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Wildbuzz | The shopping bug
The panicky bug landed on the back of my neck as I was shopping along with my better half; kittens of smaller wild cats such as the Jungle cat (JC) and Rusty Spotted cat can be mistaken as leopard cubs and are killed or removed from the spot – away from the mother leading to their death
Festive season shoppers are left dazzled by fabrics and colours at the iconic Fabindia store in Chandigarh’s Sector 17. But for a humble bug, it must have been a decidedly bewildering odyssey as it flew from one rainbow stack of fabrics to another. How the disoriented insect had intruded into the santised store, where even houseflies may not dare, remains a mystery. Either it had slipped in through a vent or possibly got carried in a fabric consignment from outstation.
The panicky bug landed on the back of my neck as I was shopping along with my better half. I dislodged it with my hand thinking it to be a housefly. When it landed on fabrics, I realised it was an unusual insect and was struck by the novelty of its presence among the haloed fabrics. Having grasped its predicament, and sensing it to be a plant eater, I removed it and placed it within thickly-foliaged plants outside the store.
I contacted the Zoological Survey of India’s Dr. Sandeep Khushwaha as he has authored research papers on such insect families. “The insect belongs to the family, Rhopalidae, genus, Leptocoris. Your record is the first one of this from Chandigarh. It is commonly known as the soap plant bug. The 41 species of Leptocoris are distributed through Africa, South Asia and Oceania, and can be used as a biocontrol for environmental weeds,” informed Dr. Khushwaha.
Demons lie in beholder’s eye
In an area reeling under the terror of a leopard man-eater, smaller wild cat species face collateral damage under the mistaken notion that these are the progeny of the spotted marauder. Kittens of smaller wild cats such as the Jungle cat (JC) and Rusty Spotted cat can be mistaken as leopard cubs and are killed or removed from the spot – away from the mother leading to their death.
Indeed, JC kittens may look like leopard cubs at a cursory first sight but they are very different. JC kittens are striped, brownish in colour and their ears have a kind of a tip in contrast to the more rounded ears of a leopard cub. However, these distinctions may not be so marked when JC kittens are extremely young and their stripes may seem like spots and their ears are yet to develop a marked tip. So, it is best to verify the species by involving experts.
In a recent, heartwarming incident amid the gloom enveloping Kashmir, a trio of JC kittens unearthed from near the DC Office, Budgam, was handed over to the Police by a panicky mob fearing them to be the man-eater’s offspring and the augury of more human kills in future years. Budgam is faced with a man-eating leopard, which had killed a girl.
The good thing was that, unlike in the past, when the Budgam people had quietly dislodged JC kittens, this time around they were handed over to the authorities. Wildlife SOS’s rescue personnel, Aaliya Mir, was summoned. Mir first made the anxious people aware that these were not leopard cubs. Later, with the people’s cooperation, she reunited the kittens with their distraught mother.
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