#uranquinty

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#3396 - Prionyx globosus

A grasshopper-hunter with silvery fuzz, found over much of Australia.

Uranquinty, 2013, NSW

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#2852 - Lecithocera sp. - Long-horned Moth

Probably Lecithocera imprudens Meyrick, 1914, going by the wing markings.

Many caterpiillars in the Lecithoceridae are densely covered in branched hairs, and feed on dead leaves of plants in the Myrtaceae, Proteaceae, and grasses, all abundant in Australia. There are 49 described species here, but many others worldwide.

Uranquinty, NSW

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#2850 - Hylaeus nubilosus - Cloudy Masked Bee

A plasterer bee native to the eastern States of Australia, but now recorded from several suburban sites in the Perth region. It prefers to build its own cells within abandoned mud-dauber and potter wasp nests.

Uranquinty, NSW.

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#2154 - Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. bicolor

An East Coast species - Pseudabispa is an Australian and Papuan genus of potter wasps containing 5 species, with this one subdivided in 4 subspecies.

Pseudabispa wasps closely resemble mason wasps in the genus Abispa, and their distributions overlap. Although these two genera are among the largest solitary wasps in Australia, the biology of Pseudabispa was not well known until a 2010 study near Katherine, in Northern Territory. P. paragioides females were observed killing Abispa ephippium females, usurping their mud nests, stocking them with caterpillars stolen from still other nests, and closing the holes with mud taken from the host nest. 

Uranquinty, NSW

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#2153 - Anterhynchium nigrocinctum

A Potter Wasp found in much of the Australian mainland, but most of the records are from Victoria.

The genus is found in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Australian and Palearctic bioregions. Like most other potter wasps, Anterhynchium nigrocinctum is a solitary, excavating a nesting hole or using a pre-existing cavity in which to nest. The single egg in each cell is provisioned with paralysed caterpillars and other insects.

Although usually docile compared to social wasps, they'll still defend themselves by stinging with their modified ovipositor. Like some other Vespids, male Anterhynchium can produce a "pseudo-sting" with two sharp spines on either side of their genital, but the "sting" is venomless.

Uranquinty, NSW

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#2152 - Auplopus sp.

Formerly Fabriogenia. The change was news to me.

A worldwide genus of spider wasps, that amputate the legs of their prey before carting them back to prepared cells. Commonly seen in Australia, exploring treetrunks and under loose bark, antennae waving wildly. There's at least one fly and one beetle that mimic the colours and behaviour, presumably for protection - spider wasp stings are notoriously painful.

Uranquinty, NSW

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#2151 - Servaea sp.

A small genus of unremarkable jumping spiders, with 8 endemic to Australia, and one known from Java. I'm not sure where the name comes from - there was a plebian family by that nomen in Ancient Rome, but that's all I can find out.

Uranquinty, NSW

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#2150 - Ornithonyssus sp. - Fowl Mite

About 0.5mm long. It's crawling on the narrow edge of my phone case, there.

I thought it looked vaguelly familiar, and It's taken me a while to confirm the ID - plenty of websites (usually pest conrol companies) talk about bird mites, but not many of them bother to give the scientific name, or have adequate photos.

The three best known Ornithonyssus species are bursa and sylviarum, the Southern and Northern Fowl Mites respectively, and bacoti, the tropical rat mite. That last one is particularly notorious for the painful bite, but it's not like infested chickens are very happy about it. There's a good number of other species, too - I presume Ornithonyssus pipistrelli is a parasite of small bats.