Africa Wild

AHA! New page! I can finish this off without invoking the "Wrath of Nan" (caused by loading too many pictures on a page )

This Leaf Katydid posed nicely in a Morning Glory flower and showed a wonderful colour contrast.



Yet another new fly species - this one is a wasp mimic!


Some moths that wandered into the house.



And a huge Mantid that my SO brought home from work. From head to tail it measured 13.5cm!!!

Trigonodes exportata or hyppasia

I think, nan will love the mantid and so do I, impressive one

Love the grasshopper on the morning glory.

Once again - WOW!!!

Stunning BT!

Thanks for the comments everyone and thanks Toko for the ID

Last weekend was very sparse but I did manage to get a few pics and again there were some species I'd not seen before.

On Saturday I didn't do my morning patrol and only managed to get into the garden late in the afternoon. I was getting desperate and resorting to looking under rocks when I found this Earwig, Euborellia annulipes I think.


Later that evening I found a Cranefly (Nematocera Sp.) in the kitchen, it was trying to commit suicide on the cooker until I rescued it.



On Sunday I managed to get this Bee that's been around for a couple of days, it looks like a miniature Carpenter Bee, about half the size of the usual Xylocopa caffra and very much like a Banded Bee in flight.


Lastly, just for Nan, a couple of small spiders.

A Wolf Spider - there are about a dozen species of these that look exactly the same.


And a new one I haven't been able to ID yet.

The Cranefly does not look much like a fly, but then again, what do I know about flies

Elegant Crane Fly
of the family Tipulidae, it helds the wings spread out and has no patterns on the wings.

The adults are short-lived, only do mate and than die, I think, they do not even feed perhaps this one was done with mating and went for suicide rather than starving


The bee is a Xylocopa sp there are also small one, but don't know which one A pretty girl

So great to meet other wildlife and critter enthusiasts and learn more about all the beauty that nature has to offer.
Your macro's are absolutely stunning BT. Thanks for sharing.

That Mongoose is super cute Okie. Great shot!