With the cooler weather, it’s a little easier to find a cooperative invertebrate sitter for close up portraits. A colony of Black-headed Bull Ants (Myrmecia nigriceps) that live under a Red Box tree in our yard have been out on their night patrols and slow enough to get close to safely. This lady happily sat still for a close up of her impressive mandibles.
Black-headed Bull Ant
A Wolf Spider (Lycosidae) also proved a cooperative sitter. I think the technical name for the impressive jaws is chelicera
Wolf Spider – a prey eye view.
And on some grass stems, a small Huntsman spider.
Chelicera of a Huntsman.
Spiders aren’t the only effective hunters around at the moment. I was delighted to get some good views of a Yellow-footed Antechinus (Antechinus flavipes) hunting at our place this afternoon. This curious little cutie was very keen to check me out, but wasn’t going to show the magnificent teeth that make this species so potent.
I’ve often wondered why they’re called soldier beetles. A bit of reading reveals that, since they were named long before the days of military camouflage, their red and black colours evoked the soldier’s uniforms of the day. They are also called leather wings due to their soft wing covers or elytra.
Plenty of other beetles are around at the moment too. Acacias sport quite a few Calomela leaf beetles.
Calomela beetle on Golden Wattle. I’m not sure about whether the attached excrement is significant.Belid WeevilUp close
One night recently, I came across an unusually large number of dragonflies sleeping in our front yard, hanging from various shrubs. I think they are Blue Skimmers (Orhtretum caledonicum). Not very blue at the moment as I think they have just moulted. As their skins mature, the boys will go a powdery blue colour and the girls will go brown. It’s not often that I get such cooperative dragonfly subjects!
When we read “Lord of the Flies” at school, we were taught that the term referred to the devil. It turns out that both adolescent male humans and flies were given some bad press by William Golding. Journalist Rutger Bregman discovered that when a bunch of schoolboys were indeed stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific during the 1960s, they organised a very functional and caring little society that helped them all survive until they were rescued. And of course, flies far from being repulsive representatives of unadulterated evil, are providers of essential ecosystem services and can be very beautiful.
During last Monday’s heat, lots of flies of all sizes sheltered on our back porch. The largest looked to be about 20 mm long and were very reluctant to have their photos taken. Truly Lords (or Ladies) of the Flies I thought. There were quite a few beautifully marked flies, well bristled and still quite large at about 15 mm long. And these were very sedate – easily encouraged from the decking onto a leaf for relocation and portraiture on the way.
Not quite the Lord of the flies, but still impressive.
The very helpful site Insects of Tasmania unlocked the identity of this splendid dipteran for me – a Golden Tachinid Fly (Microtropesa sinuata). Whilst it’s hard to pin down much information about this species, Tachinid flies occur across the world and are mostly parasitoids. Unlike a parasite which lives with or in a host without killing it, a parasitoid will end the life of its hapless host. Tachinid flies lay eggs on or in hosts, mostly caterpillars. Pretty grim perhaps, even evocative of Golding’s Satanic vision. But they are essential components of ecosystems, preventing herbivorous caterpillars from decimating vegetation. Adults will usually have an important role as pollinators.
Golden Tachinid Fly – a particular kind of beautyAnd in profile…
I’ve mentioned in previous posts how one particularly prolific Hardenbergia in our yard is a haven for invertebrates by day and night. Currently quite a few Garden Mantis nymphs (Orthodera sp.) patrol it. They often leap onto my hand or camera as I try to get shots of them. They will then taste their forelegs with the palps around their mouths to work out what I am.
Garden Mantis using palps to check me outAnd then having a good look.
In some years, we’ve had an abundance of tiny Spiny-legged Leafhopper nymphs on eucalypt leaves. This year I’ve seen very few. Whilst they don’t run away, they can be hard to get a good photo of as their main defence is to turn their spiky tails towards any perceived threat. I eventually got a photo of one from the front end. I know it’s not what’s going on, but it’s hard not to see this little cutie as having a very big smile.
Spiny-legged Leafhopper nymph
I’m always pleased to find Red Velvet Mites in our bush and mostly they are scrambling around the leaf litter and hard to get a good view of. I found one recently on an old grass flower stalk. Again, very cute.
After a good year’s flowering and seeding, there is an abundance of old grass stems in our yard at Strangways. These stems are a surprisingly popular venue for invertebrates by night.
