Nyungwe national park: Rwanda

pbertner · Post by **pbertner** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:10 pm

On location in Nyungwe national park:

Caterpillar with urticating hairs:

Toad:

Juvenile katydid:

Harvestman:

Hairy shelled snail:

Mosquito:

Cloud forest waterfall:

Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:00 pm

Paul,

Beautiful images

Was that skeeter dinning on you

Best,

Beatsy · Post by **Beatsy** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:11 pm

Wonderful set of macros! What a location! Are these bugs and things just wandering around everywhere, or do you have to ferret around and hunt them out?

JH · Post by JH » Tue Jul 03, 2018 3:18 pm

Interesting and nice - thanks for posting.
How dangerous are mosquito bites in this location? Here in Sweden they are common, annoying but harmles.
Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg

pbertner · Post by **pbertner** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:22 pm

Thanks JH, Beatsy and Mawyatt for the kind words.

JH - Malaria is endemic to Africa, not to mention filariasis and bunch of other vector borne pathogens, including the tse-tse fly communicated African sleeping sickness.

Beatsy - This particular national park is in the cloud forest and so quite cool compared to the lowlands. Temperature is often inversely proportional to diversity, and so I didn't find quite as much as I would have in the lowlands.

Mawyatt - Indeed it was!

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:00 pm

I especially liked the katydid, and the hairy-shelled snail. I don't recall ever seeing such a snail.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:01 pm

Wonderful pictures, as always!

But what particularly caught my attention this time was a bit of the language.

Paul wrote "Malaria is endemic to Africa".

That prompted some confusion inside my head, so I looked up the official definition of "endemic".

According to Google search on "define endemic"

adjective

1. (of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
"areas where malaria is endemic"

2. (of a plant or animal) native or restricted to a certain country or area.
"a marsupial endemic to northeastern Australia"

In other words, the word "endemic" means two very different things, depending on whether you're talking about a disease or an organism.

Malaria as a disease is endemic in Africa (because it's regularly found there), but the malaria parasite is not endemic to Africa because it is also found in Asia and Latin America.

I am a native English speaker, but sometimes this language vexes me!

--Rik

Beatsy · Post by **Beatsy** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:58 pm

rjlittlefield wrote: I am a native English speaker, but sometimes this language vexes me!

Meanings can be vexing indeed. And then there's pronunciation - http://www.i18nguy.com/chaos.html

Perhaps doubly challenging for Muricans. "Aluminum"!? "Tomaydo"!? How quaint!

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Wed Jul 04, 2018 12:25 am

rjlittlefield wrote:...
In other words, the word "endemic" means two very different things, depending on whether you're talking about a disease or an organism.
...

Different fields (Ecology vs Epidemiology) different meaning, although related. Not just English but a general issue.
What about objective, for example?

Troels · Post by **Troels** » Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:37 am

Lou Jost wrote:I especially liked the katydid, and the hairy-shelled snail. I don't recall ever seeing such a snail.

I was very surprised the first time I saw a hairy snail shell. In Europe we have a fairly common and widespread hairy snail. But very few besides the specialists are aware of it beceause of its small size (no more than 6 mm).

Hairy snail in UK

And I love the pictures from the rainforest.