Site Guiding Week 3

24-26May 2011

24May 2011
We learned about Arachnida today these are scorpions and spiders.This is a topic a lot of people do not want to know of as they are feared.This was in actual fact very interesting.There round about 172 species of scorpions in S.A and about 64 families of Spiders in S.A

A quick brief on how to identify a scorpion:
IF it has a thick tail and thin small pincers it is toxic witch means rather stay away.......
In the case that the pincers are big and the tail small it is non toxic
The best advise I can give is rather just keep your distance if you do not know what type it is!!
Common signs of an scorpion sting are:

• Immediate pain
• Strange sensations in the hand and feet
• Twitching and trembling of isolated muscles
•   Restlessness
• Increased pulse rate
  
  Four different types of scorpions are:
• Burrowing Scorpions
• Bark Scorpions
• Thick-tail scorpion
• Sand-dwelling Scorpions
  

Then with our Spiders the four most dangerous in South Africa are:

• The Crab Spider
• Black button Spider also known as Black widow
• Violin Spider
• Sack spider
  
  These are your most toxic spiders in S.A and you will need to seek medical help immediately in the case you get bitten!!
  
  25May 2011
  We started with insects today were we learned how  classification works and we got some other interesting information such as:
  Insects belong to a group of animals with a joined external skeleton,known as Arthopods.The external anatomy of insects displays a remarkable number of adaptions for insect's life.
  We learned about the life cycle of insects and differences between some insects for example:
  
  Millipede:
  Has less legs about 100.
  Can be poisonous when biting occurs
  Is more flat in shape
  Carnivores
  
  Centipede:
  They have more legs about 1000
  Can be poisonous on legs
  Said to bring rain
  Herbivores
  Is more of a round body
  
  This is an example of differences we done.
  
  26 May 2011
  We learned about night skies and how to identify certain things in the night skies for example the Southern cross and we learned how to use it to find direction.
  
  There were a lot of interesting things to see like Scorpio....He only comes in the winter tame.
  
  We learned about Orion's belt how u make it out using the three sisters was told the story of him as well.It goes that he borrowed a dagger from his girlfriend and never gave it back so she got Scorpio a warrior who worked for her to kill Orion he did so but never retrieved the dagger that is why you will still see the dagger on Orion's belt.