Heteropternis thoracica (Walker, 1870)

For those who have seen Silence of the Lambs: if Buffalo Bill had stuffed grasshoppers down his victim's throats instead of moths, I have to suspect that it would have been these.

Male. Photographed in March 2011, in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, using Olympus E-420, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

That's not a judgement on today's featured creature, a perfectly harmless - and herbivorous - grasshopper, but a note on the similarity of the thoracic markings for some males of this species and the Potato Hawk-Moth (Acherontia atropos - an as yet unfeatured European species) used by the character: the symmetrical pale markings on a dark background can, with a little more imagination required for the grasshopper, look rather skull-like.

In the case of this individual, quite a lot of imagination would be required.

Same individual, different angle.

 As with most African grasshoppers that don't form biblical swarms, there's not a huge amount known about this species. Quite possibly poisonous, as it shows off a bright-red abdomen in flight, but this is purely conjecture on my part. What we do know, or at least strongly suspect, is that it is:

Heteropternis thoracica

(Walker, 1870)

Which, as you may suspect, belongs to:

- Ailopini     

- Oedipodinae

See also Humbe tenuicornis.

- Acrididae       

See also Cyathosternum prehensile.

 - Acridoidea       

See also Lobosceliana loboscelis.

- Acrididea            

- Caelifera               

- Orthoptera              

See also Stictogryllacris punctata.

 - Panorthopera            

- Orthopterida               

- Polyorthoptera             

- Anartioptera                   

- Polyneoptera                   

See also Sibylla.

- Neoptera                             

See also Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Metadon inermis, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Metisella willemi, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Phyllobius pomaceus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Oedemera noobilis,Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Andrena nigroaenea, Hagenomyia tristis, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra and Grypocoris stysi. 

- Manopterygota                        

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni, Enallagma cyathigerum and Lestinogomphus angustus.

 - Pterygota                                    

- Dicondylia                                    

- Insecta                                            

- Hexapoda                                         

- Arthropoda                                         

See also Hyllus argyrotoxus, Argiope bruennichi, Enoplognatha ovata, Alopecosa barbipes, Dicranopalpus ramosus and Ligia oceanica.

- Ecdysozoa                                             

 - Protostomia                                             

- Nephrozoa                                                 

See also Synchiropus splendidus, Rana temporaria, Chiromantis xerampelina, Hipposideros vittatus, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Zootoca vivipara, Lygodactylus capensis, Troglodytes troglodytes, Chalcophaps indica, Ardea goliath, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus and Tockus alboterminatus

- Bilateralia                                                      

- Eumetazoa                                                       

- Animalia                                                              

- Eukaryota                                                                 

And that, folks, is all.

For now.



The orthoptera speciesfile is, as always, the best resource around for identifying African grasshoppers, although it must be noted that its usefulness is greatly increased by a rapid connection. Trawling through species distributions and descriptions with a dial-up connection would be extremely time-consuming and probably more expensive than purchasing the original papers in which regionally-appropriate species were described.

Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea (Kirby, 1802)

Back to Britain again for a bit, and you may (or more likely, may not) remember this bee-filled post celebrating a ban on neonicotinoids, and a promise to create individual posts for each species, eventually?

Well, here's the beginning of that fulfilment.

Photographed in March, 2012, in Bosham, West Sussex, UK, using an Olympus E-420 DSLR with a 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This rather furry little bee should be

Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea

(Kirby, 1802)

But it is worth noting that Andrena (and the associated cuckoo bees in Nomada) are notoriously troubling to identify.

- Andreninae 

- Andrenidae    

- Anthophila        

- Apoidea               

See also Astata tropicalis

- Aculeata                 

See also Vespula germanica and Synagris proserpina.

- Apocrita                     

- Hymenoptera                

- Hymenopterida                

- Endopterygota                    

See also Crambus pascuella, Hagenomyia tristis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Malachius bipustulatus, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Diasemopsis meigenii and Dolichotachina caudata

- Eumetabola                                  

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes and Ranatra

- Neoptera                                          

See also  Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Lobosceliana loboscelis and Cyathosternum prehensile

- Manopterygota                                     

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                                  

- Dicondylia                                                  

- Insecta                                                            

- Hexapoda                                                           

- Arthropoda                                                            

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                                 

- Protostomia                                                                  

- Nephrozoa                                                                      

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                      

Although protected in Ireland, this largeish and early-flying bee seems to be quite common in the South of England. As with all Andrena, they are solitary bees, and - at least in the case of this emergent individual, nests are built on raised banks with some bare soil but reasonable shelter.




