antomology's Favorites

On Eucalypt. It appears to move around the leaf. I am calling it the frass tube moth! I will try to rear it through.

Still alive 31 Oct 2023. Now quite a bit bigger and was moving around yesterday. Today fixed to side of container so presumably larva is pupating.

10 Nov 2023 Larvae now lying on a piece of leaf which it has cut to exactly fit its shape. I promise I did not do any cutting myself!

No one I have spoken to has any idea what this larva is. I have not been able to find any more. However I think now it is preparing for pupation and the shape of it looks different.

In evening of 10 Nov the larva turned over so that the cut out leaf formed the "roof" covering while attaching to leaf underneath

11 Nov 2023 Second specimen found on Acacia marginata at same locality as other one. Exactly the same but half the size. Uncertain if still alive.

This colony was accidentally found inside of a hollow wooden gall (the left of the two in the first image). The gall was about the size of a golf ball and was found attached to to a Lantana canara stem. When the gall was split open, this small colony was revealed (including workers, winged queens, and drones). In the centre of the last image, a larger worker can be seen standing almost on top of a much smaller worker

Beautiful swirling mines on Stirlingia latifolia leaves. Mine statys with these swirling circles then ends in a linear tube. The second and third image show the same mine, starting with the swirl and ending with the linear tunnel. The larvae could be visible right at the end.

I have uploaded quite a few images of these mines because each one is slightly different and some do not follow the circular protocol!

I would love to know what these beautiful mines are!

23 August 2023 This morning a larva emerged from one of the mines. It has prolegs. Appears to be spinning a cocoon.

Some kind of alga, I think, found on a hunk of rotting stump. It dried out before I could examine it under the microscope, but rehydrated quickly. Photos 3-4 taken using a Foldscope microscope; the aperture measures a little under 1 mm.