While most people do their utmost to avoid flies, we as entomologists, and particularly specialists called dipterists, actively seek them out as part of our jobs. As fly taxonomists, it is our passion to collect, classify, and if we find new species, describe them.
An official photograph of the group known as the ‘Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela’. Peter Swartz is standing in the back row, third from the left (Photo source: National Museum).
He was one of Nelson Mandela’s so-called ‘12 disciples’; he was born and bred in Heidedal; and an informal township (‘Peter Swart’) in Mangaung was named after him. Say the name ‘Peter Swartz’ today and some people might have heard of him but, sadly, few really know who this mostly ‘unknown’ figure and ‘lost disciple’ of South Africa’s liberation history really is. The reason for this unfortunate situation is that much of Peter’s life history is obscure; it remains hidden in the grey areas of South Africa’s struggle history. Fortunately, Peter’s sacrifices are neither hidden nor lost. His important contribution to South Africa’s liberation history has cemented his name as one of the country’s great struggle veterans who fought for basic human rights for all South Africans.
Photo 1: Lithops lesliei subsp. lesliei in flower (Photo DP van Rensburg)
Plant adaptations are fascinating and intriguing. A very advanced and interesting adaption is mimicry. Mimicry can happen in different forms, in certain flowering plants, especially orchids, it can imitate insect pollinators, and some plants have flowers with a scent similar to rotting flesh. Others, like the mimicry succulents (for example Lithops lesliei, Photo 1), have adapted to merge perfectly with the habitat in which they grow (Photo 2).
Archaeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through their material remains obtained through systematic excavation and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains. Archaeologists have long studied diseases in past populations through various evidence such as settlement layout, burials, funerary remains, and human (including hominid) skeletal remains. In this way they gain insight into the ideal environments for a pandemic to get a foothold and the strategies that earlier societies adopted to deal with it.
Most of us are familiar with termite nests. Just imagine driving along the roads in the Free State, seeing hundreds of termite nests in the fields next to the road. In these nests are not only termites, but also mites. Some mites are free-living in the nests, sometimes catching a ride on termites to carry them around in the nest.