Delighted by the wonder of it all :-)

A veld nut.

Proud member of the African Caterpillar Rearing Group (CRG).

• Reared from larval stage project (southern Africa) - our collection of beasties reared from eggs or larvae.
• Pillar Parade project - help to identify lepi caterpillars in southern Africa.

Some useful iNat links

• Adding photos to journal posts and comments
• Useful html tags for comments & other text
• How to use iNaturalist's search URLs

Locations of useful publications (because I can never find them again when I want to tell other people where to find them):

DIPTERA

• Blood-sucking flies African blood-sucking Diptera Austen, 1909 - lovely illustrations.

HYMENOPTERA

• Sawflies Sawflies of Namibia & western South Africa Koch, Goergen, van Noort - includes keys and diagrams with explanation of terms for body parts (useful for other adult insects too!).
• Bembix wasps Geographical distribution of Bembix in southern Africa with notes on biology Gess & Gess - illustrated, but no key or descriptions of morphology
• No. 24: Wasps and bees of southern Africa Gess & Gess. Delightful and beautifully illustrated.
• Pollen wasps Pollen wasps and flowers in southern Africa Gess & Gess - info on plants visited and types of nests and nesting sites, parasites etc.

LEPIDOPTERA

• Aethiopodes (Geometridae | Ennominae) Revision of Aethiopodes & Odontoptera Kruger 2003
• Mesocelis monticola (Mountain Whitespot) - Notes on life-history & parthenogenesis Sneyd Taylor 2001

Caveat: I am notoriously bad at estimating size and distance. Please take all measurements (that are not backed up by a ruler or some other scale) with a pinch of salt.

I am also sharp as a bowling ball in the morning, and pretty useless in the afternoons. You can mostly trust morning IDs, but afternoon IDs should be treated with the suspicion they deserve.

Please do not ask me to collect animals for you because I will not.
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