Red-anther Wallaby Grass
Rytidosperma pallidum
Kangaroo grass
Themeda triandra
Hedgehog Grass
Echinopogon ovatus
Red-anther Wallaby Grass
Rytidosperma pallidum
another species of Wallaby Grass
Rytidosperma monticola
Large Spotted Ladybird
Harmonia conformis
Slender Ringtail damselfly
Austrolestes analis … my first ever sighting of this species!
Robber fly
Leptogaster sp. … quite small (perched here on the Dianella flower buds)
Signal fly
Duomyia sp.
Chafer beetle
Diphucephala sp
Rufous Fantail - juvenile
Among the tangled branches of a large fallen tree …
Rhipidura rufifrons
Scarlet Honeyeater - adult male
Visiting the frog pond and our first sighting of the season. We’ve yet to see them on the grass tree flowers … but we’re on the lookout!
Myzomela erythrocephala
Scarlet Honeyeater – adult male
Myzomela erythrocephala
Grass Triggerplant
Stylidium graminifolium
Grass Triggerplant and reed bee
Flower: Stylidium graminifolium
Bee: Exoneura
Bluebell sheltering a masked bee
Flower: Wahlenbergia stricta
Bee: Hylaeus sp.
Bluebell with tiny reed bee
Flower: Wahlenbergia gracilis
Bee: Exoneura sp.
Blue Flax-lily with tiny reed bee
Flower: Dianella caerulea
Bee: Exoneura sp.
Blue Flax-lily with larger reed bee
Flower: Dianella caerulea
Bee: Exoneura sp.
Masked bee
Hylaeus sp.
Termite swarm meets frog pond
Low pressure systems in Spring trigger termite swarms. And the pond surface is fatally attractive.
Fishing Spider ... with termites
Dolomedes sp.
She’s usually active at night, but I guess the termite swarm was too good a chance to pass up.
Black Squeaker cicada
Atrapsalta encaustica … a small and rather cryptic species that calls from low vegetation
Flower wasp
Thynnidae … one of the larger ones
Flower wasps
This is the rather unusual feeding behaviour I described in a post last month (‘Getting to know flower wasps’)
Thynninae
Prowling spider
Miturgidae … perhaps Argoctenus
Bee fly
Staurostichus sp.
Grass tree spike providing this beetle with a perch
Xanthorrhoea concava
Jewel beetle
Castiarina scalaris
Golden Everlasting with Longhorn beetle
Flower: Xerochrysum bracteatum
Beetle: Pempsamacra pygmaea
Button everlasting daisy with a pollen-laden bee
Flower: Coronidium scorpioides
Bee: ID a work in progress
Stiletto fly
Ectinorhynchus pyrrhotelus (a species complex) … our first sighting of this ‘species’
Common Onion-Orchid
Microtis unifolia
mating flies
identification in progress
Brown Thornbill – juvenile
It was not happy by my presence, boldly scolding me as I wandered past.
Acanthiza pusilla
Brown Thornbill – juvenile
A family has laid claim to this fallen, dead casuarina
Acanthiza pusilla
Brown Thornbill – juvenile
Acanthiza pusilla
Reed bee 'tapped' by trigger plant
Bee: Exoneura
Flower: Stylidium graminifolium
Shrubby Platysace – the very first flowers
Platysace lanceolata
Shrubby Platysace - unopened flower buds
Flowers: Platysace lanceolata
Hover fly: Simosyrphus grandicornis
Wolf spider with egg sac
The first mature, egg-carrying female wolfy we’ve seen this season.
Venatrix australiensis
Common Brown - male guarding his patch
Heteronympha merope
Olive-backed Oriole – adult
Oriolus sagittatus … they’ve been calling loudly of late, perhaps nesting close by
Common Bronzewing - with nesting material
Phaps chalcoptera … their low, booming calls currently a feature of the forest soundscape
Reed bee on St John's Wort
Bee: Exoneura sp.
Flower: Hypericum gramineum
Kopata with bee fly
Flower: Pelargonium inodorum
Fly: Staurostichus sp.
Crane fly
Leptotarsus sp.
Superb Fairy-wren - male, with caterpillar for chicks (3/11/20)
Superb Fairy-wren - female, with termite for chicks (3/11/20)
Superb Fairy-wren - male with spider for chicks (3/11/20)
Empty nest ... fairy wren chicks lost to breeding Currawongs (7/11/20)
Bee fly
Meomyia
Bee on bluebell
Bee: species ID a work in progress
Flower: Wahlenbergia stricta
Bristle fly
Cylindromyia sp.
Crabronid wasp
Podagritus sp.
Longhorn beetle on Golden Everlasting
Beetle: Pempsamacra pygmaea
Flower: Xerochrysum bracteatum
Jewel beetle on St. John's Wort
Beetle: Ethenion sp
Flower: Hypericum sp
Checkered beetle on Golden Everlasting
Beetle: Eleale simplex
Flower: Xerochrysum bracteatum
Gumleaf Grasshopper
Goniaea sp.
Sand wasp ... first appearance for the season (15/11/20)
Bembix sp.