Grasslands II

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Still hot and still humid the grasslands have benefited from all the rain. An explosion of plant life has meant more food for the insects. Insects not only eat the plant leaves, as in the one and only food source for the very picky caterpillars, but they also could be vine chewers or flower petal munchers. The myriad of random stalks; the many stemmed small shrubs and snaking and undulating vines also provide a safe haven for the small insects and a safe platform to attach a cocoon. Now that the grasses have started to dry out, they are providing seeds on the stalk or swirling pools of seeds on the ground for all the winged seed eaters to feast on. Not to mention the winged predators looking for a slow flying insect to feast on.
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Blue Argus Junonia orithya albicincta Caterpillar
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Blue Argus Junonia orithya albicincta Caterpillar
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Blue-banded Eggfly Hypolimnas alimena
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Blue Argus Junonia orithya albicincta cocoon
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Chestnut-breasted Mannikin Lonchura castaneothorax
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Blue Argus Junonia orithya albicincta inside
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Common Grass-blue Zizina labradus outside mating
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Clearwing Swallowtail Cressida Cressida caterpillar

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Cullen badocanum Larva Food for Chequred Swallowtail
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Fruit Piercing Moth Othreis materna caterpillar
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Fruit Piercing Moth Othreis materna caterpillar
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Galah Cacatua roseicapilla

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Golden-headed Cisticola Cisticola exilis Juv
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Blue -winged Kookaburra Dacelo leachii

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Macroptilium atropurpureum
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Moth Periopta diversa
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Wild Passionfruit Passiflora foetida
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Season of the Gomphrena

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The local hilltops and dried up seep streams have seen a profusion of white, red and blue Gomphrena and bluish-white Spermacoce calliantha come into flower and take advantage of a sunny and mostly grassy rather than shrubby ecosystem. I have also seen two or three types of moths and butterflies attracted to these plants. Not many Eucalyptus are in the flowering mode but I came across some low hanging Mistletoe which is almost ready to bloom in their Eucalypt havens.
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Gomphrena flaccida
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Chequred Swallowtail Papilio demoleus
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Chequred Swallowtail Papilio demoleus
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Clearwing Swallowtail Cressida Cressida
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Glasswing Acraea andromacha
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Glasswing Acraea andromacha
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Orange Tiger Danaus genutia

feeding on Gomphrena sp.

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Evening Brown Melanitis leda wet season form
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Forest Watcher Huonia melvillensis
Feeding on Utethesia sp.

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Unidentified Apocrita
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Mistletoe Amyeman sanguineum var. pulchrum
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Happarana sp. Catantopini
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Cockroach Ellipsidion sp. nymph
feeding on Crotalaria goreensis

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On DollarBird Pond

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The wet season is drawing slowly to a close. The ground is still soaked. The Paperbarks are finishing their flowering. Humidity and stillness are partners in my morning walks. I haver been reading Dilip Kumar Roy who even though was writing about a different part of the world seems to share some emotions with all walkers in much the same way.
“…For whom throng still the murmuring bees,
Restless amid the perfumed trees?
Whose memory thrills the impassioned breeze
And paints the magic skies?...”
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Abelmoschus moschatus ssp. tuberosus
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Sugarbag Bee Trigona sp.
feeding on
Abelmoschus moschatus ssp. tuberosus
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Glasswing Acraea andromacha andromacha Caterpillar
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Glasswing Acraea andromacha andromacha Cocoon
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Glasswing Acraea andromacha andromacha
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Antlion Adult Glenoleon radialis
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Apis mellifera
feeding on
Dimeria sp Grass
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Australian Hobby Falco longipennis Imm.
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Blue Moon Hypolimnas bolina
feeding on
Broad-leaved Paperbark Melaleuca veridiflora
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Citrine Threadtail Nososticta koongarra
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Coniaea sp. last instar nymph
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Crotalaria novae-hollandiaea
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Torresian Crow Corvus orru Nest Building
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Frilled Neck Lizard chlamydosaurus kingii Juv.
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Galah Cacatua roseicapilla
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Green Tree Ant Oecophylla smaragdina
harvesting
Utethesia sp. Butterfly
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Eucalyptus Alba

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Meadow Argus Junonia villida Inside
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Meadow Argus Junonia villida Outside
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PodSucking Bug Riptortis serripes
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Macroptilium atropurpureum
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White-gaped Honeyeater Lichenostomus unicolor Imm.
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The Next Generation Of Dollar Bird

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Last year I found a Dollar Bird pair had nested locally and raised a family. The males seems to come down from Indonesia around the end of the dry season, locate a pond and a suitable tree for nesting and then start advertising. The females come a bit later. The particular nesting area that I was aware of had been scorched by a bush fire and I wondered if they would relocate or find suitable accommodation in the same proximity. I wasn’t lucky enough to find the nest this year but flight training has started in earnest near their local pond in the breeding zone for their one offspring. They have an unmistakable blue and white patch on their wings which is very inspirining when you see them hawking for their grub.
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Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis Imm
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