WINTER 2024

 WINTER 2024

That was winter, then. Very dry indeed! The rivers are critically low at the moment as everything waits in anticipation for the first rains of the season. All are struggling: When I walk through the grasslands almost every single rock has been overturned by baboons searching for arthropods because there is just no available nutritious vegetation that they can get their hands on; The warthogs too, although it is more normal in the winter, are rooting with their snouts because there is no above-ground vegetable nutrition available. Even usual evergreens like the ubiquitous Ouhout and the Dogwood Shiny Leaf seem to have had larger leaf die-off than usual for the dry season. The last rain we had was on the tenth of April, almost five months ago! And, as I mentioned in the previous edition, the first few months of the year were drier than usual too, because of our friend, El Nino!

And so, the total precipitation over the estate for the last rainy season, ending at the end of August, was: The lowest, 535mm, measured at Patrick's gate on the western edge of the estate; 743mm, measured at the hatchery by the office, in the center of the estate; the highest, 867mm, measured at Pebble Creek on the extreme northern side of the estate; 804mm, measured at Rock Solid on the eastern side of the estate; and another low figure of 697mm, measured at Rainbow Rivers down on the southern side of the estate; bringing the average rainfall figure, for Finsbury Estate, to 729mm, the third lowest figure for a season since we started measuring rainfall in 2010, and way below the mean average of 920mm per annum.

The opening photo above shows how dry and hazy it has been lately, with the summit of Mount Anderson in the distance. Winds have been howling and the threat of fire has been great. The photo was taken, by me, at the beginning of August when Nick Moore from Rock Solid and I decided to sleep over on top of Goudkoppies. The following day we hiked along the edge of the Goudkoppies flats and this is where we decided to stop off for a quick cup of tea.

I don't want to get my hopes up, but the long-range forecast suggests a wet spring and early summer which will certainly be welcome.

There were certainly very cold snaps, where it got down to minus three in the mornings, during the winter, but it was generally quite a mild one. One freezing morning, though, the labour team called me over to show me something they were very excited about. They were working on the little weir wall at the weir on the driveway to Rainbow Creek (unit 2), and they took me behind into the bush on the other side of the stream where a water pipe had a spraying leak. The resulting landscape was like something out of a fantasy movie! The photo doesn't do it justice, it was like an icy wonderland!

In the middle of May, I encountered the new male leopard that has been sighted on and around the estate in recent times. It was certainly one of the best leopard sightings I've had at Finsbury to date, with the large male walking right past my Landrover!

It's quite a story because I had my daughter and her beau visiting me from the United States during this time and we had just returned from our first visit to the Kruger Park where we managed to see good sightings of lion and an excellent cheetah sighting, which provided an exciting and satisfying first safari experience for the boyfriend. We didn't see leopard, though, and my daughter told her friend that there was always a chance we would see a leopard at Finsbury while they were staying here (I, of course, rolled my eyes, thinking: fat chance!)

BUT, when I saw this great sighting, I was returning from a shopping trip from town on my own, with daughter and company back at the central area in my house!

I bumped the large male leopard in Highland Run, just before the entrance gate to Finsbury near "The Crofts" (unit 19). Just after he strolled nonchalantly past my vehicle, I rushed home to collect my visitors but knowing that the chances of finding him again would be slim. Unbelievably, we managed to find him again, as he was marking his territory by spraying urine close to the cleared area in Highland Run, just below the cottage. What great luck!

He looks like a bit of a "roffie", because he has a very scarred face, meaning he is not shy to get into a fight with rivals. I featured this male in my SUMMERTIME! blog, posted on 9 February 2024, where I posted a picture of him, taken by one of our trophy cameras, at K24. This was the first sign of him in our area. I also posted a photo, taken by our neighbours, of him and our dominant male together, facing off! According to our neighbour, he was dominated by our big male, and so we thought it would be the last we see of him. It seems it is not to be. When we saw him in Highland Run, he was actively marking territory, a direct challenge to our current male.

It looks like we have had a changing-of-the-guard on the estate...

Talking of visitors, we had an interesting visitor to K9, only for two days, though, in the middle of winter. A Greylag Goose, Anser anser, the type species of goose in the world. Yes, this is the goose, found in England, Europe and Asia, that occurs in all the fables and nursery rhymes from our childhood! This is the wild ancestor to the domestic goose, domesticated in Europe between 2500 and 1360 BCE. 

Don called me on the radio one morning to say there was a large goose at K9, which he was struggling to identify. On approaching K9, the first thing I noticed was its large size. This immediately led me to think that it must be a Spur-winged goose, South Africa's largest goose. Later, Don sent me a message with a picture of a Greylag goose, which he had found on the internet. To be honest, I had never even heard of a Greylag goose before!

Anyway, I decided to try to approach the bird for a photograph, keeping in mind that a goose can be an aggressive animal if it chooses. I was surprised, though, that the goose allowed me to approach very closely, before threatening me, allowing me to get some nice photographs! This obviously means that it is used to the presence of humans, and it had just strayed from its normal home for a while.

These geese are herbivores that graze on grasses that grow underwater, like The Floating Clubrush, Isolepis fluitans, that one can see waving slowly below the surface in some of the weirs, or the Fennel-leaved Pondweed, Stuckenia pectinata, that likes to clog up the hatchery raceways. They also graze the grasses along the banks of the rivers. Once a mate is found, the pair will remain together until death do them part, which suggests that this was a single youngster, or an established adult that has lost his / her mate in some tragic event.

