Draco Feeding on Weaver ant

[Roopak Gangadharan]

A series of images showing a Draco feeding on weaver ants. This Female was so well camouflaged that it was hard to make it out in the viewfinder and focus. The images are random selection from a set and are not shot in a single sequence. This was made in the garden of my home in calicut outskirts. This Clearly shows that Dracos also display the gular pouch while feeding

Rgds
Roopak

1. Cast

[Roopak Gangadharan]

If you look closer you will see 2 weaver ants coming down the tree trunk.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

The ant is within range

[Roopak Gangadharan]

There seems to be some saliva on the Dracos mouth tip.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

The tongue is out and the ant is still on the tree trunk.The action was lightening quick and this the best i could do.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

The tongue is back in and the ant is history.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Display starts

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Full display

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lovely series Roopak!

The display is happening after swallowing? How many seconds did the display last? Did it display after swallowing each ant? This is pretty interesting. I urge our fellow photographers to wait and capture such action rather than needlessly chasing the mega fauna all the time.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice observation. Good you could document the whole behavior. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Sir,
The display was after swallowing and lasted for about a second. It did display ever time it fed immediately after swallowing but in between it also displayed a few times. I specifically checked all around to see if there were any other individuals male or female but there were none and also observed the behaviour being repeated on 4 other occasions. In fact this female seems regular visitor to our garden.

would like to add that the courtship display of the female seemed a bit longer than the one while it fed. I have recorded a similar series of the courtship display of the male and female and mating. Will post that soon.

Rgds
Roopak

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Brilliantly done Roopak! This is certainly a very valuable natural history record. Never knew about the gular display while feeding. When was this recorded? Also, does it show a specific preference to weaver ants?
A video (if possible next time) would be lovely too.
TFS

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Abhishek : Ive seen this particular female on the same tree (jackfruit) which almost always has some weaver ants on it, so I guess this is a oft used feeding spot. Not sure about preference for weaver ants. Will try and make a video soon.

Rgds
Roopak