February 2020

FEBRUARY 2020

Always a lovely green month, February didn't fail us this year. Everything is green and lush with wildlife at full swing. Like in January we had less than average rainfall but that that fell, was soft and soaking. Excellent for minimizing runoff water. The waters in the streams and rivers have been mostly crystal clear the whole season. 94mm fell during the month compared to an average of 122mm for the month of February for the last 10 years. The seasonal figure is at 535mm so far, with a total season average of just under 900mm over the same period. At least all the little brooks and streams are flowing, even the little waterfall in Olinia gorge, pictured above, with blooming. orange Begonias and their beautifully asymmetrical leaves in the foreground. Check out some of the exciting plants and wildlife I saw this month:

Like a ghost in it's dew-soaked web, the Funnel-weaver spider, from the Agelenidae, exits its funnel to investigate my gentle agitation of the silk on it's web. Although they spend a lot of time outside their funnel retreat, it is very difficult to spot one because of their good eyesight, which enables them to disappear as you approach. The web, which is a common sight low down in the grasslands, consists of a non-sticky, flat, horizontal sheet of web with a funnel leading to a retreat, usually into cracks in a rock or the base of a thick tuft of grass. Although the web is not sticky, the spider continually lays down layer after layer of tangled silk across the sheet and if an insect, like a grasshopper, falls onto the sheet, it will be entangled for long enough for the spider to rush out it's retreat, at a high speed, and deliver a fatal, venomous bite. When I say high speed, I mean it: the family is famous for the speed at which its members can run. The fastest spider in the Guinness book, for some time, was an Agelenid that could reach 0.54 meters a second! That's almost 2 kilometers per hour. Very fast for a little spider.

One day I was sitting on a large quartzite rock up on the flats of Goudkoppies near Nosey Point when I noticed something small moving on my rock. I looked down to see about a dozen little balls of dirt moving slowly across the lichen-filled surface, On closer inspection, with my magnifying glass, I realised that they were bagworms, of the Psychidae family of moths when I got a look at one's head (see inset). Page back to my blog of March 2018 or google the family to get a brief life history of this odd moth. I have not been able to identify this species but their is a species in the genus Dahlica that has a similar bag of dirt (normally the bag is constructed from sticks and grass stems) that eats lichen growing on rocks - in Australia. I'm sure these were eating the lichen because I could see it with my visual aids, so it must be closely related to the Australian one. I believe that what I saw was a herd of Bagworm larvae grazing in a field of lichen on my lunch rock!

Last month I featured the Brown-veined White butterfly in my blog because they were so numerous in their migration this year. If you had caught and examined all of those butterfies, you would have found a small percentage of them would have been the African Common White, Belenois creona severina, which often join their more numerous cousins on their mass movement (The "Common" part of the name should have been given to the other one). When the gravid female finds a host plant, in this case Wooly Caper bush (those huge creepers that overtake and destroy huge trees in the Kruger Park, especially around Shingwedzi) plus others similar to the Brown-veined Whites' hosts, she lays a cluster of about a dozen small eggs, 1x0.5mm in size, onto the plant and departs. After about 5 days, the eggs hatch and the little worms devour the shells and then get stuck into the hosts foliage. The eating of the egg shells by the newly hatched larvae is critical for some reason because, if in an experiment, the shells are removed, the worms wander around aimlessly and do not begin eating the hosts offerings and so die of starvation. Anyway, once the worm digs in to the host plants' foliage, they sure dig in!  They eat so much that they pass through 5 larval instars (moulting because they get too big for their skins) within 17 days. After that they suspend themselves in a cocoon and enter the pupal stage and they emerge as adults within a few weeks or months, depending on the time in the season.

Trent Sinclair from Mount Anderson Ranch next door hosted a bunch of scientists from the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism and student interns for a BIOBLITZ over 3 days, to which I attended. In the few days we set up 20 camera traps for the large mammal specialist, set pitfall traps and light traps for the insect specialist and found lots of species of plant to press for the Lydenburg herbarium. One of those was an orchid known from only a few locations in the world, Disa alticola, of which we found an entire population on the seeplines near Mount Anderson ranch's radio repeater station. The following weekend I took Louise Twiggs, from The Crofts, to the sight to photograph them so that she can paint them (see inset, circled is the tiny flower). The main photo is the one she took in the inset. Worryingly, Louise and I only managed to find a fraction of the flowers that we found only a few days before. Tommy Steyn, the resident botanist for the MTPA, came out the following week and managed to still map the newly discovered population with some success. Always exciting to get a new species but such a rare one, even better! Oh, and check out the new print of a watercolour of the very rare Mount Anderson Everlasting in the office. It was painted and donated by Louise. 