One grass stem provided a bed for a Halictid bee which I think was well asleep as it was very unfazed by my bright lights.
Halictid Bee on grass stem.
I also found a few bugs which look like more advanced versions of a Stenophyella nymph that I posted a little while back. These are seed eating bugs which explains their interest even though most of the grasses have already sent their seed off on the winds.
Stenophyella perhaps?
Weevils are also on grass stems in numbers. I suspect they are feeding on the stems.
Weevil – Cryptorhynchini perhaps.
And where there are herbivores, there are also carnivores. This spider was so flat against the grass stem when I found it that I thought it was just a discolouration of the plant. Anything unusual is always worth a look.
Spider laying in wait on a grass stem.
Elsewhere, I found a species of Horned Treehopper that I’ve not seem before. Most summers I see quite a few Acacia Horned Treehoppers on our wattles, with a perfect green camouflage. These were Brown Horned Treehoppers, also on a Golden Wattle stem and to me they looked so other-worldly.
We were very curious about what appeared to be some strange looking seed pods on a Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) on our place at Strangways.
These don’t look like the usual seed cases on a Sheoak.
Closer inspection revealed something that certainly looked like some type of fruit, but not from a Sheoak.
The plot thickens.
We decided to explore this mystery in the most effective way we know for dealing with any botanical question. We asked Frances Cincotta of course. She said it’s an insect gall made by a scale bug called Cylindrococcus spiniferus and pointed us to a Wikipedia page on it. The wingless female of this species stimulates the Sheoak to grow the gall around her and it seems her eggs are fertilised by the male through the gall. There is a photo of the inside of the gall by John Tann at https://www.flickr.com/photos/31031835@N08/15965777418/ I decided not to pull apart a gall for a photo as I don’t want to unnecessarily kill the insect.
On a different tack, I was very pleased to get some photos of an adult Ant Lion (genus Myrmeleon) hanging onto an old grass flower stalk in our front yard the other night.
Adult Ant LionAnt Lion
Ant Lions are related to Lacewings and belong to the same order Neuroptera (neuro – veined, ptera – wing). As a child in the mid 1960s, I was handed down my brother’s copy of the “How and Why Wonder Book of Insects” and was fascinated to read about Ant Lions. The book explained the tiny cones sunk into the dust in the bush around our places as being made by Ant Lion larvae which use them to trap ants, which they then grab with their large pincers and devour. I would gently blow away the cone and see the tiny predator exposed. And as a curious and somewhat un-empathetic child, I’d encourage an ant to fall in and watch the Ant Lion flick the dust over the struggling ant so it would slide to the bottom of the pit. Then the Ant Lion would seize it and drag it under the dust.
Ant Lion trap, March 2019Ant Lion larva Nov 2014
I have rarely seen adults, so I was very pleased that this specimen was not in a hurry to leave and would even hang around for some close ups.
After having written about the waves of Belid Weevils and Acacia Jewel Beetles a week or so ago, I am now seeing a wave of different wasp species. Many are parasitic and I imagine the wave corresponds to the availability of suitable hosts.
On the Hardenbergia in our yard that seems to be a dormitory for many napping insects, I found a wasp which I think belongs to genus Lissonota. These are parasitic wasps in the family Ichneumonidae. Wasps in this family tend to lay eggs in or on the caterpillars of pupae of moths and butterflies, finding the food sources of their target species and using their antennae to smell out a host. Lissonota wasps tend to have white sections on their antennae.
Lissonota wasp
Netelia is another species of Ichneumon wasp. This one was also on the Hardenbergia, but was quite active on the night I found it, rather than sleeping like the Lissonota which was a few leaves away. I gather that Netelia wasps lay their eggs on rather than in their hosts which makes them ectoparasites. In addition, they are koinobionts which means they don’t impair the development of the host. In contrast, parasites which do impair their hosts (eg wasps that paralyse their hosts) are called idiobionts. Perhaps these are amongst the quirkiest biological terms!
Orange Caterpillar Parasite Wasp – Netelia sp.
Sawflies are close relatives of wasps, but have thick waists and lay their eggs in the leaves of plants using a saw-like ovipositor from which they take their name. I found a black sawfly on the old flower stalk of a Plume Grass.
Sawfly
Also on an old grass stem, I found what I think is a Stenophyella bug nymph. These bugs are in the family of Lygaeid bugs, which feed mainly on seeds and plant sap. I think this one is a nymph due to the underdeveloped wings.
