Name the Insect or Spider

[Richprins]

[Klipspringer]

Queen bee?

No, queens do work hard!

But close

[ExFmem]

Male drone bee?

[Richprins]

Termite queen?

[Klipspringer]

Male drone bee?

Male honey bees, or drones, don’t do any work. They make up roughly ten percent of the colony’s population, and they spend their whole lives eating honey and waiting for the opportunity to mate. When the time comes for the queen to make her nuptial flight, all the drones in other colonies will compete for the honor of insemination. They fly after the queen and attempt to mate with her in mid-air. If they mate successfully, they fall to the ground in a victorious death. The queen will mate with up to twenty drones and will store their spermatozoa in her spermatheca organ for the rest of her life. That’s where male duties end.

[Richprins]

What a life!

[Klipspringer]

Hi there

I am a rather special member of my subfamily and I am now very cute and fluffy.

But I'll tell you the story of my childhood: My mother took the risk and went out at night despite the dangerous owls, cape foxes and jackals and found a nice midden of springbok pellets. That is where I was laid in my egghood. I managed to hatch and grabbed a small piece of dung for food and took it with me underground - I had to crawl out at night several times then to get new food, but after a while I was ready to pupate in my cosy chamber and made it to adulthood while most of my sibblings fell prey to hungry mongooses and meerkats. These days I still hide underground during the day, but I have thick cloths and can go out during the cold nights and visit the camps and entertain the tourists who absolutely adore me. It's in the camps where I find the most tasty leaves and I need good nutrition to make lots of eggs now. I wonder when ExFmem will be back and make some more portraits of me.

[Lisbeth]

One of the jumping spiders?

[Klipspringer]

One of the jumping spiders?

They are equally cute but they do not pupate - quite a different childhood story

[Lisbeth]

It was just a guess of the moment