Common Yellow Dung Fly

Common Yellow Dung Fly or Golden Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) is a specie in family Scathophagidae (Dung flies). Male is bright yellow or golden in color, while female is of relatively gray color. Both Male and female have hair on their bodies. The female lay eggs in animal dung and their larvae feed on dung. Adults are predators and prey on other flies, particularly on blow-flies.

Common Yellow Dung Fly

Common Yellow Dung Flies Mating

Common Yellow Dung Fly With Prey

Common Yellow Dung Fly With Prey

Common House Fly-Musca Domestica

The Common House Fly (Musca Domestica) is a small, two-winged fly in family Muscidae, order Diptera and suborder Brachycera. It is the most common of all domestic flies, found in and around human habitations. It's found all over the world and is considered a major pest that can carry serious diseases like cholera, typhoid, Escherichia coli, Shigellosis, leprosy, poliomyelitis and tuberculosis etc . In spite of the fact that they carry serious diseases, they also do a favor on us by telling us that our environment is not clean and need an immediate attention. House fly life cycle consists of four stages i.e. egg or ova, larva, pupa and adult.

Common House Fly-Musca Domestica

Photoshop Work

Personally I know very little about photos editing softwares like adobe photoshop and rarely use them . The pictures here are of an unknown guy from district Swabi, edited by himself or some body else. I liked his work and decide to post it here on my blog. These pictures were on hard drive I bought some days ago. I don't know which software did he use to create these images, but most probably this is looking to be photoshop work.

Photoshop Work

Original Pictures

Disclaimer: If anybody have any objection regarding publishing these images, please contact me, I will remove them.

Blowing Dandelion

Being a kid and the resident of rural area, the life was very simple for me. There was no concept of television, computer and other accessories, which our young generation is using  to kill there time. I used to go to nearby fields with my cousins. Some of our hobbies were playing guli-danda (a local game), collecting wildflowers and blowing dandelion seed heads. Blowing dandelions was a great fun and pastime for us. A lot of my childhood memories are attached with dandelion. These day dandelion is not only a fun for kids, but also an interesting object for photographers. Here is a picture of little girl Aany blowing dandelion clock.

Blowing Dandelion

Horned Treehoppers

The Horned Treehoppers belong to family Membracidae. They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often mimic thorns and that is why they are also called Thorn Mimic Treehoppers. They are normally sedentary but are able of jumping. They are considered as pest, which feed on plant sap. I found this species on a gourd vine.

Horned Treehoppers

White Rain Lily-Zephyranthes Candida

White Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida) is a species of rain lily, belong to family Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis Family). It's leaves are a deep glossy green and measure 3 mm wide. Flowers are erect in perianth white or sometimes pinkish abaxially. The leaf-like bract is 1.8 to 4 cm. They grow best in full sun to part shade and require a medium wet soil. Propagation is done by dividing bulbs or offsets and from seed. It's known by a number of names including Fairy lily, Zephyr flower, White zephyr lily, Peruvian swamp-lily, August rain lily and Autumn zephyr lily.

White Rain Lily-Zephyranthes candida

Great Green Bush Cricket

The Great Green Bush-cricket (Tettigonia viridissima) is a species of bush cricket (katydid) in the family Tettigoniidae. Their nymphs start emerging in February. The species is abundant in plain areas of NWFP and is consider a pest of economic significance, damaging wheat and tobacco crops.

Great Green Bush Cricket Male

Great Green Bush Cricket Female

Great Green Bush Cricket Female Eating a Male

Great Green Bush Cricket Nymph

Bombardier Beetle

The Bombardier Beetle is a ground beetle belonging to the Carabidae family. The species here is a common species found in Pakistan. It has black wing covers, each having two yellow patches and a yellow strip at the rear. The head, pronotum and antennae are of dark-red color. When threatened, the insect squirts an evil-smelling chemical stored in its body towards the enemy to protect itself. Some time children do a risky job, they catch it and touch its rear with their palm to get a red spot in the result of explosion. In domestic language Pashto it's known as Teaz Teazakye (explosion making beetle).

Bombardier Beetle

Butterflies Freeze To Death

This year the winter is very cold with us. Because of cold and dry weather we are getting more frost as compare to previous year. This forced the insects to go behind the screen, probably they have died or hibernated. Some days ago I was searching sickle senna plants to find out live pupae of common emigrant. I certainly found a few pupae, but unfortunately the butterflies inside the cocoons were all dead. In the first picture you see a half emerged butterfly, which is frozen to death. The second butterfly was found dead inside the cocoon.

Butterflies Freeze To Death