Insect Sightings

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It's been a fairly sparse year so far but here are a few insects that we have encountered over the past few weeks.

The Giant Valanga Valanga irregularis (Walker)

This large grasshopper is known to every gardener. A female can deposit an egg case in the ground that can give rise to a couple of dozen voracious nymphs that can defoliate nearby plants in very short order. This grasshopper has many colour morphs. Individuals can be lead grey and without many spots or mottled brown like the one above.

A young nymph of the Giant Valanga ready to start several weeks of devastating feeding.

Once in a while you stumble on something special. This is a female Green Lacewing completing her evening's egg-laying activities. It is hypothesised that the eggs are laid on stalks to prevent the hatching larvae from eating one another. What do you think?

 Brown Bell Anaxipha fuscocinctum (Chopard)

One of the prettiest and most delicate of the small "trigs" or Leaf-running Crickets. The song is a faint long or broken trill, usually uttered at night.

Longicornes

Kuranda seems to have a fairly large number of longicorne beetles probably as a result of the high diversity of trees. Spring usually brings them on with the large prionines the first to appear but not this year.  A few longicornes that we don't often see have shown up at the lights recently.

Ancita sp.

Tricheops ephippiger

Kurandanus maculosus

Kuranda namesake!

Rhipidocerus sp.

Xingbaoia karakara Rentz

This individual must have overwintered as a nymph as it was one of the first katydid to appear this spring. It is primarily a predator and lives on the ground in leaf litter. It ascends vegetation after dark to feed. Here is is feeding on the particulate matter that rains down from the canopy.

And finally.

Monteith's Leaf Insect, Phyllium monteithi Brock and Hasenpusch

In mid spring males often show up at the light sheet. Females have never been seen here. They apparently spend their time high in the canopy and do not fly.

P. monteithi has a peculiar and distinctive odour that may act to avoid predation from birds and lizards. 

 RECENT VISITORS

Spring has sprung and garden guests are appearing, some old friends and some recent additions.

Our regular male Cassowary who is said to have been in the neighbourhood for more than 40 years. For the second year in a row he has emerged without any chicks. Perhaps, his breeding days are finished. He appears to be in good condition.

Great Expectations

One of at least two large females that wander through the garden. We think this is one of Mr Cassowary's daughters. She is not at all aggressive and just stands aside if you walk by her. Cassowaries seem very curious by nature.

This large Goanna decided to take a sunbath on the front porch. In some ways a Goanna is more formidable than a cassowary. If you were carrying a food item that it wanted, it would just run up your body to get it. The claws are extremely sharp as the use them to climb trees and the head bears powerful muscles that can inflict a painful bite. Contrary to recent statements, Goannas are not venomous. Their mouths are full of various bacteria that can infect a bitten victim.

However, have a read of this re Goanna bites:

https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/departments/department-of-biochemistry-and-pharmacology/engage/avru/blog/are-monitor-lizards-venomous-the-tale-of-toxicofera,-part-4

Emerald Ground Dove, originally photographed by Peter Shanahan who we miss very much.

 

Helmeted Friarbird, one of the bullies at the feeding station. It is a wary bird, probably on the lookout for Black Butcherbirds.

And, of course, there are Brush Turkeys. They definitely own the place.

 

Thanks to Margaret Humphrey for the link to the discussion on Goanna bites.

Moth Night 14 July 2021

Moth Night 2021

Cairns Botanic Gardens

14 July 2021

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

The annual  Moth Night was held on an unusually warm and humid night for Cairns. The even was preceded by a Sausage Sizzle and short talk. Approximately 65 people attended, most of who were members of the Friends of the Cairns Botanic Gardens.

Just prior to the talk, a Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa sp. flew in. It seems to be an undescribed species!

So we would like to request the Volunteers to be on the lookout when they are digging to see if we can find more specimens. This one is a female. We need a male for a proper identification.

Part of the crowd

One of two sets of light sheets

Light sheets were set at two sites, one dominated by huge Paperbarks, Melaleuca leucadendra. 

Just on dark a small generator provided power and the moths and other insects started to appear. Australia is in mid-winter in July but being in the tropics, there is always some insect activity. 

Images provided by Buck Richardson, Hidetoshi Kudo (Mikey) and David Rentz.