I have featured lichens in many of these publications in the past. Mainly because they are such a good example of mutual symbiosis, which is when two organisms work together for the benefit of both parties (compare to parasitism, where one species benefits while the other is negatively affected; or commensalism, where one species benefits while the other is unaffected), but also because they are beautiful, due to their often bright colours and bizarre growth forms. Jirre! It's just crazy how life pushes to the extreme just to exist!

In cross-section, the uppermost layer in most lichens, the part exposed to the elements, consists of tightly woven fungal hyphae (In normal fungi like mushrooms, the hyphae are the string-like strands that run through the soils, absorbing nutrients and moisture). This outer layer of hyphae is called the cortex. Beneath this tough protective layer of hyphae, or the cortex, is a layer of photobiont, usually consisting of algae, or sometimes a cyanobacterium, whose function it is to produce sugars through the process of photosynthesis. The following layer in cross section is a layer of more loosely woven fungal hyphae that offers structural support, and then, in foliose lichens particularly, there is a final layer that consists of rhizines, fungal hyphae designed to anchor the lichen body to the substrate, be it rock or bark of a tree. 

In addition to the two species already taking part in the deal, many lichens also incorporate a third species of organism: a yeast. The function of the yeast is to produce bitter-tasting chemicals which act as a defensive mechanism to ward off predators like lichen-grazing bagworms (see blog of February 2020) or Booklice from the Psocodea order of insects (see blog of Winter 2023).

The three major growth forms of lichens are FOLIOSE, which look like leafy scales that usually adorn the bark of trees but also occur on rocks. Then there are FRUTICOSE lichens that have branches hanging from them. The third major growth form is CRUSTOSE, which grow like a crust on rocks and sometimes tree bark. These three growth forms can be subdivided into many different sub-forms. The lichen pictured above, that looks like yellow spray paint, is one of the simplest types of CRUSTOSE lichens called Powdered Gold-dust lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris. This, the finest of the crustose lichens, is classified as a leprose crustose lichen. The growth form is so simple that it doesn't form the layers in cross-section as described above, but simply consists of an irregular blend of hyphae and randomly scattered photobiont cells, lacking a cortex and rhizines. It doesn't even produce apothecia, the disc-shaped structures that produce the reproductive spores of the fungal part of the organism. Instead, it is rubbed off mechanically by the feet of animals or it drifts in the wind to attach to another substrate, where it will take hold and continue growing.

The simple design of this lichen means that it cannot accommodate a yeast population for defense purposes. Instead, it produces its own bright yellow usnic acid which is believed repel predators with its bitter taste. It is also believed that usnic acid has sun block properties and protects the exposed lichen from harmful UV-B rays, but this species is often associated with shade, so the former suggestion makes more sense.

These are another two examples of crustose lichens, the bright orange Firedot lichen, Caloplaca cinnabarina (see blog of May 2019) and, below the tip of the pen, Crescent Map lichen, Rhizocarpon lecanorinum, both of which have a cortex and a layered construction. 

The bright, cinnamon colour of the Firedot lichen is a result of the presence of a chemical called parietin, which protects the lichen from harmful UV-B rays, like the usnic acid in the species described before this. Parietin also has other functions that are advantageous to the organism, like usnic acid in the previously described species: The chemical also has antibacterial and antifungal properties that protect the organism from bacterial and fungal attack

In the Crescent Map lichen, the little black patches are the apothecia, the disks that produce the reproductive spores of the fungal component of the organism. These lichens develop a "cracked mud" appearance during the dry season as they desiccate, which disappear when the lichen absorbs water again when the rains fall. Also being exposed to full sun all day, Crescent map lichen also requires a sun screen and this is supplied by the presence of rhizocarpic acid, which is synthesised by exposure to ultraviolet radiation. 

This beautiful lichen, called Flathair lichen, Teleschistes puber, is an example of a FRUITICOSE lichen. Not the best example because fruticose lichens usually grow in semi or full shade and are a greyish-greenish colour. This species has a bright colour and resides in more inhospitable environments. I photographed this lichen growing on a gnarled Spikethorn tree growing on a rocky outcrop up on the edge of Nosey Point up on Goudkoppies. The lichen is constantly exposed to extreme sun and high winds!

Once again, the bright colour of the lichen is caused by the presence of anthraquinones, which act as a sunscreen. The synthesis of this chemical allowed these fruticose lichens to colonise much more inhospitable habitats than in those habitats they commonly occurred in. The benefits of this chemical are well illustrated by the fact that they are used in the production of dyes and are responsible for their light-fastness!

And once again, the pretty orange disks are the apothecia that produce the fungal spores that will drift in the wind, or be splashed away by raindrops, hoping to come into contact with the appropriate algal element of the relationship to form a new lichen. 

Tree Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria, featured in my blog of January 2020, is a FOLIOSE lichen that grows in shaded areas on the bark of trees. This lichen is the result of a mutually symbiotic relationship between a fungus, an algae AND a cyanobacterium, forming a single organism that incorporates representatives of three different kingdoms of organisms!

This lichen is very sensitive to pollution and disruptions and its population has declined dramatically in the past few decades and is now considered endangered in many areas.

The species accommodates two types of photobiont, a blue-green algae and a green algae which supply carbohydrates to the organism, while a blue-green cyanobacteria fixes nitrogen in the atmosphere for the benefit of the organism. Very industrious indeed!

Tree Lungwort is, like most lichens, very long lived, and only produces apothecia after about twenty-five years of age! Before this, though, the lichen can reproduce vegetatively. During the dry season, when the thallus is completely desiccated, it can become very brittle and pieces can break off and travel to a different location by the wind. Once the rains return, these desiccated pieces of the lichen will rehydrate, anchor itself suitably, and continue to grow.

