Last October, Newstead Landcare Group were very excited that Barry Golding was going to present at our AGM. Alas, a large amount of floodwater upended that little scheme. But with a drier autumn we are pleased that he will be able to deliver his presentation in Newstead next Tuesday. Read on!
The arrival of Europeans in Australia produced profound changes across the continent. It can be hard to know exactly what the landscape looked like before this dramatic upheaval. The documents left by the earliest intruders can give us a few clues. Professor Barry Golding of Federation University has combed through historical records to put together a picture of how the land around Newstead and its environs may have looked prior to contact. From the extensive permanent ponds on the Loddon containing literally tonnes of Murray Cod to the vast meadows of Yam Daisies (Myrnong), some of the descriptions Barry has found give us a glimpse of the extraordinary richness of our neck of the woods. Barry will be sharing some of his findings at Newstead Landcare Group’s presentation on Tuesday April 18th. The presentation will start at 7.30pm at Newstead Community Centre. All are welcome to attend, gold coin donations appreciated.
Yam Daisy (Myrnong – Microseris lanceolata) by Frances Cincotta
Ancient River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) by Barry Golding
As I was walking along a track on our place at Strangways yesterday, my attention was drawn to what looked like a tangle of ants devouring some hapless creature. As I looked more closely, I could see that there were many winged black Bull Ants (Myrmecia pyriformis I think) with numerous smaller specimens all crowded rather disturbingly on a single larger one which I was sure was a new queen. As I looked around I could see that there were at least 4 or 5 other clusters of the same species all doing the same thing. I’ve never seen such an event. Luckily my camera was not far away. Be warned, some readers may find the following video and images a little disturbing!
Myrmecia mating frenzy
From my reading, it seems that the preferred mode of mating will be in flight. The queen will have secreted a strong pheremone to attract her suitors and they will “embrace” her in flight. When there are so many male alates, she just can’t keep in the air and drops to the ground. I find it intriguing that all of the groups I found were within a few metres, so they must have been very dense in their nuptial flight.
Somewhere under all those keen boys is a queen.
Each group would start out with at least 6 males all struggling to get into the right position. Then they would gradually thin out to just a couple. As I photographed, I could see that some of the males were grasping the queen’s body with their impressive mandibles.
This just doesn’t look comfortable to human eyes!
A few shots showed a bit detail of the genitalia of the males. On doing a bit of a search on the genital anatomy of ants, I found not much in the way of a simple explanation. A fairly detailed paper can be found at https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/1620/ for those particularly keen readers!
It’s been 25 years since the Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests (FOBIF) started their determined and assiduous campaigning on behalf of our beautiful natural environment. To mark the 25th anniversary of their skilled advocacy, they are holding a very special exhibition at Newstead Arts Hub, opening this weekend.
FOBIF have approached the exhibition in a way that invites all of us to think about what is special to us about the bushland that surrounds us. People were invited to submit photos or other items that reflect something special to them about our local natural environment. The result is an exhibition of 20 photos, as well as historical material about FOBIF, a geology exhibition and drawings by pupils at Chewton Primary School. The photos will be available for purchase as will a 70 page catalogue. FOBIF will also be selling their wonderful field and walking guides and nature cards. All proceeds go to covering the costs of the exhibition and to helping FOBIF in their ongoing campaign to ensure a better future for our precious forests.
The exhibition will be open over 3 weekends, (25 & 26 February, 4 & 5 March, 11 & 12 March) and Labour Day (13 March) between 10 am and 4 pm.
Alison Pouliot, well known fungus expert and wonderfully engaging speaker, will open the exhibition at 10.30 on 25 February. One of FOBIF’s founding members, Phil Ingamells, will also speak. Everyone is welcome and refreshments will be provided.
You can find out more about the exhibition on the FOBIF website (www.fobif.org.au) or ring Bronwyn Silver 0448751111).
After our wet 2022, this summer has brought many great flourishings in the invertebrate world. Lots of species at our place at Strangways have made appearances in extraordinary numbers.
Leaf beetles have been particularly plentiful with specimens with quite a few different colourings putting on a show.
Leaf beetle on Grey Box leaf.
I’d assumed that beetles of different colours are different species. An encounter with a seemingly mismatched pair has me wondering if this is the case or whether when the desire hits, beetles are a little indiscriminate in their romantic expressions.
Variety in a species or a bit of cross-species dalliance?
