With the recent advent of rain we have seen an abundance of insects (many stick insects !).
As big as my hand, this Hawk Moth (Coequosa australasiae), came to our light-sheet on a very rainy evening:
Another visitor was this Stag Beetle:
Spotlighting in our rainforest, we came across a pair of sleeping dragonflies:
and a group of sleeping male native bees (Mellitidia tomentifera):
This Blue-backed Bee is one of many, collecting pollen in our garden:
If you are interested in native bees, you’ll find many photos and descriptions under the native bee project at www.bowerbird.org.
Another interesting insect is the Stalk-eyed Fly: The males have their eyes arranged like hammerhead sharks:
A piece of banana served as battleground:
Lovely shots of the Hawk Moth (Coequosa australasiae). Somehow I got home without a shot of this. My flash must have failed and I didn’t check until too late. The stag beetle has been IDed as Phalacrognathus muelleri http://www.bowerbird.org.au/observations/29540 if its the same that I first saw under the car tire. The dragonflies would be sure to be IDed if you put them on BowerBird in the Dragonsflies projects. Love the photo. Really loved spotlighting with you as well.
Hi Linda!
Excuse the late reply- I do not regularly check the comments on my blog.
Thanks for confirming the beetle’s ID. The dragonfly I have to look up in my fieldguide.