The other day I came upon this large male Porcupine, Hystrix africaeaustralis, in the road, just outside Lone Tree Cottage at two o' clock in the afternoon. He was so relaxed that, after I took this photo, I passed him on my motorcycle in the road without him moving off. Porcupines, Africa's largest rodent, live in extended family units, comprising a breeding pair and their offspring of various ages. They produce one to two offspring per season and once mature, in their second year, the young often choose to stay with the family and help raise the next set of siblings. This social system is quite common in birds but rare in mammals. Also, like humans and unlike any other mammals, they are sexually active at all times, mostly daily,  even when the female cannot concieve. The male actively helps to raise the offspring and when you see a group of these animals together, it is more than likely a father foraging with his offspring. The mother forages alone. Food includes roots, bark and other fibrous plant matter. Even if it is poisonous. The Porcupine is the biggest mammal enemy to the poisonous Tamboti tree in the Kruger Park, which it ring-barks as food which is fatal to the tree. Here in Finsbury they are the biggest mammal enemy to the toxic bulb of the Arum Lily, amongst others. They are also very noisy feeders , audible from 100 meters away while they feed, dig and rattle their quills. But who needs to be quiet when you have protection like those quills to defend you. The quills getting lodged in the eyes and face of a Leopard could lead to infection and then the death of the predator.

While attending the BIOBLITZ mentioned earlier, one of our conversations around the fire one night was rare mammals. I mentioned to the Mammal specialist that I had gotten a photo, from of our camera traps, of a Large Grey Mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, formerly Egyptian Mongoose. They said it was unlikely as the species did not occur here. Once I got home, I sent them a picture (above) confirming the sighting and received the following reply: "@jimmywhatmore if we include that Egyptian or Large Grey mongoose ot (sic) yours into the catchment it will be a first record and most furthest north and west distribution of the Southern subspecies of this guy! I am very excited about this record!" So cool! I got the photo from a camera trap that I temporarily set up in an Otter den I found very close to where my house is now The date stamp is accurate.

The word "ichneumon", from greek "footprint" to latin "tracker", in the scientific name of the last species refers to the mongooses habit of finding and unearthing crocodiles' nests to eat the eggs, which was noted and revered by the Ancient Egyptians, hence the old English common name of Egyptian mongoose. Above is a picture of a Darwin's Wasp, from the Ichneumonidae family. The "ichneumon" in the family name of the wasp refers to its' members' ability to find well hidden insect larvae in which to lay their eggs. Most female wasps have a stinger which they use in self defense or, primarily, to paralyse  mostly worms and other insects which the wasp feeds to her offspring (see bog of November 2019 for more). The female wasps from the Ichneumonidae, however, have an ovipositor instead. This long ovipositor is used to reach insect larvae or pupae and inject an egg/s within. Some species will follow the egg with a dose of venom that will paralyse the victim like other wasps but most will allow the victim to continue living and feeding while the wasp larvae feed off its insides, only killing it when important organs, which are left till last, are consumed. These wasps are a very important controller of pest insects and it is estimated that between 10% and 20% of host populations are parasitised by them. This makes them excellent candidates for bio control agents and have been used to control the populations of African Sugarcane Borers and the Arctic Wooly Bear moth in the north. The English common name of Darwin's Wasps arose  from the fact that Charles Darwin was moved by the family He famously wrote about how he didn't believe a "beneficent and omnipotent God" would have designed such a cruel animal which eats the insides of another animal while it was still alive.  

If you have visited the estate in the last fortnight, you would have noticed that the small block that contains the Jackpot mine, above Morrin Pools, Tranquility and Jackpot cottage, has recently burned. On the advice from the grassland ecologists of the MTPA, I have adopted the widely approved and utilised Patch Mosaic method for our fire regime on the estate. This method burns many, smaller blocks at random times mostly in the summer months to simulate lightning fires. This burn was a great success with only the use of 4 staff members to control the burn, which took two full days to complete. This method of burning will leave us with healthy grasslands and never again a fuel build-up that results in massive, unnaturally hot fires like we experienced in August 2018. I originally planned 6 of these fires for the season but the lack of rainfall has caused me to reduce those to 4, and to burn them later in the season. I will burn a further 2 in March and a final one in April, all in the southern portion of the estate.

