band-Aid adhesive bandages are produced that suit to the usage and needs - like water-proof and skin-coloured strips!
This Band-Aid is a wonder strip that aids all those needy people at times of agony!

Click on and read about these related topics:
Band-Aid brand history
Mercurochrome, the antiseptic
Earle Dickson

Living fossil in evolution - the Lancelet!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:14:00 +0000

The first animal was taught about to me in the first class of my first Science College I studied. I was not able to get a clear idea about it in the lecture. Earlier I had been taught only about fish, frog and rabbit in Pre-University Course. This animal was a different one - it was neither like a worm or a fish! It is the Amphioxus (Bronchiostoma lanceolatum, Lancelet). It is a primitive animal from which vertebrate animals developed by evolution. It is fish-like and of 2 inches length. It has a transparent body without fins. But has no eyes.

The tentacles hanging down from its mouth are sensory devices that are also used to filter water. Amphioxus takes in water; food particles stick to the mucus inside it and flow down to the digestive tract. Water that entered into its mouth exits out through atriopore via atrium. Though the gills are present, this animal respires only through its skin. There is no heart in its circulatory system or blood cells in it! Sexes are separate. In males, gonads release gametes into the atrium from where they move out with the water through atriopore. In females, eggs come out of atriopore to be fertilised by a single gamete. This animal lies buried inside sands in shallow waters of tropical seas. It is 'harvested' as a food for humans in Asia.
This animal is a wonder animal that is a 'living fossil' in this world as it gives us an evidence of evolution of higher forms of life from lower forms!

A bird hunting on birds - Shikra!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:46:00 +0000

One day at forenoon I heard a bird's call, "tit titee..tit titee." I was curious to locate its source and went on searching for the bird. But I could not. Suddenly I heard the cry of other common birds of the locality accompanied by their helter-skelter flying away. This is to avoid the attacking by a bird of prey. It had perched on the nearby tree - unseen: I saw it fly after a prey from my side! It is the Shikra (Accipiter badius dussumieri, 'Vairee' in Tamil). It can be seen in semi urban areas in the cover of tree foliage. Otherwise its presence will be revealed only by its call. Its English name is derived from the Hindi name for hunter, 'Shikari.' It feeds on small birds, squirrels, lizards and even snakes! It is a small bird - smaller than a pigeon. It has greyish upper parts and whitish underparts having brownish bands. Its breeding season is between March and June. Eggs are laid in nests.; the chicks hatch out in three weeks time. I have seen this shikra used by nomads in getting pigeons hunted and brought! It is said that falconers also train this bird to get the hunted foods for feeding the falcons! Contrary to our expectation, shikra doesn't fly away from us on spotting it perching on a nearby tree: it is used to human presence.
Shikra is a wonder bird having different nature among bird kinds - a bird hunting on birds!

Adapting with this animal - the Sloth!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 10:25:00 +0000

In boyhood days I wondered how the Slender Loris lives with its slow movements. Later on, I viewed an animal that was more sluggish than Slender Loris and is having different and unusual body unlike that of other mammals. Luckily it lives on the tree tops escaping its predators like jaguar and eagles. I refer here only to this animal: Sloth (Bradypus variegatus, Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth). Though it appears to be pitiable by its slow movements and appearance, it has been well created adapting to its habitats by the mother Nature. It has claws on its limbs that make it possible to hang upside down from tree branches. It eats leaves, sleeps and gives birth - all in its hanging down position!

Its foods are exclusively the tender leaves. Its digestion of these leaves is very very slow and is assisted greatly by symbiotic bacteria that are present in its guts. It has short flat head with big eyes on it. Body length is 60cms. Its hairs grow pointing away from the limbs unlike other mammals - an adaptation for its upside down hanging position. Its metabolic rate is also slower. But it is an efficient swimmer having more musculature than other mammals. Its another curious behaviour is that it descends down the tree to the ground once in a week to urinate and defaecate - on the same spot! These sloths are seen only in rain forests of Central and South Americas. They reproduce on the tree itself. The born infant clings to its mother's fur and moves on with it.
This wonderful sloth with all its curious adaptations reminds and advises us to adapt, alter or adjust with the changing world environment - to live on with it and with in it!