Back at the usual Hardenbergia a few days ago, I found numerous tiny Jumping Spiders (<2mm long), all of the same species. I assume from their numbers that they’d just hatched. Each seemed to have their own leaf by the time I’d found them.
Baby Jumping Spider
A few days later and I found one with a catch. The spider was still only a couple of millimetres long and the fly it had caught was even smaller.
It often seems to me that different insect species often appear in waves throughout the period from spring to autumn. This year it seems particularly pronounced as each species’ wave seems to have larger numbers of Aindividuals than most years. A week or so ago I posted about big numbers of Belid Weevils. This week it’s Acacia Jewel Beetles.
Flat-headed Acacia Jewel Beetles (Agrilus australasiae) look at first glance like Belid Weevils, with long, cylindrical dark bodies, but close inspection show no snout and the iridescent sheen which gives them their jewel-like appearance.
Acacia Flat-headed Jewel Beetle
These beetles lay their eggs in wattles, especially Golden Wattles and Silver Wattles in our neck of the woods. The larvae are the borers that shorten the life of these wattles, leaving little piles of drillings at the base of the plant. This particular specimen seemed to have found itself on a eucalypt leaf for some reason.
Big eyes, up close.
A bit smaller but more iridescent, Diphucrania Acacia Jewel Beetles are also around in greater numbers than usual.
Diphucrania sp. on Golden Wattle
At this time of year, I often note the building up of numbers of Slender Bee Flies (Geron sp.) They move from the Shiny Everlastings as they finish flowering to the Sweet Bursaria that continue to flower at this time.
Slender Bee Fly on Sweet Bursaria
I had been keeping an eye on a Ladybird chrysalis on a Drooping Sheoak in our yard of late.
Ladybird Chrysalis
I was very pleased to check it recently as the Small Transverse Ladybird adult emerged, sitting quietly next to the shell as its skin hardened.
Freshly emerged ladybird.
Other recent macro finds were a tiny beetle, about 3mm long and a very small Hidden Snout Weevil (tribe Cryptorhynchi), both on Golden Wattle leaves.
I’ve seen quite a few elongated beetles with rust/orange wing covers of late and assumed that they are Long-nosed Lycid Beetles (Porrostoma rhipidius) that I’ve photographed previously, but as I’ve seen them mostly on the wing, I’ve not been able to tell for sure. The first time I got a good look at my supposed Lycid Beetle through the macro lens, I was surprised to find it was actually a Red Belid Weevil – Rhinotia haemoptera. I’ve seen a great abundance of Belid Weevils this spring – more than I’ve ever seen, but none with these fantastic brick-red wing covers.
Red Belid Weevil on Rough Wattle
I was so stunned by its likeness to the Lycid Beetle. Then I found one of the the latter resting on a Cassinia.
Long-nosed Lycid Beetle.
Not just the red wing covers, but the black head and body are so strikingly similar. So I was intrigued to read on the very helpful brisbaneinsects.com that the Red Belid Weevil gets a considerable advantage by looking so like its Coleoptera cousin. It turns out that the Lycid Beetle is quite poisonous to eat and its bright colour signifies this to predators. The Weevil gets the same protection without having to be poisonous – just by looking like someone who is. It might also explain why both of these insects seemed utterly unconcerned by my interest, not for a moment considering themselves to be a meal.
Coleoptera means sheathed wing and is the name for the order of beetles. The covers that protect their delicate wings are called elytra. These are modified forewings that allow beetles to get into places that would otherwise destroy their delicate flight wings. Many beetles favourite escape mechanism is to simply drop before flying off, presumably as it’s faster than deploying wings from under the elytra. Often,however, they are quite happy to pose for photographers, like this Comb-clawed Darkling Beetle.
Comb-clawed Darkling Beetle on Red-anther Wallaby Grass flowers
With the abundance of Shiny Everlasting blossoms happening at the moment, it’s a great time to get photos of flies as they collect pollen.
Genus MetalleaHoverfly
Flies are often nervous, but I find that when an insect has found a flower that it really likes, it stays put even with a camera and big flash diffuser right over it. Is it that it’s so good that it’s worth the risk, or do they not identify me as a threat?
Sleeping flies are also a bonus for the photographer. One seemed to be asleep in broad daylight on a Golden Wattle leaf. I’ve not been able to identify this one, but wonder if it might be a Tachinid fly.
