Dudu Diaries

Dear All – thanks for your kind comments and continued interest in insects.

Have been in the rainforest for a couple of days. On one of the trails I spotted this amazing Long-legged fly patrolling a leafy lane. These flies are predators who hunt other small insects on the wing in the forest…

Long-legged fly in Kakamega Forest

There were lots of butterflies about – the rains have been wonderful for the forest which is green and full of life. One of the most interesting butterflies I saw was the Clearwing Acraea (Acraea semivitrea) – as the name suggests, you can actually see right through the wings – they have fine ‘glass’ like windows in them which glint silvery in the sunshine. These clear patches are areas of wing that don’t have any scales or pigmentation on them, just the thin wing material

Clear-wing Acraea

Also flitting along the forest paths were a number of African Map butterflies – who have what must be one of the most delicate wing patterns on an insect. More from the world of bugs soon!

African Map Butterfly

Dear All

More from my travels in the bush. At a spiny succulent euphorbia in Laikipia the other day I was looking at some Groove-winged Flower Beetles. These are tiny beetles who feed on flowers, often in groups. Here are a couple pictures of the beetles – and what I took to be a happily visiting fly as well. On peering closer I noticed the fly wasn’t really moving even when I accidentally bumped the plant. Then I looked closer (as one always should with insects) and guess who was sitting there !?

Can you spot the interloper in the pictures below?

Groove-winged Flower Beetles and someone else – can you see her?

Here's a closer view – now can you see her?

Yes – this was an amazing flower spider beautifully camouflaged to look just LIKE the  euphorbia flowers!

The flower spider with her lunch!

Even more amazing – the fat yellow one is the female, she is much larger than the male, who rides around on her back – you can see him here – the reddish brown one sitting on her! This difference in sizes is not unusual in spiders where females are typically the big beefy ones and males are tiny and weak…

Close-up: you can see the tiny male sitting on her back!

More from the wonderful world of bugs soon!

Dear All – thanks for the kind comments. The rains we have had in Kenya have meant that a lot of bees are out and about pollinating. On a recent visit to Mt Nyiru, I managed to photograph some very interesting bees visiting the flowers of a succulent tree euphorbia…

Here are some of the pictures. More from the world of bugs soon!

This is a tiny stingless bee – these bees are very important pollinators in the forests and drylands of Africa

A solitary wild bee species approaching the euphorbia flowers

A happy honeybee combing pollen into its fully-loaded pollen baskets!

Hello – I just received this picture taken near Lake Baringo by Moses Kandie who is a guide there. Thanks Moses for sending the picture. This is a Citrus Swallowtail (Papilio demodocus) – they are very common at the moment all over Kenya due to the rains. The flowers that it is feeding from are known as the Rosy Periwinkle – they originally come from Madagascar and have become very famous as they are a source of medicine for leukemia…

Citrus swallowtail butterfly

With recent rains on the plains, the bush has sprung back to life and there are flowers and insects everywhere. On a recent evening walk I noticed a lot of hawkmoths whirring about a flowering Turraea bush. They were feeding on the nectar with their long tongues – the proboscis – which can be uncoiled and is used like a long flexible straw by the hawkmoths.

Here is a video of them in action – it was a real fluke to get this as they fly very fast and only feed for a short time just around and after sunset!

Hawkmoths are fast-flying, long-lived and feed actively from many different kinds of flowers, a fair number of which they alone can pollinate.

Some 260 different species of hawkmoths are found across Africa. About two-thirds of these occur in East Africa, and a hundred species have been recorded in Kenya alone. Despite this relatively high diversity, little is known about their actual role as pollinators and especially as specialised pollinators of highly-adapted plants.

Convolvulus hawkmoth visiting the Turraea bush

On a many-flowered shrub, like the Turraea, not all the flowers contain nectar. Even the ones with nectar, have only small quantities. This forces the feeding hawkmoth to move from flower to flower, plant to plant in search of adequate sustenance.

Watching for hawkmoths is a study in patience with brief interludes of intense excitement as I found out when watching these remarkable creatures in action.

Common Nephele hawkmoth pollinating Turraea

Hawkmoths feeding from flowers give us a glimpse (literally!) of the long, complex evolutionary processes that shape our living world. The incredible adaptations of specialised flowers to their hawkmoth pollinators are some of the most amazing examples and evidence of co-evolution. If ever you find yourself near fragrant flowers at dusk keep an eye out for these swift, elusive phantoms!

