Insects

It is sad to go to so many places, even national parks, today and to see and hear few or no insects. Endlessly fascinating, they don't often sit still to be photographed. In particular there are some very beautiful native flies on our place.

We also have plenty of annoying insects...species of mosquito, biting flies and bull ants, silverfish, and also of course arachnid paralysis ticks and two species of leech. Then we have snakes, stinging nettle, falling branches, heatwaves, flood rain and meteorites. All before the humans turn up...

: I also would like to know what this is

: unknown beetle sp.

: unknown caterpillar sp.

: and another

: Cicada: emits deafening waves of high pitched trilling sound for hours on end when at a particular life phase. Almost 2 inches long

: Dragonfly

: Bull ant. One of two species; the other has a blue metal body with yellow pincers, and will fearlessly stand up to any animal, raising itself on its back legs ready for combat. Which believe me is very painful.

: Some sort of hopper

: Big fly

: Moth! So many species of these beauties!

: Another moth

: Another moth

: Another moth

: Wolf spider

: Black House spider

: And the evil one for last. The mud-wasp paralyses spiders mostly and packs them alive into mud chambers, seen broken open in this photo. They inject their eggs into the bodies of the victims, and when they hatch the victims are eaten alive by the baby wasps.

updated: 07/03/2016