Animal of the week

Derivation of scientific name The specific epithet, lymma, means ‘dirt’. Common names Blue-spotted ribbontail ray, blue-spotted stingray, blue-spotted ray, blue-spotted […]

Derivation of scientific name: Endomycorrhiza, (AMF) Introduction Fungus is a microscopic organism of the group eukaryotes that includes yeasts, moulds […]

Derivation of scientific name Tyto is onomatopoeic Greek for ‘owl’ and alba is Latin for ‘white’. Common names Western Barn Owl, barn […]

Derivation of scientific name The species name Orycteropus was derived from the Greek word orykteropous, which means digging- or burrowing-footed. […]

Common names: Cape Hope Squid, Chokka squid, Calamari Introduction Loligo reynaudii, commonly called Cape hope squid, is a neritic, nektobenthic […]

Description/How to recognise a sea vase ascidian The body of C. robusta is long reaching a maximum length of 100 […]

With their ability to build calcareous tubes 1.85 to 2 mm in mouth diameter and 20 to 40 mm in […]

Common names: pilchard, sardine monterrey (Spanish), sardine du Pacifique (French) Sardines are small pelagic fish of the order Clupeiformes found […]

Common names: Temminck’s ground pangolin, Steppe pangolin, Scaly anteater, South African pangolin, Ground pangolin, Cape pangolin, Ietermagog (Afrikaans), Kgaga (Sotho), […]

Description/How to recognise Mopani Worm Adults of the mopane worm are large and robust moths with wingspans of approximately 120 mm. […]

Common names serval (English); tierboskat (Afrikaans); indlozi (isiNdebele, isiXhosa); ihlosi (isiZulu); tadi (Setswana); ndloti (Xitsonga); dindingwe (Tshivenda). Introduction The tallest […]

Common names Giant jewel beetle (English); lebitsi or lebitsi-kgoma (Sepedi); polilo khooana (Sesotho); xitambela (Xitsonga); reuse juweelkewer (Afrikaans). Introduction The […]

The Cape cobra, like all other cobras, is found mostly on the ground, but is also able to climb into […]

Common names Mediterranean mussel, bay mussel, blue mussel (English); Mediterreënse mossel (Afr.); Mittelmeer-Miesmuschel (German). Mytilus galloprovincialis is from the Mediterranean […]

Other common names African small-grain lizard, water leguaan, river leguaan, water monitor (Eng.); waterlikkewaan (Afr.); uxamu (IsiZulu); nkwahle (Xitsonga) Introduction […]