Puzzling Nature I

    One of the most difficult subjects in photography is Wildlife. A photographer cannot tell a wild animal to pose like this or like that. If your not lucky enough, prepare to either get hurt or worst get killed..
    One  thing I like most in wildlife photography is the never ending chain of surprises and puzzling discoveries of how nature do its thing. In this post I will unveil and unlock one of nature's wonder you may have never thought to exist.

A Moth Caterpillar nursing some cocoons?

    What if somebody will tell you of a

caterpillar that becomes a cocoon and

after several days a moth comes out of

a cocoon?  Would you believe? Of

course you'll do.  It's very normal even

though you may not really understand

what is happening in between stages of

a metamorphosis.

   What if you did not see this post and somebody

tells you about a caterpillar that's nursing some

cocoons? I'm sure you'll say its crazy.

    But if somebody from Pueblo de Panay tells you

of a caterpillar that's nursing some cocoons and

shows you these pictures maybe you'll think twice

that is, if you're a science buff .

          Now I'll tell you of a caterpillar I found at Pueblo de Panay that looks as if it was nursing some cocoons:
       
           In fact there are some parasitic wasps residing at Pueblo de Panay that capture any kind of caterpillar they handle and prick in it with a paralyzing toxin enough to immobilize but cannot kill it. The wasps then stick the caterpillar on their cocoons .It would be a bad end then for the caterpillar because by the time the wasps' larvae emerge from the cocoon, they will have a ready to eat sustenance.
     
          What an awful way to die. But that's how nature do its thing.' Nature rules', as they say.

          Better believe me.
       
          I've been there.

Lily Caterpillar Moth

 Lily Caterpillar Moth
 ( Spodoptera picta)
 
  This moth got its name from its favorite hostplants , the Lilies.  I found this very beautiful moth feeding on the Golden Lilies planted on the center island of the PdP main highway. 
   This is an example of introducing a new species  ( golden lily) that attracts another new and in turn becomes an invasive species. Their caterpillars caused a noticeable damage on the plants and they have virtually no predator but can be controlled  manually by destroying their eggs or by chemical means.

The Egg

The caterpillar

Paper wasp

 Paper Wasp
Polistes exclamans 
                   Is a social wasp found in the southern United States and northern Mexico. This species has also been observed in Missouri, Maryland, and New Jersey. There has been a northward expansion of the eastern half of the U.S. This expansion is typically attributed to changing global climate and temperatures.

This species does not have a widely used common name, though in Texas some call it a yellowjacket, a name that should be reserved for Vespula. The name guinea wasp has been used, but has not been widely adopted. Polistes exclamans is also referred to by a generic name for the genus Polistes which is called paper wasps.
Their colonies contain three castes: workers, queens and males, though differences between workers and queens are generally plastic and behavioral. The physiological similarities between the worker and queen castes have lead to experiments attempting to distinguish the characteristics of these two castes and how they are determined.
Polistes exclamans are also interesting in their behavior and ecology. The high worker and queen mortality rate has led to the prevalence of satellite nests. The high queen mortality has also resulted in interesting responses by the worker caste. The high mortality is mainly caused by parasitoids and predation. P. exclamans have developed defense mechanisms to reduce the rate of colony extinction as a result of this predation and parasitism.

   Polistes engages in a kind of parental care called allomaternal care which is really a kind of social worker behavior "[they] become workers that direct maternal behavior toward siblings in the presence of a reproducing female (most often their mother)". In any event it is not "INDIVIDUAL "parent" animals taking care of their OWN young." as requested by the mission statement.

Habitat

Polistes nests can be built from wood fiber which are collected from posts and plant stems. The fiber is formed into a paper like comb with hexagonal cells. The nests are orientated downward and are held up by one filament. P. exclamans have also been observed occupying artificial nests put out by researchers and consisting of bundles of straws.

Sex determination system

P. exclamans are haplodiploid insects, as are all Hymenoptera. This means they have haploid males that produce identical haploid sperm, and diploid females that produce haploid eggs through meiosis. This has consequences for genetic relatedness within colonies, since sisters receive identical sperm if they share a father, and the normal half identical contribution from the mother. This results in sex-biased conflicts between the queen and the workers with respect to the sex ratio, with workers preferring a more female biased sex ratio, and queens preferring equal investment in queens and males.