The insects (and other critters) in Guy’s and others’ gardens

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Each week, an additional insect (or spider) from my garden, or a friend of mine’s garden will be added. Whilst this is not food-related, it is garden-related and therefore of potential interest to the many of you who are gardeners. If you want to identify an insect that you have photographed, Museums Victoria’s Ask a Question is a great resource.

Ants, bees, wasps and sawflies (order Hymenoptera)

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Banded sugar ant (Camponotus consobrinus)

The top photo is of a colony of banded sugar ants (Camponotus consobrinus). As you can see, they don’t have wings.

The bottom photo is of a group of winged banded sugar ants getting ready to swarm. These are a mix of virgin queens and male drones. They are about to fly off to establish other colonies. Once they mate, the males will die and the females will shed their wings.

Banded sugar ants are a bit larger than your average ant (around 1cm long) but don’t often bite. They are mostly nocturnal and usually farm aphids (for their honeydew), taking the aphids out at night to feed.

My banded sugar ants have multiple nests which they often move between around both dawn and dusk.
Inchman ant (Myrmecia forficata)

There is a colony of inchman ants (Myrmecia forficata) living underground in the ‘bushland’ part of my garden.

Inchman ants are different than other ants in many ways.

  1. They are huge (for ants) – up to 2½cm long (hence the inchman name given that 2½ cm = 1 inch).
  2. They bite and are venomous.
  3. They can jump.
  4. Unlike most ants, they have good eyesight (and, for example, can spot and react to me if I get near to them).
  5. Although they live in colonies, they are usually solitary when they forage.
  6. Unlike most worker ants, who are sterile, worker inchman ants can become fertile when their colony lacks a queen.

Inchman ants are a type of bull ant (genus Myrmecia). They are larger, more venomous but less aggressive than most other bull ants.
Spitfire sawfly (Perga affinis)

The left hand photo (from my garden) is of a group of spitfire sawfly larvae (Perga affinis) and the right hand one (from the Internet) is of an adult.

Whilst the adults of this species are not often seen, the larvae are quite conspicuous, resembling large (up to 8cm long) hairy caterpillars.

The larvae rest in groups during the day (as in the photo) and then disperse at night to feed.

When they feel threatened, the larvae raise their heads, collectively resembling a much bigger creature, and can eject a strong-smelling, yellow-green liquid consisting predominantly of eucalyptus oil (hence the common name of spitfires).

Despite being called flies, sawflies are actually more closely related to ants and bees than to flies.

 

Beetles (order Coleoptera)

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Common spotted ladybird (Harmonia conformis)

The left hand photo is of a juvenile/larva whilst the right hand one is of an adult.

Both adults and larvae are predators, feeding on aphids and the like. The adults always have the same number of spots (20). The larvae have different numbers of orange stripes, depending on their age.

The common spotted ladybird is indigenous to Australia.

Ladybirds are a type of beetle. Beetles, like butterflies but unlike true bugs, undergo complete metamorphosis via pupation from non-flying, non-mating larva to flying, mating adult. Most beetle larvae are much more grub-like than those of the ladybird.
Fungus-eating ladybird (Illeis galbula)

The left hand photo (from the Internet) is of a juvenile/larva whilst the right hand one (from Pam Jenkins’ garden) is of an adult.

Both the juveniles and the adults eat fungus, particularly the powdery mildew on cucurbit crops like pumpkin and zucchini. The overwintering adults apparently feed on the pollen of wattles and privets during spring.

Pam says: “In spite of living on a windy hill, I have a lot of fungus amongst my leafy greens, mainly powdery mildew. Nature has provided a specific species of ladybird to help with this problem. I guess that they must be effective as, where I have found them, the leaves have been mainly free from fungus.“

 

Butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera)

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Looper moths (family Geometridae)

The two photos are both of ‘looper moths’ (moths in the family Geometridae), with the top one being a pine looper caterpillar (Chlenias banksiaria) and the bottom one being a red-lined looper adult (Crypsiphona ocultaria).

Looper moths are so-called because of the way that their caterpillars move by looping/arching their body, as shown in the top photo. They move in this way because they only have legs at the front and back of their body and are missing the legs (technically ‘prolegs’) in the middle of their body that most caterpillars have. An alternative common name for the caterpillars is ‘inchworms’, on the basis that they supposedly move like they are measuring distance.

 

Cockroaches and termites (order Blattodea)

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The bush cockroach (Ellipsidion australe) and others

There are around 400 species of cockroach in Australia. Of these, I have seen 4 in our home and garden. Clockwise from top left: the bush cockroach (Ellipsidion australe), the Australian cockroach (Periplaneta australasiae), the Gisborne cockroach (Drymaplaneta semivitta) and the balta cockroach (Balta spuria).

Cockroaches, which are closely related to termites, are an ancient group of insects that have been relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

As well as 6 legs and 2 front-facing antennae, they also (like crickets) have 2 small back-facing antennae that can detect air movements and thus help them become aware of potential dangers behind them.

