WOV’s Insectarium: Gaika Butterfly

RURAL BLISS |

Photographing the tiniest in Ilocos Norte

[Gaika Blue: The half-inch butterfly in the lush farmland of Bangui overlooked by many locals.]

DESCRIPTION

By just taking this photo of a particular grass blue butterfly species, I can say that a lot of passers-by there have ignored another marvel of nature because of its size comparable to the nail of your (schoolage children) smallest finger. Yes, they are really tiny that it took me some time to find the proper angle of my poor point and shoot camera for this dream macro shot. Why blue anyway? This is simply because the upperside wings (the hidden part when the wings are held together) are amazingly colored with blue.

CLASSIFICATION

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lebidoptera

Family: Lycaenidae

Genus: Zizula

Species: Zizula hylax
Common Name: Tiny Grass Blue

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WOV’s Insectarium: Colorful Damselfly

RURAL BLISS |

Behold this awesome splendor of nature

[Tinted Shaft: An orange young female Agriocnemis damselfly perching near the verdant rice fields of Ilocos Norte.]

DESCRIPTION

Prime your eyes because scouting them is difficult! Ward off your hands because picking them is rude! And smile because seeing them is marvelous! They are damselflies – slender, delicate, and weak-flying insects resembling like dragonflies which eyes are separated and wings are held vertically.

Embellishing the grasses of Bangui, Ilocos Norte, alongside drains, forest and open streams, ponds and rice fields are colorful variety of damselfly, the Agriocnemis rubeola. This particular species originating in Southeast Asia is extending 25-millimeter length and spreading 17-millimeter wings.

These marvels of the greensward, gliding during the daytime are observed to change in color as they mature – from an orangey young to greenish adult female Agriocnemis rubeola. They also differ in color according to their sexes, for instance, male species are hued turquoise or greenish blue.

Damselflies are very beneficial in the environment, in the ecosystem. They help in controlling the numbers of harmful insects as they are ferocious predators of flies, mosquitoes, moths and beetles. They are also used as indicators of clean or polluted waterways, streams and ponds, that is, they are unable to breed without such sanitary body of water.

Turquoise Damselfly: A vibrant bluish damselfly maneuvering the grasses of rural houses.

CLASSIFICATION

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Odonata

Suborder: Zygoptera

Family: Coenagrionidae

Genus: Agriocnemis

Species: Agriocnemis (rubescens) rubeola

Adult Damselfly: A female Agriocnemis damselfly that has changed its color from orange to green.

We live in nature – very rich and useful. So we should take good care and preserve these treasures if we want them to last for the next generations. Because if Mother Earth cries, all of these natural luxuries we have will vanish in just a sneeze of a typhoon, slap of a tsunami, punch of a soil erosion and a kick of a hurricane. Now, do you want that? Not at all! Let’s hold our hands, take a  walk and move purposefully for the future… 

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