Common Map and Red Lacewing butterflies in my yard

These two butterflies I caught on my camera right in my yard. The Common Map liked the flowers of marigolds. It is pity that its wings are torn but still it is a beauty. And looks so fragile. It got its name for the map-like markings on its wings.

Common mantis

I wonder whether artists were inspired by these creatures when they were creating an image of an alien for movies. Because now when I look at a mantis I see some kind of an alien from another planet. Found one such an alien today in my yard among the flowers. Mantises are masters of disguise, they are very much skilled in the art of masquerade, mimicking the exact shape of a leaf or hue of a petal. These insects camouflage themselves both to hide from predators such as birds and lizards, and to hunt successfully. There are 1800 types of mantis and their disguises are quite diverse - differing in colour, shape, and texture.

Amazing dragonflies

All these dragonflies were shot in Kathmandu - in the Botanical garden or in the yard of my house. It is not an easy task to take photos of dragonflies but it is always fun. These creatures are so strange looking and at the same time so beautiful. There is some interesting facts about these amazing insects.
Dragonflies are fast flyers and the fastest is Austrophlebia costali that can swoop downhill at 98 km/h, but more usually dashes about its territory at about 58 km/h.
Dragonflies flap their wings relatively slowly, at about 30 beats per second (compared with a honey bee at 300 b/s). Their body temperature varies with the air temperature. If their muscles are cold they are unable to fly, so they need to warm up first by basking in the sun or shivering their muscles.

About spiders and their webs

As a child I really did not like cobwebs. Going with my father in the woods for mushrooms, I didn’t worry about meeting a snake or a wild animal out there, but I was scared of spiders’ webs. You walk peacefully through the woods, and suddenly you feel a touch of something sticky, unpleasant and frightening on your face. Imagination immediately draws a terrible and horrible spider that will now jump on you and ... And what could such a small spider do to, though small, but compared with it, a big girl?
The girl grew up and, though still doesn’t like spiders, especially the large ones, she is no longer afraid of their webs. On the contrary, a variety of designs and styles of the web, its strength and lightness at the same time, fascinates and amazes.
Spiders build an enormous variety of webs, all designed to capture their prey. The best known and most complex are the symmetrical orb webs. A typical web may have 20 m of silk, meeting at 1000 junctions. It weighs less than 0.5 mg, yet the spider it supports is 4000 times as heavy.
Hammock webs can reach up to 30 cm across. Any insect that blunders into the hammock or flies just above is tripped up by a maze of threads. The spider which has been waiting underneath grabs the insect from below and pulls it through the hammock, wrapping it in silk.
The web-casting spider spins a net the size of a postage stamp. The spider holds this cradle between its front legs. It then hangs upside down from a leaf and when a moth flutters by, the spider lurches forward and stretches the web taut, netting its victim.
The silk of a golden orb spider is the strongest natural fibre known; it can also stretch by a third before snapping.