There is so much more in the world of lichens. I will endeavor to understand them better. It's hard, because they are extremely complex for my little brain to comprehend. But, wow, they are so prevalent on the estate, everywhere! 

Oh goody! Another great photograph supplied by Dave DeVos from "The Croft's" (unit 19). This time it is of a Plain-backed Pipit, Anthus leucophrys, I think, taken on the dry, rocky slopes along the concrete two-track between Patrick's gate and that unit.

I say "I think" because it's a tough one: The Plain-backed Pipit is almost indistinguishable from the Buffy Pipit, Anthus vaalensis, with which it often shares a habitat. They are even found amongst each other at popular sights! According to the various distribution maps that I consulted, there is more chance that this is the Plain-backed because the Buffy prefers it drier than here, and not as high up so, I'm not sure if their local distributions overlap in this particular area.

 The pinkish mandibular base, clearly visible in Dave's photo, however, is, according to descriptions, more characteristic of the Buffy (the Plain-backed has a more yellow mandibular base). But, when I check the photos at various sources, they both seem to have pinkish bases. Only in a few pictures did the Plain-backed have a yellow base. Phew! It kills me!

Anyway, when I walk in the rocky grasslands near this sighting, the sparrow-like call of the Plain-backed as the pair move from rock to rock is unmistakable. I know this because I had my tablet with me, like, a fortnight ago, and I played the call on my birding app while the real birds were calling, and it was identical. The call of the Buffy is similar, but very different if you compare them side by side.

Even their behaviour is similar. It is said that they both cock and wag their tales, but the Plain-backed does not cock the tail above the horizontal, whereas the Buffy does. Gee, lots of very slight differences to observe.

Additionally, Roberts' says that the Buffy is an uncommon resident and nomad, while it says the Plain-backed is a common resident and nomad. So, if Buffy do occur here, then I'm not sure about the species, but the Plain-backed definitely does occur here. I'll put my money on the Plain-backed Pipit.

You've got to be bad if the scientific name applied to your species spells it out bluntly! This is a soldier Common Fungus-growing termite, Odontotermes badius, and the "badius" does refer to the fact that they are bad. Bad for you if you have a wooden house, that's for sure. Whenever and wherever you are on the estate, if you see a layer of mud covering the bark on a tree, or a wooden stump on the floor, even covering a pile of herbivore droppings, you can be sure that, beneath that mud, are a portion of a colony of these termites eating the wood away. 

It's a little sad actually, because these insects do absolutely no harm to any living thing. They are also very important in the ecological system in any environment as soil aerators and nutrient recyclers. The problem comes in because we like to build things with dead wood, and dead wood is to these termites what sugar is to ants. They don't actually eat the wood, though, as it would not provide enough nutrition to keep the termites alive, so they have had to make a plan.

 So, the termites gather up and chew wood and other dead vegetation and bring it into a group of chambers strategically positioned within the nest so that they remain at a relatively constant temperature with a consistently high moisture content. They pile the vegetation on top of itself, using the chewed vegetation to cement it and their faeces to fertilise it, until it forms a shape that is not unlike a human brain. Because the conditions are so favourable, Termitomyces microcarpus fungus grows on the vegetation, consuming it. The termites, when they require high quality food to raise special castes like reproductives or secondary / tertiary queens, harvest the fungus and feed it to the relevant larvae. The definition of farming! 

Unlike the Macrotermes fungus-growing termites from the Kruger Park, with the huge mounds pointing into the sky, this genus' species' nests are deeper in the ground and do not have a mound. Sometimes there is a dome-shaped rise in the ground above a nest, but I have not noticed any in the estate to date. The only times I have managed to pin-point a nest is when I have found a colony of the correct species of mushrooms growing on a certain spot, and beneath that spot there is sure to be a termite colony's nest.

Most species of fungus that grow inside termite mounds produce long pseudorhizas that reach to the surface of the ground when they are ready to produce a fruiting body, but these tiny mushrooms don't need to because the Common Fungus-growing termite, around the middle of summer, when the time is right for the fungus, removes pieces of fungus from the garden and transports them outside of the nest and places them onto the ground where the fungi will produce fruiting bodies (mushrooms). It's almost like the termites have a conscious respect for the fungus. We certainly could learn a bit from them!

The mushrooms are not just edible for us, but much tastier than normal Denny's mushrooms too! And, although they are small, they are usually plentiful where they occur. I harvested a bunch of them and enjoyed the taste when they were raw so much, that I had finished them by the time I returned home so could not cook them to taste. (see my blog of Christmas 2021 to see a photograph of the mushrooms)

Even though it gets really cold in parts of South Africa, our snakes do not hibernate like those in the northern climes, so it is certainly not unusual to see a snake out and about on a sunny winter's day. This is a Rhombic Skaapsteker, Psammophylax rhombeatus, and I stumbled upon it on one of my hikes this last month. It did not want me to take a photo of it and tried to bite me a few times as I manipulated it for the intended photoshoot. You can see its mouth half open, hoping I would put my hand close enough!

If it had bitten me, it would not be a problem because, although they do have an elapid-like neurotoxic venom, it is very mild and would have very little effect on a large mammal like a human. Or a sheep for that matter! The misnomer "Skaapsteker" (translated to Sheep Biter) was applied to this snake erroneously as the culprit for the deaths of sheep a long time ago. The snake responsible was probably the Cape Cobra, a much more secretive, and dangerous snake.

