ENTER A NEW YEAR

JANUARY 2019

The new year is here and summer is in full swing with 186mm rain recorded at the Central area in January, so far. Everything is green and everything is growing.

I read a really interesting article in PlantLife SA (volume 46:3 December 2018) regarding the relationship between flowers and pollinators. Now, the more specific the pollinator is for the plant, the more chance the flower's pollen will reach another flower of the same species and therefore be productive. In other words, if a yellow daisy, of which there are many species, attaches it's pollen to a common Honey Bee who is attracted to all yellow flowers, the chances are not so good that the Bee will fly to another daisy of the same species without visiting many other yellow flowers on the way, minimizing the chances for that pollen to be deposited on the correct flower species. But if a flower is designed to accommodate a very limited amount of specialized pollinating insects by, for example, storing the nectar (which the insect is attracted to for food) at the end of a long spur (as is the case with many orchids), then only insects with long enough mouthparts that are able to reach the nectar will visit the flower and collect pollen on it's body to transfer to the next flower of the same design (read species).

This article involved two plant species found here at Finsbury and their associated insect pollinators. These plants form the Milkweed Family (Apocynaceae), Pachycarpus campanulatus and P. concolor are so intricately designed that only a very few pollinators can reach their nectar, the food they are seeking. These are the Spider-hunting wasps of the Pompilidae family and the Chafer beetle, Atrichelaphinis tigrina, respectively.

Pachycarpus flowers are noticeable because it is difficult to identify the flowering parts when comparing them to other flowers. The male and female whorls are fused into a structure called the gynostegium which form the central pillar of the flower. Radiating out from these are the grooved corona lobes. So the female parts are now inside the gynostegium and the male parts form pairs of flattened, hardened structures, forming the sides of gynostegium, termed "guide rails". Beneath the slit in the guide rails are stored the pollinaria, two sacks of pollen attached by a thread, resembling a minute saddle. 

The nectar is produced and stored in the corona lobes which are designed to allow only suitable pollinators to reach it, and then only awkwardly! While the insect is manipulating it's body to reach this yummy nectar, one of it's legs invariable get caught in the flaired groove of one of the opposing corona lobes where it gets caught. The insect then panics and struggles to free its limb which slides up the groove of the lobe and is forced into the slit in the guide rail. The insect then pulls the leg out of the guide rail, and in doing so, the limb slides past the pollinaria and snags the joining membrane so that, when the leg is finally freed, it has the pair of pollinaria attached to it.

The insect now has to approach another flower and experience the same trauma of it's limb getting caught in the flayed groove of the corona lobes. As it enters the guide rail, the opening is too small to allow the pollinaria sacks in so, through frantic tugging, the joining membrane breaks and the pollinaria remain behind in the lobes as the limb enters the guide rails once again. From here they grow through the pillar wall and pollination is complete!

Fairy-bell Pachycarpus, P. campanulatus, showing the flayed corona lobes (cream colour) radiating out from the central pillar (green) with the guide rails (brown) attached to the sides.

A poor shot of a Spider-hunting wasp (they move too fast!) from the Pompilidae, the specific pollinator of the above Fairy-bell Pachycarpus.

A beautiful Pachycarpus concolor. This species utilizes a species of Chafer beetle for pollination. The beetle gets a leg caught in the flayed part of the corona lobe and, as it panics and struggles to free it's leg, the leg slides up the groove and enters the guide rail, where it snags a pair of pollinaria on it's way to freedom.

The Chafer beetle, Atrichelaphinis tigrine, responsible for pollinating Pachycarpus concolor above. This one was photographed on the flower head of a Xysmalobium, also in the Milkweed family, high up near Mount Prospect.

