The House(s) of Fran_mart

You know it is getting towards Summer when interesting moths appear.  This one was sitting on our bedroom floor this morning, after a spell on the pelmet. It was about 10cm across the wings. Starting with a scan through Zborowski and Edwards  got me the link to the   Catocalinae subfamily within Noctuidae and a run through Donald Hobern's images for that subfamily soon got me to  Dasypodia selenophora   with the intriguing vernacular name of "Southern Old Lady Moth".  Que? Towards the other end of the size bracket for insects, I went to check on the progress of a humungous Microtis sp and found it hadn't opened yet.  However a fruit fly was visiting.  Those familiar with the size of Microtis flowers will realise this fly is not a giant.  To assist the rest of you, the florets are about 3mm long, which makes the fly ~2mm in body. Later in the day some interesting birding happened.  A female Pallid Cuckoo had us confused when it flopped out of a tree on to the

On 29 October we headed off to Bango Nature Reserve a few kilometres North of Yass.  It is quite a large Reserve  and we only covered a small part of it, as shown by the yellow line in this snip from Google Earth. As soon as we got into the Reserve we were greeted by a host of golden Daffodils Yass Daisies. This is more typical of the bulk of the Reserve, although there were some very large trees. Our turning point was this rather spectacular gully. Other than the Ammobium craspedioides the major excitements of a floral nature were orchids.  The commonest species were Stegostyla moschata delivering a musky scent (referred to as 'hippy shop') to those - unlike me - with a functional sense of smell.  After many white not-Caladenias had been smelt when almost back at the cars I found this plant which is pretty obviously S. cucullata with the prominent purple labellum.  (And, I am advised, a pleasant perfume.) In the depths of the gully where we turned

I have previously discussed the name of this TSR in terms of its geography.  Wherever it is 6 miles from, it puts on a very good show of native flowers in Spring.  Here are a couple of panoramas. The first features Bulbine bulbosa , Craspedia variabilis and Podolepis jaceoides . This is primarily Podolepis jaceoides , many of them in bud form.  Plus a small dog which is allowed in a TSR.  The main business was various swathes of Asteraceae (I still reckon Compositae is a more descriptive name!)   Leucochrysum albicans tricolor in 1.5 colour forms! Coronidium scorpioides   Brachyscome rigidula (I couldn't get the leaves in focus: sorry)   Calotis scabiosifolia  (ditto) Fabaceae (the beans) were also well represented,   Dillwynia sericea .   Bossiaea buxifolia (leaves in image for once).   Pultenaea subspicata:  More leaves!    Velleia paradoxa  OK, it's bluebell time.  I will now go and wash my fingers out and get down to Wahlenbergias of