Its venom, though, is very effective on its target prey, which includes small mammals, birds and reptiles. It is a daytime hunter and actively searches for, and pursues, its chosen prey. After a rapid chase, the snake bites the victim and then follows it as it is quickly overcome by the venom. Once it has succumbed, the snake swallows it whole, headfirst.

The gravid Rhombic Skaapsteker lays two dozen or more eggs under leaf litter, rocks, or other suitable cover, and returns to the sight to protect and incubate the eggs, often by shivering on top of the eggs to create a bit of heat, for at least a few weeks after laying. This sort of parental care is very rare in reptiles, particularly snakes. I have heard that African Rock pythons also incubate their eggs, but to a lesser degree.

They are quite big, reaching up to a meter long, but usually forty to sixty centimeters long, active in the day, and highly mobile, so are one of the more common snakes sighted on Finsbury estate. 

As I have mentioned before, I love it when I manage to get photos of both the caterpillar and the moth / butterfly of the same species onto my files. This is the caterpillar and adult moth of a Temnora pylades, with an odd English name of Gate Temnora. These moths belong to the Sphingidae or Hawkmoth Family and, like many family members, are important night time pollinators of many plants that have white flowers that are open at night, like our Wild Jasminum species, Evening Primroses and others.

The caterpillars are characteristically smooth with a short, upright horn at the end of the body, and although they are quite well camouflaged, they also pull their heads into an inflated body and display eyespots by the tail that surely can give a potential predator a scare.

The female, when ready, searches out and finds a plant with the awkward name of Anthospermum welwitschii (no common name), on which she lays a large batch of eggs. After hatching, the caterpillars eat exclusively from this plant in the Coffee family until it is ready to spin a cocoon and pupate.

Well, this was quite a fun experience for me. A while back, I can't even remember when, I was leading a hike below the east-facing cliffs of Goudkoppies near Nosey point, when I noted a Mount Anderson Everlasting shrub growing in an inaccessible portion of the cliff. I promptly forgot about this and carried on with life. Why I was so blase is still not completely clear to me, because it was actually quite a significant find: The Mount Anderson Everlasting, Helichrysum summo-montanum, is a near endemic, meaning it only occurs in a small area, in this case a few hundred hectares, on the entire planet! 

I have blogged about this plant before (blog of August 2020), and Louise Twiggs, our treasured Finsbury artist, has even painted the only individual that was near our boundary in water colour. The painting is on display on the wall of the office. Unfortunately, the devastating twenty-eighteen fire destroyed this specimen.

This discovery, though, is even more important because it consists of a colony of, at least, nine individuals slap-bang in the middle of Finsbury Estate property! A newly discovered colony - outside of the established distribution circle, which is along the watershed between our valleys and the Sabie valley (I did hear, though, that one of the MTPA botanists did see one of these individuals a few years ago during a bioblitz from Mount Anderson Ranch - but it was not mapped)

Anyway, when I was hiking along the watershed this winter and saw some of these magnificent plants in full bloom, I suddenly remembered about the vague sighting of the plant that I had on that hike along the base of the Goudkoppies cliffs and made it my mission to relocate it and, hopefully, photograph it while it was in bloom. I did a hike with some fine folks from Finsbury House and scoured the incorrect portion of the cliffs. I then went on my own, one day, and found the elusive plant together with a bunch of smaller specimens. They were in full bloom!

The problem now, was to get a close-up photograph of the magnificent flowers. Problem? Why? Because they were attached to a bush anchored to a sheer cliff dangerously high. I attempted to climb from the bottom and got to a point where, on looking down, I began to tremble and doubt my sanity. I then tried to get a visual from the top and, very quickly, ran out of nerves as I approached the cliff edge!

When Nick Moore and I went camping up on Goudkoppies recently (refer to the opening photograph), the reason I chose the spot we stayed at, was because I wanted to see if, together, Nick and I would be able to get a photograph of this plant. Alas, Nick also thought it would be very silly to try and approach the bush for a photo - too dangerous! What to do?

I finally arrived at a solution and managed to borrow Charles Stewart's (unit 16 Jackpot Cottage) drone. Good stuff! so I took the drone up with me the following week and, believably, I forgot to bring along the cord that connects the controller to the cellphone! So I could fly the drone, but not see what I was photographing. I tried anyway but failed dismally.

The following two days were extremely windy and not suitable for piloting a drone. Finally, the day arrived, and I went out there early in the morning when the wind was at its slowest in a long time. I sent the drone up and immediately attracted the attention of a murder of about a dozen crows! They were very interested in the drone, and I got a pretty good video of them circling it while flying. Fortunately, they didn't attack the drone and I managed to get some pretty good images of the shrub with its flowers wide open, as above!

Beautiful! And the scientific name too. It translates to: GOLDEN SUN ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP.

It looks like winter is finally coming to an end, although there is still frost on the floor some morning, even though September has arrived. Everything is waiting for the rains to arrive. Life is ready to explode on the estate and I'm ready for it! Can't wait to see you all.

SUMMER'S END 2024

 SUMMER'S END 2024

Gee, my last update included lots and lots of water! Rain and more rain. I even said one must be careful of what one wishes for! Well, since then, there has been almost nothing... nada... bupkis! It looks like El Nino really racked it up against us for the latter half of the summer. So again, as in the previous blog, the rainfall switched completely after I called it. From the end of January till now we've had an average of 190mm precipitation over the estate, which is only 57% of the average of 296mm that has fallen over the last eleven years! And so, it looks like we will have a cold, dry winter. Brrrr!

