Earlier today I heard a loud buzzing noise in my lab here at the Turkana Basin Institute in northern Kenya. There are a number of wasps who make their home in the lab. These wasps construct nests from mud, which they then stock with paralyzed caterpillars or spiders as food for their larvae. Today however, … Read more
Dear All – having been weighing and counting ants on the Whistling Thorns for some research work related to my PhD. There are a few alates around – these are the winged reproductive forms of ants… Each colony produces many hundreds, even thousands of alates that take off into the sky as part of a … Read more
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 … Read more
Dear All – many thanks for the kind comments and I will respond to some of the questions soon. I just found and photographed the most incredible ‘creepy-crawlies’ in my house this evening. As I was brushing my teeth, I noticed someone watching me quietly from the corner. The area around my sink … Read more
Big female, tiny male! On a recent walk through one of the coastal forests I came across this amazing example of ‘sexual dimorphism’. This is where there are striking differences in size, shape, colour and other features between males and females of the same species. In this case it is a striking example of size-based … Read more
This Saturday I visited the Kibera Slum in Nairobi with Paula of WildlifeDirect and her remarkable sister Su Kahumbu, one of Kenya’s most passionate organic farmers who is working very hard to raise awareness about organic farming and other issues related to good farming practices. Isaak, a partial hearing child attached himself to me immediately … Read more