Small animals

SOME SMALL ANIMALS

I've been seeing some pretty nice small animals around lately, too. Check some of them out:

The second or third spring rains are always accompanied by swarms of winged termite alates, Termitidae: Isoptera. Potential future queens and kings. Of course, only a fraction of them will ever establish a new termite colony because the rest become a super energy-packed treat for anything that is not entirely vegetarian. Here, the workers emerge from their subterranean refuge for a rare glimpse of daylight in a frenzied carnival as they protect the carefully groomed royalty, emerging en masse, to take to the skies.  

I think it was in March I posted a photo of an adult antlion, from the family Myrmeleontidae. Looked similar to a droopy dragonfly. Anyway, this is the larvae (pity I cut off the tips of the mandibles!). This is the creature that sits just beneath the sand at the base of those perfectly cone-shaped pits you see in soft sand. See the patches of bristly hairs along it's body, well those pick up the slightest movement of sand as an unsuspecting victim, like an ant, slips into the pit. The antlion then immediately begins tossing it's head backwards to throw sand up at the victim to help bring it down towards those formidable jaws. Tickets! Star Wars: Return of the Jedi got the idea of those desert pits from these guys.  

Monkey Beetles, from the tribe Hopliini of the Scarabeidae, are very important pollinators of plants, so it stands to reason that South Africa, especially the Cape, is a hot-spot with more than 65% of all species on the planet! Monkey beetles, as you can see, are very hairy beetles that feed on pollen. But the flowers on which the pollen is found is also the social centre of the beetle. Males meet females on the flowers. The beetles mate on the flowers. Once the male has mated with the female, he guards her while she enjoys her meal of pollen, and it is not unusual to see a male standing over his mate and fighting off a rival male. All of this social activity is bound to get a lot of pollen trapped on all those hairs, to be transported to the next flower. Pollination.

Now, this is quite exciting for me. It is definitely a Coppet butterfly, Aloeides sp. (by the underwing pattern) but I didn't get a good look at the upper wings. I think, though, that it is a Cloud Copper, an endemic found in rocky spots in our grasslands. I followed this on as it walked along the ground for some time. The literature says that it is a female searching for the pheromone trails of ants, on to the larval food plant, on which she will lay her eggs. The ants then tend and protect the larvae until they pupate.

Ha ha! I got this guy coming out of a hole he originally fled into. A Spotted Skaapsteker, Psammophylax rhombeatus, is one of the more common snakes encountered at Finsbury. It actively hunts and chases down rodents, frogs and lizards which it subdues after injecting a neurotoxic venom. It is completely harmless to sheep, though (Skaapsteeker means Sheep-poker)! After laying her eggs in a suitable hole or under thick leaf litter, the female incubates and protects her eggs before they hatch.  

And lastly, today I stumbled across a millipede, Diplopoda, a detrivore and herbivore, grazing lichen, just like a cow! He must be a fungi! Har Har!

So get down here, already, and explore. We look forward to seeing you!