Little rainfall or not, as you can see in the photo above, taken from the eastern side of Mount Prospect, facing north, the Finsbury grasslands are in fine shape. The beautiful pink flowers in the photo are a Pink Watsonia, a bold plant closely related to Galdioli. The end of summer has been filled with lovely sightings of animals and plants, some of which I managed to capture with my little camera:

I didn't manage to get any photos, though, unfortunately, but for the duration of March and possibly before and after, there were thousands, indeed tens of thousands of bats on the estate, feeding off the sweet, tasty fruits of the Quilted Bluebush, Diospyros lycioides ssp. guerta, which seemed particularly bountiful this summer. After noticing this crowd of bats along the Spekboom river after a night walk, I returned a few times afterwards to try to get a photo of one of them but, alas, it proved to be too much of a challenge because I could never find one that was roosting or resting, and of course, light was very low. But they were there, every night, in their massive numbers! I am sure that they were Egyptian Rousettes (previously Egyptian Fruit Bat), Rousettus aegyptiacus, simply by their large size and numbers.

They spend the day roosting in their thousands in massive colonies in caves and, in our area, abandoned mine shafts, and in the evenings, will fly up to twenty-five kilometers to a food source for the night, only to return to their roosting spot by the following sunrise. They crawl along branches while collecting fruit that they usually eat at a favoured tree or roost. It usually takes no more than one hundred minutes for the fruit to pass through their digestive systems, making them eat more than one-and-a-half times their weight each night. Lots of droppings all over the Spekboom woodland floor! This makes them extremely important seed dispersal agents for the fruits being consumed. They also feed on nectar and are the sole pollinators for the Baobab tree and others (including Queen-of-the-night, an invasive cactus), which have large white flowers that only open at night.

Next season, if they return, I will make a concerted effort to photograph and record more information about them while they are on the estate.

Some of the things I encountered this summer were very small and archaic, like these springtails suspended in the water in the tiny rockpool in my rockery. They are tiny, less than a millimeter long!

It's exciting for me because Springtails are the most abundant of all macroscopic animals and, in suitable habitats, reach densities of one hundred thousand individuals per square meter and, even though I have known this, I had never seen one (and realised it) until now.

Another exciting thing is that, taxonomically, on our Finsbury Animalia list, this adds another Class (think kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species) to the sub-phylum Hexapoda on our list. It may be a bit silly, but I like to record stuff around me, and so I like lists. On our list, Arthropoda is one of the four phyla (singular phylum) in the kingdom Animalia, represented here on the estate. Then, the phylum Arthropoda is split into a further four (just coincidence) sub-phyla of arthropods represented here on Finsbury Estate. They are Myriapoda, which include our millipedes and centipedes; Crustacea, represented here by our Freshwater crabs and woodlice; Chelicerata, which include our spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, solifuges and harvestmen and then the Hexapoda, which, until now, only contained our insects. Now the hexapods on the estate include two classes, the more primitive Collembola (springtails), represented, so far by this single unidentified species from the Podamorpha order, and the class Insecta, of which we have well over three hundred species identified on our Finsbury list so far. The furthest I could get with the identity of these in the photo is the order Podamorpha (Plump springtails) and are easy to identify as such by the long but fat body with six abdominal segments and three thoracic segments. So, yes, it is silly. But taxonomically, for our list, it is very satisfying!

Now I say archaic because springtails are the unequivocal oldest known hexapod, from more than four hundred million years ago in the Devonian. That's a long time ago. When something is that primitive and not extinct means that is perfect for what it does. An example of a more iconic group would be sharks, perfect at what they do. unchanged forever.

The Springtails' common name is derived from the fact that most species have a folded, fork-like appendage (called a furcula) attached and folded beneath the fourth abdominal segment, dorsally. This appendage is held under tension and when danger is near, it is released and flicks the springtail into the air, helping it to escape the danger. The furcula is present only on the springtail species that live on the ground, not those that live underground or in water, like these ones.

They are mostly omnivorous, feeding on fungal spores, bacteria, rotifers, other collembolans, alga, mold and lichens too. they scavenge carcasses, eat detritus and even soil minerals. They also feed on fungal hyphae but are better known to introduce hyphae to the roots of plants, which connects plants to each other! They are fed on by many species of mites, some that specialise on collembolans alone. Also spiders, gastropods, fish and many insect species. 

They mate by a male providing a sperm package (spermatophore) to the female, either by pulling her over it or presenting it to her. They are also capable of parthenogenesis, where a female produces clones of herself, therefore not needing a male. This is a system which favours reproduction to the detriment of genetic diversity, which is risky for a species because there is little tolerance for environmental change, and so extinction is more possible with the introduction of disease or major habitat alteration.

A nice new addition to our list....

Another archaic specimen for our list! So, previously we established that the springtails are the most primitive of the hexapods, well, this is the Rock Bristletail from the Meinertellidae family, and it is the most primitive of all of the insects, which is also a class of the hexapoda, like the collembola (springtails) above. These guys were around before winged insects evolved wings, making them one of only two orders (under class and before family, taxonomically) of insects that do not have, or never have had, wings. 

I featured a Fishmoth (zygentoma order) in my blog of February 2022 and photographed a Firebrat (also zygentoma) not long afterwards, thinking they were the most primitive of the insects. Little did I know that the bristletails were from another, even more primitive order, the Archaeognatha. The name means "ancient jaw", referring to the fact that all arthropods more primitive than insects have a jaw that is attached by a single articulation, as opposed to a double, sturdier articulation. It is believed that the bristletails were the transition, because they have simpler, albeit double, joints on the jaw. 

