by Michelle Hamer | Mar 29, 2019 | General
UKZN and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife have signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding on combining their botanical strengths and resources. Ezemvelo will integrate its 33,000-specimen herbarium into University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Bews Herbarium, while UKZN will make all...
by Michelle Hamer | Feb 20, 2019 | New Species
A new species of tarantula (the Mega Horned Baboon Tarantula, Ceratogyrus attonitifer) is described in a paper published in the open-access journal African Invertebrates by Drs John Midgley and Ian Engelbrecht. The spider was discovered by Dr John Midgley...
by Michelle Hamer | Feb 12, 2019 | New Species
Two new legless lizard species from the genus Acontias from the Mpumalanga Escarpment were recently described by Werner Conradie and colleagues. These species live under rocks in mountain grasslands and feed on termites. Type material is deposited at Port Elizabeth...
by Michelle Hamer | Feb 12, 2019 | New Species
A new species of tangle-veined fly was described in the journal Zootaxa from the Hantam National Botanical Garden, Nieuwoudtville, Bokkeveld Plateau, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The species is a narrow-range endemic and is restricted to the Nieuwoudtville...
by Michelle Hamer | Feb 12, 2019 | New Species
Sinelobus stromatoliticus sp. nov., a tanaidacean (small shrimp-like animal) living within laminated stromatolites along the South African coastline, has been described. A revised key to all the species currently recognised within this genus is also provided. The type...
by Michelle Hamer | Dec 10, 2018 | General, Uncategorized
Applications: Applications for travel grants are invited from researchers in South Africa and internationally specifically to assist with the identification / verification of identifications of specimens for the following taxa: Plants: Fabaceae Animals: Mammals,...
by Michelle Hamer | Oct 17, 2018 | New Species
A new species of polychaete (bristle worm), Rhynchospio mzansi, was recently described from the south coast of South Africa. The specimens were collected from sediment within the effluent outflow from an abalone farm bear Gansbaai, South Africa. The name of the new...
by Michelle Hamer | Jul 20, 2018 | New Species
First tetrapods of Africa lived within the Devonian Antarctic The first African fossils of Devonian tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) show these pioneers of land living within the Antarctic circle, 360 million years ago. The evolution of tetrapods from fishes during...
by Michelle Hamer | May 16, 2018 | New Species
A new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society has increased the diversity of southern African horseshoe bats by three species. One (named Rhinolophus gorongosae) appears to occur only in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and possibly also...
by Michelle Hamer | Apr 19, 2018 | New Species
Werner Conradie and colleagues recently described four new species of frogs from the genus Nothophryne. Previously only found in southern Malawi, it was recently found that at least four new species occur from four different inselbergs in northern Mozambique. Read...
