Invertebrates still around in March

There are still quite a few invertebrates around although the weather has taken a definite swing towards Autumn (a couple of mornings have been cool enough for me to think it has swung past Autumn and gone straight to Winter).  I will begin with a game of "Spot the Spider" - and I suggest arachnophobes hit page down a few times!

Had I not seen it scamper into position I would probably not have noticed it or if I had would have assumed it was well dead and dessicated.  It is lurking on a dried out Helichrysum flower.  This second image highlights some parts of the spider.

Before I came along and disturbed it it was engaged in feasting on a dragonfly which it had trapped in a rudimentary web.

One of the reasons I have become interested insects is the great array of shapes and colours which they have adopted.  This one was walking around on a concrete path, not looking at all happy.  I suspect it is a Braconid Wasp.

Sticking with beasts with long legs, the next image is of a crane fly (I think).  Large numbers of them are 'roosting' in the moist crevices of rocks along Whiskers Creek.  This one was a little further from the Creek, lurking under a stump.  Again, a rather humid environment.

Heading back to Lepidoptera this rather colourful moth was enjoying the nectar from a Xerochrysum flower.

Swinging into the butterfly part of the Lepidoptera I found this attractive specimen sitting on a flowering bush (which I now think is a Buddleia or butterfly bush).  It reminded me somewhat of the Imperial Hairstreaks seen in ANBG but seemed a little different.

On consulting "The complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia" by Michael Braby I concluded that it was a Stencilled Hairstreak (Jaimenus ictinus) with a key point being the clarity of the white lines on the hindwing.  I have consulted a friend about this ID and he concluded that I was probably OK, but noted the need to look at food plants and species of attendant ants.  Which would be fine if it had been on one of the listed food plants and/or had ants present (and if I could identify the ants)!

I have included a third image to shown the pattern on the head: It isn't diagnostic, but does look nice.

While walking round the block on 14 March I did in fact find a bunch of ants attending to some insect larvae.

On peering closely one notes that the larvae are black and white.  This has led me to wonder if certain football clubs would like to change their nickname to "The Caterpillars'.  Otherwise, to make it easier to fit on a t-shirt, and for supporters of the club - who like short words - to remember, call themselves The Maggots (which most everyone else does anyway).

While arranging picnic chairs for a lunch (which due to the weather turned into an indoor lunch) I noticed this rather pretty caterpillar wandering up the back of one of them.  The white-tipped black 'horns' indicate the front end.

A second caterpillar was found dining on an Acacia dealbata.  This was one of the most mobile caterpillars I have ever found.  The following image is not great, but the other 10 were even more blurred due to the way it kept moving around!

Under the heading of "know thy enemy' here is an unattractive caterpillar of the unattractive Cabbage White butterfly.  It was in the process of finishing the demolition of a broccoli plant Possibly assisted in this endeavour by the many aphids also visible).

The next item is a ladybird (I think) which I found up the block. The general shape is correct for a ladybird but none of my usual sources have a picture of a ladybird of this colour pattern.

While looking for the next species, I came across some images of stink bugs that looked to share many of the attributes of the above.  Perhaps it isn't even a ladybird?  The next one was suspected of being a 'true bug' of the Hemiptera, but that far I haven't managed to track it down.  It was wandering about on a Lomandra leave.

Next we have a large brown Grasshopper which appeared on our deck one evening.  From the shape of the thorax I will say this might be a Gum-leaf grasshopper (Goniaea australasiae). Certainly there are plenty of dead gum leaves around for it to feed on and hide under!

Remaining in the grasshopper part of the Animal Kingdom Frances squeaked one evening as a rather large Peron's Tree Frog was disporting on our lounge window.  She turned of the indoor light so I could get the photo but the frog departed (on thinking about it, I suspect all I would have got was a reflection of the flash anyway).  I think that it had been attracted by a large group of medium sized green grasshoppers (possibly a Katydid, genus Conocephalus) that were also visiting the window.

A couple of days latter I was dumpnig off some surplus stuff at the donations bin of St Vncent de Paul in Queanbeyan and found the delivery chute had at least 20 'hoppers" lurking therein, and they looked just like this one.

This post has got a tad long so I have now followed the example of March and started a second invertebrate post.