Featuring Feathered Family at AISM: Meet Tifa.

Tifa : "T for tern. Hails from Inhambane where she was attacked by a beach dog that mangled her wing. She is growing stronger every day and should be able to fly away in about a month. Come and visit her in the science block.

Featuring Feathered Family at AISM: Meet BCC

This is BCC, not Blind carbon copy but Birdy Cheep Cheep. (Thanks for the name Jemma) She is a masked weaver from the big fever tree at the foyer of AISM and has been with us for 3 weeks now. She is growing strong and despite deformed feet is going to be a beautiful, strong member of her species. I suspect that she was thrown out of the nest because she could not walk. You can visit her at my class Science block room 2. Mr L.

Featuring Feathered Family at AISM

We are in the season for little birds dropping out of nests! Please take note of the advice displayed here.

A "Peachy" welcome back to school

Spring is bursting to break out with a multiplicity of delights. Welcome back to our awakening campus. If you noticed, our winter- flowering Aloes are handing over to the Clivias and the moths and beetles are stirring everywhere.

Keep your eyes peeled for ama-zing beauties like this African Peach moth Egybolis vaillantina. that was discovered on the lawn on front of the cafeteria by Jemma.

The Peach moth though awesomely handsome, should not be eaten (in case you were wondering). It is a clear case of warning color, (the bright orange juxtaposed against the dark shiny blue-green). These day-flying moths feed on a species of Sapindus or soap-berry that provides the toxin that keeps them safe.

Its interesting that the Masai of Kenya are also known to take in saponins from wild plants, and it is thought that the very low levels of serum cholesterol of this tribe is ascribable to the consumption of these herbs.

Please note that neither the moth or the soap berry plant should be consumed unadvisedly. Just enjoy the beauty that is about to unfold.
Len de Beer

Welcome Sugarplum

Sugarplum the owl has joined us on campus for a few weeks. We are currently working on long flight training and "attack the gecko" skills so that release into the Elephant reserve can be achieved. Please pop in for a visit if you want to meet her.

Bioblitz adventure to Macaneta

We have some good news to share with you about yesterdays Service learning day. The Bioblitz team went out for a few hours to Jays lodge in Macaneta. It turns out that a very special dung beetle lives out there.

 The Vondeling boys, Wouter and Joris were hanging around at the back when they found two little dung beetles. I posted pictures of the scarabs to the ADU. It turns out that they were scientifically described only last year. Meaning that, had we found them last year they might have been named Scarabaeus vondelingensis. What we do out there really helps, The scientists now have a better idea of the range (distribution) of this particular gorgeous dung beetle. Well done team Bioblitz.

Thanks goes to Chistian Deschodt from the ADU for identifying our scarab.

A !Kwe (fossilized doughnut) unearthed by our building activities at AISM.

Confusion about these weird fossilized bagels is rife around the world, it seems to be a stone age technology that can be found from the Santa Barbara channel region, to the Congo, to the American school of Mozambique. Our specimen was unearthed with the current building efforts at the seaward side of campus. Yes, I was surprised to find it in the dirt after a pipe was laid between the science and the math blocks.

There are records pretty much like the AISM specimen, in round stone from  the Gulf Coast of Mexico, to the Guatemalan highlands and on some Pacific islands. These petrified, perforated rock rings show a diversity of design that indicates a similar diversity of uses.

Southern African San beliefs suggest that these so called digging stick stones had a special significance beyond everyday use. Bushmen women would communicate with Shamans and contact the spirit world by beating the ground with a bored stone from a digging stick.

It would seem that although European explorers saw and recorded both San and Bantu peoples using these stones, no-one recorded them making them. The San themselves allegedly claimed that they found the stones already drilled.

There is the possibility that they were also used as mace heads, and some archaeologists feel that they were once used as currency. Well there you have it then, the first ancient multi tool. Move over Swiss army knife.

Noah with the !Kwe at the discovery site

AISM welcomes our most recent furry visitors: Epauletted fruit bats.

Epaulettes are a type of ornamental shoulder decoration used by armed forces as an indication of rank, and yes, the bats have them, but only the males, who use them to show off.

We have a small colony of around five Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bats (one with a baby) who have graced the fig trees in the primary playground. They are fruit eaters and may be here for the duration of the fruiting season. Thereafter that may choose to move on to another roost. It is a great privilege for us to have these friendly mammals here. Please treat them with respect. No loud noises please.

