Bug Blog

A certain professor and a colleague have been calling for "more bugs" on the blog so here goes. Firstly for the non-entomological types, especially the North Americans, all insects are not "bugs" but all bugs are insects.

Simply put, a bug is an insect that has sucking, not chewing, mouthparts and has gradual metamorphosis. When winged, the forewing is divided, half is membranous, the other half is hardened.
They are members of the order Hemiptera (in the olde sense!)

So here goes, tropical bugs.

 Coreidae: Sciophyrella australicus

 Largidae: Physopelta gutta

 Alydidae: Riptortus sp.

 Undetermined bug with newly hatched bug-lings

 Reduviidae: Harptacorinae: Euagorus dorycus  feeding on another bug

 Reduviidae: Pristhesancus plagipennis sharing caterpillar food with ants

 Note the beakwork

 After feeding, the ants continue the mop up.

 Tessaratomidae: Cumare pallida. Tessaratomids are bugs that look after their eggs an young. See the detailed study by Monteith below for details. A very interesting group in Australia.

Tessaratomidae: Lyramorpha parens. We have dealt with this one before. 

 Tessaratomidae: Lyramorpha parens guarding young.

 Probably Pentatomidae: Bromocoris souefi, a nymph but it could be a pentatomid as well.

Reduviidae: Harpactacorinae, undetermined genus, perhaps Helonotus

Pyrrhocoridae: Dindymus sp mating

 Pyrrhocoridae: Dindymus sp. Slight different colour morph.

 >Pentatomidae: nymph on Grass Tree, Xanthorrhoea  at night

 Pentatomidae: Poecilometis eximus mating on Grass Tree


Thanks to Tom Weir and G. Cassis for help with the identifications. Any errors are not theirs.

Literature

Monteith, G. B. 2006. Maternal Care in Australian oncomerine shield bugs (Insecta, Heteroptera, Tessaratomidae). Denisia 19, zugliech Kataloge der OO, Landesmuseen Neue Serie 50: 1135-1152.

Night Walk On The Mt Lewis Road

It's autumn in the tropics. This means reduced rainfall and slightly cooler temperatures. The thing that impresses me is how quickly the season changes and the effect it has on the biota. It seems like in a matter of a couple of weeks, numbers crash and species disappear from the scene.

A walk on the lowers slopes of Mt Lewis, near Julatten, yielded a few insects, but in general, there was not much about.

 Allacta australiensis Roth: Ectobiidae; Pseudophyllodromiinae. This blattodean is found only on tree trunks. It lives in cracks in the bark during the day and emerges at night. It occurs from Cooktown south to the Babinda region including the Atherton Tableland.

 Beybienkoa fuscofemurifera Roth: Ectobiidae; Blattellinae. This species has a rather restricted known distribution with specimens from the Daintree Region and Mt Lewis.

Anaplecta calosoma Shelford): Ectobiidae; Anaplectinae. This is a small roach, measuring a little over 5 mm in length. Misidentified in the first instance. I'm surprised no one picked up on this!

 Amusurgus minmirri Otte and Alexander: Gryllidae: Trigonidiinae; Trigonidiini. Two members of the same genus found on weedy vegetation on the road after dark. Normally they spend the day in leaf litter.

 Amusurgus tinka Otte and Alexander: Gryllidae; Trigonidiinae; Trigonidiini.

 Trigonidium sp. Gryllidae; Trigonidiinae; Trigonidiini.  This may represent a new species

 Mjobergella sp. Gryllidae; Landrevinae; Landrevini. Lives on the forest floor.

Genus? Gryllacrididae. Note the checkered patach at the base of the fore wings.

The Raspberry Sawfly, Philomastix macleaii, on its host. For more on Sawflies, have a look.

 The business end of a Click Beetle, Elateridae

 A Rove Beete, Actinus macleayi, Staphylinidae; Staphylininae

 Head shot

 A Darkling Beetle, Tenebrionidae, probably Promethisis sp.

An anthelid moth before it's a moth!

It Must Be Snake Season

We have seen more snakes in the past few weeks than at anytime during the summer. It is a rather warm autumn but this seems unusual to me.

The Green Tree Snake, Dendrolaphis punctulata, can reach 2m in length. This fellow was less than that, about 80cm in length; It is a diurnal snake and feeds on frogs, small reptiles and some mice. It's an egg layer and is harmless, though a bit feisty when annoyed. It is one of the few members of the Colubridae that we have. Most of the baddies are in the Elapidae.

