A Mega Moth

As a child I was always getting in trouble for leaving the light on at night.
It wasn't that I was afraid of the dark.
It was that I found if I left the fly screen slightly ajar I could find moths caught there for study in the morning.
Once in a while I would capture a monster of the moth world. The ones with the "eyes" on the wings were particularly fascinating.

The moth photographed below wasn't overly pretty, though it was reasonably large
(around 120mm head to wing end).
Perhaps the largest I have seen in a while.

I have no open wing shots, as it would have required damaging the creature to get them. Never an option.

I have looked on the CSIRO site do deal with all things "mothy", though couldn't get a good ID.
For those of you who share a fascination of these creatures, interesting none the less.

Amphibian Invasion

With Summer more than a week old already, insects of all shapes and sizes have been attracted to my veranda light... and the numbers and variety are on the increase.




Large christmas beetles have arrived (25mm) and I must have seen at least 20 types of moth in all shapes and sizes.
It is these moths that have attracted a number of Emerald Spotted Tree Frogs to my doorstep.
The behaviour they exibit in capturing these moths is fasciating.


Firstly they will climb the brick wall....




Then adopt the strike position.....






It is a matter of launching at the next insect that comes within reach, and landing safely on the decking located often 1.5M below to consume their catch.


Im looking forward to getting a vid of this action, and will post it as soon as I do.

More bird antics

Here are a few shots to follow up my earlier post "Thinking about Spring"

All this renewal has been partially fueled by a corresponding explosion in insect life...some of which is below..

Many ant nests seen recently have had winged pioneers heading out to start new colonies...

Even the arachnids have been active...with this Wolf Spider only too happy to have his photo taken...

Yes, its been all go this spring.

Summer is almost upon us as the first of the cicada began to call over the last week.

Forest blooms after rain

After the rain, a rain forest is the place to be to spot fungal blooms.





Robertson's last remaining pockets of such forest are alive at the moment with a myriad of fungal forms, as well as creatures taking advantage of the damp sun dappled conditions.













After school my daughters Rhiannon and Aeron accompanied me on a scouting trip to see what we could find










It is most important that these areas are disturbed as little as possible, so as to maintain them in as pristine a condition as we can. When visiting it is important to keep to the track taking only photos and leaving only footprints.

The work done by local land care groups has been essential in the preservation of these areas - Keeping grasses and weeds from invading often subtle and delicate systems.

These tiny fungi pictured are growing on stems no bigger than a hair. The trunk on which they grow is mattered with such hairs and only flowers when conditions are right for spore dispersal.