As a word on solitary bees, it is worth noting that they cannot rely on a sister to raise their young, and so value their own lives considerably higher than the social bees (notably Apis and Bombus), and even those relatively few species that are capable of stinging tend to be much less willing to do so.

Their role in pollination is often overlooked, as the widely introduced honeybee (Apis mellifera), with reproductive individuals represented by colonies of thousands, tends to dominate the bee fauna during summer periods, and has in many places displaced or at least damaged the populations of native bees, but many of the solitary bees that remain are relatively specialist, arriving early or late in the year, when the weather forces the (originally tropical) honeybee to stay indoors, and therefore are important pollinators to many spring and autumn flowering plants.



And that's all, folks!






For identification and distribution on UK hymenoptera in general, one fantastic resource is BWARS

Rhyothemis semihyalina (Desjardins, 1832)

To avoid losing all your limited attention with the pre-amble, I'm going to be starting with the picture henceforth. When I remember.

Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, in November 2011, using an Olympus E-420 DSLR, with a Zuiko 40-150mm lens and three KOOD magnifiers. It's been shrunk to be uploaded, but is still a BIG image, if you feel like clicking on it to see the facets of a dragonfly's eyes...

This, dear reader, is

Rhyothemis semihyalina

(Desjardins, 1832)

In common with other Rhyothemis, it is a flutterer, and specifically the Phantom Flutterer. Seeing it in flight gives you a good idea of the reasons for its name - as only the bases of its wings are inky black, in flight it appears a much smaller insect, and, as the bases move much more slowly than the wing-tips, looks a weak flier. To assure you that this is not the case, in 2013 I saw an individual of this species hovering over traffic on the main road into Lusaka City, snatching less agile insects from the air after cars had stunned them (I remain uncertain as to whether its agility or resourcefulness impressed me more greatly). 

- Rhyothemistini

- Trameinae           

- Libellulidae            

- Libelluloidea             

- Anisoptera                     

- Epiprocta                            

  - Odonata                                

See also: Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Holodonata                               

- Odonatoptera                                

- Manopterygota                                 

See also: Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Cyathosternum prehensile, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra, Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Diasemopsis meigenii, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata, Hagenomyia tristis, Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Astata tropicalis, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Demetrias atricapillus and Anthia fornasiini.

- Pterygota                                             

- Dicondylia                                              

- Insecta                                                        

- Hexapoda                                                        

- Arthropoda                                                         

See also: Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                             

- Protostomia                                                              

- Nephrozoa                                                                   

See also: Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                       

- Eumetazoa                                                                          

- Animalia                                                                                 

- Eukaryota                                                                                     

 

That's all, folks!

Africa Dragonfly is an excellent photographic resource on the diverse African damsel and dragonflies. It includes user-submitted images of three of the six flutterers in Rhyothemis (external links): R. fenestrina, identifiable by almost entirely black wings with clear windows; R. notata, with all four wings black for just over half their length and this species, R. semihyalina, with the basal third, or thereabouts, of the hindwings inky black. The three unpictured species known from Africa are Rhyothemis mariposa, a widespread species which is found in Zambia but seems to be restricted to wetlands, Rhyothemis cognata, a Madagascar endemic, and Rhyothemis splendens, which has only (ever?) been recorded once, although this was from the southern Democratic Republic of Congo, and so it may occur unrecorded in parts of Zambia.

Hyllus argyrotoxus, Simon 1902

I defy anyone who's really, truly considered their feelings on the subject to dislike jumping spiders.

The tragic side-note here is that a vast number of people who I maintain haven't really considered their feelings on the subject loathe all spiders indiscriminately, or even all invertebrates (!), lumping them together as 'Goggos' or 'bugs' or 'Creepy Crawlies', and thereby avoiding actually taking in the brilliance and diversity of the invertebrate world... 

So what is my reasoning behind finding jumping spiders so very likeable? 

The first reason is obvious - they have huge googly eyes, mammals are programmed to find things with big googly eyes appealing. See also kittens, puppies, babies... 

The second reason is that they are commonly found sipping from flowers and generally doing quite un-spiderlike things - in fact, the only known (essentially) herbivorous spider (Bagheera kiplingi - read more on Wiki) is a jumping spider.