Playing bright and dark on the sky!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:18:00 +0000

Before 1960s, it was then a routine for the family members of the house to sit on the veranda or steps of the house at dusk and engage in gossips. Elders go on narrating about deeds and stories to the kids. In the midst of it they don't miss to point out at the bright stars shining on the sky. (My mom was then a guide to me apprising me about the 'Belt Stars' of the sky!). Messages about these wonders on the sky were passed on by mouths in such a way. At present also such wonders are shown to the public through daily news papers. Recently the planet Saturn was said to be seen as shining brightest ever in this century. Why should there be such an occasional brightness from the planets? It can be explained with our Earth's moon that undergoes different phases. When moon lies far off and opposite to the Sun with the Earth lying in the middle we see Full moon from the darker side of Earth (night time). Similarly, when outer planets of our Solar system lie far off opposite to the sun, we see them also brighter as does a full moon. This phenomenon is called Opposition.

We recently read also the news about four planets seen grouped in the East, before dawn. It is due to the arrangement of those planets in such a way that sun lies in between them and the Earth; thus they appear grouped together from Earth. This is said to be Conjunction. It is opposite of Opposition.

Then how could there be darkness on a Full moon day? By movements of either the Earth or the moon itself, the moon passes into the larger shadow cast by the Earth. At this time the moon slowly disappears with failing of its (moon)light on the Earth; without moonlight the Earth plunges into darkness unusually in full moon day! This is the Total Lunar Eclipse. Thus lunar eclipses happen only on full moon days.
Becoming brightest or disappearing from view are really wonders on the sky - to be shown to the kids to make them wonder about! On coming 15 June 2011 there is a wonder: Total Lunar Eclipse!

Insect rolling for welfare - Dung beetle!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:57:00 +0000

On walking along the one foot path in rural areas, I often find black beetles moving hurriedly with a small ball of earth. They actually rolled back the ball with their hind legs placed on it; at the same time they also walked back with their fore legs on the ground! These beetles are the Dung beetles (Orthophagus gazella, Scarab beetle, 'Piee vurutti vandu' in Tamil). The ball is nothing but bits of faeces or dung of cattle rolled into a sphere!

Recently, in April, I found one such beetle moving on. Suddenly another beetle of its kind came and alighted near it - is it for helping it in its task? No, it is for robbing that ball! In monsoon's night, I have also seen a lot of these beetles falling down, after hitting on the fluorescent lamps.

Dung beetles live in farm lands and grasslands. They live on dung and get all the nutrients from it. They have good sense of smell; so, they search for and detect dung easily; they make it into a ball and roll it avoiding all the obstacles they come across behind them! Then they bury the ball underground digging all the way down; the male and the female mate; the female lays eggs inside the dung ball making it a brooding ball. The larvae hatch out and eat the nutrients to develop into adult beetles. These beetles save the cattle by scavenging and burying the dung, as this prevents the attack by dung-breeding fleas.
The dung beetle we have seen here is a wonder insect that is also a farmers' friend as earthworm is!

Leaf-drinkers in water scarcity!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:55:00 +0000

In school class room it was taught that transpiration is one of the plant's physiological functions. But do we know that 'reverse transpiration' is also a physiological function? Yes, it is so - in certain plants! In them leaf takes in water and sends it to the stem - reverse of what we learnt and expect - root takes in water and sends it to leaves via stem. These plants are described as 'Leaf - drinkers,' as their leaves are 'drinking' water. Such plants are seen in deserts. In Atacama desert there has been no rain at all for the past fifty years . But there are trees and plants (cacti and algae) in it! They do live in it without rain water, but with water they drink from air moisture! When air is heated at daytime by the sun's rays it holds more water; but at night time the cold air present in the desert tends to lose water. Now the thirsty leaves of these desert plants take in moisture from air. In rain-fed areas of our Earth also there are such leaf- drinkers. But they become leaf- drinkers only whenever they encounter drought in their area. One among them is: Pygmy Cedar tree (Peucephyllum schottii, Desert Fir). Another interesting feature of such trees is that the pure distilled water they drink from air wash out salts and other toxic matters from their systems, thus making them the best fodder for rearing healthy farm animals!
This is a wonder phenomenon found in these plants - an adaptation to both of their climate and weather conditions!

