Wildlife sightings and hiking adventures in Tasmania
On a walk around the yard recently, I captured some photos of various insects, only a few of which I recognise.
And I spotted this strange creature on the trunk of a gum tree. It turns out that it is a gum tree plant hopper nymph!
What insects are in your garden?
April finally saw the weather begin to act like it should in autumn and everyone has been enjoying the cooler weather and sunshine, including the insects it seems. In fact, I saw so many insects during April, including the discovery of many new species I’ve not seen before, I thought I would concentrate on the insects I’ve spotted during April for this post.
Above are ensign flies, part of the sepsidae family. Â You find them around decaying plant matter. Â They’re very small, about half a centimetre in size.
The photo above is of a villa bee fly. I came across it on the ground and at first thought it was a bee or perhaps a hoverfly, but the villa bee fly is a good mimic of both.
It was great to see lots of honey bees in action.
It was even better to see lots of native stingless bees (tetragonula carbonaria), or sugarbag bees. They are so tiny, only about 5mm long!
Best of all was my discovery of these incredible blue banded bees (amegilla cingulata), a native buzz pollinator. For more info and photos on this amazing bee, click here to see my earlier post.
I saw this butterfly fluttering about looking a little worse for wear. It’s a hairy lineblue butterfly, Erysichton lineata, and you can tell it’s a female by the large white patch on the wings.
In the above photo is a very small caterpillar, about 1cm in length. IÂ came upon the above scene on a boulder and as I watched, the caterpillar would jerk about every now and again. Having no idea what it was, I submitted some pictures to Questagame for identification. They were not able to identify the species but explained that what I had seen were parasitoid wasp larval cases holding onto the caterpillar, slowly eating its innards while it was still alive. Talk about gruesome!!
The above picture is of an agrotera amathealis. It’s a moth in the cambridae family.  It’s only about a centimetre or so big with a 2cm wingspan and has lovely golden brown colours. This is a native to Australia and found in Queensland. I was advised by Questagame that there are only several recorded sightings of this moth in the Atlas of Living Australia, and few photos of a live specimen, so I feel really special being able to spot and photograph a live one (even if it was by accident)! Click here to see my photos of this moth that are now on the ALA website. 🙂
I found two of these interesting looking giant slantfaced grasshoppers. These were only about 4cm long and are considered nymphs as they can grow up to 7cm. As you can see, they have excellent camouflage!
This time of year also means the appearance of these big hairy caterpillars, commonly called itchy grubs but also known as processionary caterpillars (Ochrogaster lunifer). This is only the second time I have seen them. I found several of them at the base of a wattle tree which was covered in their silk. They’re big caterpillars, about 8cm long. These caterpillars turn into bag shelter moths.
Above is a lydia lichen moth or asura lydia moth, commonly known as a tiger moth because of its black and orange colours. This one is a male as you can tell by the feathery antennae.
The above photo is of a seed beetle, previously known as a bean weevil and is a member of the bruchinae family. It’s very small, only a few millimetres in size.
Above is a very tiny spider, only a few millimetres big. I don’t even know how I managed to see it! If you look closely, you’ll see its web. This one is unidentified.
At first glance, you might think the above photo is of a big ant, however, it’s actually an ant mimicking seed bug, Daerlac species.
The above photo is of a type of fly known as homoneura. It has no common name and is about 5mm in length. It looks surprisingly pretty with its golden colouring and spotted wings.
Above is a sugarcane froghopper, Euryaulax carnifex, and is native to northern Australia. It’s quite small, barely a centimetre in size.
Above is an interesting looking Pyralid moth, Etiella species, also known as a snout moth or grass moth. Â It’s about 1.5cm in length and was very difficult to follow and photograph because of its excellent camouflage among the grass.
And finally, there were these paper wasps or polistes humilis. These wasps are native to Australia and have a yellow head and black bands across the abdomen and are 2cm in length. These can attack and sting if disturbed. The ones in the photo above had made a nest underneath the air conditioner unit in the bedroom window. A few days later I saw another wasp nest out in the yard!
Most of the insects mentioned in this post were unknown to me, and I could only identify them with the assistance of Questagame. If you’re interested in Citizen Science, check out my review of Questagame as it might be something you’re interested in.
I hope you found this post of various Australian insects interesting and didn’t mind not seeing photos of other wildlife this time around.
This is my participation in a monthly event called Wildlife Wednesdays hosted by Tina of My Gardner Says… You can see the wildlife visitors of other participants here.
I was really excited to discover some of these attractive looking bees on a cassia shrub near the house recently. I walked past it one day and I could hear an intermittent buzzing sound. On closer inspection, I found these incredible blue banded bees among the blooms.
It’s a very striking looking insect, you’d definitely notice it, with its iridescent blue stripes across its black abdomen and being 12mm in size.
Since I had never seen one of these bees before (except for other people’s photos), I did some research on the internet and came up with some interesting information about them.
