Waterberg Academy iNaturalist project: Update after week 3

One week to go to document the life, big and small, you see around you at school.

There are now 346 observations of 117 species. This is a considerable jump since last week’s analysis.
The five most active observers (within the school grounds) are:

• David2748 (51 observations; David Rorich)
• Catypid_WA_Gr_7 (47 observations)
• Mauriza_Kruger_wa_Gr8 (34 observations)
• Wbakobus (32 observations)
• Daniel_Eagar_WA_Gr6 (20 observations)

Plants are still the most commonly photographed organisms (65 species) followed by insects (a big jump to 30 species) and birds (10 species). I don’t know if it has rained there much, but there seems to be a lot of new and interesting observations, especially of insects and vertebrates, especially reptiles.
Photos of the week (based on my judgment alone):

The best picture this week, without doubt was of a long spinneret spider by mauriza_kruger_wa_gr8 (https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/168046832 ). Amazing use of her phone camera’s macro lens capabilities.

One the insect front, this close up of a fly by andre368 is also worthy of mention (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100755133 )

And as a plant scientist I have to include a plant picture. This one of Dicerocaryum senecioides by david2748 is worthy of some comment (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100847600 ). While not photographed by david2748, plants in this genus have interesting fruit – flattened capsules with 2 long spines pointing upwards… just waiting for a soft hoof or foot to stick into. They get dispersed this way, and when the animal (or human…) removes them, they can then split and shed seed which germinates. This is a seed dispersal system (or “syndrome”) called podochory ( "podo" = Greek for foot and "chory" for dispersal). No wonder the common name is “Devil’s thorn”… and yes, they are relatives of the famous Devil’s Thorn Haragophytum which is used for pain relief medication (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpagophytum ).

Keep it up everyone! The last week of action looms! Lets see how many more observations and species you can capture in the coming week.

Prof. Nigel Barker

Posted on 12 November, 2021 14:55 by nigel_barker