Purple predatory chafer on a small tree in front of the farm house. The Walsingham Farm, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024). A member of the predatory chafers, in the tribe Cremastocheilini. General body obovate, slightly convex, darkly blood-red or chestnut, shiny. Antennae cadaneous.Head black with yellow triangular pattern on the clypeus and frons. Pro-thorax sub-smooth,… Continue reading Purple predatory chafer (Campsiura cognata)
Author: fockfish
Fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis)
African drongo hanging on a tree branch, close to the farm house. The Walsingham Farm, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024). Black body with a blue-green iridescence in specific regions. Underside and belly uniformly black, contrasting with the glossy black-blue upper body. Robust black beak. Red eyes. Deeply forked lengthy tail. Males and females alike, with… Continue reading Fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis)
Natal scale-worm (Lepidonotus durbanensis)
Natal scale-worm cruising on the underside of a rock on the rocky shores. Unknown location, South Africa (2021). Body elongated, about four times as long as broad. Upper surface of the body covered by 12 pairs of flat bean-shaped scales - called 'elytra' by Day (1969). Surface of each elytra covered with low spherical tubercles… Continue reading Natal scale-worm (Lepidonotus durbanensis)
Warrior Acraea (Tildia acara)
Male Warrior Acraea emerging from its chrysalis, on a potted plant in the front garden. Grahamstown, Eastern Cape (2018). Formerly known as Acraea acara subsp. acara but revised by Williams & Henning (2023). Upperside rufous, the base of both wings dark brown. Anterior wing with a spot in the cell, a transverse band of three… Continue reading Warrior Acraea (Tildia acara)
Lightning seaweed (Oerstedtia scalaris)
Specimen of 'lightning seaweed' on the rocky shores at low tide. Unknown location, South Africa (2021). Plants dark brown to yellowish-brown, with tough rather than rubbery texture, comprising a prominent, woody, conical holdfast bearing one or more main axes that, in turn, bear primary lateral branches with distichous, alternating arrangement of leaves - rarely, second… Continue reading Lightning seaweed (Oerstedtia scalaris)
Réunion Stonechat (Saxicoles tectes)
Curious 'tec-tec' hanging onto a branch. Maïdo, Saint-Paul, La Réunion (2025). A short and round little bird, very familiar, curious and not so shy. Male is mostly black - head, back and wings - with white brows and mirrors on the wings, white throat and belly with a rufous chest patch. But males displays a… Continue reading Réunion Stonechat (Saxicoles tectes)
Columbus crab (Planes minutus)
Mottle brown Columbus crab found washed ashore. Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024). Also referred to as Gulfweed crab or flotsam crab. Conspicuous eyes in wide orbits at the corners of the wide front edge of the carapace. First pair of pereiopods - or walking legs - with a symmetrical pair of chelae - or claws… Continue reading Columbus crab (Planes minutus)
Spotted sand lizard (Pedioplanis lineoocellata ssp. pulchella)
Spotted sand lizard in situ. Bavianskloof, Eastern Cape (2020). Orange to grey lizard, with white-blue and dark bordered ocelli (eye-like markings) on flanks and numerous paler spots on the back, which may fuse into a dorsolateral lines.Sexes distinguished in adults by the presence of a hemi-penal bulge (a bulge on the base of the tail… Continue reading Spotted sand lizard (Pedioplanis lineoocellata ssp. pulchella)
African penguin (Spheniscus demersus)
Dead specimen of jackass penguin washed up on the beach. Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024). Also called the jackass penguin. The only species of penguins that breeds in southern Africa. Adults are jet black, with diagnostic striped head and sides. Some have a double breast band as in the Magellanic penguin, but with a narrower… Continue reading African penguin (Spheniscus demersus)
Elephant ear (Gynandrocarpa placenta)
A fresh specimen of elephant ear washed ashore. Unknown location, South Africa (2021). A large colonial ascidian that consists of a large fleshy disk, often cream or pink in colour, on a thin short brown wrinkled stalk. Zooids robust arranged on the outer layer of the test and opening separately on the surface of the… Continue reading Elephant ear (Gynandrocarpa placenta)
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