MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY ECOLOGY GROUP--CONTINUED

 SOME OF THE CREATURES ENCOUNTERED DURING THE WEEK

AT THE 

DAINTREE RAINFOREST OBSERVATORY

CONTINUED

Photos by David Rentz and Buck Richardson

Remember: Click on the photo to enlarge

                                       

                                                                Heading to the Study Site.

Sorting the catch

A rainforest Grasshopper, Desmoptera truncatipennis

A Water Strider, family Gerridae

A Longicorne beetle, family Cerambycidae

The dreaded Orchid Butterfly. The caterpillars are death to the flowers of certain orchids.

A rainforest cockroach, Rhabdoblatta sp.

Methana curvigera, female with egg case. A common rainforest cockroach

                                    The Pandanus Cockroach, Megamareta phaneropyga 

            The Pandanus Cockroach, Megamareta phaneropyga on Pandanus. The feeding mark is made by                                     the Peppermint Stick Insect.

A female gryllacridid, Chauliogryllacris acaropenates

A female nymph of a different gryllacridid, Xanthogryllacris punctipennis. Gryllacridid nymphs always have the ovipositor recoiled on the top of the abdomen. With the final moult, the ovipositor becomes straight as in the adult female above.

A last instar female Mastigaphoides tuberculatus- a common understorey katydid

Acauloplacella queenslandica.second last instar nymph. Also a common inhabitant of the rainforest understory.

Tailed Emperor Polyura sampronius

Beetle Rhipiphoridae, Trigonodera sp

Dichomeris ochreoviridella 

Anomis sp

Antitrygodes parvimacula 

Banisia myrsusalis thyridid 

crambid

Crocanthes sidonia 

Cryptophasa sp

geometer 

hawkmoth

hawkmoth

Homona sp 

Hypena gypsospila 

Meliattha sp 

Mocis trifasciata

Neostauropus viridiissimus 

odd crambid

Palpita annulata 

Syntonarcha iriastis 

Unknown

Utetheisa sp

A Red-Bellied Blacksnake takes a peak from its lair in a rockpile. It was a bit too close to the student quarters and had to be moved.

The snake was not aggressive and was placed in a bucket and moved to another spot where it would not be a threat to students and staff.

A Carpet Snake, a python, abroad at night.

Melbourne University Ecology Group

 MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY 

ECOLOGY GROUP

For the first time in three years the Ecology Group was able to leave Victoria and venture to the far north for a week-long experience in the world's oldest tropics. Some 46 undergraduate students attended and each were assigned to a "group" that had a special topic they had to address over the 6 days they were together.

The students were housed at the Daintree Research Observatory operated by James Cook University.  Full accommodation and catering were provided and laboratory facilities were made available. You can view the site on: https://www.flickr.com/photos/naturenoises/albums/72157636164246673

Highlights are provided below.

Group Reports

At least two groups reported daily

Display of some insects the occurred in either the edge or within the rainfoirest

                                        In the laboratory

Learningto "stuff" a katydid!

THE FOOD

Rachel, the Chef, is a remarkable person. She produced three meals a day for 50 people without any help and without any dramas. Wonderful.

Anyone for Eggs Benedict?

                                                                                Meal time

The Boss!

Prof Mike Kearney

The Big Boss

Simon Biggs, Vice Chancellor James Cook University

    THE STUDENTS

THE INSTRUCTORS

DRAMA

One afternoon desperate "screaming" was heard from the rainforest. After a bit of searching a Striped Possum was discovered in the entrance of a tree-hole. A few centimetres away was the head of a large python. The possum was apparently attempting to call its mates for help, but to no avail. The pair was observed for more than 12 hours. Well after midnight the observers decided it was time to go to bed. When they returned in the morning, they found the python with the possum in its coils. There was considerable sympathy among the students on the side of the possum. Fortunately, Michele had a large number of Stripe Possum Tee-shirts in her shop and she just about sold out to sympathetic students.

You can just make out the head of the possum in the tree-hole and the python to the right. This was more than 10m from the ground.

TO BE CONTINUED