The blue banded bee, amegilla cingulata, is a native bee to Australia. It is found everywhere in the country with the exception of Northern Territory and Tasmania.
The blue banded bee is a solitary bee, and they are not aggressive although they can sting.
It’s also easy to distinguish the sexes, with the females having four stripes and males having five.
Not only are these bees amazing to look at, but they are amazing in how they pollinate the flowers.
Blue banded bees are only one of a few native bees that use a process called buzz pollination (which the Honey Bee is incapable of). The bee grabs the flower with its legs, rests its wings, then vibrates its thorax muscles and somehow transfers these vibrations to its head. The bee then head butts the tubular anther of the flower about 350 times per second in order to dislodge the pollen so the bee can collect it. Every time the bee rests on a flower, you will hear a distinct buzzing sound as it collects pollen.
This technique differs to the buzz pollination method of the bumble bee found in the Northern Hemisphere. In this process, the bumble bee wraps its legs around the flower to hold on tight, then bites down on the anthers. The bee’s flight muscles then contract extremely rapidly (hundreds of times a second) to vibrate its entire body and causing the pollen inside the anthers to spill out for collection.
I managed to get this quick video of a blue banded bee visiting a few flowers. Â Turn up the volume and listen closely and you can hear the buzz when the bee rests on each flower.
It’s incredible just how loud that buzzing sound is. The above video was filmed using a zoom and I was a good 5 feet away from the bee!
I found this video on YouTube of a blue banded bee using buzz pollination in slow motion. It’s incredible to see, especially when you realise the bee does this 350 times per second!
It is believed that around 8% of the world’s flowering plants require buzz pollination, or sonication as it’s also known. These plants include several Australian natives as well as common food crops like tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, chillies, and blueberries (basically any plant that has tubular anthers in the flower). So with their fast and efficient pollination method, the blue banded bees are quite valuable to us and are definitely the farmer’s friend!
Now that the Australian summer is over (even though it doesn’t yet feel like it!), I thought I would share a selection of my favourite photos of nature that I took in my backyard over the hot season.
You can see much larger and more detailed images by viewing this post on my blog. 🙂
On our property we have quite a few gum trees, all big and old, and they looked stunning while in flower albeit briefly. Plenty of birds, such as the rainbow lorikeets, visited to drink the nectar of the blossoms, and the brushtail possums loved them as well. We also had visits from flying foxes on dusk. And one night my husband believed he spotted some type of very small glider amongst the flowers in torchlight when he went to lock up the chickens.
I have a small patch of milkweed plants which are enjoyed by the butterflies. The flowers are very bright and colourful.
A seedpod (complete with an aphid!) from the milkweed has opened and the seeds are ready to be blown away by the wind.
A lotus lily in our pond, perhaps one of the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen.
The lily is also appreciated by native stingless bees. Look at all the pollen!
The remaining frangipani flowers at the end of summer.
The pretty blue flowers of scurvy weed, a native herb of Australia. The leaves of this plant are edible and a good source of vitamin C.
Delicate pretty pink petals of the crepe myrtle.
View of a half moon.
One hot morning I was up early and caught the moon setting. It happened so quickly, these photos were taken less than a minute apart. Notice the change of light as the moon gets lower over the trees.
This is a late afternoon view looking off one end of the veranda towards the state forest. Our house is situated on a hill at the top end of the street so you can see over the rooftops.
One evening there was a lovely pink and mauve glow to the sky as the sun set.
There was also a magnificent fiery sunset, the colours were incredible. It started off like this.
And quickly turned into this beautiful red sunset before disappearing altogether in minutes. Turn up the volume to hear a truly Australian sound I hear every evening!
And finally, this photo is of a patch of fishbone fern we have under the house, and it’s been the favourite hangout for our chickens in the heat of summer. They love spending time here and look like little velociraptors as they move through the tall ferns, almost invisible to the eye. You only know they’re there by the funny little noises they make to communicate with one another and by the swaying movement of the ferns as they search for bugs. Can you spot all 3 chickens in the photo?
Thanks for visiting. 🙂
A few years ago I had a go at growing native trees from seeds, and I managed to grow a crepe myrtle tree. When it grew big enough, I planted it in what I hoped would be the perfect spot and crossed my fingers that it survived. Now it’s about 1.5 metres tall and in all its splendour. This tree is appropriately named as the pretty pink petals definitely look like crepe paper.
I went to take a few photos of my success in gardening and while I was there I discovered a whole little world going on just on that one small tree.
I was very happy to see at least half a dozen native stingless bees visiting the flowers. They were all loaded with pollen like this little guy.
Unfortunately, these little busy bees also risked becoming food for the resident spiders on the tree. This is a small St Andrews Cross spider who caught a bee and promptly wrapped him up for later as I watched on.
And this lynx spider also caught a bee for his next meal.