Per the Australian Museum, none of the cockroaches are serious pests and most are scavengers, eating dead or decaying organic matter.

 

Crickets, etc (order Orthoptera)

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Mole cricket (family Gryllotalpidae)

The mole cricket (family gryllotalpidae) is, as the name suggests, a type of cricket. The left hand photo was taken in our garden, whilst the right hand one is from the Internet.

Mole crickets are quite big (3-5cm) and a bunch of them had clearly been living underground in our veggie patch. Apparently they live in underground tunnels during the day and come to the surface at night to seek food.

Although the females have wings, as do some of the males, they apparently hardly ever use them (i.e. only to seek mates).

Unusually, the females make sounds as well as the males.

 

Dragonflies and damselflies (order Odonata)

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Australian emperor dragonfly
(Anax papuensis) and others

Dragonflies and damselflies change from aquatic juveniles to flying adults. But, unlike butterflies and beetles, this metamorphosis does not involve pupation. Rather, the aquatic juvenile simply crawls out of the water onto a leaf, splits its skin and the adult emerges, wings and all. The adult then flies off, leaving behind the cast-off exoskeleton.

The two photos are of exoskeletons left behind as the adult emerges. The left hand photo is of australian emperor dragonfly (Anax papuensis) and the right hand one is of an unknown damselfly.

 

Flies (order Diptera)

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Blowfly (family Calliphoridae)

The left hand photo (from Doris Glier’s garden) is of a snail parasitic blowfly (genus Amenia) and the right hand one (from my garden) is of a lesser brown blowfly (Calliphora augur). Both are in the blowfly family (family Calliphoridae).

Whilst snail parasitic blowfly adults feed on pollen and nectar, the juvenile maggots are predatory parasites that feed on land snails (hence the common name).

Whilst lesser brown blowfly adults are omnivores, the juvenile maggots feed on carrion or dung.

Both blowflies give birth to live maggots rather than eggs.
Flesh fly (family Sarcophagidae)

The photo is of a flesh fly (family Sarcophagidae).

Whilst flesh fly adults are omnivores, the juvenile maggots feed on carrion or dung. These food sources are, however, transient and might not still be there when any eggs hatch. To get round this problem, flesh flies actually give birth to live maggots, which can immediately start eating.

 

Net-winged insects (order Neuroptera)

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Green lacewing (family Chrysopidae)

The left hand photo (on a lemon tree in Pam’s garden) is of the eggs of a green lacewing (family Chrysopidae), the middle photo (from the Internet) is of a larva, and the right hand one (also from the Internet) is of an adult. Green lacewings are in the insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects.

Each egg is hung on a slender stalk about 1 cm long, usually, but not always, on the underside of a leaf. Pam thinks that the black ones in the photo possibly have sooty mould growing on them.

The larvae are typically voracious predators. Many of them have long bristles jutting out from their sides which collect debris over time thus providing camouflage. Much of this debris is typically the hard parts of aphids that they have eaten.

The adults can be recognised by their habit of holding their wings tent-like over the body when at rest and by the branching at the end of the main veins in the wings.

 

Spiders (order Araneae)

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Orb weavers (family Araneidae)

Most of the spiral wheel-shaped spider webs that you see in your garden and elsewhere are made by orb-weaver spiders (family Araneidae). The two photos show two orb weavers, with the Australian garden orb weaver (Hortophora transmarina) on the left and the speckled orb weaver (Araneus circulissparsus) on the right.

Like most other orb weavers, these two spiders usually build a new web each evening, destroying and then consuming it the following morning. The Australian garden orb weaver tends to build its web between trees whilst the speckled orb weaver uses the foliage of shrubs and bushes (with its body’s green colour then acting as camouflage).

Most of the web is non-sticky (which makes it more difficult to see), whilst one of the spirals is sticky (which helps to retain the prey). The spiders walk on the non-sticky parts.
St. Andrew’s cross spider (Argiope keyserlingi)

The two photos are both of female St. Andrew’s cross spiders (Argiope keyserlingi in the family Araneidae), with the one on the left being the top side and the one on the right being from underneath. Whilst the females are ‘standard spider size’, the males of the species are apparently miniscule.

St. Andrew’s cross spiders are so called due to the construction of the silk bands forming the arms of an X-shaped cross in the centre of their web, supposedly similar to the one upon which St. Andrew is traditionally said to have been crucified. The purpose of this cross is not well understood. The spiders usually align 2 legs along each arm of the cross.

 

True bugs (order Hemiptera)

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Eucalyptus tip-wilter (Amorbus alternatus)

The eucalyptus tip-wilter has tube mouth parts that it uses to suck the sap out of eucalyptus leaves. So, a very apt common name!

The left hand photo is of a juvenile/nymph, whilst the right hand one is of an adult. As you can see, the colouration is very different between the two, such that the uninformed would presumably think that they are different species.

Both adult and nymph can apparently emit a foul odour if disturbed to deter potential predators.

 


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