Recently I posted about a Poecilometis Shield Bug nymph devouring a Sawfly larva. When collecting some seed from a Hedge Wattle in our front yard, I was pleased to find a whole clutch of these little ones freshly hatched from their eggs.
Shield bugs hatching
Poecilometis Shield Bug just hatched, all of 3 mm long.
Elswhere I found other Shield Bug egg clutches. Apparently, the mother bug can use a pigment to protect her eggs from the sun, which is possibly why the ones in the shady Hedge Wattle were white and those on a more exposed Grey Box leaf were black.
Shield Bug eggs on a more exposed site.
Also in the bug world, a tiny Harlequin bug on a Grey Box leaf – just recently hatched I suspect.
Harlequin Bug.
And nearby a tiny weevil.
A walk down the lane meant another encounter with an unusual proliferation. Quite large numbers of Stomorhina flies were hovering about 1-2 metres above the road. I’ve encountered them on flowers before in ones or twos, but never so many in flight. I wonder if it is part of a mating ritual. They made a high pitched buzz, a bit like a mosquito.
Stomorhina fly.
Gaining height.
Closer to home, another strange, bee-like buzz drew my attention to the parsley on our verandah. The insect looked very like a bee, but was in fact a bee-mimicking hoverfly species, Eristalis tenax or a Common Drone Fly. The fly only has two wings to a bee’s four and doesn’t have leg bags to collect pollen. Males of this species apparently can be very territorial and keep other species of insect out of their patch. I’m not sure how the fly expresses aggression or manages to fight with other insects.
Common Drone Fly, not a bee!
Lots of spiders as well, including the favourite for this time of year, the Jewel Spider.
Jewel Spider
I was also very pleased to get some photos of a Net-casting Spider (Deinopis sp.). As the name implies, these spiders cast a small net of silk to catch their prey.According to Whyte and Anderson’s Field Guide to Australian spiders, their wide angled posterior eyes are 2000 times more sensitive than human or Jumping Spider eyes. The retinae of these eyes are digested each day as light grows each morning and reconstituted as evening falls. What is nearly as baffling to me is how scientists worked this out!
A Net Casting Spider
Net casting spiders are also called Ogre-faced spiders.
As summer progresses, there is usually an increase in the numbers of invertebrates that chew, suck and hunt on the leaves at our place in Strangways. An abundance of new leaves on some low Grey Box trees are a favourite patch and accessible for the macrophotographer.
I was surprised to find a pair of moths mating on one leaf.
Mating moths.
Nearby were a group of Sawfly Larvae communally munching on a leaf.
The family meal for Sawfly larvae.
Sawflies are like wasps but without the slender waist common to wasps. They take their name from the saw-like ovipositor that the adult uses to insert eggs into leaves.
Working quickly!
By night, nearby on the same tree I found a Shield Bug (Poecilometis sp?) – I think it was a nymph rather than an adult.
Shield Bug nymph.
Possibly a view you don’t want to see if you are a small invertebrate.
Later I found the same bug literally sucking the life out of some of the Sawfly larvae.
The first of several to be converted to Shield Bug.
Plenty of leaf beetles are also munching on new leaves at present.
A Leaf Beetle ready to take off.
Other hunters were also easy to find. On a Golden Wattle, a small spider about 15mm across turned out to be a tiny Huntsman, presumable very young.
One very young Huntsman.
In summer, I also often find Acacia Horned Treehoppers. I was surprised to find quite a little crew of nymphs on another Golden Wattle.
Acacia Horned Treehopper nymphs.
Also on a Golden Wattle, a tiny Lacebug (Nethersia sp). Lacebugs as adults suck sap from leaves. Many species spend their whole life cycle on a single plant, or even the same part of a plant.
With new growth on eucalypts and wattles at our place at Strangways, it’s an interesting time to inspect the foliage for invertebrate life. On a tiny new leaf on a Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa), I found a couple of katydid nymphs. The younger they are, the more they have a deep maroon colouring. As they go through each shedding, this colour gets taken over by light green. It seems to me this matches the changing colour of the eucalypt leaves as they grow. Each nymph seemed to be settled on a single leaf, staying put over several days.
Katydid nymph
Not far from the little Katydids was a potential threat to their lives – a Hamilton’s Orb Weaver spider (Araneus hamiltoni). I think the small abdomen and large palps suggest it’s a male.
Hamilton’s Orb Weaver
The view you don’t want if you’re a tiny insect!