I saw this black flying insect hovering around the flowers. The photo isn’t really clear unfortunately, but I don’t know what it could be.
I found this cicada husk hidden under a leaf.
And I saw this hoverfly flitting among the blooms.
This cute looking insect is a type of weevil.
I even spotted this strange looking insect but it flew off pretty quickly so I only have this one photo which is not enough to try and identify it.
I also discovered two interesting looking brownish caterpillars, munching away on the leaves and flowers from within their cocoons.
I went back a few days later and the caterpillars had tucked themselves up into their cocoons.
I don’t know what they are, so I will keep checking the tree to see if I spot them emerge.
Amazing what you see in your own backyard!
This is my participation in a monthly event called Wildlife Wednesdays hosted by Tina of My Gardner Says …..
August was the final month of winter here in Australia and where I live the weather has been warming up quickly and we only had a couple of days of light rain. Perhaps because of the weather conditions, I was able to get photos of some insects and even the welcoming sight of the return of native bees.
One night I came across this Cane Toad outside near the shed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one I saw. (These are an introduced and very invasive species).
August was also a busy time for our visiting brushtail possums, they were very active at night. And it seems that the mulberry tree near the house has grown a bit taller because now a few of the possums are climbing up this tree, jumping onto our tin roof and running up and down having a ball! I still can’t believe how loud these little animals are when they run along the roof or even the wooden veranda – they really do sound like a herd of elephants with hob nailed boots on!
In my last Wildlife Wednesday post you might recall seeing the lovely little joey in our possum box. Well, unfortunately, I have no joey sightings to report for August, but mum was still visiting and here is a photo of her with her bulging pouch. I think we were just very lucky to see the little one last time and I don’t expect to see it again until it’s grown big enough to ride on mum’s back.
Here’s another female brushtail possum that’s been visiting us.
This possum is a male who comes to visit and here he is munching on a piece of sweet potato. He’s quite friendly despite the annoyed look he has in this photo!
And this is another female possum with a young joey who looks like it might be too old now to ride on mum’s back, and it just scampers along after mum everywhere. Here they are when mum heard a noise. I love it when they do this meerkat thing!
And this young female possum has become a regular. Everytime I checked the possum box there she was!
During August there were also the regular birds around.
It’s good to see that my friendly magpie Ramsey is still with us, although he looks like he’s missing a few feathers on his head.
Those of you who have been following my blog may remember we have a resident magpie family living on our property. Well, during the last few weeks we haven’t seen Maggie, the family matriarch, and since Igor, the patriarch of the family, has been fighting off all the other meat eating birds, we figure that Maggie is sitting on a nest somewhere close by. As it’s now September and peak swooping season, take care if you’re out and about!
Igor has also been picking on his 3 kids, the ones that hatched around October/November last year and are now young adults. Igor is probably hoping to get them to move on, especially if he has more babies on the way. Here they are below and if you look closely you can see each one is slightly different in stature and colouring. I’m not sure which ones are males and females. One of them has a sore foot and always perches holding the sore foot up, likely a result of a run in with Igor.
And of course we have the usual crowd of rainbow lorikeets.
This is a short video of a few of them clowning around in the gum tree in front of our house on a late winter’s afternoon. This sort of thing goes on a lot!
I hope you enjoyed seeing my wildlife visitors! 🙂
Not long ago, I was in the backyard and came across some unusual looking insects around the water lily in the pond. A bit of research showed they were actually Australian native bees! Â These stingless bees are called Tetragonula Carbonaria. They are quite tiny and very obscure looking and don’t really look anything like the usual honey bee you see in your garden.
This photo shows you just how small these bees are –
I managed to get a photo when there were 2 bees in the flower and then 3 bees –
I even managed to get a short video of one of the native bees and you can watch it gathering pollen.
On the same day, I saw one of the regular honey bees. Here are a few photos I took from different angles (this bee was quite co-operative!).
And this is a short video I took of a honey bee in action.
Previously I had discovered there were resin bees on our property and you can read my post about them here.
Amazing what you find when you look hard in your own backyard!
By a stroke of luck yesterday, I happened to spy the insect who has been visiting our insect hotel, you may remember my thoughts about it in my previous post. This time, I caught her in the act!
I was able to get some good photos and video of her in action which allowed me to do a proper internet search and discover what exactly she is and what she is doing.
Turns out, she is a Golden Browed Resin Bee. That’s right, a native bee! Here’s my best capture of her so you can get a good look at her interesting beauty –
This little lady is also known as a Red Faced Mastic Bee. She is part of the leafcutter bee family and her correct name is megachile aurifrons.
She selects a home, stores some pollen and nectar, lays an egg, then seals the hole with a mixture of resin and chewed up green leaves. As you can see, she has been quite busy, with three homes sealed so far.
Here’s a video of her in action –
Now I just have to keep an eye out for when the babies leave their homes. 🙂
My Wild Australia 