Ant-ics

I am very ignorant about ants but have a “live and let live” policy, presuming them all to be indigenous creatures residing here long before I came along. Methinks there are at least three species here. The smallest kind, about 4mm long, collect seed for me (see post of 2^nd February 2011).

Then there are the medium-sized ones, 8 to 10mm long with a reddish head, which have a huge, inconvenient nest on the bare ground between my greenhouse and my potting shed. These nip any visitors not wearing shoes/boots (if I forget to give warnings), but their bite does not hurt much.This kind of ant have been busy over summer carrying Ruby Saltbush fruits (and are always very interested in my nail clippings when I clip them outside!)

Thirdly, scarily, there are the black Bull Ants which measure 20mm from front of face to pointed end of abdomen. I have been bitten by these on several occasions and each time the bite has hurt for days so I now avoid that part of the property.

Bull Ant antics, Newstead, 19th February 2012

This morning I noticed one of these Bull Ants on my verandah doing a strange kind of circling dance, with its hind legs up in the air. Was this a mating ritual? No, looking closer I figured out that the hind legs must be caught in a bit of spider’s web and the ant’s antics were merely attempts to escape. I was surprised that such a large insect, which could still move around a lot, could not release itself.

I couldn’t help thinking it looked quite exhausted, pathetic and desperate. I thought of the Robert Frost poem, A Considerable Speck (see ‘Reflections on Ecology’ section of this blog) and took pity on it. After taking these photos I got a ruler and chopped at the air above the tethered ant until it was set free from the invisible, super-sticky threads.

Bull Ant doing the 'Bamboo Dance' with a matchstick, 19th February 2012

According to the Australian Museum website there are 90 species of Bull Ants in Australia, all in the genus Myrmecia. If anyone can identify this one to species level, let me know!

Newstead Landcare Group will have a presentation on ants later in the year. Keep your eye on the ‘Events’ section of this blog.

A Handful!

by Frances Cincotta

Claude Culvenor brought in this specimen today from his place at Yandoit. I have very big hands so you can see that the leaves are very big for a local eucalypt. I guess it’s the intermediate leaves (i.e. not juvenile, not adult). Claude didn’t bring me fruits or buds from this particular plant – perhaps it wasn’t old enough yet to bear any.

Claude Culvenor's eucalypt from Yandoit.

Claude also brought me ripe fruits of Red Box, Yellow Box, Red Stringybark, Messmate Stringybark, Long-leaf Box, Broad-leaf Peppermint and Mealy Bundy so he has a good range of eucalypts out there! Perhaps the photo shows intermediate leaves of one of the latter 4 species (I’m fairly sure it’s not Red Box, Yellow Box, or Red Stringybark), or perhaps it is another species altogether? Readers suggestions welcome!

A grisly find!

by Frances Cincotta

On a pebbled path in my garden today I spied a writhing thing the length of a pencil but thinner. It has scales, but doesn’t seem to have any eyes, so could it be a Blind Snake? I had heard of Blind Snakes and Legless Lizards in our area but had never seen any in the flesh. A closer inspection and reference book was needed. My friend Kate flicked through “Frogs and Reptiles of the Bendigo District” while the thing delicately wrapped itself around one of my fingers, uncurled, then wrapped around another. How delightful! Our specimen seemed to match the photo in the Bendigo Field Naturalist’s book of an Olive Legless Lizard Delma inornata, except our “head” end looked wrong. The description of this species ends with “will readily shed its tail.” Aha! It seems we had a Headless Olive Legless Lizard! That’s a bit gruesome.

Recently shed tail of Olive Legless Lizard, Delma inornata. Photographed by Frances Cincotta at Palmerston Street, Newstead

The 16cm tail moved as if alive for quite some time. I hope the rest of the creature survived whatever ordeal caused it to shed its tail (had I trodden on it?). We couldn’t find the missing piece in the garden.

There’s more to grasslands than just grass species!

by Frances Cincotta

There’s more to grasslands than just grass!

Grasslands are often called the “Cinderella” of Australian ecosystems – lacking the glamour of rainforests or coral reefs they are often overlooked. According to the Viridans database, only 15 percent of the pre 1750 extent of native grasslands in Victoria remains, so they are considered threatened ecosystems. “Today, Victoria’s most widespread ecosystem is also its most disturbed, most commonly converted to grain and other monoculture crops, and least well represented in conservation parks and reserves”.  The good news is there are still some remnants in our district.

In this photo taken in my garden you can see four of the herbaceous (non-woody) plants that grow among grasses in grassland communities: Lemon Beauty-heads Calocephalus citreus, Tufted Blue-bell Wahlenbergia communis, Pink Bindplant Convolvulus angustissimus and Blue Devil Eryngium ovinum. All these plants were grown from seed I collected from grassland remnants in or near Newstead.

Pretty local “herbs” in Frankie’s Newstead garden

If blog readers want to visit some local native grasslands you can come along to an excursion this Sunday 23^rd October, hosted by Newstead Landcare and led by Nathan Wong. Nathan is a PhD researcher into native grasslands as well as working as Grassy Ecosystem Co-ordinator for the Trust for Nature, so we are lucky to have his expertise within our group, and his availability on Sunday to share some of his knowledge. We will car pool at the Newstead Community Centre at 9.30am, and be back around 12.15pm.  If you can, bring a mug, thermos and morning tea to share.

My Unpaid Army of Seed Collectors

by Frances Cincotta

 

I wouldn’t have noticed the 5mm long hole in one of the concrete steps up to my potting shed if not for a pile of Common Eutaxia seed appearing around it. I had planted this local native “egg and bacon” pea on either side of the steps where it thrives in the rock and clay bank facing west (a difficult site), and I am delighted that there has been new volunteer plants adding to the display each spring. I had presumed that the seed for these new seedlings had been moved along the bank from the original plants by ants, and now I am even more certain of this.