Rolling back with Roll Films!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:15:00 +0000

My childhood excitements were much as my sisters and brothers showed me all the wonders in this world. My eldest brother used to enter into darkened room whenever there was a family function. When I tried to peep into the room he shouted at me to close the door. Later he explained me after coming out of the room thus: he was loading his camera with a Roll film that would have been spoiled if it was done outdoors in daylight! That roll film had a wooden spool around which a photographic film was rolled around. I noticed it when my brother unloaded it after he clicked all the events of the function (- that was also done in darkness!). This 'roll film holder' (the name by which the roll film was known then) was invented by David Henderson Houston in 1881. Its patent was sold to George Eastman in 1889 by his brother, Peter Houston. Then it was used in Eastman's Kodak box camera.

When I was grown up, I used colour 120 film roll in my camera. Later I switched over to 135 films (35mm wide) in point-and-shoot camera. Then I saw the instant printing of images clicked with a Polaroid camera. Thus wonders follow one by one in photography - now Camera phones and Digital cameras have entered the scene. These all have made one unaware of the existence of roll films.
But nothing has yet paralleled this wonder roll film even now: it gives sharp pictures with all the colours reproduced in fidelity - even in any enlargement sizes!

A Mini Liver for saving lives!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:49:00 +0000

We live, and are alive as we have our body organ, the Liver. Liver does many functions for our body. In its own illnesses such as Cirrhosis and Hepatitis C, it functions lesser than normal. Here this it has to be replaced with a donor liver by transplantation. But lo, donors are not readily available. In any other illnesses of our body, our liver metabolizes the medicines that we take for curing them. In experimenting with, and testing the safety of newer medicines we cannot use humans for the study or depend upon animal liver for that. For this purpose and for transplantation, researchers from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina have made an artificial human liver! It is of much smaller size (about the size of a walnut) when compared to the huge human liver. It is called Mini Liver. It has been got by seeding human liver cells on animal liver cells. The researchers found it to have normal liver functions as that of the human liver. They hope that it may take about five years to make it available in the hospitals after further research and development on it.
It will be a wonder mini liver that could save lives of hundreds who wait for transplantation, and will also aid in discovering newer medicines for the cure of many known or unknown diseases!

Explicit mother care of Surinam Toad

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:06:00 +0000

I have seen tribal women carry their children on their back in pouches of cloth. I was reminded of this when I was informed about a different kind of frog (toad) that carries its young ones on its back! It is the Surinam toad (Pipa pipa, Star-fingered toad). It is also remarkable that it carries young ones from their embryo stage itself! Its reproductive behaviour is peculiar. When the male toad grasps and clings to the female, the mating dance starts. The female then releases eggs, as also the male releases its sperms. Eggs and sperms slide between the pair and fertilization takes place. Male secures these eggs and attach them to the female's back-skin. The eggs settled down inside the mother's skin develop into toads through the stage of tadpole.

This surinam toad is flat and leaf-like that it merges with the fallen leaves of trees. It lives in and nearby tropical streams and rivers of northern South America. Its diets consists of small fish and worms.
It is a wonder toad showing its mother care ever since its eggs are fertilized - much better than that of kangaroo, but very much like that of humans. Difference is only in the place of development - it is the back instead of belly in humans!

Mind stirring Nightjar!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0000

At dusk we see birds that fly fast to their nests. But there are certain birds that hunt only in night's darkness and sleep at daytime. One such bird is the Nightjar (Caprimulgus asiaticus, Goatsucker, Common Indian Nightjar, 'Pakki' in Tamil). I had thought that all the noises of the night came from only crickets, beetles and frogs - until I heard one of it coming from this nightjar! Nightjar calls like this: 'dit dit didirrrre .. dit dit dit didirrrre.' It dwells and breeds on open lands. Its body parts have the same colour as that of the lands so that it is barely visible when it sits and sleeps without showing any movement. It hunts and eats moths and other insects that come out at night. It makes no nest at all. Female lays two eggs that hatch out into brown chicks having opened eyes.
It is a wonder bird seen flying noiselessly at night, stunning the bird-watchers while they are on their night safari!

