Archive for January 18, 2012

FC01 – Day 25 – It’s Alive!

18/01/2011
15:30

70ml rain overnight.

After the break in the Hluhluwe heat (and finally some rain! :D ), FC01 has decided to let us know it is still alive and moved to a new spot.

However technical failure occurs in the rain, so we have used triangulation to obtain this approximate position. But we are confident of its accuracy to within an approximately 5m radius.

Approx 329m as the crow flies.

Did You Know – King Cricket

Check out his weeks nature factsheet – this week King Cricket

- Onosandrus (King Cricket) - Description: Medium sized cricket with single spine on inner side of upper front leg (tibiae). Pattern on back caused by black markings on cream body - Size: Body length approx 28mm. - Male/female: Mandibles same size in both sexes. - Life Expectancy: Approx 3 years: hatchling to adult - Behaviour: Nocturnal, stay in underground burrows during the day emerging at night to feed. - Diet: Eat small animals (usually insects) and plant matter. - Noise: 'Stridulate' by rubbing legs against the abdomen. - Reproduction: Eggs can take up to 18 months to hatch and take 1 to 3 years to mature. Males can have harems of females which brood eggs and young in special chambers. - Habitat: Dark and damp places; Wet soil, rotten logs, sodden moss. - Distribution: Found across the whole of South Africa. - Did you know: Some adults are missing both wings, sometimes they only miss one! | Make a deafeningly loud noise just by rubbing their legs together.