The second night shoot of the season in Palm Grove NP was petering out after a promising start, until Robyn spotted a cricket with a small body but inordinately long hind legs which I am pretty sure I have filmed before and Hugh spotted a large, very hairy caterpillar which was new to me. Not far away were two mating flies I also wanted to film with my PANCAM, which I was mysteriously unable to switch on, though there was sufficient battery life the last time I used it. This was the second equipment malfunction of the day. (I was working on the settings of the latest videos when my broadband suffered an outage. Telstra is sending a technician to my place tomorrow morning). We were not far from the entrance when I filmed a large trapdoor spider frozen on the path in mid prowl. Then, just inside the park I was lucky enough to film a pademelon perhaps 15 metres away amongst the vegetation. It was a female with joey, whose presence was revealed by its movement in the pouch. The pademelon sat quietly for several minutes before slowly moving deeper into the undergrowth. This was the first… Read Complete Text
The following email from Greg Edgecombe, sent in July this year, wonderfully highlights the intricacies of species identification. It concerns a House Centipede . Today (Sunday) I sought and received Greg’s permission to post it on my blog – all the more impressive because he is a paleontologist specialising in centipedes and Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. Previously he worked at the Australian Muesum in Sydney for 14 years. Greg was contacted by Bob Mesibov who is based in Tasmania and has helped me with centipede enquries.
Bob and Peter,
Scutigeromorph IDs based on photos are usually highly dubious and I would definitely put this one into that category. Determining a species requires at least staring at tergite 6 down a microscope at high magnification and working out the relationships of spines, bristles, hairs and whatnot. If there’s only one species known from a well-surveyed area you can stick your neck out a bit more confidently with a photo alone, but SE QLD harbours multiple species of pretty similar Thereuoneminae.
The name Allothereua maculata has been used for pretty much everything in Australia. It’s a Western Australian… Read Complete Text
We drew a blank last week on our first night foray of the new season, but tonight was a success on two counts. At Curtis Falls I at last obtained footage of the Catfish which I have unsuccessfully tried to film before. The vision was never clear, perhaps the water was too murky. There were up to 3 fish in the rock pool below what was no more than a trickle. Also at Curtis Falls, I filmed a Black-spotted Semi-slug on a rock with my PANCAM, obtaining much closer footage of the mollusc than with my Sony.
The potentially new semi-slug I filmed on our 100th night shoot (see 15 May) was confirmed in John Stanisic’s email today as Cucullarion parkini. This is the species he discovered in the Knoll in 1998, which is known to exist only on Tamborine Mountain and nowhere else on earth. It was my 3rd and best sighting. The first was in November 2011. All my sightings have been in Palm Grove.
From now on the plan is for the Pancam to be in my pocket when I take my morning walk, although opportunities will be restricted because it is the beginning of Winter. Today I filmed a very small moth on the garage. I would not have bothered to film it with my Sony camera. I also took a photo of the moth which filled the monitor. Taking photos (10 megapixels) is a new departure for me. It is so easy. Later I filmed a caterpillar on a fence and some mature and immature Shield Bugs of a type I had never seen before, on and near the trunk of a cycad in Driscoll Lane. Checking the footage this afternoon, I was impressed with the clarity and brightness of the images which are in full HD, ie 1920×1080, whereas the Sony films in 1440×1080 and cost nearly $6,000 in 2007. I returned to the cycad later in the morning with my Sony and tripod and filmed the Shield Bugs with the benefit of a dedicated view finder.
Mentioning to Hugh Alexander last week that the Gopro isn’t a suitable back-up camera, he pointed out that there were bound to be pocket sized cameras I can point and shoot at macro range. And so it proved when I collected some tapes for my Sony camera on Wednesday and checked out some small camcorders. I extended my enquiries the next day, comparing camcorders from 4 manufacturers. Steve agreed to meet me today to help assess which camcorder best met my requirements. The selection boiled down to a choice between two Panasonic camcorders. I ended up buying a V210M, a Manfrotto monopod, a Belkin HMDI cable, a 3 year extended warranty, all at a price over $100 lower than the top of the range Gopro. The camera has a 16 GB memory, but I am using a 16 GB card.
After being without my camera for 3 months during our Summer, I wanted to find out if a Gopro camera might provide suitable back-up equipment. Having borrowed a Gopro Hero 2 camera from a friend at the weekend, I dashed down to the highway the next day, bought a 16GB card and started to trial the camera in Driscoll Lane. I filmed insects on railings and tiny white flowers in a hedge, holding the camera a couple of inches or less away from my subject, then a bit further away, all the while unable to see what I was filming. Then I went to MacDonald National Park where I filmed some fungi, a strange dragonfly close to the ground, an ant and several walkthroughs, particularly featuring 2 huge adjacent Strangler Figs. The following day I filmed a couple of moths at the garage in Central Avenue and bought a cable so that I could view the clips on my computer. Gopros are ingenious miniature wide angle video cameras designed for people who want to film the world around them while they are on the move, on land, in the air or on and in water. I quickly discovered that… Read Complete Text
Our 100th night shoot was put back by a day because of rain. As it is close to the end of the season, I didn’t want to have to wait until September to bring up the century. I managed to assemble an ad hoc team for our visit to Palm Grove National Park. It was full moon. There was hardly any insect noise compared with the strong background chirping we heard 8 days ago in MacDonald National Park. We saw plenty of Giant Panda Snails and a couple of Pademelons, plus native cockroaches and various species of ant. The highlights were filming a semi-slug which may be the third species we have seen (confirmation awaits expert opinion in due course) and a Tawny Frogmouth sitting on a branch close to the path. I also filmed a leggy fly which did not look like a Crane Fly. The rain, which cut our walk short, relented just as we came upon the Frogmouth. We will keep the season going as long as there are creatures to film.
We are one short of 100 night shoots. Not surprisingly, I find that I am not shooting as much footage as I used to because fewer new subjects present themselves. A recent shoot did yield a beetle, Saw Fly larvae, a large black millipede, a Brown Lacewing eating a Crane Fly and a pair of mating Crane Flies. However the two most recent shoots each provided a unique gem. On 23 April I filmed a katydid eating a fungus perhaps 10 -12 cm high growing out of the rainforest floor.This evening, near the start of the circuit in MacDonald National Park I filmed a small snail. With a low battery in the camera and a fully charged battery left in the car, I was tempting fate to provide a highlight which I might not have been able to film. As luck would have it, we were on our way out of the park when we saw a cricket burrowing into the earth, something we had not seen before and I filmed it for several minutes until the battery ran out.
A stranger, who turned out to be a delightful man in his late eighties, phoned me today alerting me about Rose Robins attracted to a tree outside his bedroom window. Seeing as many as 4 or 5 at a time was new to him, since one usually sees a solitary bird. I timed my visit for late afternoon and was rewarded with a lone female who posed in full view instead of flitting about. Years ago I was taken by surprise by a Rose Robin at my favourite bird bath. It didn’t hang around long enough for me to get clear footage.