It is a remarkably beautiful animal. You need to download the photo or find another one that you can zoom into to appreciate the beauty of this creature. It is adorned with long, multi-coloured hanging scales like a sequined dress. Its compound eyes are huge, and its limbs resemble those of a lobster, with spider-like pedipalps. Oh, and like the springtails, they can use their tails (instead of a furcula) to flick their bodies a foot into the air when trying to avoid predators. Love them.

They are herbivores and feed on algae, moss and lichen, in this case mostly lichen because I found it on the Miner's cottage road, on the dry, rocky banks far from the mountain streams. With no wings, permanent water was way too far for this one. The breeding system is similar to the springtails and the more primitive arthropods like spiders, scorpions etcetera, guiding a female over a spermatophore presented or deposited by the male. Eggs are laid in cracks and crevices and when the young hatch, they look like the adults and just moult as they get bigger. Unlike the other more primitive insects, though, the bristletails never stop moulting, even after sexual maturity, which is only attained after about two years. In fact, after sexual maturity, they will mate between each moult until they are about four years old, when they expire.

And just to end this whole ancient thing, as a special treat, I thought I would introduce you to the most primitive land plant in existence, a Liverwort! This one is called a Bonfire Liverwort, Marchantia berteroana, quite widespread on the estate in the moister areas, especially splash spots along the beautiful mountain streams. This photo was taken on the banks of the spring situated at the southern base of Mount Prospect, where the fresh, crystal-clear waters come out from the ground, north and quite high above Rock Solid (unit 22).

Although the oldest Liverwort fossil date back to three hundred and eighty-five million years ago, spores in Argentina are dated at four hundred and seventy million years ago! Once again, very old.

Liverworts have a similar life cycle to mosses, in that they produce spores instead of seeds. In seed-bearing plants, the haploid stage (when there is only one set, either male or female, of chromosomes that needs to pair with another of the opposite sex before reproduction can take place) is very brief, only occurring in the pollen (male gamete) or in the ovule (female gamete). So, the cells in the normal plants you see are diploid, meaning they have two sets (or more), both male and female, chromosomes in their nucleus. In the more primitive spore-bearing plants, the plant body you see (like in the photo above) contains only haploid cells, and they need to produce both male and female gametangia (sex organs), sometimes on the same plant, but in different plants in this case. Looking at the flowery-shaped gametangia on this plant, I would say it is a male.

So, when it is very wet and there is a layer of water covering the plants (even just a film of water), the male sperm from this plants' gametangia will swim in search of the eggs within the female gametangia of another plant. Once located, the sperm will enter the female gametangia and fertilise the eggs. Once fertilised, a diploid sporophyte is produced. This organ produces haploid spores that, once dispersed, will develop into a new haploid plant if the conditions are right and the cycle will begin again.

There we go, a representative of the oldest Hexapod and one of the oldest Insect and one of the oldest land plants all added to our Finsbury lists in one go. Lovely stuff! 

I will need to explain this photo: In the background is my finger which is holding a leaf from a Silvery Sugarbush upside down to expose this Ladybug emerging from its' pupal case, the spiny capsule with its door wide open against my fingertip. Look how shiny are those elytra (solidified forewings common to all beetles, Coleoptera, that close over the folded hind wings, used for flying, when land bound, to protect the wings and abdomen) as they are exposed to the outside world for the very first time!

I was clearing the Rock Kestrel trail and decided to have a break under one of those Sugarbushes that line the path on its descent towards K9. I noticed movement on the underside of the leaf above my head, and wow, this is what I saw!

I managed to narrow down identification to the tribe Chilocorini, which is between family and genus taxonomically, and, besides a bunch of physical differences between these and other ladybugs, the most notable is that these eat mainly scale insects, not aphids, which other Ladybugs are so very fond of.

Of the twenty-eight insect orders that are described, just above half are hemimetabolous, meaning the NYMPH that hatches from the egg resembles the adult and goes through a process of moults as they grow up into an adult. The more advanced other half are holometabolous, meaning the LARVAE that hatches from the egg looks entirely different to the adult and once suitably developed, enters a pupal stage where the larvae metamorphosises into an adult who then emerges from the pupal case as an adult. 

In the latter system, the larvae usually eat completely different foods to the adult, and this system ensures that the young do not compete with the adults and so allows a much larger population of the same species to exist in a smaller area.  

With Coccinellids, this is not the case. The nymphs, which are spiky, crawly little worms, and the adults, eat the same things: Aphids, or in the case of the chilocorini tribe, Scale insects. Perhaps this is because aphids and scales usually occur in massive numbers at the same place, crowded onto affected stems and branches where they suck the juices from their plant prey. This is surely the gardener's best friend!

Below are photos of the five orchid species I found this summer that are new to our Finsbury orchid list, bringing the number of orchid species found on the estate to fifty-four species, so far. How's that? Koel piesangs!

Disa fragrans - I didn't know that yellow and pink could go so well together, until I saw this bright flash of colour peeking out of the grasses just below the table-top of Goudkoppies, close to Nosey Point. Quite exceptional!

Disa saxicola - Found a colony of these clinging to the rocks (saxicola means to live on rocks) high above Serenity sundowner spot, on the most direct route from that spot to the summit of Mount Anderson. I had been searching for them for many years and so, this was especially rewarding for me.

Disperis stenoplectron - This was on our list before, but I had mis-identified it. The ones on our list are Disperis cooperi, and so it is really nice to actually have it on the list for real.