Dear All

Greetings from the sunny plains and bush of Laikipia – have been working here on insects for a week. There were a couple days of heavy unseasonal rains here (it is supposed to be the middle of the dry season, whatever that means anymore), and it seems to have produced an outburst of butterflies everywhere. There are lots of pierids and swallowtails and a few lycaenids mud-puddling at every stream edge. Attached are a couple of pictures of the frenetic activity. They all seemed to be feeding in twos and threes which made for some interesting photographs.

Citrus swallowtail butterflies sipping salts and posing!

As I was photographing the butterflies, I was started by a loud snort and on looking up spotted a pair of klipspringer in a tree. These remarkable antelope have hooves that allow them to clamber at will up rocky faces and they live exclusively on rocky outcrops. At first I thought that I was the cause for alarm, and continued watching and photographing the butterflies.

However, the klipspringer kept up their racket and I looked back up and noticed that they were staring at something in the bush just beyond me. I will let you spot the interloper in the last picture (hint: look for the spotted form)… He paid me no heed and slunk off in a huff, probably I had interrupted his midday nap in the shade by the stream…

More from the world of bugs soon! Thanks to everyone for the kind comments…

The klipspringer were watching the leopard watching me!

Dear All – just back in email contact after many travels across Kenya. Was recently at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya (one of the most incredible places I’ve ever visited)… More on that soon. Found this colourful Rainbow Shield Bug hanging out on some bushes – they feed by piercing seeds with their mouthparts and the bright colours are a warning to would-be predators… More from the world of bugs soon!

Is this the most beautiful insect in Kenya?

Dear All – Thanks for the kind comments and sparing a moment to consider the world of insects.

Here is a another snippet from the rainforest. Climbed a hill on Christmas day so that I could telephone friends and family and wish them well. On the way down I noticed large black ants clambering about the stems of some grasses. As I brushed past them, they did not scurry away as most ants do.

I peered closer to one of them to see what they were up to. I flicked the grass with my fingers, and still the ant stood her ground. Then I noticed that she was standing guard over a small ‘herd’ of scale insects.

In a set-up similar to humans herding cattle and other livestock, many different kinds of ants lovingly tend scale insects, aphids and other plant-feeding bugs. In return the ants get to milk their charges for honeydew. The bugs get a veritable army of protectors, and in some cases even get carried around by their ant nannies!

Dear All, 

Hello – greetings from the rainforest. I was very lucky to spend the xmas holidays in the Kakamega forest in Western Kenya. After a dry spell, the rains arrived with a vengeance and it rained and rained and rained. This was simply wonderful and I truly hope that it heralds a good year ahead.

Thanks to the rain the bugs in the rainforest were incredible. Day before yesterday I took a long hike through the forest towards the Yala river.

In one section of primary forest by a stream I noticed a flash of pure angry red zipping by. A few seconds later it returned and settled on a leaf. To my utter amazement and joy it was a Ruby Jewel (aka the Uganda Red Jewel)!

This is one of our less-common damselflies and has only been spotted a handful of times in Western Kenya. It was cooperative enough to let me take a few pictures, including of its flicking its abdomen in a sun-spot to woo females.

Unlike me, they seemed to be totally unimpressed by his efforts as none showed up during the entire time I spent watching him.

Later in the day yesterday, walking by myself along another stream I noticed a blur of incandescent neon blue-green. It floated by, darting in and out of the shadows. I followed it, hoping that it would settle. After several minutes of searching, it seemed to have vanished and I gave up. I returned to look at the bees on some flowers, soon losing myself in a daydream… then looking up I saw that the apparition was sitting right in front of me on a leaf, watching me with its beady black eyes!

This was another of the most beautiful of damselflies – called the Sapphire. It is simply one of the most amazing sights to see – a smouldering neon flame flashing in the dappled sunlight. Again, this fellow cooperated and I managed to get some pictures.

This rainforest, Kakamega Forest in Western Kenya, was once mined for gold and searched for precious stones. However, I think that you will agree with me that the forest and her damselfly children are the true jewels of the this beautiful place.

More from the wonderful world of bugs soon! Thanks to everyone for the kinds comments…

Dear All – thanks for your kind comments and reading of this blog over the past year and look forward to sharing more about the world of insects in 2010. Here is a sketch of some thorns that ants live in on the whistling thorn acacia. These are from my recent trip to Laikipia north of Mt Kenya. One particular tree had these silvery and black variegated thorns… They are so lovely I thought this is an apt time to share them – Mother Nature’s natural xmas decorations…More from the world of bugs soon! Asante!