WormTrails .......with Butterflies and Parag Rangnekar

It is the month of November and misty cool mornings are here to stay. Earthworm ecostore kicks off WormTrails…our monthly thematic walks to observe, understand and appreciate nature and its myriad wonders in our very own neighbourhood. The trails have been designed for adults and children alike who would love to learn a bit more about the plant and animal life they have always noticed and formed many curious questions about in their mind.
We all have always appreciated butterflies and know that they are important pollinators of plants and thus play an important role in our environment. but there is more….
What is a 'host' plant?, how does a butterfly find its way to one? what species of butterflies are common and which ones are not? how does a butterfly protect itself from its predators?how do we affect butterfly populations in our own neighbourhoods? ....…Earthworm invites you to look beyond the fluttering fragile beauty of a butterfly to understand its tenacious role in ecology.
Parag Rangnekar is the author of the widely popular field guide of Butterflies of Goa and also the state co-coordinator of the Goa Bird Conservation Network. He is also known amongst academic as well as conservation circles as a committed naturalist and wildlife photographer and has been instrumental in popularizing the hobby of butterfly watching in the state of Goa.
Parag will lead a trail that would start at Earthworm, the eco store at 8.00 am sharp and would culminate at 10.00 am after a walk in and around Green valley, a haven for butterflies. A talk and power point presentation on the Butterflies of Goa will also be taken for the participants at Earthworm from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm.
Date: 22nd November, 2009
Participation fee would be Rs. 100/-
Please register prior to the event either by email at earthwormgoa@gmail.com or call us 08322410871.
We would request all participants to arrive 10 minutes before time for the walk. Do bring along your breakfast, Earthworm would provide tea and its famous kokum juice.

Talyacho Sado, karnataka.

Talyacho Sado, a vast expanse of Plateau at Chorla Ghats Karnataka

The Spotted Supple Skink- another reptilian wonder.

Moonlight filters through the close-knit canopy and illuminates the forest path that leads to nowhere. A gurgling stream meanders through the roots of trees and twines that provide niche habitats to a myriad of creatures, big and small. With a cacophony of bush frogs and crickets to give me the ultimate company, and a sheet of dark clouds that promise to bring down a torrential downpour, I start my search in the maze of the undergrowth- a systematic and yet tangled web of ferns, shrubs buttresses and earth cuttings that seem to have life pouring out of every nook and cranny. In the depths of the forests, an alarm call goes off, a sambar first and then hooting langurs. It is night and yet these sentinels of the forest seem to have been alert-I make a mental note to watch my back, as it could be a large cat. In the Mhadei area, from where I work, large cats like the tiger and the leopard are increasingly being sighted and most reason it to the overpopulation of these important mammals in the neighboring Anshi Dandeli reserves due to which they are pushed to our forests in search of prey and habitat. Butt I will not dwell into this topic as it is too in depth to address and understand-for now that is.
I am here to try and find the “Yellow color form” of the Malabar Pit Viper (Trimeresurus malabaricus) with Lid, a colleague and Luma, my Man Friday in these parts and we are interested in documenting this uncommon color variation and understanding the reasons of its occurrence.
It is over an hour through our search that something snake like moves from under a rotting tree stump that Lid has just lifted along with Luma and I am bewildered for a moment… dazed too as Luma shine his head torch momentarily into my eyes, as he looks in my direction for possible help. Scurrying along the rock crevice that has earlier yielded a tiger coral centipede, I reach in time to scoop up the find for the night- a snake like lizard with limbs as small as a pea! This is a lizard, exclaims Lid, leaving little room for me to say, as that is all that we seem to know of this reptile.
Excited and exhausted, we decide to take a break and key the species, and a night halt is planned. While Luma goes to on to find a good spot to rest for the remaining part of the night, Lid dives into her seemingly bottomless haversack for a copy of the “Smith’s volume” on Lizards and we sit to key the specimen.
Amidst a backdrop of silhouetted vegetation and aromatic smells of a flowering tree, we go on our knees and take a scale count of our find. It is tricky, and a delicate affair, and after close up shots and satisfied counts, the reptile is released by Luma in the same location as it was found. I know from past experience in Mollem National park and elsewhere that this is a skink and yet there is a shadow of doubt lurking in the corners of my now seemingly over saturated brain. I let the thought stay and seek refuge in my sleeping bag for the night.
Dawn is just moment away and Lid is awake as always, still pouring into her “Smith’s” volume of Lizards. I have been thinking too and attempt to connect to pals on phone and our wireless net who discuss the possibility and later confirm it to be the same creature that I thought it was- the Spotted Supple Skink (Lygosoma punctata).
A secretive species of skink, this was earlier also referred by researchers as the Indian Snake skink, and yet is known from few locations in our state, which include the Bhagvan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary, the Netravli Wildlife sanctuary. There have been reports of this reptile from the plateaus of Goa University, Thivim and Verna besides other locations and there is a need to confirm the same. Its distribution is restricted to the hilly regions of India and Sri Lanka and some reports in parts of South East Asia need confirmation, we learnt later.
It is a diurnal skink and is observed under leaf litter or in rotting green matter in forest habitats that range from semi evergreen and mixed moist deciduous forests to laterite plateaus. Young skinks of this species have a distinctive red tail, but this color is lost in adults. Small spots replace the red tail and these spots coalesce to form continuous lines as the individual ages. The dots are present on the head and extend to the snout. It grows up to 85 mm in length from head to tail and resembles a worm snake at first sight due to the cylindrical snake like body and highly ad pressed limbs that are almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye.
In the depths of the forests of the Mhadei, and elsewhere in our state, many such small jewels need appreciation and conservation. It is a fact that we know very little about our vast array of diversity and this fact needs to change. With the National Wildlife Week just around the corner from 2nd Oct to 8th Oct, I hope that every fellow Goan attempts to understand and recognize the value of our Protected Areas and the biodiversity they support.
While we wind up our survey, amidst discussion and several thought processes of the regions worth as a repository of Herpetofauna wealth, I hear an exclaimed shout from Luma once again and off we are again to an earth cutting where he is seated. But that is another tale…of snakes and tails for another time, till then Keep the faith.