Eulophia leontoglossa - Stumbled across a couple of these bright yellow orchids in the open grassland northeast of Pebble Creek, near the old elephant migration path. The papillae on the upper side of the lip resembles a lion's tongue, with its rough papillae, hence the specific name "leontoglossa" (lion's tongue).

Disa klugei - This was also on our list before, but the photo I had of it was of the incorrect species (D. patula var. transvaalensis is very similar but common and widespread). A special orchid because it is a rare endemic known only from two localities, one of them being this area.

This is a Greater Dwarf Shrew, Suncus lixus, which I found scampering around K33 late one afternoon. It is a small mammal, although it is quite a bit bigger than your average-sized shrew, that resembles a mouse. They are not mice, though, not even rodents, the order to which all mice and rats belong. Before DNA sequencing was used to classify organisms, taxonomists used similar physical attributes in classification, usually skeletal features. Regarding mammals, the tooth structure was mainly used. This was quite an accurate way of doing it because, after subjecting mammals to DNA sequencing, it was found that there were not many changes in mammal taxonomy, meaning they got it right from the beginning (unlike with plants!). 

Rodents all have large incisor teeth that grow continuously, necessitating them to continually gnaw on things to avoid their teeth growing so long, that they would not be able to close their mouths. Lagomorphs, rabbits and hares, also have these teeth but also have a unique digestive system (refer the article at the end of the previous blog: Summertime 2024*), so they have been classified into a different order, with which DNA sequencing agrees.

Shrews, on the other hand, have simple, pointed incisors that do not continuously grow. This dental formula is more suited to animals that eat insects and was used to classify animals from the Insectivora order of Mammals. This order has since been fragmented and Shrews belong to the new order Eulipotyphla, which includes hedgehogs, true moles and shrews, all predominantly insect eaters.

So, even though they resemble mice, they are not very closely related to them at all.

Shrews are also famous for their extra high metabolism, forcing them, like moles, to continuously eat. They can consume as much as twice their body weight in a day, and in winter in temperate areas like Finsbury, they enter a stage of torpor where they lose up to half of their body weight over winter while they are completely inactive.

Shrews are also serious breeders with a female raising up to ten litters of babies a year! That means, after a gestation of less than a month, the mother produces a litter. They are weaned within a month while the mother is pregnant again and within a few days of the previous litter being weaned, the mother gives birth to another litter. Talk about a shrew-making machine! Shame, she does this for her entire two-year life span.               

* An update: To date, we have found no further carcasses of hare on the estate or near it since the article on Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (refer the end of my previous blog), meaning that the hares we found were killed by something else. Very good news, although we must still be vigilant and keep our eyes open. 

This is a photo of a land snail from the Trachysystis genus of the Charopidae family munching happily on the juicy flesh of a Woolly Oyster mushroom, Hohenbuehelia mastrucata, deep within the dark forests of the Upper Steenkamp's gorge. Both are interesting.

The snail is a youngster, only about six millimeters in diameter. I saw a few smaller ones all over these Woolly Oysters, but also a few that were almost double the size of this one, most likely adults.  Like all snails, they are hermaphrodites, meaning each individual has testes and ovaries, and when they mate, they usually transfer sperm to each other's ovaries. Both then lay eggs at their own time and, those eggs hatch into miniscule, little snails, shell and all.  

The Wooly Oysters, though, are quite special in their own way. Not only edible to us (they are very closely related to the culinarily delightful Oyster mushrooms) but they are also carnivorous fungi. They are predators of nematodes.

Nematoda is another phylum in the kingdom Animalia that is not on our Finsbury Animal List. They are like tiny, little worms and feed on bacteria and other small animals and plants, usually within the first fifteen centimeters of the soil surface. They occur here in massive abundance, as they do in almost every habitat globally. It's just that they are too small to see with the naked eye. You may remember from your biology classes that nematodes are responsible for many, many ailments in plants and animals, including us. They are, on the other hand, responsible for contributing many positive things to the ecosystem too.

The oyster mushroom's hyphal "strings" immobilise the nematodes, under the soil surface, with a toxin produced on the tips of specialised hyphal stalks. The stalks lie in wait until a nematode physically touches it, allowing the toxin to take effect. The hyphal tips then grow through the mouth of the subdued nematode and digest the body contents from within. 

Can you believe, a hunting mushroom? 

This is a beautiful Little Bee-eater, Merops pusillus, captured on the estate by Dave DeVos from "The Croft's" (unit 19). Normally, these are not migratory like most other bee-eaters, but are sedentary, remaining in their territories the whole year through. With our high altitude and cold winters, though, the Little bee-eaters move to lower altitudes nearby in the deep of winter and return during the springtime and re-establish their territories here on the estate.

They are usually spotted hawking as a pair, either from the same perch or nearby. Hawking is when a bird sits on a perch, searching for insect prey, either flying or on the ground. Once prey is spotted, the bird dashes from the perch, catches the insect, and then returns to the same perch to swallow their prey before repeating the exercise. Little Bee-eaters choose a low perch, only about a meter off the ground, and concentrate on flying insects, particularly insects with venomous stings, like bees, hornets and wasps. Once the prey has been captured, the bee-eater returns to the perch where it scrapes the sting of the insect off of its body on a branch before consuming it. 

I do know there is a pair's territory on the Zebra trail as it runs alongside the Troutkloof mountain stream, and I've seen a pair close to K33 before. Unlike most bee-eaters, Little bee-eaters do not form clans or extended family groups, they instead remain as a pair and if you see more than two then it is a pair of parents with unweaned young under their care.

