Prong-tailed Weevil (Bronchus furvus)

Family Curculionidae

These large weevils are very distinctive with their black tubercles.

 They are flightless, ground-dwelling and found throughout SA.

 They have a very long and thick snout about equal in length to their bodies.

In the picture of its underside, you can see where it gets its name from and it shows a nice version of its feet.

They forage on a variety of vegetation.

Giant Legless Skink (Acontias plumbeus) family Scincidae

 

This is the largest of the legless skinks we have.

 Due to all the rain we have had, so many of the areas are clogged with rain and these creatures which live underground and are seldom seen, are now coming out to the surface.

 This Gaint Legless Skink is about 16-18 inches (45cm) in length and extremely thick around the middle. They mostly eat things like mealworms, crickets and even frogs.

 Being a skink, it is completely harmless to anyone. They bear live young and can have up to 14 at a time.

Thanks Johan Marias for the identification.

Cuckoo bee - Coelioxys

Cuckoo Bees ( Coelioxys sp) family Megachilidae

 A female Coelioxys will seek these out and apparently uses its sharp abdomen to pierce the cells of other Megachile species where an egg is then laid in the cell. The egg of the Coelioxys hatches before that of the Megachile and the newly-hatched larva crushes the Megachile egg with its large jaws. The Coelioxys larva can then feed on the contents of the cell. Pupation occurs within a cocoon spun within the host cell where the larva overwinters as a prepupa. The genus Anthophora excavates nest burrows in sandy soil or rotting wood, where they may also become the hosts of Coelioxys larvae.

 As is the case with other cuckoo bees, each species of Coelioxys is a cuckoo (cleptoparasite) only of certain host species. In summer, Coelioxys can be seen on flowers feeding with its long tongue.

Female Coelioxys should be treated with care as they may sting; males are said to emit an unpleasant odour when handled.

Females have a 6 segment, elongated abdomen and the males a 7 segment spiny one.

Cassiopea - Upside-down Jellyfish

They are commonly found in tropical waters and inhibit sandy floors and beds of sea grass.

Their stings, although mild, appear in the form of a red rash-like skin irritation and are notorious for being extremely itchy.

Dark-webbed Ringlet (Physcaeneura panda)

The Dark-webbed Ringlet (Physcaeneura panda) is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family and the only one of this species found in South Africa.

The sexes are similar but with the males having more rounded wing than the female.

They are common in the north west areas of South Africa where they are found in the hot flatlands.

They feed on flowers and fruit and are smallish in size.

SpearThistle (Cirsium vulgare)

Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) family Asteraceae

Cirsium vulgare (Spear Thistle) is a species of the genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe (north to 66°N, locally 68°N), western Asia (east to the Yenisei Valley), and northwestern Africa (Atlas Mountains). It is also naturalised in North America and Australia and is as an invasive weed in some areas.

It is a tall biennial or short-lived monocarpic thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m tall in the second (rarely third or fourth) year. The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. The leaves are stoutly spined, grey-green, deeply lobed; the basal leaves up to 15–25 cm long, with smaller leaves on the upper part of the flower stem; the leaf lobes are spear-shaped (from which the English name derives). The inflorescence is 2.5–5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus, which assists in wind dispersal. As in other species of Cirsium (but unlike species in the related genus Carduus), the pappus hairs are feathery with fine side hairs.

Spear Thistle is often a ruderal species, colonising bare disturbed ground, but also persists well on heavily grazed land as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including Honey bees, Wool-carder bees, and many butterflies. The seeds are eaten by Goldfinches, Linnets and Greenfinches.

The seeds are dispersed by wind, mud, water, and possibly also by ants; they do not show significant long-term dormancy, most germinating soon after dispersal and only a few lasting up to four years in the soil seed bank. Seed is also often spread by human activity such as hay bales.

Cirsium vulgare as a weed

Spear Thistle is designated an "injurious weed" under the UK Weeds Act 1959, and a noxious weed in Australia and in nine US states. Spread is only by seed, not by root fragments as in the related Creeping Thistle C. arvense. It is best cleared from land by hoeing and deep cutting of the taproot before seeds mature; regular cultivation also prevents its establishment.

Uses

The stems can be peeled and then steamed or boiled. The tap roots can be eaten raw or cooked, but only on young thistles that have not flowered yet.

