Celebrating an Early Christmas at Dairy Farm!
During this trip, the entire groupy gathered around a caterpillar. An extremely beautiful one that’s not too too common – the larva of an Archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana). It’s unique outgrowing “bristles” reminded us of a Christmas tree, and most caterpillars that looked like this had been called the Christmas Cat. As usual, I volunteered to be the last to shoot, and hogged this fella for quite a while.
![Archduke larva (Lexias pardalis dirteana) - DSC_3917](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8217422620_f61be33fe6_z.jpg)
![Archduke larva (Lexias pardalis dirteana) - DSC_3921](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8059/8217422374_a896c21d9a_z.jpg)
![Archduke larva (Lexias pardalis dirteana) - DSC_3934](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8347/8216338073_1eaf24f840_z.jpg)
![Archduke larva (Lexias pardalis dirteana) - DSC_3945](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8206/8216337907_cb17a52fdd_z.jpg)
![Archduke larva (Lexias pardalis dirteana) - DSC_3947](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8203/8216337451_68ee4598d7_z.jpg)
Horace Tan from the Butterfly Circle has an excellent article documenting the life history of the archduke here:
https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/life-history-of-archduke/
And here are the other subjects of the day… not that much less important!
While waiting for the rest, I chanced upon this golden orange robberfly hanging from a leaf.
![Robberfly (Asilidae) - DSC_3767](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8216336829_bb39668d29_z.jpg)
It flew away after a few shots, and I found this bug right above! Looks like a hairy little assassin bug.
![Broad-Headed Bug (Alydidae) - DSC_3793](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8069/8216336655_078f818a95_z.jpg)
![Broad-Headed Bug (Alydidae) - DSC_3801](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8216336429_ac8a5f0c7f_z.jpg)
![Darkling Beetle (Tenebrionidae) - DSC_3831](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8217423754_b942b5358e_z.jpg)
![Darkling Beetle (Tenebrionidae) - DSC_3840](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8063/8217423574_3f5ce041ea_z.jpg)
![Spiny Back Orb Weaver (Gasteracantha sp.) - DSC_3847](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8217423408_377049e79d_z.jpg)
![Hasselt's Spiny Back Orb Weaver (Gasteracantha hasselti) - DSC_5441](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8077/8313973443_498b82bc35_z.jpg)
Next was this pair of cute crab spiders. Both female. Not lesbian since they refused to touch each other while scrambling around on the flower. lol.
![Crab Spider (Thomisidae) - DSC_3884](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8216339417_ff2bf440a6_z.jpg)
![Crab Spider (Thomisidae) - DSC_3895](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8206/8217422958_f8f6a9763c_z.jpg)
![Crab Spider (Thomisidae) - DSC_3901](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8482/8217422800_0a32dcae17_z.jpg)
![Crab Spider (Thomisidae) - DSC_3966](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8217421074_164d14cfe6_z.jpg)
The complete albums can be viewed here and here.