📽️ I - 30 MAR 2023 (14:35 hrs.) near Mulund (East), Mumbai, at Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary.

📸 II - 30 MAR (14:32 hrs.) near Mulund (East), Mumbai, at a mangrove marsh.

📸 III - 📸 9 OCT 2022 (16:21 hrs.) near Powai lake, inside IIT BOMBAY CAMPUS, India, Mumbai.

#BombayMeriJaan #mumbaimangroves #MumbaiUnseen #MumbaiCity #mumbai #thane

Not all plants are weeds. Not all introduced species are invasive. And even the so called 'notorious' invasives support native wildlife in the ecologically disturbed habitats of our great cities.

📸 30 MAR 2023 (11:49 hrs.) near #mulund East, #mumbai.

#naturalhistory #MumbaiUnseen #wildlife #invasiveplants #invasives #weedscience

Here's why - see this tiny butterfly laying eggs on it? That's a native butterfly - Zizina otis, also known as the 'Lesser Grass Blue'.

A diminutive butterfly which flies low among grasses, and settles frequently to feed on low growing flowers.

And it's butterflies like these, which pollinate every second morsel of food we eat.

And that's why this unremarkable little weed, bearing tiny pink flower matters.

For the butterfly. And you.

#pollinators #MumbaiUnseen

A Giant Asian Mantis (#Hierodula sp.) stalks a tropical milkweed bush, hoping to nab an alfresco meal (read: any bug it can murder), while keeping a wary eye on clueless bystanders oblivious to it's existence.

Preying mantids perform an invaluable job of free pest control, improving the quality of our lives in our great cities.

📸 30 MAR 2023 (12:19 hrs.) at #mulund East, #mumbai, #india.

#entomology #insects #insectsofmastodon #InsectsOfTheFediverse #mantis #naturalhistory #MumbaiUnseen

Lesser grass jewel (Zizina otis).

A diminutive butterfly which flies low among grasses, settling frequently to feed on low growing flowers.

Flight delicate.

📸 Feb 28, 2022 (17:24 hrs.) at Hanging Gardens, Malabar Hill, South Bombay.

#mumbai #MumbaiUnseen #Bombay #urbanwildlife #butterfly #butterflies #entomology #nature #insects

#African #Baobab #tree (Adansonia digitata), at #Mumbai's #AareyMilkColony.

A rare sight in Mumbai city (only nine species of Baobab trees exist the world over), these gentle giants offer much needed food and shelter to native wildlife.

📸 Two days before #ValentinesDay - 12 FEB (08:20 hrs.) at #AareyColony, #Bombay.

#TreesofMumbai #MumbaiUnseen #BombayMeriJaan.