The munificent tree - Palmyrah Tree!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:25:00 +0000

Each year in summer we expect the arrival of a delicacy in the market. It takes the heat off our head and cools down the whole body. In my childhood I had also relished on a sweet drink related to that delicacy. These two products are from our Palmyrah tree (Borassus flabellifer, Double palm, Lontar palm, 'Panai maram' in Tamil). The tree has multiple uses from making huts to making palm sugar and what else not? Its black fruits contain the soft, jelly-like delicacy (that I mentioned earlier here) called 'Nuongu' in Tamil (Ice-apple). The fruit's outer reddish fibrous layer turns sweeter as it ripens. Children make a pair of wheels out of two fruits' emptied shells. They fix a stick between their tops and play on streets by pushing the 'axle' with a long forked stick! Tasty sweet juice trickling down from a cut branch of this palmyrah tree is collected into a pot and used as a beverage. It is called 'Pathaneer' in Tamil. If it is stored without lime smeared inside the pot, it ferments and turns into an intoxicant, the toddy. Even after germinating, the seeds of the tree become a tasty snacks for us! It is called as 'Panankilangu' in Tamil. It is boiled or roasted in fire and consumed.

The tropical palmyrah tree has been used as a bordering tree in dry land farming. It is also seen growing wild on the banks of streams and rivers. There are male and female trees producing male and female flowers. Pollination by the air takes place to produce fruits. The stem wood is used in the place of teak wood as ceiling support in houses. Birds like Palm swifts and Rollers build their nests on it! Leaves are broad and used for thatching huts. Almost the entire tree is used for any household work. In ancient times the processed palm leaves were used as writing paper like that of papyrus! It is called as 'Olai swaddi' in Tamil.
Such a wonder tree provides jobs and income to numerous families in South India, engaging them as toddy - tappers!

Flying dracula - the Mosquito!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:42:00 +0000

Mosquitoes have been made villains to me. As young, I heard a musical ringing sound over my ear when I retired to bed. That sound quickly shifted to the other ear! It is produced by nobody but by our mighty mosquito flying around. Though its name in Tamil language, 'Kosu' is used also to mean an easier work or a small sized person, the mosquito still remains the strongest giving nuisance and causing diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Malaria. In 2006, when there was Chikungunya epidemic in India, the electric mosquito killing bat (zapper) was introduced to us by the increased population of these mosquitoes.

Life of this 'Terror' fly:
Mosquito lays hundreds of eggs at a time. The eggs develop into adults through the stages of larva and pupa, which are aquatic. This metamorphosis takes place in about five days. The male mosquitoes have bushy antennae which are said to have auditory receptors to detect the whine of an approaching female mosquito. The females' antennae can also detect the host odours before going for a bite and having a blood meal. These mosquitoes travel to about 12 km at night! They live for about four weeks. Their natural predators are the house lizards, dragonfly nymphs( an aquatic predator for larvae and pupae), martins, bats and fish like Guppies and Mosquitofish.

Bite of this 'Dracula' fly:
Both female and male mosquitoes are nectar-drinkers. But the female is also in need of protein and iron for its mass egg production. So, it bites the mammals to get them through the blood sucked in. While it is biting, apart from causing pain and itch, it injects its saliva that contains anticoagulants. This makes the blood drawn (into its proboscis) to flow freely into its mouth without any clotting or block. Mosquitoes bite both at dusk and dawn. They have excellent sense of smell that detects the presence of carbon-di-oxide and the chemicals of human perspiration to locate the place of their feeding host. Yet another type of mosquito (Toxorhynchites splendens, Mosquitohawk) does not bite humans at all to get blood, as its larvae kill and eat the larvae of Tiger mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and thus control Dengue by themselves!

