In praise of South African critters - the six-legged variety

My love for critters of all sorts, even (especially?) the odd and unloveable, began at an early age in the fields of northern England and then in the suburbs of South Shore Montreal, which in the 1960s and 70s was critter paradise, at least the six-legged critter kind. Monarch butterflies feeding on milkweed - there must be caterpillars! Tomato hornworms chowing the tomato plants? Terrific! They're boss caterpillars. I don't think my mother shared the same view, given their influence on the summer crop. Black swallowtail butterflies? The coolest caterpillars, except for those rather stinky orange protuberances from their heads. But again, voracious consumers of anything related to dill and parsley, so they were only popular with the mater familias if we took them off their feeding grounds and kept them in the laboratory known as the "front porch".

Crickets, grasshoppers, praying mantises, katydids - as kids, not only did we have our ears to the ground, but the rest was pretty close too, so we were often at eye level with these representatives of the insect world.

But it wasn't just insects that caught our attention. We caught crayfish in the nearby creek - ask me how and I'll tell you the world's easiest trick for doing it...these are not the sharpest critters in the food chain. Sticklebacks and minnows were fair game as well, as were leopard frogs and a variety of toads. One year we found a snapping turtle, and there was indeed joy in Mudville that summer.

Ah, the critter love runs deep in this one. I pored over books and books of butterfly and moth species of eastern North America, hoping against hope to spot a Cecropia or a Luna moth. Living where we lived, I had a better chance of seeing those more exotic species in books than in the garden or flying around the outside light. However, South Africa's critters are on a whole different scale to Canada's, and running into them tends to be, well, random. Today I thought I'd share with you a collection of critters I've met in South Africa over the last few years, just because it's Friday and who doesn't need a little Cute & Adorable (C&A) critter love on a Friday?

Meet some critters from KZN

The Drakensberg mountains are a paradise for nature lovers, hikers and people who just want peace and quiet.

Visiting a farm a couple of years ago not far from Himeville in the province of KwaZulu Natal (KZN), on the eastern edge of the Drakensberg, we were impressed by the range of wild things wandering around alongside the cattle. As an aside, we were entertained daily on the farm by flocks of blue cranes and crowned cranes flying in to forage the nearby fields. Sometimes the crowned cranes would do their mesmerising mating dance...but cranes are a story for another day. Six-legged critters are the order of the day today.

Moths

Here's your first selection, some moths which appeared inside the farmhouse one December evening.

Exquisite, isn't it? I'll bet you didn't know what it was until I told you it was a moth. At least, I think it is! Here's another view which gives you a better feel for its "mothness".

What extraordinary detail and delicate colouring - truly a work of art. It looks like it has scales on its wings, which tags it as a member of the order of insects known as lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). Also, moths and butterflies often have those "furry mantles", and furry legs, like this green specimen above. However, we can't see its antennae, which would go a long way towards convincing me of its ultimate mothness.

Here's more of a daytime fellow, looking longingly out the window. Isn't that outstretched right leg poignant?

Seen from the other side, it looks a bit bedraggled. Perhaps it had suffered a difficult night.



Again, you can see the almost furry mantle behind its head. This time its antennae are clearly visible. Aren't those leg markings striking, and the way they contrast with the colours of the wings and the thorax (chest) markings is sublime.

This next fellow was a little less cooperative and wouldn't sit still long enough for a photo session, so I'm afraid he's a bit out of focus, but oh, the colour....

I couldn't leave him out. And check out the feathery antennae, although the lack of focus means you can't see the fine detail there. However, you can get a decent idea of the scales on the wings.

One of the ways you can tell moths and butterflies apart, besides their antennae (feathery versus not feathery), cocoon versus chrysalis metamorposis phase and night versus day living habits, is that moths generally rest with their wings down, more or less parallel to the surface they're resting on, while butterflies rest with their wings vertical. Here's an example of a moth resting with wings outstretched; this one was taken in Port Edward a couple of months ago.

You can clearly see the feathery antennae and the wing scales which form the beautiful pattern, and in the view below the furry mantle is easy to see.

Hoppers and grabbers

We decided to take a quick day hike in Cobham before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. To give you an idea of the terrain and scenery there, a couple of scene setting pictures:

By the way, that's not a critter/hopper/grabber. That's @tim-beck.

Walking along that trail, I looked down and what did I see, but this not so little guy:

I assume it's some kind of locust, and with that kind of bright colouring it probably either tastes really bad or is poisonous - the colouring would warn off birds and other predators. I tried to find out more about it online, with no luck. Perhaps some knowledgeable Steemian entomologist could chime in here with more information about this insect.

Now that the hopper side has been represented, here's a rep for the grabber team:

This is a kind of praying mantis, although it's not resting in the characteristic praying position and you can't really see the alien-type head well in this shot - it refused to look my way and pose. If you've ever had one grab onto your finger, you'll know they have an incredibly powerful grip. In the Montreal area, these were always a bright green, probably because their habitat was full of green plants. I've seen reddish and other coloured mantids here in South Africa. As you can see from its colouring, this fellow would probably blend in with a mottled surrounding.

Now for something completely different

I saw this next fellow (I think it's some kind of fly, but an awfully ostentatious, exotic one) on my kitchen door window last year and discovered just how poor my cell phone camera was at the time - had a heckuva time focusing on it. We live in Johannesburg, so unless it came in on a windstorm, it's probably native to South Africa's Highveld.

I hope you can make out its topside and underside from the next two images.

Fly? Top view


Fly? Underside view

What exquisite wing patterns and coloration. They look so delicate, and yet they are completely opaque; it's impossible to see through its wings that its body is bright red. I would never have known this if I'd seen it sitting on a leaf, but since it was kind enough to spend time on my window, serendipity!

Nope, nope, nope - not indoors

And what critter feature would be complete without some eight-legged critters for jitters?

Pardon the poor quality of this photo in our previous home, but I was going for evidence, not aesthetics.

Geez, those things can move fast when they want to. This works against them in the @kiligirl court of "some things are just not allowed in my house".

...and another one in the house we're living in now, just to remind me of the futility of that @kiligirl court.

And happy Friday, folks

I hope you enjoyed this taste of the C&A that South Africa has to offer!

I drew that. He's my alter ego.

Cool South African Steemit logo courtesy of @alainite