Saturday, March 5, 2011

Beetles and Bugs

Here are another couple of pics of creatures that visit us.
The tiles that it is walking on are about 10 inches square (25cm).
It has a pattern as if it had been painted on.

Below is a month with very similiar markings.
I don't think they are related.

These grasshoppers arrive when the rainy season starts,
there are clumps of them all over the place they move enmasse
and the birds don't eat them so they are obviously not very palatible.


A couple of mating millipedes which come out with the rain.
We call them chongololo's. Which is an African name.



A stick insect which appears every now and then.
We put the apple there to give the size comparison.
We have had slightly larger ones.

Here is a wasp carrying a spider quite a few sizes bigger than itself.
It is a bit cruel, The wasp stings the spider, but the spider does not die
it is paralysied and the wasp then lays its eggs in the spider and when they
hatch feed off the spider.

A monster looking beetle.

This is a bag worm which builds a cocoon on the
side of a tree.

This is a spider which is alive and related to the one that
had been caught by the wasp.

A mythical looking grasshopper which looks
half unicorn.


A centipede hiding in the corner it is about
6 inches long(15cm).

This strange looking creature lurking under the rock is
actually a fungi the tentacles are about 8 inches(20cm)
long. When we first saw it we thought we had been invaded
from outer space.

I am always amazed at the variety of insect there are.
Over the years I have seen some very strange creatures.

4 comments:

  1. I really enjoy your creature posts--you get some very interesting insects at your place

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  2. Those are some really neat and interesting bugs. I'm thinking maybe the birds don't eat the grasshoppers because of how they all cling together.

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  3. very interesting gogga's. We get many of the same here but that unicorn grasshppoer and that wierd tusk like fungus are new to me - stunning!

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  4. Very interesting critters. We have stick insects here, but the rest are new to me. Those two with the similar patterns were really neat.--Inger

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