More December arthropods

I felt my earlier post was getting a little unwieldy so have decided to start this second one.  the main cause of the excess images was a visit to a revegetation area where I found a heap of insects as well as some weeds.  There were at least two interesting fly species which didn't get imaged, in addition to what follows.

This first image is, I think, of Paropsisterna variicollis.  This appeared in the earlier post dining on grapevine.  Here a slightly different coloured beast is enjoying a Eucalyptus sp leaf.

 This next creature is a great example of the weird body-forms adopted by insects.  This is Rhinotia haemoptera, translating from the latin, a Red-winged weevil.  It is a member of the family Belidae and  mimics a Lycid Beetle.

 You should excuse me repeating myself again, already!  The next two images are of some of the hundreds of what I believe to be Diphucephala sp.  The first image shows a pair desperately seeking some privacy ..

 .. while the second image shows the little-photographed underside of the animal.

 Back to the weevils, I believe this next specimen to be Leptopius sp.  That genus is described in A Field guide to Insects in Australia as large in number of species, but there seem to be few easily accessed images of most members of the species within the genus.

 Dropping back to our vegie garden and other elements of the Coleoptera I have counted 14 spots on one side of this creature which would make it Epilachna vigintioctopunctata (ie the 28 spotted ladybird and a bad plant muncher).  It was found on a cucurbit leaf.

The next image was taken higher up in the block.  It is, I believe, Calomela maculicollis the Dotted-head Acacia Beetle.

 It certainly has a dotted head and is feeding on an Acacia dealbata!

The next image is a bit of a saga of life in the Silver wattle.  It appears the tree has got a touch of downy mildew in which a beetle has become trapped. I don't think the ants have turned up in the role of a rescue unit.  More like famine relief down in the ant heap.

The beetle may feel inclined to quote Ned Kelly "Such is life".  (This was also the title of a book by Joseph Furphy whose surname has become an idiomatic word for tall story - aka bullshit.)


there are a few members of the Lepidoptera around at the moment.  This one was resting (I don't think feeding) on a Verbascum, just before I dug it (ie the plant) out.

After some searching I have tentatively identified it as Telecrates melanogaster, even though I cannot see if its abdomen is black.  Thanks to the sites of Donald Hobern and Don Herbison-Evans/Stella Crossley for images and text which assisted in that.

I will take a punt on the next two being nymphs of  the Common Garden Katydid (Caedecia simplex) lurking in strawberry patches.

This next one I have no idea about.  I suspect it is an early instar (ie development stage) of something or another.

This is a fly!  I suspect it may be a member of the family Tachinidae, but there are 542 species in the family and on consulting a specialist site about the Diptera they had 840 images for the family.  A little too much to search through!

 This next one is I believe another shot of a Vine Moth, in this case feeding on a small flower.  This species continues to be annoying as it looks so like a butterfly but doesn't match anything in my butterfly book!

 I believe this to be an icheumenon wasp.  (I will deal out a passing small brickbat to 'Wasp Web' since it is not apparent when responding to a Google hit that it only relates to African wasps and thus of very little use in trying to identify Australian animals.)

 I think this is a beetle (Coleoptera) but have included the image because, when clicked on to enlarge, the hairiness of the animal becomes apparent.