Vacation Time - Day 10 Part 5

During the wintertime there is no need to ride around looking for animals because if you park at a watering hole, sooner or later all the animals come down for a drink.

A Waterbuck.....
Guinea Fowl....

Hippo......

Impala......

Elephant and warthog.....

Buffalo...

Dragonfly......

Mystery critters - puzzle solved

The question of what these belonged too has puzzled me but at last I have an answer to both.

This one is the larvae of an Assassin Bug (pictured below) belonging to the Reduviidae family.

This is the larvae of a Hanging fly (also pictured below) of the Mecoptera family.

Vacation Time - Day 10 Part 4

Sometimes one has to be very careful when identifying things. Take a look at the next two pictures and see if you think it is the same species.
They both have the same coloration but the bottom one has black on top of its head although both have the black eyes. The one below also has a red spot on the edge of the wing near the end which the other does not. I am no expert but to me the top one is a Longhorn beetle and the bottom a wasp belonging to the genus Zombrus, two entirely different species.

This Froghopper is well disguised and hiding at the bottom of a palm leaf.

What a great hideout!! It should be toasty and warm there during the winter and away from predators eyes.

When it gets warm, these Skinks forage amongst the leaves on the ground for insects.

I have been asked what these are as they are often seen in lawns. They belong to funnel-web spiders of which there are many species.

The new shoots of the grass make a yummy meal at the beginning of the season and this ground squirrel is making the most of it.

Many plants put out a sweet nectar at the beginning of the season and attract ants which lap it up.

Now this one is just as confusing…. In one book it t is called a Meadow White (Ponta helice) but in the other book the butterfly with the same name has a picture of a different butterfly!! How the hang am I supposed to learn these things with such a mess!! So, all I can say for sure is that this is a butterfly of the Pieridae family.

Twig Wilters 2

Twig Wilters belong to the Coreidae family and look very much like Assassin bugs and stink bugs. They feed on young shoots, seeds and fruits.
They have stink glands which are visible between the middle and hind legs which squirt out a fluid which smells just like stinkbugs.

I have always thought this a measure of defense but during the taking of these pictures, the bigger of the two sprayed this scent on the leaf it was on and almost immediately, there were 8-9 very small flies circling.

This has lead me to wonder if the smell is also maybe a means of attracting prey?

Twig Wilters can be recognised by the quadrangular shape of its head and the huge hind legs of the male.

Vacation Time - Day 10 Part 3

Summer is starting and the bushes and trees are coming alive with new leaves.
Much of the grass is still brown as the rains are late so the flowers of this Boerboon tree add some lovely color to the surroundings.

Euphorbia (species) sap is a milky-white substance and quite sticky. The latex is toxic, causing intense irritation and blistering of the skin. If it comes into contact with the yes, can cause complete or partial blindness. This one is also known as the candelabra tree.

Buffalo Weavers are social birds and build huge communal nests in which to roost and forage on the ground with other birds. They are about the size of a Thrush.

A young Short-horned grasshopper (Family Acrididae) clings to a piece of grass.

The eyes are placed below the "horns".

It has not yet obtained its full colors and the curled body indicated a juvenile.

A ladybird/Ladybug lays curled up inside a leaf, probably guarding eggs which it has laid.

Bee flies (Family Bombyliidae) have over 900 species in South Africa. They are large with stout bodies and love basking in the sun.

They are very good at hovering and also help to pollinate plants. The eyes of this one is fascinating and this particular specimen is over half an inch in length.

Wildebeest

We have two types of Wildebeest here. Although they look like cattle, they are classified as antelope.
The first three pictures are of the Blue Wildebeest and the last two are the Black Wildebeest.

No, they are not actually blue and black. I sometimes wonder at how these things ever got their names. :)

Of the two the Blue Wildebeest is more widespread as it survives very nicely in most bush areas. The Black Wildebeest is mainly found along our west coast as it prefers, drier, semi-desert conditions.

At a glance, the biggest differences are:

Blue

Horns grow sideways out of its head

Has a black tail

Has no crest of hair on its nose

Darker in color

Black

Horns grow forward

Has a white tail

Has crest of hair on its nose

More brown

Vacation Time - Day 10 Part 2

Why does it seem that some people live by “Rules are made to be broken?” during my second week, I decided that another day in Kruger would be nice and left early morning to get there when the gates opened. On the way into camp, this elephant was holding up the traffic as he had decided that the bush closest to the road was going to be his breakfast.
Some bright spark decided that it was okay to disturb him and drove past then, to make matters worse, someone in the bright sparks car decided to climb out of the sunroof to take pictures. There are very strict rules against things like this in the park. The animals are there for the enjoyment of everyone and although they are used to the outline of cars, climbing out scares them of and then the other people who wanted to see the animal, does not get a chance because it is gone. Besides the fact that these idiots tend to forget that these are WILD animals and not tame pets and when an animal gets a fright, it can lead to them charging and someone getting hurt or killed!! Even worse than THAT, if an animal injures someone, they SHOOT it!! Now was it the animals fault that some darn fool broke the rules in the first place?? I will never understand people and is one of the reasons I live like a recluse with almost no contact with them!!

My first find of the day was this Tussock Moth caterpillar cling to a wall and searching out the first rays of sunshine.

This beetle was very tiny and I am not sure what it is. It could be a young Ten-spotted Leaf Beetle.

An unknown but pretty moth....

This rock seemed to be the favorite hang-out for lizards to play and enjoy the sunshine. He smaller ones are Eastern Striped Skinks and the larger, an Agama Lizard.

The Agama’s are fairly large, this one being about 12 inches in length.

I was wondering if I grew my nails if it would allow me to climb and cling to rocks too? LOL!!

An unknown nymph of a Twig Wilter. You can see its wings just starting to develop. These bugs are closely associated with stinkbugs and assassin bugs.

Farm Museum

With nothing better to do one Sunday, I agreed to tag along with some friends to an old farm house which had been turned into a museum. This is an old grinding wheel. If you look right at the bottom of the picture, there is a small stream which turns the blades. The wooden funnel at the top stores the corn and is let out onto the flat stone a little at a time to be ground. Quite primative, but it worked and that was all which mattered.
Heaven alone knows out of which century this tractor comes out of? :)

Inside a shed they had various other tractors and farm implements but the only one of interest to me was this beer wagon. What a beautiful piece of work!! A few years ago they used this in an advetisement.

I have never seen such a small cricket, maybe 3-4mm. I just loved the bug-eyes and those antennae which are about 4 times his body length.

This is a tiny Leaf beetle. On the farm they used to cure hides and he was almost hidden in the folds of one dried up piece of skin layng on the table. He is also about 3mm in length and one could easily think this was a ladybird. Many of the adults can become pests on plants which they eat.