Africa Wild

Tortoise Beetle Acrocassis sp.
Family: Chrysomelidae. Subfamily: Cassidinae. Tribe: Cassidini

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg

The subfamily Cassidinae in old sense, commonly named “tortoise beetles”, is a part of the large family Chrysomelidae. Typical tortoise beetles have a rounded outline with the edges of the pronotum and elytra spreading out to cover the legs and head. Cassidines are often colourful and metallic.

Acrocassis is a genus of shield beetles, endemic to Africa. The body is flattened. The head is not visible from above, covered by the pronotum.

Links:
http://www.cassidae.uni.wroc.pl/katalog ... cassis.htm

Ground Spitting Beetle Anthia sp. Oogpister
Family: Carabidae. Subfamily: Anthiinae. Tribe: Anthiini

Anthia cinctipennis or Anthia circumscripta

© Moggiedog
Zimbabwe

Beetles in the genus Anthia Weber are some of the largest and most conspicuous representatives of the family Carabidae in sub-Saharan Africa. These beetles are armed with potent chemical defenses and are able to spray highly concentrated acidic secretions over a distance of a meter or more, often directed at the head and eyes of an attacker.
Body is black, with a band of whitish reclinate setae on the lateral margins of elytra. Mandibles are strong and elongate in males. Elytra are ovate and smooth, with linear striae.

Links: The genus Anthia Weber in the Republic of South Africa, Identification, distribution, biogeography, and behavior

Slender Grey Blister Beetle Lydomorphus bisignatus
Family: Meloidae. Subfamily: Meloinae. Tribe: Lyttini


Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, March 2013

© Sprocky
Grietjie Private Reserve, Balule


Description
16 mm, elongate. Head black with grey hairs. Antennae long and thin. Pronotum orange. Elytra black, covered with grey hairs.

Habitat
On flowers.

Links: MeloidaE.com;
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 5/download

Armoured Darkling Beetle Anomalipus sp.
Family: Tenebrionidae. Subfamily: Tenebrioninae. Tribe: Pedinini

© nan
Kruger National Park

Anomalipus is a genus of large, hard, flightless darkling beetles with strongly sculptured elytra, with several ribs. They are heavily built and have strong legs.
The genus Anomalipus is comprised of 51 species in Eastern and Southern Africa.
They feed on dead plant material.

http://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/defau ... reille.pdf

Amethyst Fruit Chafer Leucocelis amethystina
Family: Scarabaeidae. Subfamily: Cetoniinae. Tribe Cetoniini

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Hartebeespoort Dam area, North West Province

Description
12 mm. Brightly coloured metallic green/blue without white dotting.
Similar species: Leucocelis haemorrhoidalis

Distribution
Afrotropical (Central and Southern Africa). Widely distributed in the eastern parts of South Africa.

Habitat
Vegetation. On flowers & dung traps.

Biology
The adults feed on the flowers of a variety of trees and shrubs. They are attracted to fruit baits and cattle dung.

Nelspruit (Dec 2020) © Richprins

Burrowing Ground Beetle Passalidius fortipes
Family: Carabidae. Subfamily: Scaritinae

© PRWIN
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Pedunculate Ground Beetle of the subfamily Scaritinae have fierce jaws and a pedunculate body: The forebody and the hindbody rather separate and linked by a neck.

© Tina
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Twee Rivieren in the shop


Pedunculate Ground Beetle of the subfamily Scaritinae have large fierce mandibles and a pedunculate body: The ponontum and the hindbody are separated and linked by a neck.
Some species have flat front legs for digging in sand hunting insect larvae and worms below ground. Some species are wingless.

The subfamily contains five tibes in the region: Clivinini (genera Antireicheia, Clivina, Pseudoclivina), Dyschiriini (genera Cribrodyschirius, Dyschiriodes, Striganoviella), Palaeoaxinidiini (genus Palaeoaxinidium), Promecognathini (genera Axinidium, Holaxinidium, Metaxinidium, Paraxinidium), Scaritini (genera: Acanthoscelis, Haplotrachelus, Macromorphus, Pachyodontus, Passalidius, Scarites).

Woolly Chafer Sparrmannia flava
Family: Scarabaeidae. Subfamily: Melolontinae. Tribe: Tanyproctini

There are 25 species in this genus.


Oct. Kgalagadi


Oct. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Sparrmannia flava are medium - sized, desert-living, nocturnal melolonthines which maintain thoracic temperatures 10 - 23°C above ambient during flight.

Biology
The duration of the life cycle of Sparrmannia flava is one year in the arid Kalahari. Larvae live in burrows in soil and in and around accumulations of dung of springbok and probably other mammals, they forage above ground at night on antelope dung pellets, a unique feature in the Melolonthinae. Larval development proceeds intermittently, with feeding periods after rain interrupted by quiescent periods during dry spells.
Adults fly at dusk or at night and feed on vegetation.

Ladybird Beetle Oenopia sp.
Family: Coccinellidae. Subfamily: Coccinellinae. Tribe Coccinellini



© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg


A freshly hatched Ladybird rescued from drowning in the bird bath.
They emerge without stripes from their pupal stage, pattern will develop as the exoskeleton hardens.

Spotted Maize Beetle Astylus atromaculatus
Family: Melyridae. Subfamily: Dasytinae

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg

Description
Adult Astylus atromaculatus are roughly oval in shape, slightly elongated, with parallel sides. They generally are slightly flat in shape, and like most Melyridae, tend to be soft and leathery in texture. They attain about 12 mm in bodily length by 5 mm wide. They are finely bristly with finely punctured elytra and upper surfaces. The body colour is generally black, but with pale hairs on the pronotum surrounding two large, eye-like dorsal black patches. However, the most conspicuous feature is the colour scheme of the elytra; they are yellow to orange with a black median stripe along their margins where the folded elytra meet. Two blotches on that median stripe form cross-marks, one about 2 mm from the anterior end of the line, and one about 1 mm from the posterior end. Each elytron has three much larger black blotches on its dorsolateral surface near its lateral margin. The filiform antennae have eleven antennomeres.
The larvae are covered with long, silky setae, brown to reddish in colour.

Geographical distribution
The Spotted Maize Beetle is indigenous to South America where its distribution includes Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. It is thought to have been introduced into South Africa in about 1916.

Habitat
Gardens and agricultural land.

Diet
Adults eat pollen, clustering on various flowers, including those of grasses, often on maize tassels.

Biology
Eggs are laid in clusters under dry leaves. The larvae (termed grubs) live in the soil, feeding on decayed vegetable matter. They are a pest in maize fields because they feed on newly planted maize seeds, causing damage both before and after germination. The adults occur in large numbers in January and February, feeding on pollen from a wide variety of plants. Even though occurring in large numbers, they don't usually cause sufficient damage to warrant attempting to control them with insecticides.

Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astylus_atromaculatus

Desert Toktokkie Adesmia cribripes, Physosterna cribripes
Family: Tenebrionidae

© Kesheshe

© Kesheshe
Richtersveld National Park

Description
16-20 mm. Shiny black toktokkie with with irregular rows of large tubercles; labrum flat, not convex; sides of epistome meeting genae at a shallow angle; elytral length more than 15 mm; mesosternal apophysis about twice the width of prosternal apophysis; proepisterna without antennal groove; middle tibiae without ventral concavity bearing two denticles.
A relatively slow moving species. Often the smaller male will be following closely behind the larger female as she searches for food.

Distribution
Throughout the Namib desert.

Habitat
In sandy washes and dry river courses and on hard gravel plains.

Diet
Omnivorous scavenger.