First Field Guide to Insects of Southern Africa

Author: Alan Weaving
Struik Publishers
Cape Town, 1999
ISBN: 9781868722921
Paperback, 11x17 cm, 56 pages, throughout colour photos

Description:

Sasol First Field Guide to Insects of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the insects of the region.

Full-colour photographs and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to explore the more common insect groups that occur in southern Africa, discover where they are found, and learn about their behaviour and unusual features.

These little guides are an invaluable resource for the beginner, providing information at a glance through superb photographs, maps and easy-to-read text.

• handy pocket size
• easy-to-read text
• suitable for the beginner naturalist
• each species is photographed

Description:

These natural history guides have been developed in the hope that young people and anyone with a budding interest in natural history will take up the challenge to learn the secrets of southern Africa’s fascinating fauna and flora.

These little guides are an invaluable resource for the beginner, providing information at a glance through superb photographs, maps and easy-to-read text.

Sasol First Field Guide to Insects of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the insects of the region.

Full-colour photographs and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to explore the more common insect groups that occur in southern Africa, discover where they are found, and learn about their behaviour and unusual features.

About the Author:

Alan Weaving, now retired, is an entomologist who worked for many years at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown studying in particular, the solitary wasp. He is also a keen photographer of natural history subjects and has had many of his photographs published in a wide range of media.

Example:

Fruit Chafers
Order Coleoptera (family: Scarabaeidae; Cetonhnae)
Afrikaans name: Vrugtetorre
Size: Length 10-70 mm.
Number of species: 160

Identification: Somewhat flat, 1 hard-bodied, squarish beetles, mostly brightly coloured and beautifully marked.

Where found: Shoots, flowers and fruit, also plant stems exuding sap.

Habits: Alert, day-flying beetles that readily take to the wing. Sometimes congregate in considerable numbers on flowers. Some species invade beehives to feed on honeycombs.

Food: Adults feed on nectar, ripe fruit, flowers and sap. Larvae feed on vegetable matter such as old herbivore dung or compost.

Life history: Eggs are laid in the soil. Mature larvae pupate in cocoons made by gluing together plant debris and soil particles with saliva.

Contents:

What is an insect?
Insect growth and metamorphosis
Grouping and identifying insects
Collecting and keeping insects
How to use this book
Key to insect orders
Species accounts
Glossary
Index and checklist

Index:

Antlions 30
Ants 55
Aphids 28
Bees, Carpenter 54
Beetles, Blister 40
CMR 40
Dung 33
Ground 31
Jewel 36
Ladybird 38
Longicorn 41
Net-winged 37
Tiger 32
Toktokkies 39
Tortoise 42
Bugs, Assassin 23
Shield 25
Squash 24
Butterflies 49
Chafers 34
Fruit 35
Cicadas 29
Cockroaches 13
Crickets 19
Armoured Ground 18
Damselflies 12
Dragonflies 12
Earwigs 16
Flies, Bee 46
Blow 48
Horse 44
Hover 47
Robber 45
Grasshoppers 21
Katydids, Bush 17
Locusts, Bush 20
Moths 49
Pond Skaters 26
Plant Lice 28
Praying Mantids 15
Stick Insects 22
Termites 14
Twig Wilters 24
Wasps, Digger 53
Mason 52
Mud Daubers 53
Paper 51
Potter 52
Spider-hunting 50
Water Scorpions 27
Water Striders 26
Weevils, Lily 43