tuli's Favourites

While walking in the veld on a quite afternoon with several family members , I heard a tiny meow coming from a nearby ant-mound. On inspection we found two tiny little kittens, still very young, huddled toward the back of the ant-mound!

This series shows Watshamiella alata watching Sycoscapter cornutus oviposit into a Ficus burkei syconium (fruiting body) for over seven minutes; after the Sycoscapter female departs, the Watshamiella female proceeds to oviposit into the same hole. Compton et al. (2009) described this behaviour for different species of Watshamiella in Uganda and Kenya on Ficus sycomorus and Ficus artocarpoides.
Compton, S.G., Van Noort, S., McLeish, M., Deeble, M. and Stone, V., 2009. Sneaky African fig wasps that oviposit through holes drilled by other species. African Natural History, 5, pp.9-15. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230580629

The only other plant found growing in the immediate vicinity was a succulent shrub species of Amaranthaceae, Arthraerua leubnitziae. Heavy fog in the morning. Ten miles East, no fog. In this way Welwitschia can be seen to be a relictual species somewhat akin to coastal redwoods of California, both clinging to a narrow strip along the coast of a cold ocean where they can find what they need to survive and in the case of Welwitschia, avoid competition.

Not the best choice for a nest probably, when this Lizard Buzzard decided to build it high in a large Erythrina livingstoniana. In early December, the hottest time of the year before the start of the rains, this tree is entirely leafless exposing both parent and chick to the blazing midday sun.

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.