Tag Archives: beetle

I Thought She Was A Lady!

Distracted by the lovely colours I thought Ah! A Lady Beetle or a Ladybird! She was beetling about the leaves of the Bauhinia tomentosa with its beautiful yellow flowers. So I took a branchlet and took her off to photograph.

She was busy and kept moving, but I got some OK pictures and sent them off to iNaturalist. What kind of Ladybird is this? I asked, being a bit of a ladybird expert now, having sent one in a few days earlier:

– bustling about – my earlier ladybird – ID’d as a ladybird – Declivitata olivieri –

Well, the first ID came back in seconds: Bauhinia tomentosa. Oh! OK. I cropped the pic so the ladybird was bigger and the leaf smaller.

Stink Bug! Came the replies! What? My beautiful ladybird? But nope, she was a Stink Bug. Pentatominae genus. So then I looked closer, no longer distracted by the colours. Look at that shape, it’s a stink bug. You learn things on iNaturalist.

~~~oo0oo~~~

Lockdown Creatures

– Common Mother-of-Pearl Salamis parhassus –
– noctuidae lawn-feeding caterpillar about 30mm long when elongated – according to our great neighbourhood entomologist ‘Sun’ –
– maybe caterpillar with wasp eggs? – unknown crustacean – unknown beetle –
– whip scorpion rescued by Jessie –

~~~oo0oo~~~

Creature Comfort

Home Creatures –

He was dead:

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He was found in Jessie’s room:

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On the deck; On the scullery sink:

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On the patio. Jess said “Dad what’s that?” as we got home late one night (brown water snake):

Little Common Brown Water Snake (on 600mm tile)

Away creatures – All at Nambiti game reserve near Ladysmith:

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