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Post by cabintom on Mar 6, 2016 13:02:00 GMT
Please be aware that Ricinus communis is a noxious weed and that it will likely take over your garden through wast roots and seeds. Plants should preferably be grown in pots and seed pods be removed before maturing That's also interesting (and useful) information. Thank you.
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Post by africaone on Mar 6, 2016 13:21:35 GMT
Interesting! Thanks. Now if I could find some seeds... if only just to have it planted in the yard. it is a common tree in many gardens ... probably easier ! I have ti say that I never seen any caterpillars on the Ricinus I had in the garden !
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Post by cabintom on Mar 6, 2016 20:19:02 GMT
HOME : Quartier Lumumba, Bunia, Ituri (1°41'N, 30°07'E) 1250mA few examples of the lovely yellow Eurema species common around my home: Eurema (Eurema) brigitta brigitta (Stoll, [1780]) female : 11/XII/2015 Eurema (Eurema) desjardinsii marshalli (Butler, 1898) ( or Eurema (Eurema) desjardinsii regularis (Butler, 1876) is you prefer) male : 24/VIII/2015 Eurema (Terias) hecabe solifera (Butler, 1875) female : 12/XII/2015
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Post by cabintom on Apr 30, 2016 15:07:34 GMT
Well, the busyness of life has been getting in the way of my doing proper write ups here, so I figured I'd just start posting pictures of some of the more interesting butterflies I've laid my hands on. To start, this is the loveliest specimen I've caught thus far of what might be a somewhat uninteresting species: Melanitis leda (Linnaeus, 1758) trapped 15/IV/2016 Q. Lumumba, Bunia, Ituri, DRC (1°32'N, 30°15'E) 1250m Melanitis leda is a very common crepuscular butterfly found throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, and some Pacific Island groups. It's not a difficult species to find. Usually, all you need to do is locate a large tree, or stand of trees, in or near an open area and stamp around in the leaf litter found beneath. This generally scares up the few individuals who are perfectly camouflaged among the dead leaves. Alternatively, leave out a trap baited with rotting bananas. Most mornings I'll find that a couple specimens have made their way in, along with the moths. No two specimens of this species are alike. As such, I've been building myself a nice series to showcase the extent of the variability. The specimen figured above has a recto that is far redder than usual, while the verso is a nice steely grey that I've rarely seen in the species. Here is a far more typical specimen: Caught 2-6/I/2014 Lubowa, Central Region, Uganda (0°13'N, 32°33'E) 1300m
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Post by Paul K on Apr 30, 2016 19:43:33 GMT
Melanitis leda leda is very common also on Koh Tao-Thailand. They are very active at dusk and frequently visit banana bait traps. Indeed it is very variable species especially underside.
Paul
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Post by cabintom on May 1, 2016 12:52:02 GMT
Since I haven't had as much time to go out on small collecting trips, I've resorted to collecting moths by our security lights in the mornings before heading into work. On occasion, there are some interesting specimens. Here's Hippotion osiris:
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Post by nomad on May 1, 2016 13:40:15 GMT
As usual great specimen photography and a beautiful Sphingid.
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Post by cabintom on May 3, 2016 21:21:57 GMT
Here's Stempfferia cf. cercenoides: 5/IX/2015 Q. Butsili, Beni, Nord Kivu, DRC (0°31'N, 29°26'E) 1090m
I haven't nailed down the precise identification yet, as this belongs to yet another complex group. I believe Michel Libert is working on another revision of the "Epitola" group... I'll probably contact him for clarification of the ID. Anyways, I caught this specimen during the 3 months I was living in Beni, Nord Kivu at the end of last year. It is one of many species I found at my host's palm oil/cocoa plantation.
