MoonGreen

Tritonia karooica seen in-situ about a half hours drive past Calvinia heading in the direction of Namibia. Habitat picture included.

Some shots of an Aloe ferox in flower in the garden.

In two of the images you can see a cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) with bright orange pollen from the Aloe attached to it's pollen sacs.

Interesting find in the garden today, a species of longhorn beetle belonging to the family Cerambycidae

This one was fairly large, measuring in at ±3.5cm and was fairly slow moving. Watching it go about it's day was fairly entertaining.

Adults in this family generally feed on pollen, nectar, leaves, roots and wood. Eggs are laid in a variety of dead and live wood where the larvae burrow into the wood and feed, for this reason some species are considered pests of timber.

Ok so I decided to be brave today and get some shots of the wild hive of Cape Honey Bees (Apis mellifera capensis) that is out in my backyard.

They started the hive last spring on the outside but have now moved into the black box visible in the last image.

The outside is a lot more bee-free than in the warmer months and they were pretty docile given how late in the day it was already.