Restart 2020:Afternoon Walks

It's been a while since my last meanderings, but I must start afresh as part of some resolution to talk or write more for my own satisfactions.

On my walk at the beach today and after Tropical Cyclone Claudia, I was amazed at the changes in beach topography. The whole zone  underwater at high tide was completely flat. Many of the quite deep channels were no longer present. This must affect the seashore birdies who I often saw hunting in those channels.

Also the vine forest adjacent to the beach is just starting to have a few flowers: such as the Wild Poinsettia Euphorbia heterophylla Euphorbiaceae & Wild Orange Capparis umbonata Capparaceae. At times the air is filled with intoxicating sent of the Native Jasmine Jasminum elongatum Oleaceae. A beautiful place to walk as well as educational.

Native Jasmine Jasminum elongatum Oleaceae

Wild Poinsettia Euphorbia heterophylla Euphorbiaceae

Wild Orange Capparis umbonata Capparaceae

Myrmecomorphy Ant Mimicry

In Batesian mimicry in insects, an edible insect looks similar to an aposematic, inedible insect. The inedible insect is called the model, and the lookalike species is called the mimic. Hungry predators that have tried to eat the unpalatable model species learn to associate its colors and markings with an unpleasant dining experience. The predator will generally avoid wasting time and energy catching such a noxious meal again. Because the mimic resembles the model, it benefits from the predator's bad experience.

Ant mimicry is mimicry of ants by other organisms. Ants are abundant all over the world, and insect predators that rely on vision to identify their prey such as birds and wasps normally avoid them, either because they are unpalatable, or aggressive. Therefore, some insects mimic ants to escape predation (protective mimicry).

Green Ants Oecophylla smaragdina are very numerous in the top end of the Northern Territory. Green Ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects (Hemiptera). These ants are highly territorial and workers aggressively defend their territories against intruders. Because of their aggressive behaviour, Green Ants are sometime used by indigenous farmers, particularly in southeast Asia, as natural biocontrol agents against agricultural pests.

Therefore it would be advantageous for an insect to mimic a Green Ant for defence against preditors who avoid Green Ants, as well as, as a defence against Green Ants themselves.

In this case, the pod-sucking bug Riptortis serripes (while an instar and lacking wings to escape) mimics the Green Ant Oecophylla smaragdina.

Green Ant Oecophylla smaragdina With Elateroid Beetle Porrostoma sp

Green Ants Oecophylla smaragdina With Leaf Beetle Phyllocharis sp.

Green Ants Oecophylla smaragdina With Tortoise Beetle HISPINAE Aspidimorpha deusta

Green Ants Oecophylla smaragdina With Tortoise Beetle HISPINAE Aspidimorpha deusta

Pod-Sucking Bug ALYDIDAE Riptortis serripes 3rd Instar Nymph (Green Ant Oecophylla smaragdina mimic)

Pod-Sucking Bug ALYDIDAE Riptortis serripes 3rd Instar Nymph (Green Ant Oecophylla smaragdina mimic)

Pod-Sucking Bug ALYDIDAE Riptortis serripes Adult

SANDSTONE & VINE FOREST JULY 2011 Part I

Since the changes brought about by the cooling of the Indian Ocean and the warming of the Pacific Ocean the weather has returned to a more familiar dry season “cool days and colder nights”. Because of the fast cold snap a month ago, most vegetation has dried out quickly and most birds have dispersed due of the tremendous amount of surface water still available from the two year La Nina rains. Basically it seems very quite compared to the recent high humidity and high monthly rainfall we have experienced each and every month.

For the first time in two years the ground seems brown instead of green yet most water ways are still flowing. I guess the birds need to spread out along the permanent water ways to earn a living as insects become harder to locate or take advantage of the grain still on the blades but mostly fallen to ground. The life cycles seem more normal at places where there is always spring fed water, but even there a lack of grasshoppers is very evident.

Acacia sp. Resin Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Anthela nicothoe Feeding On Acacia humifusa Sandstone Country

Bee Fly Ligyra septentrions Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Blowfly Stomorhina sp. Feeding on Carallia brachiata CloseUp Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Blowfly Stomorhina sp. Feeding on Carallia brachiata Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Blue Skimmer Orthetrum caledonicum Female Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Bluebottle - Chrysomya rufifacies Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Boerhavia sp.Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Boralba Creek Cascade Falls Basin Sandstone Country

Boralba Creek Cascade Falls Sandstone Country

Brown Leafhopper - Alotartessus iambe nymph Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Brown Leafhopper - Alotartessus iambe nymph Jumping Spider Mimicry Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Buchnera linearis R.Br. Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Calytrix megaphylla Sandstone Country

Chasmina candida Adult Moth Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Chasmina candida Cocoon Between Leaves Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Chasmina candida Larvae Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Colobathristid Bug Phaenacantha australiae Feeding On Pandanus spiralis CloseUp Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Colobathristid Bug Phaenacantha australiae Feeding On Pandanus spiralis Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Cyanthillium cinereum Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Dicliptera arnhemica Sandstone Country

Drywood Termite Possible TERMITIDAE sp. Upper Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Eucalyptus blesseri Resin Motor Car Creek Open Woodland Sandstone Country

SANDSTONE & VINE FOREST JULY 2011 Part II

Last year at this time I saw large flocks of Triller sp. Working in pairs to catch grasshoppers. One bird to scare them the other to catch them in the air. This year a few Friarbird sp. getting drunk on the Eucalyptus miniata (Darwin Woolybut) flower nectar which also did not flower for very long last year. The only other regular customer is the ever present Pardalote sp. which goes about its business never singing but with its constant repeating of a single note. With the cool weather and lack of reason to stop and investigate I have managed to walk further on day walks. Sometimes I have managed 25 Km in a day and a half even with regular waypoint checks or climbing a hill to get a better idea of the direction to the next ridge saddle.

Eurymelinae sp. Possible Ipoini Tribe Feeding on Acacia leptocarpa Attended by Oecophylla smaragdina Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Evening Brown Melanitis leda Dry Season Form Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Feral buffalo Bubalis bubalis Arnhem Highway Goymarr

Glasswing Acrea andromacha Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Glochidion xerocarpum Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Glossy Shield Bug - Cermatulus nasalis Nymph Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Gomphrena canescens Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Goodenia armstrongiana Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Grass Spearpoints Sandstone Country

Hibiscus sp Morning Bud Sandstone Country

Hibiscus sp Sandstone Country

Holly-leafed Pea-Flower Bossiaea bossiaeoides Sandstone Country

Holly-leafed Pea-Flower Bossiaea bossiaeoides Seed Pod Sandstone Country

Jumping Spider Cytaea sp Female Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Kambolgie Creek Dry CreekBed Sandstone country

Kambolgie Creek Flowing Sandstone Country

Kapok Bush Cochlospermum fraseri Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Lerp Construction of White Fibrous Resin By Lerp Insect - Glycaspis brimblecombei Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country

Lindernia plantaginea Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Lion's Tail Leonotis nepetifolia Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Lobelia quadrangularis R.Br Point Stuart Evergreen Vine-forests

Lower Motor Car Falls Outlier Sandstone Country

LYMANTRIIDAE sp Feeding On Hibiscus sabdariffa L. Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Mayfly EPHEMEROPTERA sp. Kambolgie Creek Sandstone Country

Morning Mist Burdulba Creek Sandstone Country

Motor Car Creek Lower Falls & Kolk Created Plucked-bedrock Pits Sandstone Country

Motor Car Creek Upper Falls Basin Sandstone Country

Neat Menetia Menetia concinna Motor Car Falls Sandstone Country