Also on the same little bit of Grey Box regrowth was a tiny wasp with a red head and white flanks on its black abdomen. Checking the very useful Brisbane Insects web site, I think this is a Braconid wasp of genus Callibracon. Braconid wasps parasitise caterpillars and other larvae and their unfortunate host may well survive as the wasp larva devours it from inside before making a cocoon out of the host’s corpse. Wasps of this genus seem to prefer the larvae of wood boring beetles.
Braconid wasp.
And speaking of beetles, a nearby Grey Box was food for a leaf beetle that was about 15mm long – a bit larger than most that I see.
Leaf Beetle
And on an immediately adjacent Golden Wattle, an ant tended a tiny Leafhopper nymph. Ants will often tend Leafhoppers and are rewarded with a sweet secretion. This little nymph didn’t appear to have any of this honeydew, but maybe the ant considers the time a good investment.
Ant tending a Leafhopper nymph.
Leaving the leaves for a moment, I was delighted to find something I’d never seen out of it’s nymphal hiding place – a Spittlebug or Froghopper Bathylus albicincta. The nymphs of these fascinating bugs suck the sap of plants that they live on and turn their copious urine into froth by secreting carbon dioxide into it to form bubbles as a shield. The result looks like a gob of spit. An article in the New York Times a few years ago described how researchers worked out how the nymphs breathe inside their own urine, using their abdomens as tiny snorkels. Well worth a read! Anyway, I was very excited to find an adult out in the open, climbing up a Red-Anther Wallaby Grass flower stem.
A Froghopper or Spittlebug, Bathylus albicincta
On a final note and again not about leaves, we have noticed the most incredible abundance of Onion Orchids (Microtis sp) in our bush this year. So much is different this year, but we’ve really been struck by how many patches there are nestled amongst the tussock grasses.
I’ve been keeping an eye on a pair of Australasian Grebes (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) that have built a nest raft on a little dam in the Muckleford Forest, waiting for the moment they start taking their chicks for rides out onto the water. Sure enough, this week they had their three tiny chicks out and about.
It was quite impressive to see how well hidden the three chicks were under the wings of the parent that was carrying them.
One of the young about to join its siblings under the wings
While one parent had the chicks snuggled under wings, the other was out foraging and bringing food back to the little clutch.
Some food for the little ones.
The young would stay well hidden except when food arrived or when time came for the parents to swap roles. It was great to watch the smooth changeover – a few chattering calls and the young ones slide off the back of one parent and climbed up onto the other.
Climbing into position.Getting excited about some food.And into the waterOn still waters
Alas, with the very high risk of flooding around Newstead and Central Victoria, we’ve decided to cancel our presentation by Barry Golding tomorrow night. Barry will do the presentation for us early in 2023. We will still have our very brief AGM via Zoom.
Topic: Newstead Landcare AGM 2022 Time: Oct 13, 2022 07:30 PM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
The arrival of Europeans in Australia produced profound changes across the continent. It can be hard to know exactly what the landscape looked like before this dramatic upheaval. The documents left by the earliest intruders can give us a few clues. Professor Barry Golding of Federation University has combed through historical records to put together a picture of how the land around Newstead and its environs may have looked prior to contact. From the extensive permanent ponds on the Loddon containing literally tonnes of Murray Cod to the vast meadows of Yam Daisies (Myrnong), some of the descriptions Barry has found give us a glimpse of the extraordinary richness of our neck of the woods. Barry will be presenting some of his findings at Newstead Landcare Group’s AGM on Thursday October 13th. The presentation will start at 7.30pm at Newstead Community Centre. A very brief AGM will follow. All are welcome to attend, gold coin donations appreciated.
Yam Daisy (Myrnong – Microseris lanceolata) by Frances CincottaAncient River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) by Barry Golding
I was pleased and honoured to be invited to be a presenter at the Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests AGM, to be held on Monday, Sept 12th. I will be talking about how photography can be a tool for developing a more intimate knowledge of and closer relationship with our beautiful woodlands and the many lifeforms that are part of this complex and threatened ecosystem. As the topic is potentially very wide, I’ve decided to focus on how photographing tiny invertebrates has helped me discover some of the wonders of our local bush. The AGM will start at 7.30 pm at the Ray Bradfield Rooms in Castlemaine.
Red Velvet Mite – one of the tiny beings featured at the FOBIF AGMAs will the secret life of the Ant LionA Sundew – a deadly hunter of tiny insectsWhy is this little cutie called a sweat bee?What does this strange creature feed on and how?
Natural Newstead 