October 26, 2019

List of ID reference and download links

Under Ongoing Construction

GENERAL
GBIF | Global Biodiversity Information Facility https://www.gbif.org
BARCODE OF LIFE DATA SYSTEM http://www.boldsystems.org
ADU Virtual Museum http://vmus.adu.org.za/
Speciesfiles of various smaller orders, eg cockroaches, aphids, mantids http://software.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Software/Files/Files.aspx

PLANTS
Plants of southern Africa http://posa.sanbi.org/sanbi/Explore
Plants of the World Online (Kew) http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org
Easy identification of some South African wetland plants (pdf, 69MB, Water Research Commission) (Sedges, rushes etc) http://www.wrc.org.za/pages/displayitem.aspx?itemid=9021&fromurl=%2fpages%2fkh_documentslist.aspx%3fdt%3d%26ms%3d3%3b%26d%3deasy+identification+of+some+south+african+wetland+plants%26start%3d81
Easy identification of Aquatic Plants (pdf, Dept Water Affairs) https://www.dwa.gov.za/iwqs/biomon/aquaplantsa/dwaf_2004_easy_identification_of_aquatic_plants_web.pdf
Helichrysum key for southern Africa https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/helichrysum/key/Helichrysum/Media/Html/home.htm
Zimbabwe Flora https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/index.php Very useful for ZA too
Identification guide to southern African grasses An identification manual with keys, descriptions and distributions http://opus.sanbi.org/handle/20.500.12143/5602

ODONATA
A Visual Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies of South Africa http://www.dragonflies-id.co.za

DIPTERA
Manual of Afrotropical Diptera Vol 1 http://afrotropicalmanual.org/pdfs/2017_Suricata4_Spriggs_Sinclair.pdf
Manual of Afrotropical Diptera Vol 2
http://afrotropicalmanual.org/pdfs/2017_Suricata5_Spriggs_Sinclair.pdf
Wing venation of Eupeodes corollae https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/cszma.2013.62.issue-3/cszma-2013-0021/cszma-2013-0021.pdf p14
Syrphidae checklist of South Africa http://www.syrphidae.com/checklist.php?country=ZA
Fly antenna ID guide http://phorid.net/zadbi/education/how-to-identify-flies/how-to-identify-flies-antennae-shape/

HEMIPTERA
Heteroptera of Tswalu Game Reserve (photographs) Dawid Jacobs http://www.drrd.co.za/document/download/529
Lygaeoidea (Seed bugs) speciesfile http://lygaeoidea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Lygaeoidea/HomePage.aspx
Treehoppers http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/public/site/treehoppers/home

ORTHOPTERA
Orthoptera Species File http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Orthoptera/HomePage.aspx
Orthoptera Checklist, compiled by Corey Bazelet http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Orthoptera.xls
African Tetrigidae Günther K. 1979. Die Tetrigoidea von Afrika südlich der Sahara. (210MB) https://www.contributions-to-entomology.org/article/view/1130/1129

COLEOPTERA
Afrotropical Flea beetle genera https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3560840/
Afrotropical Galerucinae (good for Monolepta) http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/systax/daten/index.html
Clytrinae by Medvedev and Erber for Antipus rufus https://journals.co.za/content/nfi_annalstm/40/1/AJA00411752_9
Annotated review of Cryptocephalinae (Clytrini), Synetinae and part of Galerucinae (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) described by Carl Peter Thunberg Jan BEZDĚK
https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/641/1485
Cassidinae of the World http://www.cassidae.uni.wroc.pl/katalog%20internetowy/index.htm
African Eumolpinae http://chrysomelidae.it/afr_Eum/index.html
Key to Lycus species - Mike Bate's journal https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/fubr/17032-key-to-the-male-lycus-sp-of-southern-africa-after-stamhuis-1992

LEPIDOPTERA
African Moths (good for thumbnail pages but taxonomy is out of date) https://africanmoths.com/
AfroMoths (searchable, up to date taxonomy) http://www.afromoths.net