This beautiful moth is a Nassinia pretoria, and as can be seen by the feathery antennae, it is a male. Moths are mostly nocturnal animals, feeding socializing and mating in the dark hours. In fact, fossils indicate that the Lepidoptera was originally nocturnal. Then the arms race between bats and moths began. Bats fine-tuned echo-location with lethal consequences to moths. But then moths evolved the ability to detect bat echo-location signals and some learned to apply evasive areal maneuvers and some learned to just close their wings and drop to the floor which negated the effectiveness of the bat's signal. This predation pressure seems to have caused some Lepidopterans to become diurnal and butterflies are the most obvious example. I was reading an article a while back where it was suggested that the biggest obstacle to transforming into day active animals was the moths' mating system. For some, unknown reason, female moth pheromones are ineffective in daylight hours and this has led to transitioning species, like the Nassinia above, to develop a certain degree of aposematism (bright colouration usually employed to warn potential predators of toxicity) as their first step towards a diurnal existence. Looking at species that have already transitioned, these bright colours will eventually be used socially to help females recognize suitable males. In daytime Lepidopterans the males are the ones that attract the females through colours, displays, behavior and male pheromones. So the Nassinia above happens to fulfill all but his mating requirements during daytime activities but is still active for brief periods at night only to find a mate.

Gee, I hadn't seen a leopard since the middle of last year until we embarked on a night drive up in Mount Anderson Ranch during this BioBlitz I attended. There we got a great sighting of this adult female (above) preparing to go on the hunt. During the week that followed I managed another two sightings! One of a young male on Finsbury hill just by the old path that leads to the Miner's cottage, and then a brief sighting of an adult female at K11. In fact, the Finsbury staff have had three or four sightings between them and so have quite a few members had sightings over the month, mostly of a young male but also of the female with at least one cub that hung around Otter's Rest for a week or so. This female grumbled at Nomthandazo, the housekeeper for Otter's Rest, so Don posted a little warning to members together with the most recent newsletter. I do not believe that this growl was one of aggression.When a leopard gets a fright, it lets out a grumble which was probably the case here. There have always been this many leopards in these grasslands but with reduced persecution, each generation of leopard gets a little more relaxed around humans. I don't believe this makes them more dangerous to humans, in fact, most attacks on adult humans are a response to the leopards panic and fear towards us. We are not a natural menu item for a leopard but we do need to be aware, though, that a leopard is an opportunist and so young children and dogs should not be allowed out on their own. Children should either be in groups or with an adult accompanying them. If you do find yourself in a situation where you are close to a leopard, pretend that you did not see the animal and continue walking. Do not challenge the animal. I believe that the young male we are seeing is trying to establish a territory. Once they have been abandoned by their mother at about a year old, young male leopards enter the most trying time of their lives. they usually disperse east or west along the same latitude and just try to survive and stay out of any dominant males way. As time passes and they build up confidence, they will establish a ridiculously small and inadequate territory that they will aggressively mark with smell, sight and sound. I believe this is what is happening between K33 and the Miner's cottage path. If the male does not  attract the unwanted attention of a dominant territorial male then he will slowly increase the size of this little territory until he does, when he will relax his efforts until the threat goes away. This situation will repeat itself until the newcomer leaves the area or manages to establish himself there where, one day, he will be the dominant male of the area. This activity by a new male also causes social upheaval amongst the females in the area because it immediately endangers their offspring and changes the local social dynamics. This is probably why we are seeing more females too. We are privileged to spend our time in a relatively undisturbed ecosystem and we just need to bear in mind that this situation, like most, carries with it a few dangers associated with wildlife. Be alert and aware and enjoy the wildlife we have. 

This, a Springwater Sprite, Pseudagrion caffrum, is the first of 2 new species of Damselfly for my list this month. One of the 3 yellow-faced Sprites in the country, the Springwater Sprite is endemic to Lesotho, Swaziland and eastern South Africa where it is restricted to the hilly upland grasslands where it is associated with fast-flowing mountain streams with grassy banks.

The second of my new species, the Upland Sprite, Pseudagrion spernatum, has a much wider distribution than the previous species and it occurs all the way up to the Congo. It also prefers high-lying mountain streams but prefers bushier, shaded banks.