I have managed to capture many other exciting things while working in this incredible environment over the last month. Here are some of them:

An endemic Spotted Dwarf Gecko, Lygodactylus ocellatus, helping me control the ants on my stoep. Well designed hunting machines: all toes, except the rudimentary inner toe, are equipped with a retractable claw and adhesive scansor pads. The tail also has modified adhesive scales at the tip, allowing it to act as a fifth foot! When this 40mm long reptile is not inhabiting human establishments, it (if it is male) establishes a territory, a large boulder, into which it allows females and juveniles. Once mated, the females lay two hard-shelled eggs in a communal nest together with the other females under a nearby rock. Their main food is ants and termites (note the silly ant approaching his back leg).

A mating pair of Swamp Bluet Damselflies, Africallagma glaucum, photographed on the island in K33. DBI 1 (refer previous blog). The blue male transfers his sperm from his primary genitalia, towards the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia, a special sperm storage pouch just behind his thorax. He then clasps the drab female behind her head with claspers on the end of his abdomen. She then twists her abdomen forward under her and locks it onto his second genitalia, forming a heart shape with their bodies, where sperm transfer is completed. The male then guards the female as she flies over the surface of the water, dipping her "tail" as she deposits the eggs singly into the water where they sink to the bottom. The egg hatches into a carnivorous nymph who sheds as it grows. Once the final instar is reached, the nymph crawls up a vertical stem in the water and emerges into the dry air. It forces it's way out of it's final nymphal casing and stretches out into an adult. It spends the next few weeks of adulthood voraciously feeding on other flying insects and seeking out mating opportunities.

This S/he was slowly on it's way along the cycle path between Loop road and the KLF road. S/he is an Achatina fulica, Giant Land Snail. You will mostly know them as the huge long dead snail shells that you may have encountered on the Estate. This is because the living ones bury themselves in soil or thick tufts during the day and only emerge in the night or on rainy days like this one was. I call it a S/he because, 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. Sperm is stored for up to two years (there's no rush anywhere here!) and they lay batches of up to 200 eggs six times a year. In bad times, though, they can remain sealed in their shells, underground, aestivating for 3 years. In a survival situation for us, the snail is a delicacy, escargot, bon apetit!

Wow! How's this one? Caught on the underside of a Pyjama flower, Colchium melanthoides, right near the summit of Mount Anderson, this Small Crab Spider, Thomisus sp. was enjoying her meal before I exposed her. I identified her to the genus by the large tubercles on which her eyes are imbedded, fer-eaky! These spiders are special because they can slowly change colour, like a chameleon, to the colour of the flower they have chosen as their ambush site. Once settled amongst the flowering parts where the attractive nectar is, they lie in wait, camouflaged, until an unsuspecting pollinator comes along, whence they will snatch them up with those oversized front legs!. They have powerful venom and will subdue a much larger insect like a Bee in a few seconds. They then suck the juices from their victims and discard the empty exoskeletons.  

This is a lovely, small (only 50mm) frog that I remember fondly from the Lowveld. Fondly because of the melodic bubble-popping boip call that they loudly emit. It is a Bubbling Kassina, Kassina senegalensis, that I have heard rarely from the manager's house area since being here at Finsbury. I visited Ian and Johnny at Finsbury House recently and while we were enjoying a drink and a chat on the verandah, this frog started calling. They told me that it had called loudly from a spot just outside the porch, every afternoon while they were there. I followed it's sound and managed to find it hiding in the garden bed, under a thick bush. He posed nicely for the photos. He is a male who starts calling, quite far from the water, in the afternoon. After no response from a female, who is attracted to the call, he moves closer to the water, all the time calling out with his distinctive call, the single-syllabled boip that is repeated only a few times a minute. By the time he reaches the water he has, hopefully, attracted a female with his song. If so, they will pair in amplexus and sink to the bottom of the pond while she lays batches off eggs that adhere to the muddy bottom and vegetation. The tadpoles are easily recognizable with their brightly reddish fins. They are voracious plant eaters. 

