Hooray! Today is Sappi TREE TUESDAY!!! And we are featuring the African Wattle Peltophorum africanum tree. Peltophorum africanum is one of South Africa's most wonderful flowering indigenous trees. With its dense, spreading, rounded crown and showy golden yellow flowers the African Wattle is a great tree to plant in dry or windy areas. The spectacular flowers of this hardy tree provide a high yield of pollen and nectar which is perfect for bee keeping. One of the common names for this charming tree, 'Weeping wattle,' refers to the moisture that drips from the branches before the first rains. This is caused by nymphs or small frog hoppers called spittle bugs that suck sap from the trees which they excrete as almost pure water. Butterflies, bees and birds are all attracted to this tree which provides them with food and shelter, especially in urban settings. The bright yellow flowers with crinkled petals appear at the ends of the branches in showy upright sprays from November to February.

Happy Snake Sunday! The Black-headed Centipede Eater Aparallactus capensis can be identified by its distinctive black head and collar, its small thin body and strictly nocturnal lifestyle. It grows to an average length of 30 cm and a maximum length of 40 cm. The Black-headed Centipede Eater is found throughout the eastern half of South Africa (as well as throughout Lesotho and Swaziland), as shown on the ReptileMAP distribution map. It is also present in southern and central Mozambique, Zimbabwe and eastern Botswana. It favours the following habitats: moist savanna, lowland forest and grassland where it is typically found in termite mounds.

Although venomous, it is not thought to be dangerous to man and due to the small size of its teeth it is unable to pierce the skin when biting.

This photo is Record 3872 in the ReptileMAP Virtual Museum. This Virtual Museum currently contains 8255 georeferenced photographs of reptiles; together with 126 584 specimen records going back more than a century, it is the most complete electronic database of reptiles records. This is the database that can be used to examine the distributions of species and how they are changing. Every record is a valuable contribution, and helps us build the 21st century distributions of these species. Without up to date information on distributions and how they are changing, it is near-impossible to know which species need conservation interventions, and how to prioritize these.

So please continue to upload your photographs of reptiles to the ADU's ReptileMAP Virtual Museum at vmus.adu.org.za.

Reference: Marais, J. 2004. A Complete Guide to Snakes of Southern Africa. Struik Publishing, Cape Town.

Hooray!!! Today is SCORPION SATURDAY! And we are featuring the very cool Emperor Scorpion Pandinus imperator. The Emperor Scorpion is native to Africa. It is one of the largest scorpions in the world, with adults averaging about 20 cm in length. It has a lifespan of 5–8 years. The Emperor Scorpion is an African rainforest species. It is found in a number of African countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. This species inhabits both tropical forest and open savannas. The emperor scorpion burrows beneath the soil and hides beneath rocks and debris, and also often burrows in termite mounds.

The emperor scorpion has a dark body which ranges from dark blue-green through brown to black. The large pincers are blackish-red and have a granular texture. The front part of the body, or prosoma, is made up of four sections, each with a pair of legs. Behind the fourth pair of legs are comb-like structures known as pectines, which tend to be longer in males than in females. The tail, known as the metasoma, is long and curves back over the body. It ends in the large receptacle containing the venom glands and is tipped with a sharp, curved stinger. Their sting is categorized as mild (similar to a bee sting)

P.S. Remember to submit your scorpion photos to ScorpionMAP at vmus.adu.org.za and help us to build up 21st century distribution maps for all of Africa's scorpions!

Reference: Prendini, L. (2004) On the scorpions of Gabon and neighbouring countries, with a reassessment of the synonyms attributed to Babycurus buettneri Karsch and a redescription of Babycurus melanicusKova?ík. California Academy of Sciences Memoir 28: 235–267.

Photo acknowledgement: Mike Baird.