Tachinid fly?
A Hardenbergia in our yard is a favourite napping spot by night for Lauxaniid flies. I can guarantee finding quite a number of them most spring nights. They are always on the northern side of the plant. It took me a while to come up with the hypothesis that they liked the shelter from the cool southerly breeze that’s present however subtle on most nights.
After some spring rains, we have the joy of seeing Red-anther Wallaby Grasses (Rytidosperma pallidum) at our place flowering. To the unaided eye, their dangling red anthers are tiny bright bits of colour in the bush. With high-power macro lenses, their remarkable beauty and delicacy is more easily appreciated.
Red-anther Wallaby Grass in flower
With a variety of plants flowering, numerous flies, bees and butterflies are out in full force. Introduced Cabbage White Butterflies have been very busy on the Shiny Everlasting flowers.
Cabbage White Butterfly on Shiny Everlasting.
Numerous tiny Ant Flies (Parapaleosepsis sp.) about 3mm long have gathered in numbers on a Hardenbergia vine. I was intrigued to see them waving their wings back and forth, which apparently is quite a feature of this genus. The adults of most species apparently like to feed on mammal dung, but may also enjoy rotting vegetation.
Stiletto flies (Genus Neodialineura) are also out and about. This one was sleeping on a Golden Wattle leaf. The adults feed on pollen and nectar whilst the larvae feed on other insects in the leaf litter.
Stiletto Fly
Beetles are also around in good numbers. I’ve found quite a few Belid Weevils this season, recognisable by their long cylindrical bodies and weevil snout.
Sutural Belid Weevil (Rhinotia suturalis)
They are referred to as “primitive” weevils due to their straight antennae and were common across the Gondwana lands 100-160 million years ago. “True” weevils have elbowed antennae. Adult Belid weevils usually feed on pollen and their larvae eat damaged or diseased wood. I find the adults to be very cooperative sitters for close-up portraiture.
Not shy of close-up portraits
Leaf Beetles are also around, like this Paropsisterna fastidiosa feeding on a Grey Box leaf. I wonder if their fussy eaters or particularly tidy to get such a species name.
Paropsisterna fastidiosa
Not to be confused with beetles, which have chewing mouth parts, are bugs which have tube mouths for sucking – either the juices of plants or of hapless insects. Today’s featured bugs are both vegetarians.
Wingless Coreid Bugs (Agriopocoris sp.) spend their daylight hours in the leaf litter and climb into plants to suck sap by night. I’ve mostly found them on Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) at our place. As the name implies, they differ from other coreid bugs by remaining wingless into adulthood.
Wingless Coreid BugSide view.
Shield Bugs are also suckers of plant sap. I’ve noted quite a few more Common Gum Tree Shield Bugs (Poecilometis patruelis) this season.
Common Gum Tree Shield BugCommon Gum Tree Shield Bug
Black-anther Flax Lilies have (Dianella revoluta) been flowering for a while in our bush. At present, they are bearing both flowers and fruits in our bush at Strangways.
Being blue, they are beloved by our local native bee species. Lipotriches bees are regulars at these flowers.
Lipotriches
Lipotriches are sweat bees of the family Halictidae, nesting in burrows in the ground and attracted to the salt in human sweat – hence the name. The very helpful site aussiebee.com.au talks about the males of this genus gathering at dusk in large numbers on twigs or grass stems. I’ve yet to see this, but would love to.
Much smaller Halictids of genus Lasioglossum are also visiting the flax-lily flowers.
Lasioglossum on Flax-lily flower.
These tiny bees are also enjoying the Digger’s Speedwell flowers that are also still blooming.
And on Digger’s Speedwell
In amongst the flowers, I saw something that looked and behaved like a hoverfly, but seemed too big. When I got a close look through the macro lens, the mystery was solved.
Hoverfly love on the wing
Shiny Everlastings are also in full bloom. I found a little Lacewing larva lurking on one flower, presumably looking for prey.
Lacewing larva – an impressive juxtaposition of camouflage and pincers
Away from flowers, the leaves are also busy places. Leaf Beetles are munching busily.
The truth of life for any animal who’s not a top order predator is that their is always someone looking to turn you into a meal. NO exemptions for cute little leaf beetles.
A Beautiful Badge Huntsman making a meal of a Leaf Beetle.