The third is associated with their massive eyes - as with most free-living spiders, they have relatively large brains, and in addition to paying a very conspicuous level of attention to their environment, several species have been shown to have complex intra-specific communication rituals.

A fourth reason - although far from the final - is their extraordinary usefulness. Unlike the web-spinning spiders, which are unfairly banished from many homes for their silken fly traps, and larger free-roaming spiders, which have a tendency to attract attention, screams and cartoon fainting ladies, the jumping spiders slip around the insides of our houses almost unnoticed, and thereby make a sizeable dent in the transient mosquito populations of the average tropical home. As an interesting side note, one species - Evarcha culicovora (wiki tells you more) actually prefers to feed upon mosquitoes that have recently chowed down a meal of human blood and - as malaria transmission requires a single mosquito to bite an infected human and, after a brief development period, a second human, this little spider could be invaluable in limiting transmission of the disease that has killed more humans than any other single cause in history (accuracy of the estimates this is based upon is disputable).

After all that pre-amble, here's the picture to break up the text a little.

This spider, Hyllus argyrotoxus, was photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, in March 2013. It was found in a range of situations, but seemed to be most common in dense, moist understory vegetation, usually in thick-bladed grasses. 

So for the taxonomy - in reverse order:

Hyllus argyrotoxus

Simon, 1902

Hyllini

  Plexippinae

    Salticidae

      Salticoidea

        Dionycha

          Entelegynae see also Enoplognatha ovata

            Araneoclada

              Neocribellatae

                Araneomorphae

                  Opisthothelae

                    Araneae

                      Megoperculata

                        Micrura

                          Arachnida see also Dicranopalpus ramosus

                            Chelicerata

                              Arthropoda see also Ligia oceanica, Anthia fornasinii, Demetrias atricapillus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Melolontha melolontha, Synagris proserpina, Hagenomyia tristis, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Pephricus, Cyathosternum prehensile, Stictogryllacris punctata,  Sibylla, and Pseudagrion hageni.

                                Ecdysozoa

                                  Protostomia

                                    Nephrozoa see also Thelotornis capensis, Lygodactylus capensis, Chalcophaps indica and Hipposideros vittata.

                                      Bilateralia

                                        Eumetazoa

                                          Animalia

                                            Eukaryota

And that's all, folks!

Jerzy Proszynski's page on Salticids from around the world is one valuable website to aid the would-be Salticid identifier. There are others, but the feature of showing a selection of images of each illustrated taxon from a region is extremely handy when you're looking for somewhere to start in this ENORMOUS family. 

 

Otiorhynchus (Arammichnus) atroapterus (De Geer, 1775)

You knew it had to happen eventually. After all, three quarters of all known life on earth is made up of insects, and half of those are beetles, and about two thirds of those... are weevils.

We'll skim the the taxonomy today:
Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Nephrozoa
        Bilateralia
          Protostomia
            Hexapoda
              Insecta
                Dicondylia
                  Pterygota
                    Metapterygota
                      Neoptera
                        Eumetabola (Grouping the true bugs in Hemiptera with the following taxon)
                                              Endopterygota, the insects that undergo 'complete' metamorphosis.
                            Coleopterida (Beetles and their closest chums)
                              Coleoptera (Beetles)
                                Polyphaga (most beetles excluding Carabids and water beetles)
                                  Cucujiformia (flat bark beetles and relatives)
                                    Curculionoidea (weevils)
                                      Curculionidae ('True' weevils)
                                        Entiminae (broad-nosed weevils)
                                          Phyllobini (leaf weevils)
                                            

Otiorhynchus (Arramichnus) atroapterus

(De Geer, 1775)

Otherwise known as the Black Marram Weevil. Behold:

Although quite closely related to a number of pest species (most notably the Black Vine Weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus), this weevil, as the common name suggests, is a specialist feeder on marram grass and a handful of closely related plants.

Its flightlessness, common in its genus, ensures that it does suddenly zoom out of its narrow band of preferred habitat and into the sea (which is a simplification of an explanation as to why a lot of island animals become flightless). It also has reasonably enlarged feet to allow it to walk without undue difficulty on the sandy dunes where its food-plants grow.

This lovely little individual was found on the successional dunes between salt-marsh and the Solent, at East Head, West Wittering, West Sussex, UK, back in March 2012.