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Post by africaone on May 4, 2016 6:11:45 GMT
Here's Stempfferia cf. cercenoides: 5/IX/2015 Q. Butsili, Beni, Nord Kivu, DRC (0°31'N, 29°26'E) 1090m
I haven't nailed down the precise identification yet, as this belongs to yet another complex group. I believe Michel Libert is working on another revision of the "Epitola" group... I'll probably contact him for clarification of the ID. Anyways, I caught this specimen during the 3 months I was living in Beni, Nord Kivu at the end of last year. It is one of many species I found at my host's palm oil/cocoa plantation. it is because there are linked to ants (espacially cartoon nest ant, Crematogaster and some few with Oecophylla longinoda, the African Weaver ant) and ants colonise such biotopes. It is easier to hunt in such biotopes than in forest because it is more open, with more concentration of ant at man level. The caterpillars lives on tree trunk covered by mosses and lichen they graze and beneficiate a protection because the strong presence of ant (that ignore them because a double protection via the hairs and smelling, a chemical protection). The Caterpillars are hairy something like some lymantrid or noctuid (espacilaly those of Cerautola adolpfifrederici or ceraunia). This feature separate the Epitolini from other lipteninae that eat the same but without presence of ant (and the Liptenini caterpillar are also more hairy some ressembling Lithosinae larvas). I bred a lot of them (very difficult to keep inside because of the food requirement) and have to publish it when time will be available (with hundreds photos ...)
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Post by cabintom on May 5, 2016 19:34:54 GMT
The acuminatus specimen locality is at high altitude. Robert Ducarme has found a lot of interesting material from Kasugho and Kasuo; two villages on neighbouring hills/mountains, not far west of Lubero, Nord Kivu.
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Post by cabintom on May 7, 2016 9:39:37 GMT
In terms of biodiversity Nord Kivu is definitely the place to be in D.R. Congo. So I was pretty excited to be spending 3 or 4 months in the city of Beni, while studying Swahili. I imagined being able to spend my weekends exploring various locales (in primary forest, along the slopes of the Rwenzori Mts., etc.) and collecting all kinds of exciting butterfly species... unfortunately, the security situation around the city, and in Nord Kivu in general, seemed to worsen with each passing week. In the end, other than a few short trips to the plantation situated at the edge of town, this is the spot I was relegated to: A downtown garden. As I reflect on it, I'm not sure that the garden featured a single native plant... so it was a pretty poor spot, only good for the random butterfly flying through. At any rate, I made the best of it. I sat on my lawn chair studying the language; my net within reach so that I could swipe at anything that popped over the walls. Most days, I'd capture and keep a single specimen for every half hour to hour of Swahili study in the garden... usually, it would be common species like Appias epaphia, Papilio demodocus, Telchinia bonasia or Catopsilia florella, but the city is surrounded by forest after all, so I did swing my net at the odd wonderful surprise: Hypolimnas salmacis salmacis ♀
Neptis quintilla Neptis strigata strigata Euphaedra intermedia ♂
Cymothoe zenkeri ♂ And at least my traps were decently successful (though, truth be told, these lovely Charaxes are fairly common): Charaxes eupale latimargo ♀ Charaxes pollux pollux ♀ Charaxes castor castor ♂ (top), ♀ (bottom)
Charaxes etesipe etesipe ♂
My favourite, and completely unexpected, trapped species: Euphaedra imitans ♂Locality data for all specimens: Quartier Malepe, Beni, Nord Kivu (0°29'N, 29°28'E) 1180m During those few months I had the pleasure of getting to know Robert Ducarme. Dinner and conversation with Robert was certainly a welcome break away from our Congolese host family... I mean, there's only so much palm oil fried food and stuttering Swahili conversation a man can handle in any given month. Anyways, Robert realized the collecting situation was quite disappointing and so, generously gave me over 600 papered specimens he'd recently received from his collectors. He wanted to make sure I at least had a small sample of the butterfly fauna of the region. Merci Robert! Unfortunately, the security situation has degraded even further these past few months, and I believe Robert now has put a hold on his collecting efforts. He's on the right.
