INSECT SPECIES FOUND ON KENANA FARM
Orange Dog - Papilio demodocus demodocus
African Emigrant - Catopsilia florella
African Clouded Yellow - Colias electo pseudohectate
African Golden Arab - Colotis aurigineus
False Dotted Border - Belenois thysa thysa
Marshall’s Acraea Mimic - Mimacraea marshalli media
African Queen - Danaus chrysippus chrysippus
Green Vein Charaxes – Charaxes candiope candiope
Danaid Eggfly - Hypolimnas misippus
Gaudy Commodore - Precis octavia sesamus
Dark Blue Pansy - Junonia oenone oenone
Yellow Pansy - Junonia hierta cebrene
Soldier Commodore - Junonia terea elgiva
African Leopard Fritilliary - Phalanta eurytis eurytis
Painted Lady – Vanessa cardui cardui
Anthene sp.
Metisella sp.
Acraea sp.
Eurema sp.
Belanois sp
Butterflies
Orange Dog - Papilio demodocus demodocus
African Emigrant - Catopsilia florella
African Clouded Yellow - Colias electo pseudohectate
African Golden Arab - Colotis aurigineus
False Dotted Border - Belenois thysa thysa
Marshall’s Acraea Mimic - Mimacraea marshalli media
African Queen - Danaus chrysippus chrysippus
Green Vein Charaxes – Charaxes candiope candiope
Danaid Eggfly - Hypolimnas misippus
Gaudy Commodore - Precis octavia sesamus
Dark Blue Pansy - Junonia oenone oenone
Yellow Pansy - Junonia hierta cebrene
Soldier Commodore - Junonia terea elgiva
African Leopard Fritilliary - Phalanta eurytis eurytis
Painted Lady – Vanessa cardui cardui
Anthene sp.
Metisella sp.
Acraea sp.
Eurema sp.
Belanois sp
Other Interesting Bugs
Praying Mantis
Carnivorous hunters, well known as the female often bites the head off the male during copulation
Stick Insects
Closely related to cockroaches these flightless vegetarians are amazing. If a youngster
loses a limb, it grows another by the next moult.
Field Crickets
Provide a constant evensong every night. The rate of chirruping is related to Temperature.
They say if the number of chirrups in 14 secconds plus 40 is the temperature in ºF
Termites
These are not ants, but belong to a group of winged insects. The biomass of termites
on the planet is greater than the biomass of all mammals on the planet. They live on
a diet of dead wood, which they eat but can’t digest. Single celled organisms in their
stomachs digest the wood, and the termites in turn digests them.
Dung Beetles
The farm is totally reliant on large numbers of very busy dung beetles and their larvae,
who bury the cow dung and return its nutrition to the soil. Because we run a zero grazing
practice, the cows are in very small paddocks for their numbers, and there would be no
grass anywhere for them to lie down on, as without the beetles the field would become a
permanent pile of poo.
Solifuges
Fearsome ten legged ‘spider’ don’t get bitten. Not poisonous, just nasty.
Pinhole Borer Beetle
Kembu bar is being eaten by pinhole borers, just look at the dead tree branches closely,
give them a tap...
Safari Ants
If you are out on a farm walk and the person ahead suddenly strips naked while performing
a wild dance, look down before you applaud. Lines of these voracious black ants can be seen
marching around the farm in the wet season and their pincer like jaws are a real pain if
they find your sensitive bits. Bad cuts can be stitched together using a set of ants –
pinch the sides of the cut together, allow a safari ant to clamp its jaws across the cut then
remove its body leaving the head in place. the jaws will remain locked for a couple of weeks.
Males are often found in the bar and are known a sausage flies, and their large flacid jaws
are nothing to worry about as their sole purpose is to gently grip the female while mating.
Bees
Kembu is on the main migratory bee run between the dry acacia country around Baringo and Bogoria
and the highland forests of the Mau. As a result, when the dry season sets in the dry country,
bees all move to the damp forests, returning only when it rains and the acacia trees are in full
flower. As a result weather change at Kembu is forecast when we are inundated with resting swarms.
Carnivorous hunters, well known as the female often bites the head off the male during copulation
Stick Insects
Closely related to cockroaches these flightless vegetarians are amazing. If a youngster
loses a limb, it grows another by the next moult.
Field Crickets
Provide a constant evensong every night. The rate of chirruping is related to Temperature.
They say if the number of chirrups in 14 secconds plus 40 is the temperature in ºF
Termites
These are not ants, but belong to a group of winged insects. The biomass of termites
on the planet is greater than the biomass of all mammals on the planet. They live on
a diet of dead wood, which they eat but can’t digest. Single celled organisms in their
stomachs digest the wood, and the termites in turn digests them.
Dung Beetles
The farm is totally reliant on large numbers of very busy dung beetles and their larvae,
who bury the cow dung and return its nutrition to the soil. Because we run a zero grazing
practice, the cows are in very small paddocks for their numbers, and there would be no
grass anywhere for them to lie down on, as without the beetles the field would become a
permanent pile of poo.
Solifuges
Fearsome ten legged ‘spider’ don’t get bitten. Not poisonous, just nasty.
Pinhole Borer Beetle
Kembu bar is being eaten by pinhole borers, just look at the dead tree branches closely,
give them a tap...
Safari Ants
If you are out on a farm walk and the person ahead suddenly strips naked while performing
a wild dance, look down before you applaud. Lines of these voracious black ants can be seen
marching around the farm in the wet season and their pincer like jaws are a real pain if
they find your sensitive bits. Bad cuts can be stitched together using a set of ants –
pinch the sides of the cut together, allow a safari ant to clamp its jaws across the cut then
remove its body leaving the head in place. the jaws will remain locked for a couple of weeks.
Males are often found in the bar and are known a sausage flies, and their large flacid jaws
are nothing to worry about as their sole purpose is to gently grip the female while mating.
Bees
Kembu is on the main migratory bee run between the dry acacia country around Baringo and Bogoria
and the highland forests of the Mau. As a result, when the dry season sets in the dry country,
bees all move to the damp forests, returning only when it rains and the acacia trees are in full
flower. As a result weather change at Kembu is forecast when we are inundated with resting swarms.