Field Trip Newsletter No. 3

19 December 2008
 
Dear Butterfly Net
 
SABCA's second field season started in August. The field survey team has expanded a little, which helps with getting more manpower out there, and surveys are being conducted around the country. Here is some news on what has been happening around the country:

Gauteng

Jeremy Dobson - Provincial Leader's update:
We've undertaken approximately 20 surveys this season, including a field trip to Goodlands Conservancy near Cullinan and two visits to Kliprivier Nature Reserve. Our first planned survey of a Gauteng Provincial Nature Reserve (Abe Bailey, near Carltonville) was cancelled due to poor weather, but took place in early December. A visit to Suikerbosrand took place in late November, it was great to see the veld in pristine condition and to find Roodepoort Coppers (Aloeides dentatis dentatis) in good numbers.
 

So far, we have collected about 1600 records out of an estimated total of between 2000 and 2500. Approximately 200 species have been recorded from the province and some data have been acquired from all 44 quarter-degree blocks within the Gauteng survey region.
 
Generally, Gauteng has experienced a fairly good butterfly season so far, with most of the local spring specials such as Lepidochrysops praeterita and Aphnaeus hutchinsonii emerging in good numbers. The first summer rain was relatively late (end of October), as it has been for several years now! Unusual records observed so far this season include Acraea lygus and Anthene princeps. We have also discovered new localities for Lepidochrysops letsea and Acraea barberae.

KwaZulu-Natal

Trip to Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, by Richard Dobson:
A new species of "Ground Orchid" was discovered during our SABCA field trip to the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve on the 4th of October 2008. According to the experts it is a new species of "Eulophia". This orchid colony only consists of a dozen or so plants.
 
The Umtamvuna Nature Reserve is a "Botanical Reserve", and is 3257ha in size. The UNR contains over 1250 species of flowering plants of which 320 are shrubs or trees. These are significant figures as the Kruger National Park, with a surface area 500 times larger possesses 2000 species of flowering plants, and of these 380 are trees. Of the 30 species of shrubs and trees which are endemic to the Pondoland Centre, at least 24 species have been recorded in the UNR.

Limpopo

Provincial Leader's update, by Andre Coetzer:
A couple of Limpopo trips have taken place in the past few months, some that were successful and others that proved to be quite disappointing. Dave McDermott, Owen Garvie and Tim Gilbert confirmed healthy colonies of Lepidochrysops tantalus (King blue) and Dingana clara (Wolkberg widow) in the Wolkberg, and Mark Williams discovered Lepidochrysops lotana (Lotana blue) near Legalemeetse in October. This is a great find of a butterfly that we know very little of!

Mpumalanga

Here's an introduction to Dave McDermott, SABCA's provincial leader for Mpumalanga:
 
I was born in Cape Town in 1951 but grew up and was educated in Rhodesia, later to become Zimbabwe. I first took an interest in butterflies at the age of 10, influenced by the late Rob Pare who attended the same junior school and his mother, who was the school secretary. There was an active Young Farmers' club at the school and one of all manner of competency certificates was one for butterflies which entailed collecting 30 different species, mounting them, adding label details and then being interrorgated on species identification - both common and scientific names. This led to serious collecting until the age of 27 when marriage diverted my attention. My original collection is still in Zimbabwe, incorporated into that of my brother Phil, one of the remaining few Zimbabwe members of LepSoc. Some 14 years later I again became active as my sons showed an interest and we went collecting at places like the Tswaing crater, then Zululand and the game was and truly on again! In those days I did not know Lepsoc existed but I subsequently ran into Steve Woodhall at Horn's Nek one day about 10 years ago and since then I have been a member of the society and benefited greatly in terms of new friendships and knowledge acquisition. I'm trying hard to get the photographic aspect of Lepidoptery right but I'm not a natural and it's going to take some time before I can enter anything into the annual competition. Of course my sons have both since discovered women and their interest in butterflies has gone out of the window!
 
Dave's update for the province:
Three formal Mpumalanga SABCA trips have been undertaken in the past few months but several planned trips had to be aborted because of bad weather – it's incredible how often we experience perfect weather during the week and it all starts turning pear-shaped on Fridays!
 
Graham Henning joined me on a return trip on 12 October to Morgenzon at the top of Robbers Pass to check on Aloides nubilus (Cloud Copper). Females outnumbered males quite considerably and most of the males seen were worn as it was late in the season for this butterfly. We were able to photograph the foodplant (discovered on last year's SABCA trip) and extend the species list with the likes of Aloeides aranda (Aranda Copper), Kedestes barbarae (Barber's Ranger), Chrysoritis aethon (Lydenburg Opal), Dingana angusta (Narrow-banded Widow), Lepiodchrysops plebeia plebeia and Acraea neobule (Wandering Donkey Acraea).
 