Tropical moths can be identified by checking Buck Richardson's Moth Identification site :: http://www.leapfrogoz.com.au/moths-of-tropical-queensland-australia/moth-identification/

Hightlights of Australia tropical biota can also be found on D Rentz' blogspot: https://bunyipco.blogspot.com/

Additional information provided in the "Albums" section of D Rentz Flickr Site:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/naturenoises/

The insect visitors: 

Aganaidae: Agape chlorophyga

Crambidae: Spoldea recurvalis

Crambidae: Glyphodes stolalis

Crambidae: Glyphodes multilinealis

Geometridae: Eumelea sp

Geometridae: Heterostegane sp. 

Drepanidae: Tridrepana lunulata

Uraniidae: Epiplema conflictaria

Arctiidae: Nyctemera sp

Lymantriidae: Arctornis submarginata

Other visitors:

An Assassin Bug, Reduviidae: Emesinae

A relatively large Pygmy Grasshopper, recently described Tetrifgidae: Selivinga tribulata

A native rainforest cockroach Ectobiidae: Carbrunneria maxi

Female Stick Insect Sipyloidea larryi (named in honour of Cyclone Larry!)

Tortoise Beetle: Chrysomelidae

Aggregation of Shield Bugs: Scutellaridae: Calliphara imperialis

Cranefly Tipulidae

An Unfortunate Caterpillar

While wandering around the garden one evening I noticed a white cottony blob about the size of a strawberry hanging from the leaflet of a Wait-A-While Palm, Calamus sp. I thought it was a mass of spider eggs but on closer examination it proved to be a caterpillar with its head protruding from what appeared to be its cocoon.

The caterpillar appeared to be struggling. It acted as if it wanted to get away from where it was but couldn't.

Further examination indicated that the caterpillar was in deep trouble.

The cocoon that the caterpillar was constructing was filled with small pupae. I placed the caterpillar, which was still alive and thrashing about, in a jar and several days later the mystery was solved.

Each of the small inclusions in white mass was a small wasp. The wasps are in the family Braconidae, a family of notorious insect parasites. You have probably seen them but did not realise what they are. Many are brightly coloured and buzz around wood piles or tree bark where they seek the larvae of a variety of insects to parasitise.

179 wasps emerged from the mass. The males measured 3.1 mm and seem to have yellow legs and antennae. Females were slightly larger, 3.2 mm, with black antennae. 

Eventually the hapless caterpillar died. It probably had this load of parasites with it all its life and just at the time it was about to form a cocoon of its own, the parasites began to emerge and complete their life history.

This is a form of biological control, albeit a somewhat non-beneficial one as far as a "control" of a caterpillar that might be potential pest. The caterpillar would have spent its larval life feeding on its host plant. The "control" comes from the fact that it would not mature and, therefore, not be able to reproduced.

Braconids of many kinds have been used as bio-controls of agricultural pests. There are many example you can find on the internet.

During my early days at the University of California, Berkeley, I came across a fascinating example of a a braconid and a Ladybeetle. The ladybeetle was a very common and widespread American species, the Convergent Ladybeetle, Hippodamia convergens.

The braconid, called Perilitus coccinellae at the time, parasitised the beetle with only a single wasp larva within. When it became time for the wasp to emerge, it actually tied the ladybeetle's feet to its own cocoon. The ladybeetle remained alive. The way this works is very involved. Orange insects, like Monarch butterflies, many wasps and beetles and large numbers of bugs (Hemiptera) advertise to vertebrate predators that they are distasteful, toxic or lethal. Vertebrates of all sorts-lizards, birds, frogs and some mammals avoid dealing with orange insects. This may be a learned avoidance or could be genetic.

In the case of the ladybeetle, the plot thickens. The ladybeetle remained alive during the time the wasp was completing its development within. When danger threatened, the ladybeetle opened its wings seemingly protecting the cocoon beneath it from harm. Following the emergence of the wasp, the beetle either dies or wanders away. 

Look carefully (click to enlarge the photo) and you can see that the ladybeetle's legs are attached to the wasp's cocoon beneath it. The beetle has bee there for some time as you can see from the faeces attached to its posterior.

NOTE

Our friends Ms Bridgett Gower has come up with the name of the caterpillar. It is Iscadia inexacta and was featured in this blogspot some years ago: https://bunyipco.blogspot.com/2012/11/rearings.html. Bridgette reports that the white sacks are not uncommon on Bleeding Heart trees and her nephew calls them "sackapillars". She has provided this photo:

Iscadia inexacta 

B. Gower photo

You can visit her website: https://aussiemacrophotos.com/

A Real Weirdo

 

If you observed this creature on a leaf at night you might dismiss it as snail or a slug and move on. But look more closely.

