Nadgee Nature Reserve
A day trip photo essay
25th October, 2023
We made a brief visit to the helipad and nearby creek crossing with friends. This has become something of a regular spring pilgrimage for us, although we’re a little later than usual this year.
The photos below are far from a complete survey – simply a collection of the life that caught our attention, and cameras. Most memorable this year? The congregations of ground-nesting bees. The tiny grasshoppers, displaying a myriad of colour forms in a single species. The activities of large and brilliant orange spider wasps, determinedly hunting among the low vegetation. And just a single damselfly sighting at the creek, but a very nice one.
Many little grasshoppers
Bees and other insects
A few flowers in bloom … but very few orchids
A spectacular spider wasp
Cryptocheilus bicolor and C. australis are very similar. Both are large, brightly-coloured pompilids, sometimes mistaken for hornets (Vespidae) or the ‘Cicada killer’ crabronid Sphecius pectoralis. Our wasp is Cryptocheilus (Pompilidae), but which species?
We found surprisingly little available information on this genus. However, based on the work of Harris (1987), we could rule out C. australis. So our working hypothesis is that this is indeed C. bicolor. I say ‘hypothesis’, however, due to conflicting information online. For example, the wasp shown as C. bicolor on Museums Victoria website looks nothing like ours. Indeed, it fits Harris’ 1987 description of C. australis. All quite confusing.
Like virtually all spider wasps, Cryptocheilus hunt and paralyse spiders as food for their larvae. Most records show them targeting huntsman spiders, although there is some evidence of a more opportunistic approach, including fishing spiders (Dolomedes) in the case of C. australis in New Zealand (Harris, 1987). The spiders are dragged back to a pre-prepared burrow, where individual spiders are used to stock each cell. So perhaps we found this female’s nest burrow!
Creekside stopover
Whitewater Rockmaster (Diphlebia lestoides). Aptly named, resting on rocks alongside a rapidly-flowing section of the creek. This is a damselfly (Zygoptera), although with its thickset body and outstretched wings it’s easily mistaken for a dragonfly (Anisoptera).
References
Harris, A.C. 1987. Pompilidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Fauna of New Zealand [no.] 12. Science Information Publishing Centre, DSIR. Wellington, New Zealand