HYMENOPTERA
Waspweb http://waspweb.org/
Bee genera of South Africa http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/bee-genera-of-SA.pdf
Geographical distributions of Bembix in southern Africa, with notes on biology https://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=1653 (click on photos for high-res versions)

MOLLUSCA
The introduced terrestrial mollusca of South Africa by D.G. Herbert http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BioSeries_15_2010.pdf

Posted on October 26, 2019 12:27 PM by jane_trembath jane_trembath | 6 comments | Leave a comment

November 17, 2017

Goliath Heron behaviour observed at Korsman Conservancy

Temporary Notice: Embedded videos of the Goliath behaviour are not presently displaying in this post, so please visit http://korsmanconservancy.com/goliath_observations.html to see the short videos. (October 2018)

In Autumn 2016, a young Goliath heron arrived at Korsman, a bird sanctuary in the middle of urban Benoni. Because of the increasing population of invasive Category 2 carp (everything has a silver lining!) Goli found plenty to eat and took up permanent residence.

Fishing techniques and eating the catch

Goliaths stalk fish leaning forward in open water or next to reed beds, where carp often lurk. They lunge for a fish, counterbalancing by drawing back their wings. Not every lunge is successful - Goli may miss or only partially 'spear' the fish. A successful catch harpoons the fish with his bill.


Goli takes the fish to the water's edge and lays it down, circling it and spearing it repeatedly until it is dead. On one occasion, a crowd of curious flamingos came over to see what was happening as Goli dispatched a thrashing fish.
Next Goli carries it around, frequently dropping it back into the water in the shallows, possibly to wash off mud, before positioning it correctly for swallowing. Goli can 'toss' medium sized fish directly into his bill, but bigger fish take several attempts to position and swallow. For the big ones, Goli stands with his head bent down to the ground for a full minute or two with the fish in its mouth, preparing for the big moment then lifts it up and gulps it down. The whole process takes about five minutes for a big fish.

After he swallows it, Goli lurches away off balance from his altered centre of gravity. He takes several sips of water and finds a spot to sit and digest for a couple of hours.

Food fails:

Goli doesn't eat every fish he catches. One fish was just too big and kept on slipping out of its bill. Goli also rejects seemingly suitable fish; he circles and pokes them then walks away without trying to swallow. (Later the fish disappear, probably scavenged by terrapins.)

When Goli caught a frog (Common platanna) although he shook and readjusted it until it looked like it would fly into bits, he just couldn't figure out how to position it to swallow. Eventually I had to give up watching and leave; I still wonder if it went down.

Goli's call

Goli has a harsh 4-5x bark, used in different situations. The first times I saw Goli call, it appeared random as he was still alone in the pan (before he found a mate). I once saw the bark used against Grey-headed gulls pestering it.

When the Golis were breeding, they would often call near the nest to signal to each other (and the chicks) that they were returning. I heard this exchange with a 13-week old juvenile in the nest:
Adult outside the nest: Kwaark
Juvenile: Wobbly and crackly Kwaark-kwaark-kwaark-kwaark-kwahark
Adult: Kwaark-kwaark-kwaark-kwaark-kwaark-kwark

The chicks 'chatter' a very fast repeated cha-cha-cha-cha-cha when hungry, heard when both in the nest and to the parents, even as late as 15 weeks old.

Delta wing and gular fluttering

Golis sometimes sit with their wings open in 'delta' position, often also gular (throat) fluttering (panting) for temperature regulation. Often seen in juveniles.

Flight

Goliaths have a wing span of two metres and their slow wing beats are distinctive.

Other things Goliaths do

They get itchy and scratch, they stretch, they visit high trees well above their normal habitat, and (as other birds do too) they lighten their load before flight....

Next instalment: Goli finds a mate

Posted on November 17, 2017 09:46 AM by jane_trembath jane_trembath | 1 comment | Leave a comment

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