A Burst of Biodiversity

Malawi is famous for it’s birdlife, but I really haven’t seen a wide range of species yet and certainly haven’t managed to photograph any. There are birds that are familiar to me, like the pigeons and crows, wagtails and of course the ubiquitous sparrows. Others are more exotic, like the fish eagles at the lake, or the little sunbirds with the curved beaks that flit around the shrubs in the front garden. And then there are those whose identity is a complete mystery to me, which includes most species I see!

Around the house we have some insect biodiversity too, including this rather gorgeous beast that Francesco called a leaf mantis. He was pretty cool, with a body maybe about 5 or 6 cm long with antennae at least as long again. 

Sadly we also have some of his invertebrate mates living inside – perhaps unsurprisingly given the climate, cockroaches and ants are a problem here. However I have been pleasantly surprised at how few mosquitoes and houseflies there are around which may be a reflection of time of year. Instead, there are some very interesting species of flies here, including wood flies that are about the size of a bumble bee, and orange and black in colour. Apparently they make their homes in wood. Some of the wasps are great as well, with very elongated bodies and large wings, and I have also seen a interesting diversity of beautiful butterflies.

As for the vertebrates, I think I mentioned the bats and monkeys I saw at the lake, well I have seen some of both in the city – the bats flying around the suburbs at dusk and the monkeys in a nearby park. Plus I have seen several species of lizards, including the pink ones that live inside and eat the mosquitoes – they are very cute. There are stripey ones out in the garden and at the lake I saw some very slinky ones with bright blue tails – I have no idea about the identity of any of them, sorry!

A common garden shrub

Well, that’s enough of the boring animal stuff, what about the seriously interesting plants??? The advantage of plants is that they are much easier to photograph so here’s a few that have caught my eye. Some are garden plants and imported from other places, while others are indigenous to this part of the world. Amongst the imports are the occasional eucalypts, there are several different species here, but I haven't seen large numbers of them. And I think many of the acacia species are African, but there are some Australian ones in places. I have seen an acacia with buttress roots which seems very odd so maybe its natural habitat is the rain-forest. Which reminds me, there are several species of native figs 

here as well.

These beautiful legume trees are quite common. The lobed leaf gives them the common name of 'camel foot'.

Senna in the garden, with pawpaw just behind, at right

The common tree that stands out at the moment around Lilongwe is Senna spectabilis (senna) with its yellow flowers, but it’s an import too.  

As is what I have called the “wicked” tree which is outside one of the buildings at work. I think it’s pretty obvious why I have given it this name!

"Wicked tree"

Check out those thorns!

Apparently the thorns prevent snakes from climbing the trees. I want to know what the tree is protecting!

Oh yes, and I found a couple of sausage trees at work so I happily snapped several photos the other day, much to the puzzlement of the locals. That’s ok, I am foreign, so therefore I am already weird! And while on the subject of food, there are pawpaw trees everywhere and as I hadn’t seen peanuts growing before I've included a couple of photos of them too.

Peanuts don't grow on trees...

...they grow in fields!

   

Sausage tree with fruit

Typical non-agricultural vegetation growing around my work place

Toby

I am hoping I will get to see some typical large vertebrates over the next few weeks as I go exploring further, like hippos and elephants and maybe even some big cats, but that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, here are a reminder of a couple of friendly 'small cats' lazing around on my deck in back in Melbourne. 

Arthur