lroganentsocvic's Favorites

This 'in copula' pair flew in and landed on low vegetation (see shot #2 in series), with the male's body encircling (and concealing) the tiny female. The remaining photos show them separating. Moments later he flew off and she climbed down the stem and disappeared among the leaf litter. This was immediately alongside a sandy patch of ground where various crabronid wasps and bees are nesting.
This is a small species ... I estimate the female as less than 5mm long.

Lacewing larva found on some Eucalyptus leaves. I placed it in a container with some leaves and some uraba lugens caterpillars. On the 29/7/2021 I found that the lacewing had formed a pupa. The adult emerged from the pupa on 24/9/2021.

Anthidium manicatum
Identified as Megachile on Bowerbird by Karen Retra: "Hi Mitch, I hope I'm wrong, but this looks to me to be a European wool carder bee Anthidium manicatum. The web will give you images and some papers about them, including that apparently it is "the most widely distributed unmanaged bee in the world" and considered a threat to native bee species in other places. Yikes! See what you think."

This is the pupa of the moth Hylaeora eucalypti, the specimen in observation 58906263 dated 7SEP20.
I collected this specimen a few days after initial observation and supplied it with leaves from the same tree. It dropped from its leaves after 10 days. Placed it in a container with leaf litter and some soil where it made a cocoon among the leaf litter. Cocoon cut open to photograph pupa and returned to cocoon (sewn closed) and awaiting emergence.

A single male bee feeding on Aotus flowers.
Identified as Hylaeus (Planihylaeus) daviesiae ... first through a match with CNM
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Sightings/Details/3852161
And then I checked the original description (Houston, T.F. 1981. A revision of the Australian hylaeine bees (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). II. Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 80: 1-128) – and it seems a match!

Subsequently, Michael Batley agreed with ID.

Suphalomitus difformis (McLachlan, 1871), to actinic light, Little Desert National Park, 25 January 2017

Identification based on T.R. New, 1984, Revision of the Australian Ascalaphidae.