But wait ... there are more invertebrates

... and some steak knives!!!
Possibly due to the warm weather there continue to be a diverse lot of insects around.  Interestingly, so far there have been very few Plague Soldier Beetles (Chauliognathus lugubris).

I will begin with butterflies, of which there have been both high numbers and  - by my standards - wide diversity.

The first is a Common Grass Blue enjoying a daisy rather than the grass ...
 .. and a Meadow Argus (ditto).
This rather tatty specimen is a Yellow Admiral female Common Brown- they are not frequent visitors to our garden and
  1. I thank Suzi for fixing up the ID, and 
  2. am really embarrassed by the mistake, especially in view of what follows..
Possibly part of the reason it is tatty is that it was getting attacked by a male Common Brown butterfly.  (The Admiral  female is on the bottom in this very poor quality snap).
A new butterfly for me (although rated in Michael Braby's book as very common) was Two spotted Line-blue.
Tiger moths are fairly common.  This one was found sitting in the road and Frances carried it home as an artistic subject.  To her surprise after she'd been carrying it for a while it perked up and started wandering around.
Staying with the moth family (of which butterflies are a subset) a woolly bear was encountered on Widgiewa Rd one morning.
A live grasshopper (Family Acrididae) was also found on the road on28 January.

Using the 'road' as a link we also found a Botany Bay Weevil on Whiskers Creek Rd.
I didn't want to leave it to get squashed but found it to have a rather firm grasp on the road chips.

Having got into Coleoptera (ie Beetles) here are some more.  This first one is a monster - about 50mm in length.  Surprisingly I couldn't definitely identify it, but one image from the Museum of Victoria suggested Temognatha variabilis (note species name) and brisbaneinsects commented that this species was the largest beetle they had seen.  So that is my working ID.


In another part of the same clump of Bursaria was a more colourful than usual Pintail Beetle.  I suspect it is Mordella leucostista.
The remaining photos are a miscellany, mainly showing the diverse shapes of insects.

Another species of beetle - I think some form of scarab - has been frequently seen running across the road on our morning dog walks.

Firstly a true bug Stilostethus pacificus.
Then another bug - probably a Shield bug os some type.

That oversubscribed taxon "Unidentified".  In this case I am not game to guess beyond Class level, but I am sure its an insect of some sort.
 I am sure this is a dipterid (only two wings), and possibly a Bee-fly.
This is a Greenbottle - possibly Rutilia sp.

Another fly, but from the Order Mecoptera in this case a Hanging Fly - possibly Harpobittacus  sp.
A damselfly - rather unlurid for this family, but it has its wings folded along its back.
Just to keep the arachnophobes on their toes here is a colourful member of the Areneidae (Orb-weavers).

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