ANPS does the plants and insects of Burra

On 2 November the ANPS Wednesday Walkers visited three areas around the locality of Burra (broadly defined - the third spot might be considered as Williamsdale, or even in the ACT!).  There were a lot of flowers, birds and invertebrates around!!

I will begin by noting that most of the country was based upon granite in contrast to the sandstone of some recent posts.

I will also get my bird image for today out of the way.  A flock of Noisy Miners serenaded us while we dined at the Burra Community hall.

I ended up recording some 28 species for the day which will appear in due course on the ANPS website.  The majority of these were recorded on the first site, Crown Land opposite the now defunct waste transfer site on Burra Road.

I will start with the 'pure' plant images (in most cases) and follow with some showing plants and insects.

Clematis microphylla (a female plant also known for obvious reasons as Old Man's Beard.

 Brachyscome willisi, the Royalla (or possibly Burra) Daisy

  Calotis scabiosifolia

 The seed of Dodonaea viscosa (an associated beetle appears below).

 Eucalyptus rubida with guests.

 While Goodenia sp are quite common I don't recall seeing Goodenia pinnatifida elsewhere.

I am sure that this Linum marginale has caused me much head scratching in the past as it looks rather like a number of other flowers although this  species has slightly less petals.

 A very beautiful Lotus australis

Now we get to the orchids, beginning with 3 species of Diuris (D chryseopsis, D pardina and D sulphurea)

 Then we dive into mini-greenhoods.  This is Hymenochilus cycnocephala - note the 'T' shaped attachment on the labellum.  (H. muticus was also seen, but not by me.)

 Podolepis jaceoides

 Stackhousia monogyna

 A big part of the day was to find the Swainsonas in the second and third areas. The first image shows the rare S. recta while the second, with the florets grouped at the end of the stalk is S. sericea

At the third site Velleia paradoxa was encountered.  It is a member of the Goodenia family which explains the similarity to the genus Goodenia.

 The native violets (Viola betonicifolia) were evident at all of the sites.

The next bunch of images are primarily of the insects, but most include some plant material as well.

A native bee was investigating a bluebell (Wahlenbergia sp)

 Plant material is a little thin in this image of a Bee-fly, possibly Comptosia rubrifera.

 While I dislike the Cabbage White butterfly (Pieris rapae) for its habit of letting its larvae massacre our brassicae, this one slurping nectar from a Leucochrysum seems to be fairly harmless!

 Almost as soon as we arrived at the first site we saw many of this iridescent beetle feeding on Dodonaea viscosa.

 I will finish with a twofer.  On the left is a small grasshopper identified by Roger as Keyacris scurra which was my target for the image.  In the centre of the flower is a case moth, a pure bonus!