Evidence of a Megachile sp. (Leaf-cutter Bee) collecting material from a cultivated Hardenbergia violacea (white flower) ... OR... Someone has had fun with a variable hole-punch 🥰
Curious - what distance would the Bee travel to collect nesting material?
And which possible Megachile species are leaf-cutters here in the Adelaide Hills?
Beetle, orange with black head, wings, feeding on bottle brush bush flowers.
Record is for the duck being held by the woman in the black jumper. This duck was released immediately after the comparison photos were taken.
The other two are PBD x mallard hybrids, caught as part of dumped domestic mallard removal efforts by the Pacific Black Duck Conservation Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pacificblackduckconservationgroup
The first photo's hybrid has a green/yellow bill (harder to see in this photo), patchy facial markings, and legs are a little bit too orange. This one also had white trims above the speculum.
The female in the second and third photos:
Mainly the lower face stripes and cheeks that are different. Both sexes should look like the pure one, a thinner stripe, and Cleary defined cream face patches. The hybrid’s cheek cuts into the cream patch while the pure’s continues to the back of the neck. The hybrid's eye stripe doesn’t surround the eye, which we see a lot with hybrid ducklings. Her crown was a bit too streaked for a female.
Hybrids uploaded separately:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350029
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350244
Caught by a tharrhalea
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/185507396
Stills from a couple of short videos (its a shame videos cannot be uploaded, though I can understand why)
Mating
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
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.
Single sapling, probably self-seeded. This species has occasionally turned up in Reserve over the years.