Africa Wild

Cotinis nitida

viewtopic.php?p=177664#p177664


Stylish chafer even with a month

Klippies!

ExFmem wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2016 8:49 pm On the way back to camp after spending time w/ Segosi, I encountered a honey badger, and later, a caracal walking down the road. Unfortunately they both shot off into the bush before I could get a single shot.

I spent the afternoon photographing a couple insects (surprise!) around camp.

Fruit Fly Snack

ExFmem, can you check if you have another photo of the ant? Or enlarge perhaps. Maybe we can see the petiole better and find out what exactly it is.

Pheidole

That's the only pic of that ant that I kept. Here's a closer crop, but not sure if it is much better or not.

Just checked my email and here's the reply I received regarding the leaf beetle you asked about:

To divide Macrocoma from Pseudocolaspis is not always easy and maybe a real difference does not exist, as already assumed by a few authors in the past; moreover a revision of all described taxa does not exist and I am nearly sure that several “Macrocoma" are still ranged in “Pseudocolaspis" and vice versa. That said, I can say nothing from this photo, it could be either one of the small Macrocoma or Pseudocolaspis taxa or even a new taxon, who knows; the only frontal view does not help.
Maybe I will afford this taxonomic problem in a future life.
Sorry.
All the best
Stefano

ExFmem wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:08 pm Just checked my email and here's the reply I received regarding the leaf beetle you asked about:

To divide Macrocoma from Pseudocolaspis is not always easy and maybe a real difference does not exist, as already assumed by a few authors in the past; moreover a revision of all described taxa does not exist and I am nearly sure that several “Macrocoma" are still ranged in “Pseudocolaspis" and vice versa. That said, I can say nothing from this photo, it could be either one of the small Macrocoma or Pseudocolaspis taxa or even a new taxon, who knows; the only frontal view does not help.
Maybe I will afford this taxonomic problem in a future life.
Sorry.
All the best
Stefano

Why ?

I think it's great to have confirmed that it is one of these two. It can go to our books now

well done!

ExFmem wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:03 pm That's the only pic of that ant that I kept. Here's a closer crop, but not sure if it is much better or not.

This is indeed Pheidole!

Not many species recorded from the Northern Cape:
http://antsofthecape.blogspot.com/p/phe.html

Pheidole spinulosa
Pheidole tenuinodis

Pheidole spinulosa (Forel, 1910):
Thorny house ant

Majors: 5.0 – 5.6 mm. Yellowish brown; rounded head. Post-petiole wider than long and dentate at widest point.
Minors: 2.0 – 2.4 mm. Yellowish brown with very sparse erect pilosity. Eyes set at midpoint of head; propodeal spines very small, just tiny points.
Northern Cape; Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe. There are three subspecies.
The name means ‘little thorns’




Pheidole tenuinodis (Mayr, 1901):
Narrow-gutted house ant

Majors: 4.5 mm. Head and alitrunk dark yellowish red, spines and propodeum dark brown with a paler brown gaster. Post-petiole about 75% wider than petiole and as long as wide. Front three-quarters of head strongly striate [grooved].
Minors: 2.8 – 3.2 mm. Head and alitrunk dark brown to reddish brown, the rest yellowish brown; mostly smooth and shiny but with dull propodeum; pilosity long and abundant.
Western and Northern Cape, KZN, Mpumalanga, Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng; Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe. There are four recognized sub-species. The Latin tenuinodis means ‘thin noded’.


https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Pheidole_tenuinodis

http://antsofafrica.org/ant_species_201 ... inodis.htm

http://antsofafrica.org/ant_species_201 ... majors.htm

http://antbase.org/ants/publications/4430/4430.pdf

For me it is clear which one it is, what do you think?

Another Pheidole here (a minor)


viewtopic.php?p=391174#p391174


Do you have some more photos?


They are harvesters according to textbooks - you made them scavengers or predators