Found MANY of them on a small American Elm! Took forever to find out what they were! I only ever saw the caterpillars, no butterflies or chysalises.
The tree is right up against the sidewalk, though be warned the sidewalk has only one ramp, and a section of dirt and mud unless they fix it.
Height: 115 mm
Thembani Luthuli found on fern.
Follow observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102392696
The mushy stuff this massive lady spider is eating.
It's development can be followed:
Larva https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/79511352
Pupa
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/81590622
Adult
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82796482
CRG Reference Suncana 1053
See her swinging her bolas: https://youtu.be/DKMrKwTNV5k
Some more wonderful photos of this lady by photographers much better then moi. She is quite a celebrity!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/101951926508391/permalink/4394361263934081/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/101951926508391/permalink/4397220953648112/
Moult and adult same day.
Snake pulling itself out of a hole, covered in small red ants.
Black-headed Heron hunting, catching and eating small mammal (possibly Four-striped Mouse).
Capture to consumption - 3 seconds
Consumption to moving on - 5 seconds
Small mammal caught by Black-headed Heron.
First draft of description:
Playing dead, it turned back into the bush after a few minutes.
Interesting sculptural effect. Is this a stop motion of muscle movement?
Additional information added in response to questions in comments below.
Snake: completely unmoving as if "frozen" for a few minutes. Surface contours present and unchanged, until just before it turn around back into the bush.
What happened:
We were driving, when I saw "something on the road ahead". We drove up slowly to get a better view.
We stopped the car less than 5m from, what was by then clearly, a snake. It had not moved from the time that we spotted it some distance before.
I was intrigued by surface contours. Stupidly and reflexively, I got out of the car from the passenger side. I came around the back of the car to get clearer photos. It did not move for perhaps a minute or so.
When one of our friends in the car behind us also got out, I came to my senses. Almost as soon as I said not to get any closer, that it might be playing dead, the snake turned around returning to the bush.
I moved this little nymph from its large green home (an Iboza leaf), across the drive to a safer spot. Onto a blooming bright orange Tecomaria flower. I had before observed a pink nymph on such a flower and wanted to see if this fellow would change colour. Not a chance! By the next day he'd climbed off the flower and found another large green home about 20cm away (as the nymph climbs down then up), an about-to-bud blue Plectranthus. He might have been disturbed by a giant, relatively, Leaf-footed Bug which are commandeering the emerging Tecomaria flowers, but I won't fiddle with his obvious preference again.
Whether he can change colour is thus moot.
Of interest in these latest shots, taken sequentially a couple of seconds apart, is his defense response. In the first pic, his pale face is looking at me (doubtless thinking, "Hell the bugger's going to move me again!"). I then gently tickled the underside of his leaf and his head instantly snapped around, antennae flailing, to show me the black "face" behind his head.
Found on a damp ledge.
See the larva https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9809227
Collected the final instar larva on 05 February 2018 and it started to pupate on 07 February 2018.
Imago emerged on 21 February 2018.