While visiting a business associate in Sri Racha, Thailand about 1 year ago, a small town not too far from the popular resort of Pattaya, I encountered a rather formidable member of the arachnid family. Lying in the middle of the street in a quiet residential area, seemingly basking in the sun, was a medium sized scorpion. I think that this may have been the first time I ever encountered a scorpion in the wild; needless to say I was thrilled! My business associate’s inclination was to kill this unusual looking cousin of the spider out of fear for the children in the area. I assuaged his fears, by telling him that from what I know, most scorpions are relatively harmless to human beings; furthermore, it’s highly unlikely that this small creature would attack a child. After listening to the voice of reason, we decide to remove the scorpion out of harm’s way and relocate the critter to some vegetation off the side of the road. I have always been advocate of respecting life!

Now if it was a cockroach in my room, that definitely would have been been another matter altogether; the cockroach would have felt the full force of my shoe. Bam bam. kill ‘em! I guess we all have our limits.

Sidenote: I came across this unusual story of a Thai lady who lived in a glass cage for 32 days with 3,400 live scorpions.

nature

While vacationing in Koh Chang, Thailand last year, on the morning of my very day first day, I walked outside my cottage onto my small patio. Overhead I noticed some flying insects that seemed to be some kind of wasp and following their flight pattern, they seemed to be flying to the same destination.
Upon further scrutiny, I saw a huge wasp house, sort of a pear shaped paper mache like structure located on the eaves of my next-door neighbor’s cottage. The wasp house had to be at least 18 inches long and about 10 inches deep. There seemed to be two portals into the house. At times, only a handful of wasps could be seen leaving and entering the house; at other times, there was a flurry of activity. The wasp house couldn’t have been more than 12 feet away from my cottage. I took numerous pictures of the wasp’s domicile and their inhabitants while leaning over my patio balcony. I can imagine that if for some reason I disturbed these wasps, I definitely would have a serious problem on my hands. In my mind, I imagined myself making the headlines of Bangkok Post- Farang photographer by the name of Hanumann was stung to death by swarm of irate wasps while vacationing in the popular resort of Koh Chang.

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Birdwatching, butterfly watching, whale watching, seashell collecting, photographic wildlife safaris, scuba diving and spelunking are just some of the most popular activities of today’s ecotourist or vacationer turned-naturalist. So why not, a special spider watching tour in Thailand? After all from my experience, spiders are some of the most fascinating and most beautiful critters on this planets. Spiders are not insects but belong to a class of invertebrates called arachnids, of which the one unifying factor is that they all have eight legs. Remember that insects have six legs. Besides spiders, the arachnids include the ever-feared scorpion, the innocuous looking daddy long legs and such despised little pests as ticks and mites .

I for one, as a little boy, was always fascinated with spiders, marvelling on how they spun their webs, and for any prey that unknowingly flew or stumbled into their web, the spider would then pounce onto their victim and inject poisonous venom into their bodies. Then I would watch as the spider meticulously wrapped their paralyzed victim with silk until it became immobilized, leisurely returning to its mummified prey to suck out all their bodily fluids. I admit my fascination with spiders is also tempered with fear and respect. Upon accidentally stumbling into a spider, even today, I sometimes get the “heebie jeebies”. Let’s face it - spiders are very scary looking creatures but at the same time, I also consider spiders one of man’s greatest allies; spiders are responsible for keeping populations of some of our most serious insects pests in check. Factoid - Did you know that the weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight of the entire human population? See facts about spiders. I know, I know what you must be thinking. Spiders scare the living hell out of you. This dreadful fear of spiders is known as Arachnophobia ; I believe that many of you saw the movie of the same name .

While traveling to Thailand over the last several; years, I have taken a number of pictures of our feared eight legged friends including the wondrously beautiful Golden Orb Spider (Nephila maculata). In an earlier post in my blog, I wrote about my encounter with “the little monster at Chiang Dao Chedi”. And by all means, check out this little cutie from Thailand

So why not a spider watching tour in Thailand? Sign me up!

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I don’t know many people who are ‘into moths”. It seems their more colorful and glamorous cousins, the butterfly, is far more popular among the ‘so called amateur naturalists.” After all, I don’t know of any moth watching tours or moth gardens. That being said, there are far more species of moths in this world than butterflies and many of them are actually very colorful in their own right. I am willing to bet that most people know that the majority of moth species are nocturnal .

I came across a number of interesting moths during my trips to Thailand. While visiting a butterfly garden in Mae Sa Valley in Northern Thailand, I accidentally stumbled across a number of Atlas Moths, the largest moth in the world. One of these moths was placidly clinging to the top of the screening which enclosed the garden. It looked kind of lifeless. Another pair of Atlas moths were attached to each other on one of the plants while doing ‘the nasty” (copulating), They were also relatively motionless. Somehow I get the distinct impression that moths are not the liveliest critters around (especially during the daytime).

While touring Bhubing Palace and Gardens near Chiang Mai, I encountered a rather large brown moth that attached itself to a beautiful rose plant. In the photograph, it looks as if the moth was superimposed on the flower. I guarantee that this is not the case.
The last moth that I encountered was the most beautiful one that I have seen during my travels. While in Sukhothai, I returned to my guesthouse about 1:00AM in the morning after attending the Loy Krathong Festival at the historical old park. Opening up the room to my door, I was greeted by this rather large moth attached to my wall; the moth had large owlish-like eyespots on his forewings, one of which was partially torn. Right now, I’m doing research work trying to identify this moth as to species. Just for your information, one of the better websites on Thai insects is Thaibugs. Anybody have any interesting moth stories they would like to share?

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In a prior post, I briefly discussed the phenomenon of sexual dimorphism in nature. A good example of this occurence in butterflies is the Common Archduke (Lexias pardalis), a butterfly that I observed in Thailand. The male, with blue fringed hindwings and brown top looks completely different than the black, yellow spotted female.

Now, if you want a real good example of sexual dimorphism, check out the differences between the male and female Golden Orb Spider (Nephila maculata). The female is huge and multicolored compared the miniscule red male. The male’s only purpose in his short lifetime is to inseminate his female mate. After he successfully achieves his objective, he is usually eaten by his lover. In spiders and other arachnids, this huge size difference between the sexes is relatively standard. The photograph of the spider was taken at the Khao Soi Dow Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand.

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