Anyways, it's likely that you'll start noticing me posting images of specimens from localities such Kasugho, and Mbau, Nord Kivu, and Biakato, Ituri... these are from him, and since there's so many specimens it's likely I'll be setting them for years to come. Here's a couple examples: Charaxes ameliae ameliae ♂ (8/V/2015 Biakato, Ituri, DRC) Aethiopana honorius ♀ (31/VIII/2015 Mbau, Nord Kivu, DRC)
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Post by africaone on May 11, 2016 9:01:48 GMT
During those few months I had the pleasure of getting to know Robert Ducarme. Dinner and conversation with Robert was certainly a welcome break away from our Congolese host family... I mean, there's only so much palm oil fried food and stuttering Swahili conversation a man can handle in any given month. Anyways, Robert realized the collecting situation was quite disappointing and so, generously gave me over 600 papered specimens he'd recently received from his collectors. He wanted to make sure I at least had a small sample of the butterfly fauna of the region. Merci Robert! Unfortunately, the security situation has degraded even further these past few months, and I believe Robert now has put a hold on his collecting efforts. Robert Ducarme is probably one the kindest and the most friendly entomologist I encountered (as JL Amiet) , someone completely "à part" in the world of Entomology. When I have to describe a new species, it it is one the person I really like to dedicate the description (I done it 6 times), as probably all other descriptors (the total number of ducarmei must be impressive, including Charaxes, Euphaedra, Bebearia, Mylothris, Dactyloceras, Macrotoma, ...). He has the best and the most complete local collection (butterfly) from NE Congo ., and even the ABRI collection from this region is directly or indirectly due to him. Thanks Tom for giving a few words about Robert.
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Post by cabintom on May 11, 2016 17:05:48 GMT
the total number of ducarmei must be impressive, including Charaxes, Euphaedra, Bebearia, Mylothris, Dactyloceras, Macrotoma, ...) Not to neglect the number of "ginettae" that also exist (as dedications to Robert's wife).
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Post by africaone on May 11, 2016 17:17:11 GMT
the total number of ducarmei must be impressive, including Charaxes, Euphaedra, Bebearia, Mylothris, Dactyloceras, Macrotoma, ...) Not to neglect the number of "ginettae" that also exist (as dedications to Robert's wife). I done 2 ...
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Post by cabintom on May 21, 2016 18:03:59 GMT
Rethy is an idyllic little town, plus former mission station, at the top Albertine Rift escarpment (elevation ~2050m). With it's rolling green hills, dotted with sheep and goats; it's varied and perfectly planned, naturally irrigated agricultural fields; it's woods of predominately mature Cypress and Eucalyptus; its pleasantly cool atmosphere... and it's so, so quiet and still that while stretched out on the couch, reading a good book, the sound of blood rushing through your ears becomes almost deafening and is only ever momentarily interrupted by the gentle creaking of passing bicycles... all of this make it quite difficult to believe that you're still in the Democratic Republic of the Congo... and even harder to believe that less than a decade ago the citizens of this peaceful town were involved in one of the most hate-filled, shocking, and bloody inter-tribal wars the world has ever seen. (For those of you who like Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's series, think: the people of Krikkit.) Anyways, my wife and I spent the majority of a week in Rethy at the beginning of March. By Congolese standards it's now a wonderful vacation spot if, like us, you know someone who's willing to let you crash at their home while they're back in Germany. Rainy season started the week we were there, so for collecting it wasn't very great. Most species I found were quite worn, and given how anthropogenic the environment has become in the area, that number of species was relatively low. Nonetheless, when a torrential downpour wasn't forcing me to relax by the fireplace (a novelty for me in this country), I was out looking for what species I could find. In all I probably only did about 10 hours of collecting. At any rate, there aren't many places in Congo that are at this sort of elevation, so interesting things were bound to be found. Most of my collecting was done in this small patch of woods.
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