Favoritos de mariedelport

20 galls ( similar in shape but of different sizes) were collected on 22 Nov 21 from vachelia sp bushes. they were kept in a plastic container with tissue paper as a seal to let air in. In 24 Nov 21 nothing had emerged from the galls. The largest gall was opened and a well developed pupa found.

The pupa was photographed and then put back inside the gall, 30 minutes later the gall was reopened and an adult crawled out. see the observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101815512

Another gall was opened but it was empty, see observation.

Strange looking Muscidae

I saw a large number of these flies while on holiday recently. They appear to be very effective hunters of other small flies / flying insects as I spotted quite a few with prey. This one has caught a Nematocera of sorts. The fly has been identified on Diptera.info as Anaphalantus longicornis (Muscidae) and according to a previous discussion which I append here it is the only Anaphalantus in the region. I photographed three specimens and it would appear they are all females. The males have interesting tufts of hair on their front legs. Had I known about this I would have photographed more to find a male. Never would have guessed this is Muscidae though. See here: http://diptera.info/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=38374&pid=169642

The pictures show E. micracantha. Bruyns (2012) reduces this species to synonymy under
E. stellata, but without explanation. In 2022, Bruyns reclassified E. micracantha as a subspecies of Euphorbia stellata. However, the name Euphorbia micracantha is accepted by Carter (2023).

Adult and two juveniles foraging on Felicia and Falkia repens leaves or seeds? Falkia and Felicia are in abundance in my garden after the recent rain. A male Spotted Eagle-Owl has been calling on my neighbor's roof for the last two nights. Nor sure how long the Vlei Rats will survive. My main concern is trigger-happy residents poisoning the rats and killing their predators. Pesticides and Ratex is a local favorite!