Experiences with this 'Kosu' (mosquito):
At dusk the female mosquitoes smell outdoors the human odour from the stale air getting out of the windows and enter the house. When males also try to enter the windows, females fly back towards them and mate; then they re-enter the house to have blood meal! They can even sense warmer human skin in winter and follow us as we enter into our house! At night, I have also felt mosquitoes intrude under my blanket through gaps and bite me thwarting repellents, draughts of fan and even winter cold!
I listed two years before itself to write about this wonder terror mosquito. But it eluded me as I had to tell all about it. Now I have told you a few wonder aspects of it! I am still in search of ways to bring down the population of this wonder villain of me, as also the whole world!

Winter spit? Wonder Nymph!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:59:00 +0000

As I rose one day early in a winter morning and walked through the meadow, I found the indecent behaviour of somebody spiting out on the grass. There was the spittle on the leaf blade of the grass clasping it around. I was irritated about it and walked carefully avoiding it. Later I wondered to know from an article in a daily that it is an act by an insect's nymph and not by a human! The insect is the Spittlebug (Lepyronia quqdrangularis, Diamond-backed spittle bug, Spit bug, Froghopper,). This insect's eggs hatch out as the nymphs.

Each nymph feeds on the grass juice and secretes the spittle, that is commonly called as winter spit, frog spit or the snake spit. It is seen actually inside the spittle! It grows and moults into an adult insect. It often shifts its location to secrete a new spittle. The spittle is said to protect the nymph from its predators, as it is distasteful. The spittle bug has 'V' shaped marks on its back on each side. It eats grass and shrubs.

This is a wonder nature of this wonder nymph that made me later to wonder more about it when I separated out a nymph with a stick from one of the 'spittle' myself !

Reproducing Larva - the Axolotl!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:13:00 +0000

We usually see that from egg caterpillar comes out, butterfly grows out of it and fly away. But in a type of Salamander (an Amphibian) its growth into an adult is hindered and it is stopped in its larval stage itself. This larva starts also to reproduce! This animal is Axolotl (Ambystroma mexicana, Mole Salamander, 'Mexican walking fish,' 'Waterdog'). It resembles closely the larva of Tiger Salamander, a related animal that reproduces only after growing into an adult. It is found only in a Mexican lake (Xochimilco). Unlike other salamanders and frogs it lives only in water. It has three external gills behind its head on each side like tadpoles for its respiration in water. Its lungs are rudimentary.

It looks like a lizard with all its four legs. Its colour is brown or black. It is about six inches in length and lives for ten years. It is carnivorous. It sucks its prey into its stomach as a vacuum cleaner does. The female axolotl bears exceptionally large embryos. We can view all the stages of evolution to a vertebrate in it! Nowadays we (doctors) try to use Stem Cells to regenerate a lost organ. But this animal regenerates its lost body parts by itself! We transplant organs with much difficulty. But the axolotl accepts any donated organ - even brain, without any rejection! Its neoteny - the arrested evolutionary development is said to be due to the lack of production of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). Axolotl is also kept as a pet in USA, Australia and Japan.
This wonder animal has been red-listed as a threatened species that is moving fast towards extinction. Let us preserve it alive for our posterity to view and wonder about.

Tunneling bird, the Kingfisher!

noreply@blogger.com (Cosmos) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:10:00 +0000

If you go near a tree and a blue bird flies out with a high pitched sound startling you, it might be a Kingfisher. Here in urban South India we frequently spot this tree kingfisher, called as White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon fusca, 'Meenkotthi' in Tamil). It has pointed bill. Its back, wings and tail are blue. Head, shoulder and belly are coloured chestnut brown. Breast is white. Bill and legs are red. The bird dives down to get the fish underwater! On returning back to its perch with the fish, it kills the fish by beating it on the perch before swallowing it. Other preys of kingfisher include frogs, earthworms, insects, spiders etc. The bird digs nest in the stream banks and live inside the tunnel of 50cm length. It lays white eggs that hatch out in 20 days' time.
This kingfisher is a wonder bird with all its remarkable life activities!