Owen Garvie and I had the pleasure of the company of Professor Mark Williams on two forays into Mpumalanga, the first on 15 November to the hills near Roossenekal where we spotted 27 species including Lepidochrysops roussouwi (Roussouw's Blue), Iolaus trimeni (Trimen's Sapphire), Aloides dryas (Transvaal Copper), Aloides Henningi (Henning's Copper) and Capys alpheus extentus (Protea Scarlet), among others.
 
Of particular interest were a variety of Dinganas, many that looked very much like D. fraterna (Stoffberg Widow) except they look closer to D. clara (Wolkberg Widow) than the white form of D. angusta (Narrow-banded Widow). A few specimens of D. Alticola (Red-banded Widow) were also identified and various others that fall somewhere in between with bands ranging from dull white-yellow to dull orange-brown.
 
Higher up the mountains were fairly strong colonies of Orachrysops species, probably O. lacrimosa (Restless Blue). The females, however, were quite variable, some resembling O. regalis (Royal Blue) and others O. violescens (Violescent Blue).
 
The next day (16 November) we were up before 04h00 and off to the 49 000ha Songimvelo Nature Reserve lying south of Barberton straddling the Komati River (only lepidopterists who have been out in the noonday sun tend to do this sort of mad travelling). Unfortunately the weather abandoned us and we arrived in 100% cloud cover accompanied by a cool breeze.
 
Pressing on, we were joined by Game Guard Moses, who grew up in the area and enthusiastically coached by Mark, he proved to be a keen student of trees and also soaked up whatever we could offer by way of butterfly sightings and identifications. The roads were poor and tested my Subaru Forrester. We came away unscathed except for a rock-punctured sidewall on the right front tyre which was quickly replaced once we'd found the jack that was cunningly concealed in a snug compartment, causing several minutes of anxiety until it was found (A 17km hike back to the main gate through a reserve with good Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo populations could have been quite challenging)!
 
This is a beautiful reserve with serious diversity of plant life and habitats ranging from flat Acacia grasslands, vleis and Aloe-covered rocky hillsides to seriously high mountains and montane grassland like that found at Eureka near Barberton where Lepidochrysops jefferyi and swanepoeli (Jeffrey's Blue and Swanepoel's Blue) fly. We were unable to get up into these mountains because the road has been closed by wash-aways.
 
However, in just a few minutes of sunshine from a small and very temporary break in the clouds we were able to log 21 species on the slopes and summits of two adjacent aloe covered rocky hills. Finds included two Lepidochrysops species (plebeia and patricia – the latter the small very silvery variety), a colony of Alaena amazoula (Yellow Zulu) the males of which are almost totally black on the upperside and very white on the underside, as well as number of Aloeides dryas (Transvaal Copper). A return to this reserve is planned for February/March next year. It is a huge amount of ground to cover and a second visit in good weather is likely to show up many more species.
 
Our grateful thanks are due to Shane Plunkett of Mpumalanga Parks (Songimvelo), "Oom Paul" of Amper Bo farm at Roossenekal and Chantelle Sieling of Komatiland Forests conservation section for their enthusiastic support.

Northern Cape

Trip to Northern Cape, by Andre Coetzer:
Myself, my father Bennie Coetzer and a friend Donovan du Toit (who is an amateur herpetologist and is now almost converted to a lepidopterist) went on a two week survey in the Northern Cape province from the 24th September to the 8th October 2008. The main goal was to see how far from civilisation we could get in South Africa, and I think we were pretty successfull. The first week was spent in the central Northern Cape, visiting places like Van Wyksvlei, Koedoeskop, Niekerkshoop and Boegoeberg (yes, the song "Boegoeberg se dam" is based on a real place). I was warned that we would find nothing, but despite only picking up a handful of records everyday, we still enjoyed it. We did manage to pick up some Aloeides vansoni (Van Son's copper), and to my surprise, a Cacyreus lingeus (bush bronze) near Van Wyksvlei. The bush bronze is a very common and widespread species in South Africa, but they have not been recorded from the Northern Cape before. Near Niekerkshoops we found a fresh male Acraea trimeni (Trimen's Acraea), but after almost breaking my neck by sprinting over a dry river bed and up a mountain, I had to watch it disappear between the thorn bushes that are 100% collector proof. We also got some experience on how to change four tyres in two days...
 
After the first week, we dropped my father off at Upington and left for Namaqualand. A cold front waited for us at Springbok and messed up the Kamieskroon surveys completely. To make things worse, we ran into some car trouble and spent 4 hours in the Wimpy in Springbok, where they at least serve Wimpy's famous Mega coffees! We then headed for the west coast and in the next few days we got some interesting records. These included a single Pieris brassicae (cabbage white) that was found at Hondeklipbaai, and a strong colony of Chrysorites trimeni (Trimen's opal), Aloeides nollothi (Nolloth's copper) and Phasis thero (Silver arrowhead) that was found at Noup, which is about 20km north of Hondeklipbaai. We stayed at the Honnehokke in Hondeklibaai, where Attie and Elize taught us that finding namaqua rain frogs on sand dunes at night is a lot easier once you've had a beer or two in, as it keeps you warm against the freezing west coast winds.
 