Vazra Sakla waterfalls

The Vazra Sakla waterfalls are on the Goa-Karnataka-Maharashtra border in the Chorla Ghats region and are part of the Swapnagandha valley. The height of the waterfalls is 143 meters and the forests they support and sustain are home to a diversity of flora and fauna, some of which is endemic to the region. The entire region of which the Chorla Ghats is a part is called the Mhadei Bio region.

Malabar Pit Viper (Trimeresurus malabaricus).

Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.Goa India.

Researchers observe rare Herpetofauna behavior in Mhadei region.

A partially cloudy June 20th morning saw researchers documenting Herpetofauna of the Mhadei region, observe a rare behavior at 750 meters above sea level of a Boulenger’s Bronzeback tree snake (Dendrelaphis bifrenalis) eat a Malabar Gliding (Rhacophorus malabaricus) female frog in broad daylight at 11.00 am in the morning.
The Boulenger’s Bronzeback tree snake is a rare species with taxonomic nomenclature still being under uncertainty and is known from a handful of locations in the Western Ghats of India including Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa, Anshi National Park in Karnataka and forests of Amboli and Matheran in Maharashtra in India so far. Elsewhere it has been reported from the island country of Sri Lanka. Very little is known of the taxonomy, behavior and biology of this elusive and shy tree snake and the observations made by the duo of researchers Nirmal Kulkarni and his assistant Namdeo Gaonkar are an addition to the understanding of the selective seasonal prey base of this species.
The Malabar Gliding frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus) is an endemic flagship species of the Western Ghats of India and has been listed as NT (Near Threatened) by the IUCN Listing of 2002. It is threatened due to habitat loss and exotic monoculture plantation in its range.
The Boulenger’s Bronzeback tree snake was observed stalking a foam nest of a Malabar gliding frog and subsequently capturing a female frog on a wild Jamun tree at a height of approx 14 feet above the ground near a water body.
The tree snake swallowed the Gliding frog head first and feet last and the entire process took 1 hour 10 minutes during which field observations and photo documentary evidences were collected by the duo for further study. Climate data recorded humidity at 82 percent and temperature at 28 degrees centigrade.
Images and other information on this observation were subsequently sent to various scientific institutions for identification and included the Indian Herpetological Society and the Madras Crocodile Bank besides various independent researchers and confirmation of the species was received a week ago on Sept 1st 09. A research note communication is now being prepared for the same.
The Mhadei region encompasses the states of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka is home to an array of lesser known and yet important Herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians) found in the Western Ghats of India. Many rare and endemic species have been reported from this region before and is acknowledged as a hotspot for lesser-known wildlife by researchers in the country.

a robber fly....

welll, i think this a robber fly, so called for its unique behavior to steal larvae o f butterflies and moths for its young....not sure and would require scientific help for correct id!!