The Lake Oku Clawed Frog (Xenopus longipes) is a critically endangered freshwater amphibian.
The Lake Oku Clawed Frog is dark-coloured with claws at the ends of its two hind (back) feet. Its back is brown, and its belly is speckled black on an orange background.
Butterfly eggs are small.
Females lay eggs singly or in a group, called a cluster or a batch. There can be up to 200 eggs, depending on the species of butterfly.
Butterfly eggs have a hard, protective shell, called a chorion. It is coated with wax, which prevents the egg from drying or dehydrating.
The Mangrove Snake (Boiga dendrophila) is also known as the Gold-Ringed Cat Snake. It is a mildly-venomous colubrid reptile.
The Mangrove Snake is rear-fanged. It is black on its upperparts with yellow sideways bands along its body. Its underbelly is black or blue-black with speckles of yellow. It has a yellow throat.
The Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey in the Falconidae family of falcons. It is also called the European Kestrel or the Eurasian Kestrel. It is a raptor.
The Common Kestrel is light chestnut-brown with blackish spots on the upperparts and beige on the underparts. Its tail is brown with a black tip. Females have black bars on their tails. Its cere, feet, and eye-ring are bright yellow to yellowish-cream.
The Lake Patzcuaro Salamander (Ambystoma dumerilii) is an endangered freshwater amphibian. Frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and axoltols are amphibians. It is also called the Lake Patzcuaro Achoque. It is related to the Mexican Axolotl.
The Lake Patzcuaro Salamander remains in its tadpole form for its whole life. It has feathery external gills, which it uses to breath. It is yellowish with a lighter shade on its underbelly. It has a large head, a tail, and short legs. It has four toes on its front legs and five toes on its back legs. It does not have scales – it has moist, smooth skin like the skin of frogs.
The Clown Loach (Chromobotia macracanthus) is a tropical freshwater fish in the botiid loach family.
The Clown Loach has a long body with a downward-facing mouth with thick lips. It has four pairs of barbels (string-like projections) near its mouth, but the barbels on the lower jaw are small and difficult to see. It is reddish-orange with three thick, black, triangular, vertical bands. It has a red tail.
The Orange-Headed Ground Thrush (Geokichla citrina) is a common small bird.
The Orange-Headed Ground Thrush is mainly grey, with an orange head and orange upperparts. The female has less orange. It has a white undertail. Its beak is grey, and its legs and feet are brownish-pink.
The Cockle (Cerastoderma edule) is a small marine (saltwater) bivalve mollusc. It is also called a Clam, but it is not a true clam (a true clam does not live near the bottom of the ocean).
The Cockle has a white-creamy-yellowish-brown oval-shaped shell, called a mantle, with bilateral symmetry – its two valves are the same – connected by two hinge-type adductor muscles that enable it to open and close. The mantle has many slight ridges, called ribs. It has a foot which helps it to bury itself in the ocean floor.
The Black-Naped Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus melanospilus) is a medium-sized bird.
The male Black-Naped Fruit Dove has a black nape (back of the head) with a white head, yellow throat, and patches of yellow on his chest. The rest of his body is brownish olive-green. The underside of his tail is yellow and deep pinkish-purple. The female is green to olive-green all over, with a greenish head and greenish wings. Both male and female have olive-green eyes, a cream-coloured beak, and creamy-pink legs.
The North African Catfish (Clarius gariepinus) is a freshwater air-breathing fish. It is also called the African Sharptooth Catfish or the Common Mudfish. It has gills (like fish) and a lung, which means that it needs to come to the surface of the water to breathe air. It is able to live in shallow mud for a long period of time.
The North African Catfish is eel-like, with a long, slender, dark-grey body and a white underbelly. It has a flat, bony head. Its mouth has four pairs of barbels (long string-like appendages).
The Black Spotted Turtle (Geoclemys hamiltonii) is a freshwater chelonian, and a reptile. It is also called the Black Pond Turtle or the Indian Spotted Turtle.
The Black Spotted Turtle is mainly black with small yellowish spots and streaks. Its upper shell, called a carapace, is domed. Its lower shell, called a plastron, is dark-coloured with creamy-yellow spots. It has a large head, with a short nose. It has webbed feet with claws. It has a very short tail.
The Black-Cheeked Lovebird (Agapornis nigrigensis) is a small parrot.
The Black-Cheeked Lovebird has mostly green feathers, with a reddish-brown head, black cheeks, and a yellow-orange patch on its chest. It has a red beak with a thin, white cere. It has dark eyes with a white eye-ring.
The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is a medium-sized dabbling duck. It is a water bird, living in wetlands.
The male Mallard – the drake – has a glossy green head, white collar, grey on its wings, and grey on its belly. The female has mainly brown speckled feathers. The male and female have iridescent blue feathers with white edges on their wings. The male has a yellow-orange beak, tipped with black, and the female has a darker beak.
The Southern Lobster (Jasus edwardsii) is a marine (saltwater) crustacean. It is also called the Red Rock Lobster or Spiny Rock Lobster. It is actually not a lobster; it is a crayfish. Lobsters have large pincers (nippers), like the nippers of crabs. The Southern Lobster does not have pincers, so it is a crayfish.
The Southern Lobster has a dark red, orange, or grey-green shell (exo-skeleton), called a carapace. It has a pale yellowish abdomen or underbelly.
The Western Greylag Goose (Anser anser anser) is a large water bird, a wetlands bird, in the Anatidae family. There are two types: Western Greylag Goose and Eastern Greylag Goose.
The Western Greylag Goose has mottled and barred grey and white feathers and an orange beak. It has a thick, long neck and a large head. It has pink legs and pink feet.
The Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) is a large endangered bird of prey, a raptor. It is a hierofalcon.
The Saker Falcon has a brown upper belly and grey flight feathers. Its head and upperparts are pale-brown with streaking from the chest downwards. Some Asian Saker Falcons have grey barred upperparts. It has a blue-grey downward curved beak with a black tip. Its legs are creamy-white with large sharp talons.
The Staghorn Damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon curacao) is a marine (saltwater) fish. It is related to clownfish.
The Staghorn Damselfish has a blue-green sheen with flecks of black. Its dorsal fin (back fin) is edged in blue. It has large eyes and a downturned mouth.
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
Continue reading “Camouflage # 12: Can you find the animal?”
What is the difference between a chrysalis, a cocoon and a pupa?
A chrysalis is the pupal casing of butterflies. A butterfly caterpillar pupates into a chrysalis, and an adult butterfly emerges.
A cocoon is the pupal casing made of moths and other insect larvae. A moth caterpillar pupates into a cocoon, and an adult moth emerges.
Continue reading “What is the difference between a chrysalis, a cocoon, and a pupa?”
The Grayling (Hipparchia semele) is a common insect in the Nympalidae family of brush-footed butterflies. It is also known as the Rock Grayling.
The Grayling is tan, brown, and white, and is well camouflaged on tree bark or rocks. It upperside is tan with copper, and edged in white, with several eyespots. Its underside is very dark-brown with eyespots. Its body is brown.