Apis mellifera
Tag: insect
Diapheromera femorata
I’ve never seen such a little stick insect before. It looked like a scrap of hay.
Pepsis mildei
Fun times with the nature journal club. Turns out that adult tarantula-hawk wasps eat milkweed nectar, when they’re not catching tarantulas and laying their eggs in the paralyzed bodies. How sweet.
Ammophila aberti
Last journaled here.
Hyles lineata
Save the caterpillar? Or save the plant? What would you do?
leptoglossus
Tipuloidea
This morning there was a crane fly on the outside of the window, allowing me a view of its ventral side. Interestingly, it had another teensy insect on its leg — it was so small that I couldn’t tell if it was tangled or what. Was it a baby crane fly? How big are they when they metamorphose into adults?
In some places, crane flies are called mosquito hawks or “skeeter-eaters,” despite the fact that they don’t prey on adult mosquitoes or other insects. Adults have a lifespan of 10 to 15 days. The larvae of crane flies are commonly known as leatherjackets, and usually feed on decaying plant matter.
Crane flies first emerged in the Middle Triassic period, approximately 245 million years ago, making them one of the oldest known groups of flies. To date, scientists have described over 15,500 species across more than 500 genera.
glass house mountains
The Glass House Mountains are a group of thirteen hills that rise sharply from a plain on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The mountains lie within the traditional lands of the Jinibara and Gubbi Gubbi people. First Nations Australians hold a rich legend surrounding these mountains, with Mt Beerwah being especially significant as the “mother” of the range.
Both Indigenous groups request that visitors refrain from climbing Beerwah and Tibrogargan out of respect for their sacred importance, a call they have voiced publicly since the mid-1990s, to little avail. In Gubbi Gubbi tradition, climbing Mt Beerwah is believed to bring bad luck.
My daughter and I did not climb Mt Tibrogargan—we circumnavigated its base, and saw some really cool invertebrates, flowers, and birds, as well as views of more distant mounts.
Pulchriphyllium pulchrifolium
What a beauty! In fact, the scientific name translates as “Beautiful foliage, beautiful leaf”. There are 80+ extant species in the Phylliidae family, ranging from as far east as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, throughout the Australasian region, to as far west as Fiji in the Southern Pacific. They are some of the most remarkably camouflaged mimics in the animal kingdom. A leaf insect doesn’t just look like its habitat; when it walks, it rocks back and forth, mimicking a real leaf being blown by the wind. And its eggs look like seeds. Amazing.
Stenopelmatini
We discovered a Jerusalem cricket exoskeleton. Given the opportunity to sketch it from any angle, I decided to draw its ventral (under) side. Thanks to Trisha from Insectopia, I can name a few insect parts!
Jerusalem crickets have hypognathus heads, which means their mouthparts point down. That pointy bit at the bottom of the head is the mouth. The palps are little ‘mouth fingers’ that help push food into their maw.
We’ve been seeing these big guys a LOT of late, in the house, in the yard, and out on the trails. They are not venomous, but they have strong mandibles and can inflict a painful bite. They also emit a foul odour if distressed. For these reasons, I don’t usually handle live ones, so it was a treat to have this molt to examine closely.
hashiworks 