Houwhoek Merciera of another kind

This beautiful showy plant is the "Pride of Hermanus." Erect, semi-spreading shrublet up to 60cm. Leaves stiff, down-curved in 4's. Flowers in umbels, purplish-pink, corolla long with white frilly bib. Very sticky corolla, however the the bib is not sticky. This I am told is to allow the pollinator to enter.

Lifer
20mm
two of them found in the same gully, 5metres apart.
Better pics here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28822353
Gif of it shooting its slime in the typical spiral. normal speed and then slowed down

Brutally efficient

Assume it's "L5's" father - adult bird, no apparent rings (both L5 and her huge mother are ringed).
See the unfortunate Bushbuck here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28981153
Picture credit: Stanley, via Mary McKenzie

Porseleinberg kitten

I must have seen a hundred or more burrows in three small sites on this day. We finally managed to entice one inhabitant out by tickling her tonsils with a blade of grass, it felt just like playing with a kitten as she grabbed hold of the grass and pawed in our direction. I've never been patient enough to get a burrowing spider out in the open but not even vynbos's terrified squeals could perturb this one.

Is it a fish? Is it a slug? Is it a fishy anemone? I do not have a clue what this is!

It is about 30mm long and there were a few of them in the sand - outgoing tide nearly on the turn. Most were buried and only the "fan fin" was showing.

Resting on the wet sand, when the sand collapsed it arched it's face upwards (2nd and third photos) and seem to spawn capsule from somewhere - there are 2 floating in the 4th pic.

Totally hypnotic, by the time my sister-in-law and I carried on the brother had walked 2kms away from us!

A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.

CRG: 150

A very rare and a very special sight. I will give rearing it a bash.

Chrysalis: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21991269

Butterfly: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/22649191

Kleinmond swamp monster shows its true colour at last

Creepy succulent appears to favour the more puddly parts of sandy, peaty, marshy reserve on the rocks between Palmiet neighbourhood and its beach. First noticed on 2013's great Erepsia Quest with Prix and Stevo, but I could never find more than a few clusters of densely creepy leaves until now. The same creepy leaves have also been spotted further inland next to a sandy footpath that often gets briefly flooded in winter, I'm curious to see if they are flowering too.

Redlisted as Vulnerable, Data Deficient. Part of Kleinmond's protected coastal reserve.

Kleinmond yellow pea

Cape Dune Mole-rat

I didn't realise how large they were, or at least this one was big, the size of a dassie. I saw it strolling along and followed it. It turned and came right at me. Although they have eyes, this one seemed blind, and couldn't see me. He then took a leisurely dig into an existing sand heap, and sped up a bit when I made some noises.
You can see the full video here.

Cederberg Cave Katydid

Someone in our party had stumbled upon these huge 'cave crickets' on an earlier trip, and took us to see them. I was expecting a cricket, and was delighted to instead see huge katydids. This female was 60mm with her ovipositor. With her long legs spread out, was 150mm, her antennae as long again. They move quietly in the dark chambers made by a water course passing through boulders.
Getting home and looking it up I was happy to see that they were described by Piotr Naskrecki. He says they aren't predatory but move out of the caves at night and eat plants. These are the only known cave-dwelling katydids, from his blog:
"they are highly gregarious, often found in clusters of 20-30 individuals of various ages. The caves they prefer are cold, maintaining the chilly temperature of 12°C (54°F) throughout the year. Their habitat cannot be occupied by bats or hyraxes, which probably quickly do away with the tasty, surprisingly very slow-moving insects, thus limiting the number of available caves (interestingly, when exposed to higher temperatures they become phenomenal jumpers)."

Pics 1 - 4 taken 4 May, four hours apart. Pics 5 and 6, taken 5 and 8 May. Sometimes there is something else in the nest, sometimes not.
Newly added, best shot I could get of the insect in the nest.
Pic 7 14 May, caterpillar appears to be mostly eaten.
Pic 8 15 May

A movement on the road caught my eye and on approaching was thinking of either something had caught a chameleon or it was injured and thrashing about in death throes. They were absolutely still after this flurry of movement, just eyes moving. One brief flurry again, followed by another long period of almost absolute motionless, another brief flurry and they parted. Never seen one as pitch black as the female, marking around the eyes standing out almost as clearly as under UV light. Both returned to more normal colours rapidly after parting, both removed by hand to the relative safety of near by shrubs. Total time actually witnessed 1 hour and 5 minutes, but I believe from others that they started mating some time before that.
Comments of selling price of a breeding pair shocking at R12 000 or there abouts!

Just for interest, added cycad seeds being sorted . Nobody seems to know who brought them in or where they came from, but many of the seeds have similar holes, similarly empty. None of our cycads have cones now, so thinking this beastie came in with the seeds.