Culna Articles

Animal and Plant Systematics Articles

Mimicry succulents of the Free State: Masters of disguise

BY Elmarie van Rensburg March 19, 2021

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 Articles

The Role of Archaeology in the study of Plagues and Pandemics

BY Loudine Philip March 16, 2021

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.

Culna Articles

Oribatid mites inhabiting termite nests

BY Lizel Hugo-Coetzee March 5, 2021

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.

Culna Articles

Pandemics of the world

BY Loudine Philip February 1, 2021

Pandemics have literally plagued the world for millennia and will continue to do so due to the simple concept of evolution. Contemporary viruses reflect evolution ranging from the RNA[1] world to the DNA[2]-protein world. Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on earth and are present everywhere, from our environment to every living being in it. A virus has the ability to combine with another and form a completely new virus to which we have no defense.

Culna Articles

Getting a Grip on Pseudoscorpion Claws

BY Jan Andries Neethling January 7, 2021

Pre-Devonian in origin, the Pseudoscorpiones are one of the oldest extant lineages and over the past 392 Ma have diverged into more than 3400 known species in 26 families. Most are less than five millimetres in length, though they range from less than one millimetre in some Chthoniidae to just over ten millimetres in females of Garypus titanius Beier, 1961. They superficially resemble true scorpions, but lack the elongated tail and sting.