After that we went further north where we got a few Lepidochrysops badhami (Badham's blue) near Port Nolloth, which is almost 100km away from their known distribution. This butterfly is already very rare, and was only known from a handfull of spots near Springbok, so this locality record is really valuable. We also came across a stretch of dirt road, where there are no fences for kilometers on end, and the hills are crawling with things like Alenia namaqua (Namaqua dancer), Trimenia macmasteri (McMaster's silver-spotted copper) and Aloeides barkyi (Barkly's copper). We spent the last day hiking up the hills behind Springbok caravan park, because we had car trouble once again. So after two weeks of looking for butterflies in places where there is nothing but sand and stone, we returned to Joburg ... in an Imperial rental car.

Western Cape

Dave Edge - Provincial Leader's update for Southern Cape:
In the southern Cape 17 new localities were visited by field workers Dave Edge, Ray Jones and Graham Wyatt-Goodall, and 245 new records were obtained. A new record is a species not previously recorded in a quarter degree grid square. Only seven grid squares out of 65 now remain that have not been visited yet.
 
Significant new records were Lepidochrysops balli and a new dark form of Aloeides clarki from Kammanassie West; Cassionympha camdeboo from east of De Rust; a new locality for Chrysoritis beulah; what seems to be a new subspecies of Aloeides pallida and Metisella malgacha from the western end of the Baviaanskloof; and Crudaria wykehami from east of Willowmore. These records bring the southern Cape total to 1188, or 55% of the target, with 11 field months completed out of 30 planned.
 

Contributions are gratefully acknowledged from Alan Heath, who has made his extensive records available, and Andy Young, who visited the area and added value to several field trips.
 

 

 

 
Andrew Morton - provincial co-leader for western part of Western Cape:
If there are any Western Cape or Lepsoc members (or members of the public) that would like to accompany myself or any of the guys on any trips, and that may have ideas of areas that are unexplored and would be worth surveying, please give us a shout. A big thank you to all the guys that have helped with surveys this season!
 
I have surveyed about 30 localities (including CapeNature and SANParks reserves), most of them with other members. I have been accompanied by Len Mcleod, Alan Heath, Heinz Ortmann, Owen Garvie, Harald Selb & Taryn Morton. The Table Mountain range has been alive with butterflies this year. No new records as expected. But good numbers of Skollies, blues and browns!

Trips in the southern Cape, by Ray Jones:
Very little has been on the wing due no doubt to the unfavourable weather conditions. Chris Ficq has been visiting and l've accompanied him out to a few locations. Went up the Gamka Mountain and found Chrysorites nigricans rubesens, not much else flying. Went up the Rooiberg and found Thestor rooibergensis; again nothing else worth noting. l spent a weekend at the Anysberg Nature Reserve (Thanks to Marius Brand, the Chief Ranger) and again very little was flying. A recent second trip was conducted up the Amaliensteynrug behind Zoar where the weather was not favourable and very few bugs were seen. We have also been up to the top of Platberg. More trips in the areas are being arranged for the New Year.
 

 
Thank you to the participating LepSoc members who are giving up much of their free time for the surveys, and to the Provincial Leaders for working hard on getting the surveys organised! Teams adhere to LepSoc's Code of Conduct as well as to various nature conservation and forestry permit conditions, which set strict limits to the number of specimens that are permitted for collection.
 
Much ground has yet to be covered within the atlas region and SABCA does not have enough people to survey all the gaps - LepSoc members cannot cover the entire country due to limited time and resources. Therefore, this is a reminder to encourage you all to submit photos of butterflies and their life stages to SABCA's Virtual Museum, including butterflies seen in private gardens where it will be difficult for LepSoc members to survey. Photos of all butterflies, even common species are wanted. Photos of butterflies from different areas around South Africa are needed to help us fill in the gaps.
 
Surveys would not be possible without the collaboration of various nature conservation and forestry institutions and organisations, as well as landowners. A big thank you to those listed below for supporting SABCA's field work through providing permits, licenses and permission.
 
CapeNature, Western Cape Province
Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Gauteng Province
Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Tourism, North-West Province
Dept. of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs, Eastern Cape Province
Dept. of Nature and Environmental Conservation, Northern Cape Province
Dept. of Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs, Free State Province
Dept. of Water affairs and Forestry (Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape)
Eastern Cape Parks Board
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, KwaZulu-Natal Province
iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (formerly the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority) Komatiland Forestry
Limpopo Provincial Government, Limpopo Province
Mondi Business Paper and Mondi Shanduka
Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, Mpumalanga Province
MTO Forestry
North West Parks and Tourism Board
SAPPI Forests
South African National Parks
 
Best wishes for the festive season...
 
Silvia Mecenero
SABCA Project Coordinator
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