Encounter with an Emperor!
Category: Scorpions | Date: Oct 02 2007 | By: admin
It is an even hotter day than yesterday in the Kerio Valley. The sun beats down from a pure blue sky, a rare sight after weeks of daily thunderstorms. I have been searching diligently for ants’ nests. I am on the trail of a bizarre and wonderful butterfly, the Giant Cupid, that lives in a bizarre and twisted association with certain kinds of ants in the ground for part of its life (more on that later).
Searching for the ants’ nests involves gently turning over rocks. It is mid-morning and the rocks are already warm to the touch. Thanks to the relentless assault of sun, rain and goats, most of them are well-weathered and readily exposed. On the speckled ground between them an vast assortment of ants run back and forth busy with their daily activities.
Not just ants, but millipedes, crickets and wood-lice or ’sow-bugs’ as they are sometimes called, also make their homes under the rocks. Each time I turn over a stone there’s a sense of anticipation – and often someone staring back with an indignant look. As if to say “Why are you disturbing my nap?”
Under one rock that is wedged quite deeply I spot a narrow burrow leading into dark depths from its edge. This calls for help – I have a sturdy shovel that I can use for leverage – luckily humans invented tools that can do more that we ever could with our flimsy little hands! With a little resistance and a sighing creak, the rock yields and I roll it over. I kneel down and scan for ants – looking for the tell-tale aggregations of pale larvae and bundled-up pupae.
My hand is resting on the ground by the shovel. I feel something tickling it and look down. Even before I register what it actually is – my entire being has shuddered and I have leapt backwards in surprise (thankfully there was no one else, save for a few bug-eyed goats to witness this entomologist behaving like this!).
As if offended by my unexpected outburst, a large, dark scorpion scuttles under the shovel. Suitably shaken, I regain my composure and step back down to examine the friendly beast. She sits calmly under the shovel as I peer closely and wonder overcomes my initial fear.
This is a magnificent example of an Emperor Scorpion. Emperor Scorpions are members of the genus Pandinus, which means curved in Latin and refers to the long, elegant curved tail bearing the sting at its very tip. This large scorpion, while looking scary, is really quite gentle (for a scorpion that is!). Even though it had the chance to sting me as my hand rested near it, it didn’t. These scorpions are only mildly venomous and use their massive pincers, not their venom, to subdue their prey which includes crickets, millipedes and even small rodents.
I gently move the shovel and the Emperor Scorpion scuttles forward following fast its soothing shadow. Having just displaced her from her cosy burrow, I let her use the spade as a shelter as I continue to pick through the soil for ants before replacing the rock. At once she scuttles under it clicking her claws in contentment at having been restored to her home. I continue on to the next rock – this time I wear gloves…
The Dancing Jewel
Category: Damselflies | Date: Sep 29 2007 | By: admin
On a blazing hot day in the Kerio Valley, in north-western Kenya, I
took respite from the midday sun by a stream shaded by gigantic
ancient fig trees. The Kerio valley is an extension of the Great Rift
Valley. It is a stunning geographical feature with waterfalls plunging
from cloud forests down 3,000 - 4,000 ft escarpments with acacia
woodlands on the valley floor. It can get very hot in the valley, and
the streams fed by the forests in the highlands above support precious
strands of riverine trees…
Promise cavorts, hovering above the moving waters. Life erupts with
enthusiasm, fed by distant, rumbling thunderstorms. A stream cuts
through soft, dark rock. Cold and sweet in a place of heat, thorns and
dust, it offers a soothing illusion.
I seek its softness as a respite from the harsh, bitter heat.
Midday is cruel.
Light slams down with vertical, biting vigour. Hornbills and Turacos
pant listless in the shade. Even the eternal raucous optimist, a
vociferous Tropical Boubou, struggles to chortle with emphatic joy.
Only the ants, a kind that thrive in heat, move in dizzying swirls,
maddened by hunger for others, less fortunate, who have succumbed.
The water is in shadow.
Stoic giants guard the precious embryo beneath. Its silvery blood
nourishes their feet. In jest, they throw down confetti of
multi-coloured leaves. Damp and brittle. Crisp and smooth. They cover
the naked eroded edges of this sudden gutter with a pointillist
tapestry.
A rock smoothed by time beckons.
Here one could rest and dream. Leaves above, green and gold. Leaves
below, copper and saffron. And the quiet song of flowing peace.
Then all is shattered by beauty.
Imagine a vision so intense it burns straight into one’s soul. Rising
before me an incandescence darts and dives. A price must be paid for
entering this sacred grove. One must witness to absolute beauty in
return for a crumb of the sacrament. A ‘Dancing Jewel’ flits before me
- this is a damselfly, perhaps one of the loveliest creatures in the
world. The colours are unbelievable…
Turquoise! Cobalt! Rose-Madder Crimson! Orange! Black! White! Sepia! Bronze!
Smouldering colours unite haphazard in one being.
As if to say, ‘I was waiting for you here!’ He dances with unfettered
joy. Red legs waving with white within fuse into pink opalescence. His
richly blue back, turquoise shot with cobalt-ultramarine, wiggles,
etching scratches of brightness in the air.
All else is still, distant, irrelevant. The world is shrunk to this
singular infinity being acted out in a sunspot.
A thing of beauty…
I forget to breathe.
The dance goes on!
My heart is clasped forever. No moment hither nor since exists. All
blurs into a kaleidoscope of frenzied timeless adulation.
Sublime. Rapture. Illusion.
This incredible damselfly, darting among the rocks on a sun-spotted
stream, is but one of millions of different kinds of insects each one
of them interesting, beautiful and intrinsically linked to the world
that they, and we, inhabit.
Gotta Love Bugs
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 25 2007 | By: admin
Hi, my name is Dino Martins and I have a passion for bugs and telling people about them. I’m a Kenyan entomologist, an artist, naturalist and writer. I’m currently conducting research in evolution and ecology at Harvard as a PhD student. I’ve been studying a wide range of insect species in East Africa including baboons, butterflies, ants, acacia trees, and wildflowers. I write regularly for SWARA - a Wildlife magazine of the East African Wildlife Society, and for Nature Kenya, and I illustrate my articles with watercolors of insects and other creatures.
I grew up in Kenya and I’ve traveled widely in East Africa and led expeditions for the Kenya Museum Society and the East Africa Natural History Society. This Diary will take you on some of my adventures through ‘Dudu Diaries’ - safari’s of a different kind where the big five have six (or more) legs - and you are going to just love bugs and you will want to help protect them.
By the way, the word ‘Dudu’ is not what you think, it’s Kiswahili for insect!
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