Note the legs (prolegs) which would certainly not be present on a snail or slug.

Also the "head" is not the head but actually the tail. The head of the caterpillar is concealed by the "balloon"at the other end. 

So what is this creature? A check of the Australian Caterpillar website managed by Don Herbison-Evans reveals it is a nolid moth, Chora sp, probably plana Warren. The adult moth is rather plain and inconsequential. A related species can be seen on Buck Richardson's website: Moth Identification. 

The caterpillars have been found on Golden Penda, Xanthostemon chrysanthus and Blake Paperbark, Melaleuca quinquinerva. This one was photographed at Cattana Wetlands, a lowland rehabilitated, natural open marshy area that is being revegetated with trees, shrubs and other plants that were there prior to clearing for sugarcane. If you are in the Smithfield, Queensland area, a stop at Cattana is well worthwhile. The variety of birds is amazing and you can observe an important agricultural area being changed back to its original appearance.

Thanks to Mikey (Kudo Hidetoshi) for helping with this post.

Incredible!

 Allen Sundholm conveyed this image of a Jewel Beetle Castiarina maculicollis found by Robert Richardson near Goonoo Goonoo, New South Wales. 

Castiarina mculicollis A. Sundholm photo

This beetle appears to be a classic example of Mullerian Mimicry. The beetle resembles at least three species of diurnal cockroaches in the genus Ellipsidion. The geographic range of the beetle coincides with that of the cockroaches.  

Ellipsidions are cockroaches that look like anything but cockroaches. They are gaudy, brightly coloured and active mostly during the day. Their bright colours and patterns stand out. They can frequently be found on flowering plants such as Eucalyptus, Acacia or smaller shrubs and forbs. The beetle is also active during the day and Jewel Beetles frequently found on flowers.

The cockroaches mingle with the bees, wasps, beetles and other insects that visit the flowers. Insects with bright orange colours, such as those found in coccinellid beetles (lady beetles), cantharid beetles some flies and a host of moths are avoided by vertebrate predators such as lizards and birds. Chemicals incorporated in the bodies of these insects render them toxic. Young birds quickly learn to avoid lady beetles, for example, after their first encounter.

The Castiarina beetle seems to be uncommon (personal suggestion by A. Sundholm). This is one of the defining features of a Mullerian Mimicry system. That is, several members are toxic and a few others are not toxic but present in numbers much less than those of the others. If the non-toxic examples became more common than those that are toxic, the scheme would not work.

Of course, the geographic ranges of model and mimic have to overlap at some stage otherwise what is the point? In the case of the Castiarina beetle, it has been found in inland New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland. One of the Ellipsidion cockroaches, the Western Ellipsidion, E. australe Saussure has a fairly broad range extending across the top of Australia from the Northern Territory across to Cape York, central and southern Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria Rentz, 2014. Therefore, several of these cockroaches overlap in their distributions with that of the beetle.

Here are some examples of the cockroaches:

Ellipsidion australe Saussure

This species seems the closest match to the beetle. Note the dark legs and the antennae, the latter of which are black to the tip. C. Rowan photo

This is the Beautiful Ellipsidion Ellipsidion simulans Hebard. Note the antennae that are lighter towards the tip. This apparently gives the allusion that the antennae are shorter than they really are. The yellow cerci and reddish legs are not shared with the beetle.

Common Ellipsidion Ellipsidion humerale Hebard, or, perhaps, an undescribed species. This cockroach has the more pronounced difference in the antennae but lacks the dark spot present in the centre of the thorax found on the beetle and other roaches. The yellowish cerci are not shared by the beetle.  D. Knowles photo

Tableland Ellipsidion Ellipsidion gemmiculum Hebard is a small species, often found in numbers feeding on grass seed heads during the day in full sunlight. It has few characters shared with the beetle.

To a vertebrate predator on the move the range of colours and patterns in Ellipsidion might just be a reinforcement to move on and avoid these orange critters, large and tempting that they may be but they could result in an unpleasant episode.

Thanks to Allen Sundholm and Robert Richardson and D. Knowles and C. Rowan for the photos which can also be seen in the Cockroach Guidebook.

Literature

Rentz, DCF 2014. A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia. CSIRO Publications, Pp. 1-318, Collingwoood, Vic.,