This now, is a fully nocturnal moth called a Vestal, Rhodometra sacraria, and it rests up in the grasslands on a vertical grass stem as pictured during the daylight hours. It belongs in the Geometridae family, which, if you will recall from my blog of November 2019 regarding the Monarch Looper, contains moths whose caterpillars have a long, looping gate, giving the caterpillars the name of "Inchworms". The inchworms of this species eat a wide range of host plants like the leaves from our Rhus (Searsia) trees, Peach trees, Dock leaves and the leaves of the beautiful Oxygonum flower that I photographed the Click Beetle on in my blog of December. These inchworms are also very difficult to find when they are at rest because they lift their bodies diagonally rigid from the surface of a branch and resemble a twig. Excellent camouflage. 

One of my many favourite spots on the estate is the cliffs beside the Kliprots road at the crossing by K15. There is a myriad cremnophytes (I love the term, it means "cliff-loving") to behold, including a "tree mural" Red-leaved Fig; a tiny, bonsai-like Bride's Bush; a funky climbing grape; and a scraggly Cape Gardenia, Rothmannia capensis, whose large, showy flowers, pictured above, have been in bloom for almost the entire month. The tree gets quite large, up to 15 meters, when growing in forests and on forest fringes but are scraggly and stunted when growing in rocky situations like the tree at K15. With it's large, showy, sweetly scented flowers, large, shiny evergreen foliage and shiny green tennis ball sized fruit make this a rather attractive garden specimen. Especially since it is very easy to germinate the seeds as long as they are first removed from the pith.

I found this beautiful shelf fungus growing on the remains of an old Pine stump in an area we recently cleared of alien plants. It is called a Splitgill mushroom, Schizophyllum commune, and it is a cosmopolitan species found throughout the world. Although it is rather tough and rubbery, it is used as a food source in many countries, particularly in the tropics where soft mushrooms do not keep for long, and is a delicacy in some like Mexico or northern India where it is the favoured ingredient in "Paaknam" pancakes. The mushroom also has many medicinal qualities and is used, in western medicine, for it's immunomodulatory, antifungal (odd, since it is a fungus!), antineoplastic and antiviral properties.

Once again, my little camera is not suitable for bird photography but this displaying male Pin-tailed Whydah, Vidua macroura, was so busy trying to impress the girls that he did even notice me a mere few meters from him as he flew by. Actually I don't think it is because he didn't notice me, I think he just didn't care. these little birds are notoriously pugnacious towards other birds at feeding areas, including subordinate male Whydahs and even much larger birds than themselves. This bullying of the subordinates prevents them from developing breeding plumage thus minimising breeding competition within its species. The breeding plumage of the males is the contrasting pied colouration and the long, streaming tail, and they only acquire this plumage at the onset of each breeding season. For the remainder of the year, they resemble subordinate males and females: a little brown job resembling a Red-billed Quelia with the head markings of a bunting. During this breeding time, the male establishes a small territory and tries to keep the flock, consisting of females and a few subordinate males, within these boundaries. Outside of the breeding season, the now drab male and the rest of the flock stay in the area but are not confined to a territory. Another interesting fact about these little birds is that they are brood parasites. This means that they do not construct a nest and neither the male nor the female take any part in raising their offspring. Instead the female lays her eggs in the nests of unsuspecting surrogate birds of different species, in this case Common Waxbills and rarely Swee Waxbills. Once the gravid female Whydah locates the nest of the waxbills, she surreptitiously slips in when the parents are not around, quickly eats the contents of one of the waxbill eggs, removes the shell and then lays her own egg as a replacement for the missing Waxbill egg, and then leaves the area having nothing further to do with her offspring. The Whydah egg hatches, and unlike many Cuckoos for example, the chick does not kill the remaining Waxbill chicks but grows up together with them, quickly learning how to copy the begging behavior of the Waxbill chicks. Once the chicks have fledged, the Whydah chick spends about a week with it's surrogate family and then suddenly leaves and finds a flock of it's own kind to stay with. And then by the end of March, the breeding male Whydah loses it's long, streaming tail and by the end of may it has moulted completely and looks like a little brown job again. 

That's it for the month of February. March means we have already reached a quarter way through the year and that Easter is near. Here's hoping for a busy Easter time. See you then.