The world under my feet

These bright red bug with a distinct black pattern in the back are hard to miss in Chennai.  I first remember spotting them in the grounds of my children’s school campus. There is something very unique about this bug that catches our attention - I could see that two bugs were kind of stuck together and moving in pairs!! On closer look, I could distinctly see that the rear ends of the two bugs are attached. They were mating!! This is the classic tandem formation during their mating period (which apparently lasts from 12 hours to 7 days.) My kids used to fondly call them “Love bugs” and used to be super fascinated by them when they were young. These bugs were found in large numbers in the path leading in to the school campus. We had to literally watch every step in order avoid stepping on them by mistake. But recently I started noticing a lot of them inside the apartment complex where I live. What caught my attention the other day was the resilience of this particular bug trying to c...

I continued to observe the crabs every day for the next 4 or 5 days. I just sat and watched them go on with their usual activity. I was getting curious to know more about my new friend. With the help of the pictures that I had taken, I tried to match it with similar crabs I found online. This eventually led me this website called Inaturalist.org INaturalist.org is a worldwide community of nature lovers who share their everyday observations of species in their natural habitat. In here, I found a local guide for Chennai coast called Coastal biodiversity of Chennai . Through this link, I was able to identify my crab. The common name of this crab species is Horn eyed Ghost crab.   Its scientific name is Oxypode Brevicornis. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocypode_brevicornis ). More from Wikipedia on Ghost crabs : Ghost crabs  are semiterrestrial crabs of the subfamily  Ocypodinae . They are common shore crabs in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, inhabi...

Say Hello to Mr. Krabs!! My first post will be on crabs.  “Why crabs?” you may ask… Well, the thing I love about my city, Chennai, is its beautiful beaches. I feel lucky to be living within walking distance to the beautiful Thiruvanmiyur beach.  Walking to the beach and spending time here is sort of a daily ritual for me and my friends. It is such an important part of our lives that when the government closed down the beach during the COVID 19 lockdown, we suffered from intense separation anxiety! But it occurred to me recently, that in so many years of frequenting this beach, I have not taken any effort to observe the other living and non living beings that I share this beautiful beach with. So, the other morning, after my walk, I just sat down in the Sandy stretch of the beach close to the waves. What caught my attention were a whole lot of  crabs, crawling and running in front of me. I was so intrigued that I ended up spending some time just watching them. Here is what...

 “ கற்றது   கை   மண்   அளவு ,  கல்லாதது   உலகளவு ” What one knows is only a handful, whereas the unknown is the size of the world  - Auvayar ( ஔவையார் , ancient Tamil poetess) I turned 48 years recently. Having gone through years of school and college education, raised two children, read a lot of books, watched movies, listened to the news and lived in the age of google, wiki and YouTube, I expected to reach a point when I can say with confidence that I ‘know’ at least a little bit about our natural world - everything from  germination to geology, from marine life to galaxies, from soil to solar eclipses, from snails to elephants. But, Recently I came to the conclusion that I have no deep knowledge or understanding of any of the above! Actually, let me clarify this.  I can recall names, terms and definitions of many things. Thanks to our short sighted education system, I have probably committed these to memory in order to pass exams. But my u...