Our World- The Blue Mormon

Mormons are butterflies as well as a sect of people. Of all the mormons who visit my garden, the Blue Mormon Papilio polymnestor is the largest.
Although it is the largest butterfly to visit my garden, it is usually chased away by the much smaller jays and tigers. I was thrilled when I could at last capture a Blue Mormon yesterday as she was flitting from flower to flower.
The pale blue colour of the wings is the same shade of blue as the plumbago blossoms.

The Blue Mormon is a native of south India and SriLanka. It is a pollinator of cardamom flowers.

You can see and participate in Our World if you click here.

Flowers for Halloween

Aristolochia, the Dutchman's pipe, is a strange looking flower with an unpleasant smell. It is the food plant of many butterfly larvae.
Ruttya is another strange flower blooming in my garden.

Happy Halloween!

I am linking this to Macro Monday.

Today's Flowers- Heliconia

Heliconias are some of the showiest tropical flowers, sorry, bracts. They seem to have taken over my garden. I am forever cutting and removing them.

My thanks to the team of Today's Flowers for hosting their wonderful meme.

Weekend Reflections- The Singer in the Night

I finally discovered who sang every night in a monotonous shrill voice. The culprit was sitting on my folded garden chair in the veranda, trying hard to look like a leaf. His long antennae gave him away.
The Katydid is related to the grasshoppers and the crickets. Commonly found in the tropics, it gets its name from its repitative call which sounds like "Katydid katydidn't". But my visitor's call sounds more like "tizi tizi"! The sound is produced both by males and females by stridulation- rubbing the forewings together. Their wings are good for producing piercing sound, but not for flying long distances.

According to some scientific studies conducted in 2010, the Katydid PLabycleis affinis has the largest testes in proportion to body mass of any animal recorded!

My thanks to James at Weekend Reflections.

Blooming Friday

The yellow cosmos is a volunteer in my freedom lawn.
Shocking pink ipomea on the fence.
Pink dahlia likes sunshine.
A beautiful ground orchid which has started to bloom now.
The tiny flowers of Plectranthus'Mona Lavender' are a pleasure to behold.

Have a happy weekend!

ABC Wednesday- O

Owl oscillated between the Oval and..
the ocean, for the occasion was not ordinary.
Ordering an orange orchid ...
an Oldman cactus, off he went onwards...
to meet the object of his adOration.

This is my first contribution to ABC Wednesday, which I enjoy going through every Wednesday.

Our World Today- Real Freedom

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

-H.L.Mencken
Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.

- Malcolm de Chazal
Happy Deepavali!

You can see loads of fab photos from all over the world here.