Even during the day you must be careful where you place your hands!

Now That's a Snake

There are some hazards in being a student. This snake was found on the Smithfield Campus of James Cook University. It is an Amethystine Python, a male, and makes the one observed at my place (seen below) a Vinegar Eel by  comparison.

 Gary Wilson photo

Gary Wilson Photo

Fellow Traveller

The Asian House Gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, is a common commensal with those of us living in the tropics. It has a much more extensive range than the tropics. It has been recorded from every Australian state and is widespread in the tropical world, being moved around by commerce. The first known occurrence of this lizard in Australia was in 1845. This gecko lives insides homes and is often tolerated because it feeds on unwanted insects and spiders and is a bit of a curiosity. They produce a characteristic call that is audible from several metres. It is not the only gecko that produces sound, however. Many geckos are vocal.

This Asian House Gecko is carrying a number of parasitic mites. These are probably Red Gecko Mites, Geckobia bataviensis, a species that lives on the toes of geckos and that can transmit disease.

Asian House Geckos live inside and outside the house but don't seem to venture very far into nature. Predators probably take their toll. Many people see them like this clinging to a window awaiting insects attracted to to the lights from within. (Sorry about the photos, folks. It's hard to get close to these guys)

But how do geckos cling to ceiling, walls, glass etc? Aristotle was taken with the mechanism but he did not discover the real mechanism. In fact, it was only relatively recently that the true explanation has come to the fore. Geckos have millions of fibres on the pads of their feet.  Each has a minute suction cup at the tip. In combination they have the power to hold the lizard to its substrate. But then how do they detach themselves? Apparently it's as simple as simultaneously changing the angle of the suction cup and the pads detach. Commerce has produced a new adhesive utilising the technique of millions of fibres that can attach to any substrate, smooth or rough.

This is a very young Asian House Gecko. Females lay eggs in drawers, between cushions in sofas or in any number of concealed spots. Two eggs are laid in each clutch. If successful, the Asian House Gecko can live for about five years. But in the house they face a multitude of problems including lack of food and water, desiccation, cats and the most efficient predator of all-- the vacuum cleaner!

Rat Patrol

Well it's that time of year again when things cool down a bit and the rats become active. So do the pythons.
We heard a commotion the other morning just on dawn and observed this big, thick  Amethystine Python making a beeline for someplace in particular. He had a cadre of birds and a Brush Turkey in tow but got to a tree and gingerly crawled up at a pretty good rate for such a big snake (more than 3m in our estimation) It chose a flimsy branch and stretched out and crawled on our roof. After that our vision was obscured--probably fortunately! He probably was heading for his favourite winter spot in the roof or was able to smell "rats". In any case, he(or she) just seemed to disappear-all in the space of about 5 minutes.

 Heading to our house

 A rather well fed individual

The iridescence gives the Amethystine is name

A Couple Of Snakes

After reading Crash's blog with all his Garden Guests I wondered why we hadn't seen any snakes for a while. Then two appeared within a week or so.

 This is a Slaty-grey Snake, Stegonotus cucullatus. This one was a little over three quarters of a metre in length. Slaty-greys are members of the family Colubridae, the same family to which many harmless North American snakes belong like the Gopher Snake, Racers and the like. This snake is harmless and a bite is not dangerous. This snake was abroad at night during a heavy rainstorm. It was probably searching for reptiles like House Geckos that run along the sidings.

The Slaty-grey did not react to my presence and I left it to go about its business.

Then came this little fellow. This one measured less than a foot in length and was very thin. It is apparently a Small-eyed Snake, Rhinoplocephalus nigrescens. It had taken up residence under a rubber matt that had an escape crack to a rock garden. This snake is a different matter when it comes to danger. It is a member of the Elapidae, the family to which the Brown Snake, Tiger Snake and many many other Australian snakes belong. This little snake is dangerous and can deliver a potentially fatal bite. It seemed to like its position under the matt where it could also feed on small lizards. I waited until it was cool and then swept it into a bug net and relocated it alongside a log a considerable distance from the house.

The take-home message in all of this is that with Australian snakes it is often difficult to tell whether you have a harmless creature or one that could send you to the hospital. The best solution is just to leave them alone and they will be on their way. If one enters the house, the police department can provide access to local "snake removers" who will come and remove the snake at no cost and relocate it to where it will not cause any harm.

Thanks to Michael Cermak and Peter Shanahan for help with the identifications.