On the second day of Spring and after 33 mm of overnight rain which came from nowhere, I photographed 3 moths new to the album, a good haul at any time, which Peter Hendry promptly identified. One was a many-plumed moth which has six feather-like fronds on each fore and hind wing. The three previous plume moth species in the album all fold their fronds in the shape of a tightly rolled umbrella. This species fully spreads its wings like a geometrid moth. Various websites quote its wingspan as 1 cm, though the one I photographed could have been up to 1.5 cm. There were plenty of moths attracted by the rain at the garage.
Once again, Driscoll Lane yielded its bounty. Once again, I didn’t have my camera with me on this morning’s walk. I caught sight of a tiny, brilliant white, moving object on the metal handrail. It resembled a scale insect, but was a different shape. I collected my camera and found the insect still on the rail. The first series of photos had too much zoom and weren’t sharp. I returned for a second attempt and turned down the zoom. Unfortunately, the closest shot, while sharp enough, is not centered. PS The next day, my favourite entomologist, who has helped me for years, identified the insect as a mealybug ladybird larva. The brilliant white is caused by a waxy secretion which makes the larva resemble its mealybug prey. The larvae grow to a length of 14-15 mm, the ladybird is up to 6 mm long.
We have had a spell of mild weather in an otherwise cold winter, which brought out a pink-tongued lizard from its unexpected abode, the roof of the garages at my unit block. The next time I looked, it was no longer there. A little later it had re-appeared. It was the brown form, unusual for this species, which typically looks like its close relative, the blue-tongued lizard, with its black and grey banding. The species is quite large, growing to an overall length of 45 cm. It is found in coastal regions from mid New South Wales to the Cairns region in Far North Queensland. I caught sight of its pink tongue only once during 15 minutes or so, of watching it. It looked as if it was re-growing its tail.
I received a prompt reply to the email I sent this morning, from the mycologist who has identified numerous fungi over the years. It is ages since I have photographed or filmed fungi, (in March 2019 actually), but yesterday, as I set off on my walk, I noticed a bracket fungus on a small piece of broken off branch. It was in the park, on the other side of the road in front of my home. So I went inside to retrieve my camera. The email identified the fungus to genus. It contains 41 species which are widely distributed, especially in tropical regions.
Last night, Steve and I put together four new videos, which were uploaded to Vimeo and this morning I completed all the taxonomic, descriptive and admin information and selected the thumbnails. The videos brought the total to 577. Two are about the mountain’s stinging trees and fill a gap in the record. The videos were added nine months after the previous group of five and more than two years after the 550th, proof that filming has taken second place to book publishing and sales.
For the first time in ages, I selected frames from new time-coded footage which I collected from Steve last week. The two-and-a-quarter hours I had accumulated between September last year and February this year will only yield a paltry forty seven frames and three new videos. Namely, of giant and shiny leaf stinging trees, an Australian bag moth larva – an additional species, ditto a potter wasp and her peculiar antics. Regrettably, the footage of a tawny frogmouth adult and two chicks in a nest, of a lewin’s honey eater nest, and of a paper wasp nest, did not improve on existing material.
On my walk, I noticed a construction on the picket fence in Driscoll Lane. It was about two inches long, consisting of a spray of leaves, skewered on what looked like a twig encrusted with wood shavings. By this evening I had confirmation that this was built by the leaf case moth larva, making it the sixth such species in my album and the third seen for the first time on the picket fence. The caterpillar creates a silken sheath, encrusted with bits of leaf and twigs.
An exchange of emails with Peter Hendry, about a moth I photographed at the garage on 7.3.21 concluded today. Peter originally thought the moth possibly belonged to the genus Tineidae. I sent Peter photos of two similar moths taken previously and, after consulting a lepidopterist friend, Peter agreed with him that all three moths are different species of the genus Philobota, a very rewarding result, even if they could not be identified to species level.
Today, Peter Hendry confirmed that a moth I photographed yesterday was a new species of moth for my album, and one he has not seen. There have been a marked number of such finds since the owner reinstated the old light bulbs in late January. The newfangled previous bulbs proved unattractive to moths.
This evening I had dinner with Steve and Paulina and delivered a memory card with over two hours of new footage for Steve to download and time code, covering the period from 20 September last year to February 1 this year.