Information supplied by:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirsium_vulgare

Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus famelicus)

Andrea gave me this piece of information in his comment and I thought I would add it to the post as it is interesting.


"Do you know the meaning of "famelicus" in latin? It means "the one who always want to eat".



In modern italian is quite similar:famelico,and means exactly the same..."


Thanks Andrea. See his posts of African animals taken during his travels here on this link: Sidecar


Milkweed Bugs (Oncopeltus famelicus) belong to the Lygaeidae family of which here are many types and are medium to large in size.

Oncopeltus famelicus is one of the large species and identified by the orange and black stripes.

Although called a Milkweed bug, it feeds on a variety of other plants as well such as granadilla and sweet potato to mention a few.

The one in the picture above was just emering into its adult form.

They are common and found in most areas except the desert to the east.

Camel’s Foot (Bauhinia thonningil)

Of all the Bauhinia’s I have seen so far, this one has very different flowers to the rest although the leaves (from which it gets its name), is the same.

A small to medium size tree which occurs in low altitudes of woodlands.

The ash from the burnt wood is soapy and the green fruits provide a soap substitute.

The bark contains a fibre which is used as string and is made into ropes.

Cattle and game eat the pods and they can be ground into a meal and is said to be equal to maize and very nutritional. However, it is essential to dry the pods first for otherwise they tend to jam the crushing machines.

All the parts of the tree are used medicinally. The wood makes good fuel but other than this is of little value.

Kite spiders

Isn’t this just typical!! I have been searching for a Kite spider for simply ages and could not find one, then here is goes, spinning a web right on my front porch!! J

I must admit though that I could easily have missed this one as the spider itself is only about 3mm at most and can hardly be seen and recognized with the naked eye. Thank goodness for macro lenses!!

Kite or Box spiders are solitary, web-bound spiders with the females being much larger than the males as with most spider species. They belong to the Araneidae family of orb-web spiders, sub-family Gasteracanthinae.

Wild Foxglove (Ceratotheca triloba)

Wild Foxglove (Ceratotheca triloba)  -  Pedaliaceae family

The wild foxglove varies in height, depending on the amount of water it receives during the summer. In the garden with regular watering they grow 1,5 - 2 metres tall. Some plants become quite bushy while others remain single stemmed. The soft, green leaves are about 50mm long and divided into 3 lobes with a bluntly serrated margin. The leaves are carried on long thin stalks up the stems. Plants with pink flowers usually have dark red stems while white flowering plants have yellow-green stems.

The beautiful white or mauve foxglove-like flowers are carried in pairs up the stems in tall, sparsely flowered spikes. Unfortunately the promise of an overwhelming display is never fulfilled as only two or three flowers on a stem open at a time. The bottom flowers open first and form fruits while new buds are still developing at the tip of the stem. Each flower is about 50 mm long with 5 lobes, the bottom lobe longer than the others and streaked with delicate lines running into the throat.

When in flower they create quite a buzz as a favourite of the carpenter and honey-bees. In nature the wild foxglove flowers throughout summer but at Kirstenbosch the best display is during the late summer months (Feb-March). The small black seeds are formed in the 30 mm long fruits which have two very prominent horns at their tips. Within a few weeks of flowering the green fruits turn brown and dry, splitting open to release the flat, pear shaped seeds. The leaves, stems and flowers are covered in fine white hairs. The plants are slightly sticky and when crushed give off a strong unpleasant smell. The flowers last for a few days in the vase.

This is the only species of Ceratotheca that is found in South Africa. Ceratotheca means having horned capsules, from the Greek kerato-, horned and theke, a case. The species name triloba means three-lobed (Latin), alluding to the leaves.

Cerathotheca triloba is used in traditional medicine to treat painful menstruation, stomach cramps, nausea, fever and diarrhoea.

Information supplied by: http://www.plantzafrica.com/

Flowering during the warm summer and into autumn, this tall, elegant annual adds a cool and lush feeling to the garden. In nature they are commonly found in the summer rainfall areas of South Africa, especially the grasslands. Opportunistic annuals, they germinate best in disturbed areas like roadsides where they manage to grow, flower and seed before the onset of the dry, frosty winter.