They will have a meter deep tunnel or two within the territory to use as nesting holes which will be utilised over and over again, each season, and will be used to successfully raise two or three broods of chicks each season. These deep tunnels in sand banks keep the chicks safe and warm so their success rate is quite high.

One big danger, though, is the Greater Honeyguide, a brood parasite. It is a bird that lays its eggs, like a Cuckoo, in the tunnel nests of the bee-eater. The imposter chick hatches before the bee-eater chicks and kills them violently as they hatch, with a temporary hook-tooth at the point of its beak, which it loses after a few days. The parent bee-eaters just have to accept this and clean the carcasses out from the hole as it all unfolds. To make matters worse, the honeyguide chick stays in the nest long after it has fledged, forcing the parent birds to continually feed it, stopping them from starting on another brood!

I have not yet spotted a Greater Honeyguide here on the estate. Please let me know if you have.  

I was exploring some rocks in the Spekboom valley in one of my night walks and -WOW - I came upon this Net-casting spider from the Menneus genus of the Deinopidae, a spider I remember reading about when I first became interested in spiders in the early nineties. This is the first time I have actually seen one! And when I came upon it, it had the net stretched much wider than that in the photograph. 

The webbed net is certainly very elasticky, and that's what the spider relies on to help subdue its rather large prey items, or victims if you will. The silk is not sticky, though, it is called cribellate silk, and it consists of hundreds of extremely fine silk fibres, loosely surrounding one or two thicker core fibres. When relaxed, the threads loosen and tangle around anything in contact with them.

And so, the spider comes out of hiding at night and, using its incredible night vision, hangs upside-down and stretches its net out in front of it. When an insect approaches, the spider dashes forward and releases the outstretched net over the victim, who becomes entangled in the net for long enough for the spider to bite it and envenomate it. There are also records of this spider catching flying insects in a similar way.

Another photo that may require an explanation. This is a Natal Green snake, Philothamnus natalensis,  that I watched swallow a large, pregnant Common River frog. It was actually quite an exciting experience that shows that snakes are not stupid and certainly know what they are doing.

I was checking some or other plant out on the path that leads past weir M34, just opposite Rainbow Rivers (unit 17), when I noticed movement right there by my boots. It was this snake holding onto a large Common River Frog. My presence caused the snake to release the frog and swim across the river to the other side, a good fifteen meters. The frog, sweating and clearly traumatised, struggled past my foot and stopped off in the slightly thicker bush away from the water's edge.

I saw the snake exit the water on the other side and half climb onto a small bush to give it a bit of elevation, then lie there facing back to me. I decided to freeze in place and just waited. After about four or five minutes (a long time to remain motionless), the snake descended the bush, entered the water, and swam back over to my side. It knew exactly where it was going as it returned to the exact place where it had left the frog, right next to my boot. It then followed the scent trail left by the frog and had no trouble finding it. The frog seemed to have succumbed by this time because it was immobile. 

The snake immediately began to swallow the frog while I tried my best, without moving, to get some photos. I chose the one above because it shows the feet of the frog still extruding from the snake's mouth, with frog eggs all over the snake's face as they came out while the snake was compressing the frog's body into its mouth. It also shows the stretched skin of the snake, exposing the blue skin beneath the scales.

Something is bothering me: I have always been under the impression that Natal Green snakes are venomous, but the venom is harmless to humans. When I check now, all literature says that it has no venom. This means it will have to rely on constriction as the method to kill its prey. This one was not constricting the frog when I saw it, although it may have uncoiled itself due to my interference before I saw it. But the frog was alive, but "sweating" after it moved off from where the snake let it go. When the snake returned, the frog appeared dead. This leads me to believe that the snake must have venom, otherwise, surely, the frog would have got away. I will delve deeper and let you know...

Anyway, it was quite an experience and it showed that the snake knew exactly what it was doing, and how it was not prepared to lose its hard-earned prey just because I interrupted the scene.  

This Diamond-back moth, Plutella xylostella, is so very tiny! The milkweed flower it is on is less that ten millimeters wide, but the moth is quite a significant pest to farmers of cruciferous crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etcetera. In fact, any plants that produce mustard oils, including mustard and horseradish.

The impregnated female moth finds a host plant and lays eggs on it. Within a week, the caterpillars have hatched and are munching away at the leaves. After four instars and only about sixteen days, the caterpillar spins a silken cocoon on the host plant and pupates.

After a mere eight days, the adult moth emerges from the pupa and needs to find a mate within two weeks, its average adult lifespan. The cycle continues, enabling the Diamond-back moth to successfully raise many, many generations in a single season.

They are small, weak fliers and cannot fly very far, but they are also passive migrants who will allow winds to carry them far and wide if they need to spread out in search of new feeding grounds, a cabbage farm!

A tiny insect with a big impact.

Autumn is here while I write this, and we are already getting frost in the mornings. We are expecting a cold, dry winter but it is forecast that the La Nina weather phenomenon may be present again in early spring, hopefully bringing us some nice early spring rains.

When you visit this winter, remember that you can call on me at any time if you want me to take you for a guided adventure on the estate. A slow promenade, a drive, or a proper good hike. On weekends, I may be able to use one of the Finsbury Land Cruisers, if available, for transport for these excursions, but otherwise you will need your own transport, which, of course, needs to be a four-wheel drive with good clearance. Just contact me beforehand by email (jimmy@finsbury.co.za) or Whatsapp (064 523 7058) or contact me on the radio once you arrive on the estate.

Looking forward to seeing you!