Carmen makes friends with a gorgeous Acraeid butterfly at school today.

What to do with fledglings and nestlings?

It’s that time of year again and we often get little birds “lost” on campus. Please refer to the following flow diagram when deciding what to do with them. If you make sure the students see the poster by displaying it in your class then we will be able to get rid of some of the most prevalent myths concerning baby birds. 

The little fellow pictured above seems to be a fledgling that belongs to the Southern black flycatcher who frequents the big Mahogany tree. After we left baby out on the deck she found it and probably led it somewhere safe.

Malik meets mobile moustache at Macaneta Mozambique!

Bioblitz report

Lassiocampidae (Eggar moth): the name gave me no indication of the visual impact of the  prehistoric animated Cuban cigar with highlights in its hollow venom spears that Malik found wrapped around a pod mahogany branch on Macaneta. I have seen a fair number of forgettable caterpillars but this one …

Speaking from a complete lack of experimental evidence. A carefully planned lack, I might add. I can say that this creature is not something one would want to mess with, physical contact with those spines can cause a type of histamine release and dermatitis called Lepidopterism.

Toxins from the hairs are likely to spill out if broken off, and these moths are prone to lash about forcing hairs into the skin if they feel threatened. People who are allergic to the toxins are in for a torrid time.

The weird name “Eggar” moth is derived from the egg shaped cocoon of some species of which there are over 2000 kinds on earth (some as yet undiscovered). Maybe the caterpillar should be called the animated victorian moustache. You never know what you are going to find out there, that’s what makes exploration time in the bush so cool.

Len

Swifts nesting in the palms on the AISM deck

A number of swifts have chosen to nest above the tables on the deck, keep an eye out for them as you go to lunch. Mr L

A Charaxid butterfly pupating under our big tree

The above two photos taken from Wikipedia show an adult Charaxes jasius and its caterpillar.

We have a number of Charaxes species resident in our area, and it will be fascinating to watch and see which one this is.

Blondie: The Brown house snake at AISM.

One of the best things about house snakes is their steadfast reluctance to bite, It may have to do with the fact that they constrict their prey. This makes them the ideal take to school companion. Here Hanna gets to meet blondie.

Just look at those gorgeous iridescent scales, House snakes were named for their habit of hanging around homes in order to find their food. We named this one "Blondie" for its superb light coloration.

Sonja de Beer at the British Museum of natural history.

The roach that we thought was new has proved to be a described species of Zuluia, but what is new is the recognition of the males (With wings) as being very different in aspect from the more segmented (Without wings) females.

 

Sonja managed to get a number of specimens of the males of Zuluia to the British museum of natural history in London so that the specialists become aware that they are significantly different from the females. I learnt from this experience that it is best to wait for a while before assuming that anything is a new species, because even the experts may have missed something.

The adult and immature forms of a plant hopper discovered by Sophia Premji and Marise Niehaus

A very small salticid (Spider) on a Amietophrynus (Toad).

Vlad finds an immature Hyperolius at Mozal turnkey

Jonathan and the roach.

The highlight of my day was strolling over to John Marrone’s History class and telling my son Jonathan the good news that, Yes, we are going to name an insect after him…but, the bad news, is that it’s a cockroach!

It all began with an impromptu adventure to a rocky outcrop on the Lebombo Mountains above Siteki. I can’t conceive of anything better than scratching around weird habitats, and this place is plenty weird. There are orchids and Camphor trees and all sorts of other exciting creatures.

Jonathan, like all my kids was doing his own exploring, having become used to being dragged through the bush at regular intervals, from a very early age. I am not sure how he spotted it but there it was… “Dad, come see this strange beetle..”

Well a beetle it was not! As you can see from the photo, it has the makings of a paper thin, lichen encrusted, granite mimicking, coin. It looked bizarre, even to me as a complete novice on the topic of cockroaches.

So with a few cockroach pictures on file, we made our way back to Maputo where I sent the images to every cockroach expert I could find.

The reply from specialist Ingo Fritzsche came within two hours.

“Your cockroach looks really special, I never have seen anything like that before and on the first picture it looks like an adult. I can place it near in a Family, but nothing closer. Sometimes it is possible, that someone finds a new genus or of course new species, new to science.”

The end of the story is not yet apparent, because we obviously didn’t capture the roaches. We need to go back and make sure that we find some that can be described.

Nevertheless it sure pays to keep your eyes open. Well-done Jonathan.