Early insects

Last year I became interested in the many different forms of insects that inhabit the area.  Previously I had tended to regard insects as forming three groups:

1. Things that ate/stung me;
2. Things that ate our fruit and vegetables; and
3. Things that were eaten by birds (finally a useful role)!

However I now appreciate them a little better.  As there are beginning to be some flowers around, and the temperature in increasing a few insects are beginning to appear.  Some even hang around long enough to be photographed.  I will start with two common ones.

 I don't know what the ants were doing in the flowers of the Acacia rubuda.  There were no aphids up there for them to 'farm' nor any obvious weeping sap.  Perhaps they were after nectar or pollen- after all they are Hymenoptera: the family of (inter alia) wasps and bees

The first moths are beginning to appear.  They seem to be very small ones: this one - which I will tajke a punt on being Ardozyga sp -  was lurking on Brachyscome dapehnoids.

The next two are larval stages (I think).  The first is clearly the famous "Spitfire" or Sawfly larvae.  The vernacular name comes, I think, from them exuding a highly concentrated burning substance resulting from them dining on Eucalypt leaves. Later in the season they are often encountered as heaving masses crawling along the ground.

This strange beast was found in my rock-turning foray.  I suspect it is (or perhaps was - it didn't seem very well) an antlion, which is the larval stage of a lacewing.

The family name for this group of lacewings is Myrmeleontidae which began with a segment reminding me of Murmillo - one of the classes of gladiator in the Roman games.  However Wikipedia advises that the name comes from Greek for ant and lion.  Perhaps the fighter was named after the insect?

I have come across this rather colourful caterpillar munching on some Acacia.  The egg from which this emerged must have been laid in - or at least survived through - some very cold weather.