Stills from a couple of short videos (its a shame videos cannot be uploaded, though I can understand why)
Mating
Hopefully it is this species, always wanted to find it...
This tiny fella was observed at the top of a 5mm diameter bamboo stick. (The cut section is also exactly 5mm down from the top).
I observed the spider lifting one of its 3rd pair of legs (rhs) in the air and wave it around once. It was then I went & grabbed the camera. Sadly he refused to face the camera lens head-on. 😔 I thanked him for his time anyway.
Very small. On a Drosera flower bud.
These 2 were performing a mating dance (both splaying their back feathers) but our proximity interrupted them.
I had a small green fly land on my arm while I was working outside this morning. I only managed to snap a few photos before he flew away. I'm guessing it's a Odontomyia decipiens based on the metallic green colour but please correct me if I'm wrong
In memory of Victor Fazio III
Gross's Exocarpos Bug (Aplerotus grossi)
I'm not totally sure, but I think this is the only A. grossi we have.
I think that the last paper in 1985 that differentiates A. grossi & A. maculatus exaggerates how different the external morphological differences between these are. Either that or there are way more species than expected. As I stated earlier, I haven't been able to separate them (iNat speciemens) by colour/patterns.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/177792165
And I think the labrium length is variable and the difference between the two species is very small. I'm now posting several species under the 2 names as a comparision to show people what I think. As always, could be wrong, so interested in your thoughts and happy if these have to get to go to genus level.
To me the most distinctive difference is the face shield "anterolateral margins of the paraclypei strongly convex" However, I suspect that what stands out in photo's more is the separation of the two shields. Looking down the middle you'll notice this one & Mark's are quite separated. On A. maculatus they are just about touching.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/42805740
I'm not sure if the paraclypei look more convex/larger here because of the coloured edging.
Clicking on the tag shows all 3
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?q=178299267&search_on=tags
Cheers
Brett
I could have watched all day.
Found last night on our back gate. I’m hoping to get some better photos of this specimen after It has chilled down a bit. It’s too active to photograph at the moment.
Sighting 1
I had 108 wolf spider observations in my unid'ed folder. Because I have so much trouble id'ing them, even to genus.
With Cael's, @dabugboi, help yesterday, he's kick started me into sorting some of them out.
A large male spider, 17mm body length, 55mm leg span.
Interesting distribution. WA, then a huge gap, to here, Blanchetown and East over to Bakara CP on the other side of the river.
Only 103 to go 😉 LOL
Extraordinary movement of the natural world ... only a couple of blooms open on this Daviesia and yet here was the spider lying in wait. How did it know to go to the top of the plant where the flowers were open, where did it come from?
Gasteruptiidae.
Holotype female of Gasteruption youngi.
“S. AUST. Wirrabara Forest, Sweeping, 7.iv.2007 J.T. Jennings.”
Reference: Jennings, J.T. & Parslow, B. 2014, Gasteruption youngi, sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Gasteruptiidae) from South Australia; a species with unusual setose ovipositor sheaths. Zootaxa 3872 (1), 95–100.
Quite active. Perhaps didn't like the raindrops? Small size ... slightly larger than a mosquito.
Voucher observation D.Nicolle 8471.
Trees to 6 metres tall.
Dominant along sandy creek, forming open woodland.
with some leaf rosettes of non-flowering plants
They were fighting, probably over territory
Single sapling, probably self-seeded. This species has occasionally turned up in Reserve over the years.
Turneromyia sp ES3
This is a really important find for us.
Ever since I first saw Tony's wing venation comparison between Turneromyia & Ctenostegus and tied them to our finds. To date, all Ctenostegus were small (~10mm) & the Turneromyia were larger (~12mm - 23mm). Then using the 10 & 11 flagellomere test were able to determine most of our smaller Turneromyia were male, and larger were female.
I had often considered the extra wing venations of Turneromyia were there to help support the much larger animals.
HOWEVER, this one is a ~10mm female. So a different species to our 23mm female. AND the wing venation proves Turneromyia. So I've managed to break my own hypothesis that Turneromyia are big & Ctenostegus are small.
Additionally the markings on this one are different to our other 2 Turneromyia species.
Further, to my eye, this looks EXACTLY the same as our other Ctenostegus; but wing venation proves they are different genera.
Gotta love science!
https://www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html#Wasp:-Pompilidae:-Pompilinae
drumming with laminate antennae (?) on the plant stem then wings up and backing its abdomen into the leaf axil. Touching over leaf axil with antennae. Really small individual, lots more photos but they're much the same as these
~17mm long.
Found at night light.
Is there an error on iNat Taxon list?
On Atlas Labidura truncata is synonomised with Labidura riparia; but here they are different?
Probably same one as yesterday. It's nested in the wall. Slightly better photo this time.
Female elate
On Cullen australasicum. The photos are not edited - it's just how they turned out from my phone camera.
Middleton Point at low tide. River Murray flood waters have resulted in large number of dead fish, bivalves and other marine invertebrates washing onto the beach. The bivalves and marine invertebrates normally inhabit the littoral sand zone but could not survive the large influx of Murray water into the ocean.