The weirdest insect you have ever seen - Stick insect

A Giant Prickly stick insect which comes from Australia but found in pert shops here. Unfortunately a lot of people let them loose after a while and so they are found in bush areas. What a beautiful and unusual creature!!

Orange Weevil

After the rain, the insect seem to be coming out en masse.

This beetle I cannot find in any of the books or websites but he is obviously a wingless, ground-burrowing one. His body length is about 2 inches and closely resembles The Red-spotted Lilly Weevil.

Close-up of a butterfly

The Citrus Swallowtail (papilio demodocus)is one of our more common butterflies. It is large with a wingspan of about 85mm. They lay their eggs on citrus trees. I caught this one in the garden and he was frienly enough to crawl on my hand and let me take the following two photographs.
This is a close-up section of the wing. Sometimes I think I should get a microscope for pictures like these.

These were taken of one I found in the garden. He was on his last legs and sat perfectly still while allowing me to take these pictures.

Do they feel pain as we do?

I was outside and heard something falling and found this beetle lying on his back after coming off the wall. You can see the dent. When I came back and started to take pics, I noticed that his front, right hand side leg was missing a segment. I wonder if they feel the pain of the loss as we do??I think this is one of the Psammodes beetles (Toktokkies), but cannot find a name again.

A few butterflies

A lot of the bugs have disappeared but there are still some beautiful butterflies around.

Twin Dotted Border

Spotted Blue
Blotched Leopard

Common Meadow Blue (This is as small as a 1 cent piece)

Broad-bordered Grass Yellow

Female Meadow White

Male Meadow White

Bromophila caffra

With a wingspan 30-50mm in length is fairly common in some bush areas and always found hanging upside down for some reason.

You will NEVER guess what happened to me today!!

On the way to work this morning a young girl of 9 or 10 came up to me and said "I brought you a present" and laid in my hands two big mulberry leaves covered with silkworms. Now how can you say no to that?? So here I am, the proud mama of about 20 of them. LOL!! Her dad mumbled something about her having hundreds of them and they disappeared. I wonder if I had screamed and dropped them what they would have done?

Water Scorpion - they breath through their tails

My goodness!! I am glad I don't have too!! This is the Stick Water Scorpion. They are found in standing pools of water and are quite large 4-5 inches in body length and then an extra 6 inches of tail which is raised to the surface of the water and is used as a breathing siphon.

Potter Wasp

(Afreumenes aethiopicus) The females build one-celled spherical mud pots resembling urns, with a lip around the entrance, attached to rock faces, buildings or trees. After completion and sealing, no mor mud is applied and the lip left intact.

You are what you eat

...or so I have heard. In the bush there is this wild pumpkin which grows in most places. They are about 4-6 inches in length and the vines often grow up into the trees.
I am not sure if they are edible to humans but the birds seem to love them too and this is usually one indication that we can eat them. They sometimes come in a more roundish shape like this and go orange when ripe.

What I found interesting was that this caterpillar took on the color of the ripened fruit in order for it to blend in.

A close-up of it but I cannot find it in my book so do not know if it belongs to a moth or a butterfly.

Dragonflies and butterflies.

So late in the season and I am still finding dragonflies and butterflies. Thank goodness!!

This is (Trithemis arteriosa) Red-veined Dropwing
Definitely looking for a mate here.
(Eurema brigitta) Broad-bordered grass yellow
(Cynthia cardui) Painted Lady

Fungi

We have some interesting looking fungi here and they are anywhere between very small and dinner-plate size.

A tapping beetle

This tapping beetle must think this is a meal fit for a king....at least for him anyway. :) This little fellow is about 1 1/2 inches long. They tap their rear ends on the ground then stop and listen to hear if some female taps back. WHAT a way to pick up a partner!! LOL!!