Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle

The Painted Lady-تتلی (Vanessa cardui) is a medium size butterfly having a wing-span of about 55-60 mm, in family Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies). I have already posted some pictures of Painted Lady Butterfly. Today I'm going to share the pictures of four stages of painted lady butterfly life cycle. Observing and documenting the different phases of a butterfly life cycle is really a fun.

Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle

Eggs

The Female painted lady butterfly lays pale green eggs on the upper surface of the host plant leaves. The eggs are laid individually and hatch in about 4 to 6 days. The host plants in our area are milk thistle, Canadian thistle and common mallow.

Painted Lady Butterfly Eggs Pictures

 Larva/Caterpillar

When the caterpillar hatches, it eats the egg shell as its first meal. Then it starts eating the leaf of host plant upon which the egg had been laid. The caterpillar passes through four different instars before pupation. This stage takes about 10 days to complete.

Painted Lady Butterfly Larva/Caterpillar Pictures

Pupa/Chrysalis

At the final molt the caterpillar crawls to a safe place and hangs upside down from a branch or leaf with the help of silken thread.  In about 24 hours the skin splits down the back and a grayish-pink color pupa/chrysalis appears, which then turns golden. On maturity the pupa become transparent and the wings of butterfly become visible. The pupa takes about 7 days to turns into a butterfly.

Painted Lady Butterfly Pupa/Chrysalis Pictures

Butterfly

When the butterfly emerges from the pupa, its wings are wet and folded. In about 10 minutes the wings open and become straight. Then it needs  about an hour more to dry and harden the wings. In drying process it does not open wings, so I had to disturbed it to take an open wings shot.

Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui)

Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle Slideshow

Nishan-e-Haider

Nishan-e-Haider is the highest military award given by Pakistan. It ranks top in all military and civil awards. It's awarded posthumously to soldiers for combat heroism, irrespective of their ranks. It is made from the surrendered enemy gun metal. It has been awarded to 10 military personals since the independence of Pakistan in 1947, including Captain Muhammad Sarwar Shaheed, Major Muhammad Tufail Shaheed, Major Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed, Major Muhammad Akram Shaheed, Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed, Major Shabbir Sharif Shaheed, Sawar Muhammad Hussain Shaheed, Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz Shaheed, Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed  and Havildar Lalak Jan Shaheed. 

Nishan-e-Haider (model)

Bengal Monitor Lizard

Bengal Monitor Lizard (Varanus bengalensis) also known as Common Indian Monitor, is a monitor lizard in the family Varanidae, found in South Asia. This large lizard is mainly terrestrial and grows to about 175 cm from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. It feeds on arthropods, frogs, lizards, snakes, birds and eggs etc. Although large monitors have few predators apart from humans who hunt them for meat, skin or fats to extract oil, which is used in folk medicine, juvenile have many predators. It lives in agricultural land and forests, however can also be found in human population, where it spends most of the time in cracks and gapes of walls. They run very fast and.can climb trees and walls and are good swimmers. I think it would be more suitable to name it "Desk Monitor Lizard", as I found it in a desk at the school. In Urdu it is called Goa.

Juvenile Bengal Monitor Lizard (Varanus bengalensis)

Special thanks to Mr Nausherwan Ahmed of Wild Life of Pakistan, who helped me in identification of the species.

Striped Pierrot Tarucus nara Life Cycle

The Striped Pierrot (Tarucus nara) is a small butterfly (wingspan: 24 - 28 mm) found in South Asia that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

Striped Pierrot (Tarucus nara) Butterfly Life Cycle

Eggs are laid singly on the young shoots of the host plants Zizyphus sp. It takes 2-3 days for the egg to hatch.

Egg

Egg

The caterpillars of this species feed on Zizyphus sp. and are attended by ants. The caterpillars occur in two colors i.e pale green and dark green. The caterpillar reach a maximum length of about 14 mm. The larva stage last for about 12 days.

Larva

Larva

On maturity the caterpillar stops eating and attache itself to a leaf head down, supported by a silken grid at the center. The pupa has a length of about 8-9mm. Like caterpillars the pupa also occur in two colors i.e pale green and dark green. On the 6th day the pupa turns transparent, revealing the new butterfly inside and after some time the adult butterfly enclosed itself. Before flight, the newly emerged butterfly takes some time to inflating its wings with blood and letting them dry.

Pupa

Pupa

Newly Emerged Butterfly

Long-tailed Blue Butterfly

Long-tailed Blue or Pea Blue (Lampides boeticus) is a small sized butterfly in the family Lycaenidae found in Pakistan. It has a wing span of about 23 to 42 mm. This is a rare species in the plain area of KPK and I observed only two butterflies this autumn for the first time.

Pea Blue Butterfly (Lampides boeticus)

Black Nightshade-Solanum Nigrum

Black Nightshade (Solanum Nigrum) is a short-lived perennial herb in the family Solanaceae (Nightshade family). Some species in the nightshade family are considered poisonous, because of the alkaloids present in them. The species I'm presenting here is a wild species, but now people start growing it commercially. These days black nightshade is available in almost all veggie vendors and people cook and eat it like other greens. The dark purple colored berries of black nightshade is also eaten. It's a medicinal plant used locally for treating many diseases, like jaundice, diarrhea and vomiting etc.

Black Nightshade-Solanum Nigrum

Black Nightshade (Solanum Nigrum) Flowers

Black Nightshade Berries

Eid-Ul-Adha-Festival Of Sacrifice

Eid-Ul-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), also known as Eid-e-Qurban, Bakra Eid, Eid-e-Esaar or Greater Eid, is a festival celebrated on 10th day of Zilhaja, 12th Islamic moth. It is the second one of the two religious Festivals celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Muslims begin this occasion with Eid prayer followed by sermon, after the sermon, the Muslims embrace and exchange greetings (Eid Mubarak) with one other. The main event of the festival is the sacrifice of Animals (like goat, sheep or cow etc.), offer to commemorate the willingness of Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) to sacrifice his son Ismael (peace be upon him) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. Generally the meat is divided in three parts, one is retained by the concerned family, the 2nd part is given to relatives and friends and the third part is distributed among poor and needy people. On the Eid day people wear new dresses and visit their relative and friends houses to offer them Eid greetings. They are served with sweets, fruits and a variety of other dishes. The festival is a great fun for kids. Before Eid day they enjoy feeding and decorating the Sacrificial animals. On the Eid day, they dress in their finest clothing and visit their relatives and neighbors houses to offer Eid greeting, meet their friends and receive Eidi (Small amount of money) from their elders. Here are some pictures taken in relation with Eid-Ul-Adha (Eid Of Sacrifice).

Eid-Ul-Adha-Festival of Sacrifice

Sacrificial Cow

Sacrificial Cow

Sacrificial Animals Market

Sacrificial Animals Market

After Eid-ul-Adha Prayer

Sacrificed Animal at Eid-Ul-Adha

Cutting Qurbani Bone

Cutting Qurbani Meat

Kid at Eid-Ul-Adha

Kid at Eid-Ul-Adha