Photographed in spring by Frances Cincotta

It seems that ants gather the seed and take it down into their abode where they remove the small fleshy appendage called an aril, then the ants take the naked seed back out to the surface – where I can collect it and use the seed in my nursery! The aril is not needed for germination – the seed only has it for the ants to eat and that way the plant species gets spread  further than would otherwise be the case. In the photograph below the two seeds I collected straight from the plants (on the piece of card)  still have their arils intact – the white bit on the right hand side of each seed -  and the seeds discarded by the ants no longer have the arils attached.

Common Eutaxia seed outside ants nest, Newstead. Photograph: Frances Cincotta, 2nd February 2011

I don’t know the identity of the ants in question. The ants I’ve seen coming and going from the hole in the centre of the photograph are 4mm long and I was hoping one would wander into my viewfinder the instant I clicked, but alas no. In the same area of my garden are smaller ants and also much larger ants.  I don’t know if they are all part of one colony or not, but at any rate I’m glad they collect seed for me – all I have to do is sweep the step and I have cleaned, pure seed! 

 

Gazanias on the loose!

Gazanias – Gazania linearis and its hybrids - are brightly coloured daisy flowers in bronze, yellow and orange tones, native to Southern Africa. They do very well when planted in Australian gardens…in fact too well!  They “escape” out of gardens onto road verges and into areas of natural bushland where they displace native vegetation.  Unfortunately Gazanias are still allowed to be sold in nurseries, and gardeners often share them around not realising that they can become a problem. Gazanias are listed as one of the ten “most serious invasive garden plants in Australia currently available for sale by nurseries” in the CSIRO report, ‘Jumping the Garden Fence’ (2005)  

Gazanias in Lyons St Newstead - escaped from gardens, competing with indigenous grasses, and heading for Rotunda Park

It would be a great shame if Gazanias continue to be planted and are allowed to continue to spread unchecked into bushland.  Daniel Joubert, President of the Weed Society of Victoria, says that garden plants are the biggest source of agricultural and environmental weeds. “There are several thousand non local plants in Australia that have ‘escaped’ from gardens and are finding homes in native bushland and agricultural areas. Many of these plants have no natural enemies in Australia. This means that they spread very rapidly, out-competing native vegetation, resulting in fewer native plant species and less natural food and shelter for native animals. A wise choice in garden plants can help maintain natural biodiversity for future generations”.

Spanish Invader

A few people have been asking me how to distinguish between Spanish Heath and Bitter Cryptandra, the local plant Geoff featured two days ago. I have scanned flowering specimens side by side at the same scale so that they can be compared and contrasted. The white flowers are very similar on the two bushes, but the invader has much finer leaves, and they are paler green, and the calyx of the invader’s flowers (the bit at the top of each bell) is green whereas in Cryptandra it is brown.

Spot the difference!

Spanish Heath, along with our Australian heath species, belong in the family Ericacea.  While Cryptandra amara looks superficially like a heath, it is in a totally different family – Rhamnaceae (the Pomaderris family).

I hope this helps people sort them out. It is definitely worth keeping an eye out for the Spanish invader and keeping it from overrunning our indigenous flora. If you are weeding and are unsure as to a plant’s identity, please do not pull it out. I am happy to come and check, or you can always email me a scan of a small piece, or a photo: natives@newstead.vicmail.net

Rest assured there is no Spanish Heath at the Joyces Creek cutting as yet, and thankfully not a lot in our whole district, compared to where I used to live on the east coast of Tasmania where it would take over acres of ground!

Winged Ants?

Attracted to my lit windows these wintry nights I see winged creatures which I have not yet photographed, but here is a photo of their wings stuck in a spider’s web on my house. Each wing is 13mm long and 3mm wide at widest point.

Ants wings caught in spiders web at Newstead, July 2010

I wonder if the whole of the flying creatures were caught and have been eaten all bar their wings by the creator of the web, or if the flying creatures had shed their wings and only the wings were caught in the web? Any ideas?

Unmistakable call

This morn I saw 3 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos fly over head Palmerston Street, Newstead. They have an unmistakable call. I know they are commonly seen and heard in Castlemaine, and I know Suzie and David have had them visit at their place at Sandon - raiding precious Hakea and Banksia seedcones -  but I personally don’t remember ever seeing or hearing them in Newstead in my 14 years here. Have others seen them about? 

My New Best Friend

Cape Broom Genista monspessulana is public enemy number 1 at my place. Even though I have never let any go to seed in the 14 years I’ve been caretaker of this 4 acres I still have to pull out hundreds of seedlings per year. So imagine my delight when Robyn Feary pointed out to me that all the Cape Broom on the roadside near my place has been defoliated and she pointed to one of the culprits which I quickly photographed. I wondered if it was deliberately introduced to Australia to help control this weed?

Pyrastis Moth larva feeding on Cape Broom, Palmerston St Newstead, 27th May 2010

I sent the image above  to Peter Marriott and he  kindly identified it for me as Pyrastis Moth Salma pyrastis, one of the webbing moths (Pyralidae). This species is native to Tas, SA, NSW and Vic. It’s natural larval food is eucalypts, but Peter says he has seen the larvae  feeding on Silver Birch and others have reported it eating various other plants. Peter sent me the image below of the adult moth which he says is in typical pose, with the tail up.

Salma pyrastis (adult moth) photographed by Peter Marriott

Think of all the blog posts I can write with all the time saved not pulling out Cape Broom, thanks to my new best friend!