#australian insect

[wenbochenphoto]

I found this giant stick insect on my buggy after working in the forest. With a length of 28cm, it is the longest insect I’ve ever seen.

[drhoz]

#1864 & 1865 - Delias aganippe & Amyema miquelii - Red-spotted Jezabel on Stalked Mistletoe

From out at Byford, Perth, where I was examining a remarkably large mistletoe when these butterflies showed up.

The butterfly’s scientific name is derived from an epithet for Artemis, and other figures from Greek myth. The common name for the genus is from a Phoenician princess and queen of ancient Israel. They ARE pretty impressive butterflies. 

Jezebel caterpillars feed on the leaves of mistletoes and sandalwoods, and became quite a pest when sandalwood started being grown commercially here in Western Australia. The caterpillars and the adults do become quite poisonous however, and the bright colours of both might be advertising the fact. 

Miquelii honours Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (1811 – 1871) who studied various Australian plant families. This species occurs in all mainland Australian states, where it parasitises Corymbia and Eucalyptus species. The red to orange flowers (visible next to the butterfly in the first photo) are produced from March to July and are followed by brown fruit.

[drhoz]

#1806 - Tinzeda sp.

Photo by Terry Houston, of an unidentified Tinzeda sp, photographed in November on the margin of Lake Grace among flowers of a Frankenia sp.

Tinzedas are supposed to be nocturnal, so seeing one being this conspicuous in daylight is a bit odd. I'm also uncertain which of the seven known species it is, but given how much of Australia’s insect fauna remains unnamed, it could just as likely be undescribed. 

[drhoz]

#1580 - Pterygophorus cinctus - Bottlebrush Sawfly

Photo by Michael Johnson, at the Monash Hospital in Clayton, Victoria.

This is quite a common species of large sawfly in Australia, probably encouraged by all the bottlebrushes and Callistemons planted in urban gardens. The larvae can certainly defoliate a small tree. The records on ALA are all in the Eastern states, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re over here too. 

[drhoz]

#1485 - Gyromantis occidentalis - Western Spiny Bark Mantis

Also known as the Bark Runner. I’d thought this wonderfully cryptic mantid was Gyromantis kraussi, the Spiny Bark Mantis, but it turns out it’s G. occidentalis, the WESTERN Spiny Bark Mantis. Apparently the amount of spikiness varies within the two species, and is not a good diagnostic feature to distinguish them from each other. Which is irritating where the species range overlaps. And Perth certainly isn’t in the East.

North Dandalup, SE of Perth

[drhoz]

#1486 - Cyclotorna sp.

This is one of Australia’s weirdest caterpillars. Not only is it a parasite, it’s also a predator, and it cocoons itself TWICE.

Spotted by Phillipa Winters down here in the SW somewhere - they didn’t give details. But they did mention is was found at the base of a treeful of ants, and that, and the orange and blue colour, was the clue I needed.

The genus is tiny, with only five known species, and it’s the only genus in the family. They’re endemic to Australia. The only study I know of about them was written by one F.P. Dodd, in 1912. The paper ‘Some remarkable ant-friend Lepidoptera.’ appeared in Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, and described his gleeful investigation of their entire life history, in Outback Queensland. They start off as minute ectoparasites of leafhoppers and scale insects, and resemble mites. After they’re large enough, they spin a cocoon. But they’re not ready to emerge as a moth, oh no. They emerge as a larger caterpillar, and get carted off to the nest of Iridomyrmex meat ants. Where they become very bad house guests, drugging the ants with something poisonous and addictive, and eating their babies.

Then they leave the nest, resembling a woodlouse as above, and spin their second and final cocoon, eventually emerging as small drab brown moths. 

[drhoz]

#1417 - Subfamily Catantopinae

Singleton, Perth. Can’t get it down past this subfamily of the Acrididae, alas

[drhoz]

#1484 - Mantis octospilota - Eightspot Mantis

AKA Blackbarred Mantis.

An Australian mantid most easily distinguished from similar species by the black armpits, yellow spots on the inner surface of the arms, and eight dark spots along the top of the abdomen (not visible in these photos).

North Dandalup, south of Perth.