Favoritos de richardadcock

Long tongue - sweet tooth

Very meticulously visits each flower and remembers each so not to waste valuable energy. That long proboscis is inserted all the way and only takes about one second to get at the nectar and then move on.
Pic 4 shows how the fly's face comes into contact with the anthers and pic 5-7 shows the purple pollen adhering.

Camponotus dicksoni Majors

After recently posting on the Minors of this species which were collected by Peter Slingsby I managed to find some Majors yesterday. They were nesting in an old rotten piece of wood. They measure somewhere in the 7-7.5mm range. There are some naked pupae visible in the second image. I added a post on the Minors of this nest here: http://www.ispotnature.org/node/824318. The first post I did on the minors is what I base this ID on. See here: http://www.ispotnature.org/node/819779.

Hessea cinnamomea

This area burnt last year (2015), where a few hundred of these phyrophytes flowered.
Followed up this year - two flowering observed. Could be very few more. Thick vegetation for bugs to navigate - don't seem well pollinated.
All inflorescences face north.

Camponotus

These ants were collected by Peter Slingsby at Silvermine. We thought it might be C bertolonii but there is more yellow present than I expected from Peter's drawings. I will therefore leave the ID up to him. The majors measured just over 8mm and the minors in the 6.5 - 7mm range. There were some inbetweeners also. A couple of the minors were found dead in the sample bottle. I mounted one of these for a portrait or two.

These cheetah cubs are about 5 months old and a complete handful for their mother but she seemed expert at keeping them healthy and safe.
Explore #6
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Hesperantha flava

very poorly known species, with only 3 or 4 records, from Steinkopf to Matjiesfontein; fairly common, but very local, on thin shale rock sheets; plants to 5cm tall; fls only open half and hour before sunset and remain open all night; extremely sweetly scented; no evident threats, although a large wind farm is proposed for this property