Parasitized item captured by a Prothonotary Warbler on a willow.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37371795 Hatched today.
CRG 457
Spot the cocoon if you can. 😅
Caterpillar: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37706709
Beautiful golden brackets on restio clumps.
recently burnt clay gravels, common; nectar drops visited by ants
Lifer
15 flowering plants. Growing on a very steep south facing seasonally wet slope. seem to be multi-stemmed.
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.
Most likely ID based on Manning 2019. Area and ovary almost obscured by stamens. But hairless and flowers deep pink.
Slug moth caterpillar on Kiggelaria
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
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
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!
I know it's a Mantis Shrimp, just not sure which one.
A couple of otters feeding in a little inlet at Olifantsbos provided a rich reward for iNatting actvities during the City Nature Challenge 2019
Video here: https://youtu.be/0BmSevhiQQk
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
CRG: 149
Food plant: Cymbopogon caesius
Chrysalis: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/22770428
Butterfly: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23145276
Perhaps? Listed as VU
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.
Pic 1&2: Day 0 (18th Oct 2018): found crawling across the sand. approx 4cm
Pic 3 Day 24 (12th Nov 2018)
Pic 4 Day 46 (4th Dec 2018)
Pic 5 Day 69 (27th Dec 2018) looking a bit yellow and thin
Two sets of what I believe are eggs. I think the top are hemipterans but unsure of what the bottom group are.
Erica with tubular flowers that are slightly restricted below the mouth. Ovary hairy and broadly round. Anthers with appendages.Just one plant on the path growing near E.pillansi.
dragon fly eyes friendly hawker/Zosteraeschna minuscula
It was a cold morning, so I could quietly do some stacking on a tripod of this dragon fly against the wall.
CR 58
Food plant: Crocosmia aurea leaves
Caterpillar: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18052270
!!!
Washed out naked mole rat. Heavy rains/flooding the night before, and found in a seasonal river. May be bloated.
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.
The whole population were fairly large flowered and completely violet/mauve in colour.
Almost 40 species went into the Bridal Bouquet.
What were they?
Almost all have featured on iSpot, specifically in the two sequences of collecting the flowers ...
Bouquet and boutonnieres made by Fiona Powrie of Dragonstones
The Bridesmaid Spiderheads ended up in the boutonnieres and the table flowers were spartan but effective.
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 stunning slug-like caterpillar eating a Protea roupelliae leaf on a mountain slope
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!
Dicyrtomina ornata (Nicolet, 1842), extracted from oak litter using Berlese funnel, Utterslev Mose, Søborg, Denmark, 11-14 March 2018
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.