I hiked to the summit of Mount Anderson quite frequently in the last month or so, and while I have always encountered special flowers up there, on my last trip I found a treasure trove of five fine orchid species! Here they are with their SANBI Red Data status:

Disa amoena, a near endemic with four colour forms ONLY found in our area. Red Data status: Vulnerable.

Schizochilus cecilii ssp. transvaalensis, tiny and delicate. Red Data status: Least Concern.

Disa stachyoides, common but captivating. Red Data status: Least Concern.

The recently described, ONLY from this summit, Disa sterkeriana, mind-blowingly beautiful! Red Data status: Critically Endangered!

Satyrium longicauda, Common in grassland in Mpumalanga and KZN. Red Data status: Least Concern.

February begins and the rains keep coming. Just had another heavy rainfall this afternoon that interrupted this blog. With the rains comes life! We are a water catchment reserve here at Finsbury, with exceptional fly-fishing opportunities right now. Come and enjoy it!

THE JOLLY SEASON 2018

THE JOLLY SEASON 2018

The festive season has come and gone, and what a great one it was! After an extremely dry start to the season, the rains have finally arrived with 171mm recorded during the month of December. This naturally affected activities at Finsbury, especially as there was a lot of lightning involved, but it didn't put a damper on things. The place was filled with joggers, cyclists, cross-country runners, hikers, dawdlers and, of course, fly-fishers! Below is a gallery of some of the things that were done and seen:

These minute mushrooms, only a few millimeters tall, are the fruiting bodies of the fungal part of this Crustose Lichen covering some rocks. Lichens consist of a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an algae. The algae provides the fungus with sugars resulting from photosynthesis while the fungus provides support, protection and various minerals that it absorbs from the substrate. Once the spores are released from the mushroom, they need to meet with a compatible algal partner before a functional lichen can form. Most lichens, however, produce diaspores which contain a fungal and algal element when they reproduce.

A Yellowjack, Notogomphus praetorius, a Dragonfly high on the list of many Odonata-lovers with a value of 5 on the DBI. This indicates that they are seldom seen. DBI, or Dragonfly Biotic Index, is a system developed in South Africa that uses dragonflies as an aid to monitoring water quality in aquatic systems. Species are given a ranking from 0-9 on the basis of their geographical range; red list status; and sensitivity to pollution and disturbance. 0 = widespread, abundant and tolerant to habitat change and pollution, while 9 = restricted range, threatened and sensitive to change. The DBI of a body of water is determined by assessing which species of odonata are present, summing their respective DBI's and dividing the total by the number of species recorded at the site.

One of the activities on offer this festive season was a flower walk around the summit of Mount Anderson without the grueling hike to get there. We paid our R30 entrance fee to Emoyeni and drove out to the brewery on the Long Tom pass road, entered Emoyeni (Our south eastern neighbor) and got within a kilometer and 180m of the summit in the vehicle. This outing was with Liz Steyn and her family and friends from Finsbury House.

A picture of the beautiful Brunsvigia radulosa gracing the summit of Mount Anderson with the Sabie Valley in the backround. Once the seeds form and the massive inflorescence dries up, it becomes a tumble weed and it tumbles in the wind while throwing it's seeds in the grasslands.

This is a shot of an African Monarch butterfly, Danaus chrysippus, laying a single egg on the underside of a leaf on a Starry Milkweed, Asclepias stellifera. Milkweeds are a genus of poisonous plants containing toxic cardio-glycosides and Monarch butterflies are also poisonous, containing cardio-glycosides. Now most poisonous insects synthesize their own toxins as a protection against predation. African Monarchs, however, rely on the female laying her eggs on a poisonous host plant so that when the larvae feed on the leaves, they ingest the toxins and store them in their bodies so that the adult, once pupated, is poisonous to eat!

The single African Monarch egg on the underside of the Milkweed's leaf. On hatching, the larvae immediately consumes the shell of the egg then begins feeding on the leaves of the host plant. She only lays one egg on this species of plant because the plant is very small. On bigger species, she will lay more than one egg...

