Kipoi, Democratic Republic of Congo

[Sico]

Took a short walk up a small hill above the main camp this afternoon. Maybe 600m in total distance although it was a fairly steep climb to the summit, where there is a small plateau that holds a water reservoir. The biodiversity here is something else… It was starting to get quite overcast so I couldn’t stick up there too long, but in the 40 minutes or so I did find a few nice things.

Lepidoptera (no names)

A skipper

Amorous Acraea’s


Not sure of this one, but shots with the wings open and closed… couldn’t get it to sit at a decent angle for me to get the wings really nicely…



A mantis


Large female Mutilid wasp (Velvet ant)


A nice millipede, around 250mm long


And this place has to have the biggest diversity of fungi I have ever experienced. Just about everywhere you look there is something different coming up. These are some of the more interesting ones, I haven’t even been through the different types of bracket fungi yet…




Newly fruited…

And after a while they turn into this…

[Ruan Stander]

Insane, thanks for sharing.

[Silvrav]

Most parts of the DRC is so remote and beautiful. I just wish the cities resembled it.

I visit Kinshasha often and wish I could escape to the outside area's but you dont wonder outisde after 5pm....

[Sico]

I managed to get off into the forest today for a couple of hours. Not a lot of animal/insect life, but the plant life was pretty fantastic. Lots of orchids, mosses, trees, fungi… The insects are from the course of the week, the plants etc later on are from this afternoon. I will be leaving here in a week’s time, so I may post once more in this thread if I find anything decent during the week…

Moths








Latoia albicosta

Nudaurelia macrothyris

Interesting Hemipteran


Mantids



Coleoptera



Not often seen, one of the Opiliones (Harvestman), and quite a large one


Forest shots




Orchids – I’d love to catch all these in full bloom






The site is literally covered in these large termite mounds – the biggest I have ever come across – this one measured by the surveyors is nearly 5m high and around 6m in diameter at the base and is one of the tallest, although there are several that are broader. I’d say there is one of these around every 100-200m in every direction, you can imagine the biomass of flying ants that comes out every night after a rain… the wings lie cm’s deep everywhere the next morning. Perfect staple diet for pretty much everything else around here.


Mossy everything…



Bracket Fungus





Interesting the way these two have grown around the grass stalks…



Other fungi








That's it for now, hopefully I find a few more interesting insects etc before the week is up.

[Ruan Stander]

That is just incredible

[Sico]

Came across a group of 5 (2 adult and 3 adolescent)Southern Ground hornbills, Bucorvus leadbeateri

It was really early in the morning, and again pretty misty, and before I could get a shot of the 5 of them, 3 flew off into the forest, two sat on trees next to the road, managed to get a single shot before they too joined the rest of the group. Really nice to see them, huge and majestic even if they are a little weird looking.
Also found this pretty large DOR Chameleon, I'm pretty sure this was an intentional death, as you cannot miss something this size crossing a 2 lane dirt road (it was in the middle) where the speed limit is 50km/h...


And that wraps this one up. I'm off on leave for 6 weeks, hopefully to end up somewhere else in Feb 2015.

[Ruan Stander]

That's a huge chameleon !

I must note though that in Africa, the speed limit signs we see are actually 'recommended speed'

[Westley Price]

Awesome finds, Sico.

I especially like the variety of inverts you find. That harvestman is a real cool find. They are freaky little buggers!

Have you seen any stick insects that side of the world?

I think the chameleon might be C. gracilis. They are very similar to C. dilepis, but generally more slender and longer.

[reptile]

Spot on Westley! Its definiately larger an more slender.... Lol. On the serious side of things.... Yes that could be it does look different.