Journal archives for December 2019

15 December, 2019

16 December, 2019

The 'brown' southern African francolins - some ID help.

We have a lovely variety of francolins in southern Africa, and they can sometimes be tricky to ID.

The species are Greywing Francolin (Scleroptila afra), Redwing Francolin (S. levaillantii), Shelley's Francolin (S. shelleyi), Orange River Francolin (S. gutturalis), and to a lesser extent, Crested Francolin (Dendroperdix sephaena) and Coqui Francolin female (Peliperdix coqui).

I have tried to use neck patterns here because this is the bit that, fleetingly, sticks out from the grass as the little chaps hurry away out of sight.


All images from iNaturalist, and copyright remains with the photographers.
Redwing: @ammartin
Greywing: @michael_mcsweeney
Orange R: @nikborrow and @tapaculo99
Shelley's: @markuslilje
Crested: @michael_mcsweeney
Coqui: @richardgill

KEY TO THE BROWN FRANCOLINS

1a. Neck pattern black speckles bordered by ochre on nape and throat...Redwing
1b. Neck pattern speckly rufous or chestnut with no black necklaces...Crested
1c. Neck pattern ochre, rufous or whitish bordered by black speckles or necklaces on both nape and throat...2

2a. Bill all black, neck pattern ochre or rufous bordered by black speckles on both sides...Greywing
2b. Bill yellow at base, necklaces more definite black...3

3a. Small bird with very short bill that is mostly yellow. Nape necklace does not extend to throat...Coqui female
3b. Medium sized birds with nape necklace extending to throat, bill large and hooked...4

4a. Centre of belly barred black on white, distribution eastern...Shelley's
4b. Centre of belly faintly barred or spotted brownish on white, or flecked rufous on buff, never black barred, distribution western...Orange River

Current distribution records on iNat for Shelley's (blue) and Orange River (orange)

Hope this helps :-)
If you have any suggestions for improving this, please let me know!

Posted on 16 December, 2019 09:30 by karoopixie karoopixie | 1 comment | Leave a comment

17 December, 2019

Tips for rearing leaf-miners and gallers

Brilliant help provided by @ceiseman on his blog:

https://bugtracks.wordpress.com/rearing/

These tips are for northern climes, so you will need to adjust some things for our southern conditions. Probably best not to put them in the fridge, for example. Also, in the winter-rainfall area especially, many insects emerge in winter, so you'll need to keep an eye on them.

I have found humidity in rearing containers in the western drylands to be a festival of mould and death. But humidity is definitely required for at least some beasties in the east.

You will need to experiment obviously, and Charley's blog is an excellent base to work from.

Happy rearing :-)

Posted on 17 December, 2019 06:43 by karoopixie karoopixie | 3 comments | Leave a comment

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