A wide open flower of the Dainty Sugarbush, Protea parvula, found only in high altitude grasslands. Another type of suffrutex or underground tree found on the Estate.

In the previous blog, I posted a photo of three female Monkey Beetles on a flower head. This is a photo of a male who is easily identifiable by his enlarged rear legs. He uses these to dislodge rival males from desirable females.

A lovely family shot of the Rogans from Morrin Pools enjoying a spectacular view of South Valley while slugging it out on the 10 kilometer long Amphitheater Hike. It often pays off to go on a hike even in poor, rainy weather because the clouds sometimes clear temporarily, offering breath-taking views.

A Stylogaster fly from the Conopidae family. Another important pollinator of plants because the adults are nectar feeders. The larvae, however, are parasitic on other insects, especially wasps. The hooked eggs are attached to a wasp while in flight. The larva hatches and burrows into the body of the host while it is still alive and then begins to devour the wasp from the inside, slowly killing it, yeuch!

The glistening "dewdrops" at the ends of the hairs on the leaves of a Sundew, Drosera sp. The "dewdrops" are actually sticky, sweet-tasting fluids produced by the plants that attract and then catch and entrap insects while the plant absorbs the minerals from their corpses.

A clump of Pearsonia growing from the crack in a Quartzite rock right up on the summit of Mount Anderson.

Don MacCrimmon and family overlooking the Sabie Valley with the moon rising above. Another successful full moon hike where we arrive at the summit of Mount Anderson at sundown time during the full moon. We enjoy a drink while watching the sun set and the moon rise simultaneously before hiking all the way back to the office area in the moonlight. This time the sunset was hiding behind thick clouds but we got to see the moon at least. The hike ended off with us being chased down the last leg of the mountains with our tails between our legs as lightning struck all around us!!! 

A close up of a Millipede Assasin, Ectrichodia crux, from the Reduviidae family of bugs, feeding off a millipede. Millipedes are highly toxic to most predators, allowing them to move around slowly, unhindered. Their worst enemy is the Millipede Assasin who, after paralyzing their victim with an injected venom, sucks up the bodily fluids. These bugs can also inflict a very painful bite to careless humans.

A pair of Grass Jewel Blue, Freyeria trochylus, butterflies mating with the more colourful male on the left. He aggressively patrols and guards a small territory to secure the female. A new species to add to my Finsbury list, not because it is rare but because they are very small and easily go unnoticed. The larvae feed on Indigofera species. 

I led a 12 kilometer Amphitheater hike with Paige from Rod's Rest, including a trip to the Haartebeesvlakte lookout point and a trip to the summit! It was also rainy and cloudy for a lot of the hike but it opened up beautifully at all the right times. Here we see Paige taking a photo of a flower in quite a precarious spot!

The daisy flower of a False Gerbera, Haplocarpa scaposa. The flowers are usually a dull, creamy-white but I found a whole colony of yellow ones on and around the summit of Mount Anderson, which I have not noticed before.

The typical colour form of the flower of a Common Sugarbush, Protea caffra. Unlike the previous photo, this is the normal colour of this Sugarbush's flower but it's the only one I have come across on the Estate. Although the tree is very common here, ours bloom with a lemon yellow flower.

The Cotterel's from Rainbow Rivers resting at the top of the mountains opposite Little Joker Koppie. Note the Majubane waterfall in the distance in the centre of the photo.

The biggest African ant, Streblognathis aethiopicus, from the most primitive of the subfamilies of ants, the Ponerinae, reach more than 20mm in length. These common Finsbury ants live in small colonies of up to a dozen individuals only. They forage for insects alone and subdue them with a powerful sting. I can attest to that because I accidently put my hand on one and the sting was worse that a bee sting! Interestingly, the colonies do not have a queen. Eggs are laid by a mated worker female.

