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.