The weather didn't always clear up at the right time. Here I am on the summit with the Moore's from Rock Solid. We never got a view, but the clouds cleared as we approached Clivia Valley from the east, revealing a spectacular view of Steenkamp's Valley.

Well, that's it for now. I hope 2019 will be a soooper year for you! It's already started well for us with 65mm of rain for the new year so far. See you soon....

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!

SPRINGTIME

Springtime is coming to an end after a devastating fire and only 119mm of rain falling. The great advantage of the rainfall is that it has been soft and at regular intervals. This has maximised absorption and reduced runoff, allowing new growth to establish and thus reducing sheet erosion when the big rains do come.

The photo above is of South Valley, taken from the east at high altitude with Goudkoppies flats in the distance. Regenerating nicely. And with the new grasses comes the animals! We've had a breeding herd of Kudu hanging around the Central area for a few weeks now and it is not uncommon to see five or six Mammal species on a drive up the Kliprots (Nowhere for them to hide right now.).

Lewellen and James, guests at Morrin Pools, enjoy a close encounter with more than 100 Eland, Including more than 30 calves.

We've also been graced by a breeding herd of Eland enjoying the fresh new grasses sprouting. A herd of one hundred plus! (From a ecological point of view, another pro of the fire was it's expanse. At least 2000 hectares of our property. The grasers will not be concentrated when enjoying these new grasses so reducing the stress in small areas.) I encountered them up on the Rock Kestrel Trail on many occasions and then, more recently, up on the slopes just below Goudkoppies towards the Miner's Cottage. Animals galore!

Springtime also marks the arrival of many migratory birds. Some from afar, like the Steppe Buzzard, all the way from the Russian Steppes, 13 000 odd kilometers away. Others from nearby, just moving away from us to lower altitudes in our cold winters and rejoining us at springtime, like the Amethyst Sunbird or the, of what I've heard, elusive Bush Blackcap.

Bush Blackcap, Lioptilus nigricapillus, in the thickets near Solitude.

 Previously, I had only had sightings of the Blackcap in the Afromontane forests near the Steenkamps waterfalls and once at S12. This season, though, I have seen one at unit 5, unit 1, and Bushpig Alley, twixt unit 24 and 25. I've actually got to know the call so well that I even identified it at the Agri Show in Nelspruit a week or so ago!

The flowers are also beginning to abound. The Blue Squills, Graderias, Gnidias, Minature Hyacinths and many others have already bloomed but the big stuff is on the way. Expect a bumper flower season this summer after the fire! Some less noticeable flowers, because of their size and lack of sepals and petals, are the grasses. The grasslands are a wonderland right now, check these grass flowers out:

Blackseed Grass, Alloteropsis semialata ssp. ecklonii. The white feathery things are the Stigmas (female flowers) and the yellow things are the Anthers (male flowers)

Brachiara serrata, with male and female flowers.

Heteropogon contortis, with both flowers.

The last few weeks have seen twenty new species of plant been added to our Finsbury plant list, bringing the total dangerously close to the 600 mark. Below is just two of them:

A new suffrutex, Lannea edulis Wild Grape, growing on the now exposed banks east of K9. A suffrutex is an underground tree that has evolved to withstand regular natural grassveld fires by growing underground. Only the tips of their branches stick out! This brings the number of suffrutices in the estate, that I have found, to four. The specific name refers to the fruits edibility but I found that there is little flesh and the skins are terrible. the little fruit there is, though, is sour but invigorating!

Well, how funky is this! A Holothrix scopularia orchid growing on the summit of Mount Anderson last week. This strange specimen brings the total orchids I have found on the estate to 40! Groovin'

I expect Finsbury to be a haven of flowers over summer so I will organise many flower walks over the festive season. We will even arrange a trip where we drive around to Emoyeni via the Long Tom Pass so that we can access the summit area of Mount Anderson without the normally required 4 kilometers of  uphill hiking.

THE MOUNTAINS ARE A CALLING, FOLKS! LET'S GIT IT ON.