Well in excess of 1000 individuals at the light. The ground was covered in them.
Large, high nests but ants rarely seen.
Approx 18mm in length.
Bull Ant along the Murray Valley Highway, just north of Nathalia, Victoria. March 2021.
These ants have a very powerful bite as I can attest. Sting severe and sharp and itchiness lasts for >72 hours.
Field Notes - Large, aggressive ants, up to 3cm. Boldly defending their nest.
Nice nest entrance.
Sp. 17?
Myrmecia collected as mated pair with male shown in observation https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/152211493
Numerous males seen taking flight in the preceding hour. This pair landed on a patch of open sandy ground and remained coupled for 1-2 minutes, until collected.
M. pilosula group
Tiny! About 4mm.
Turned over a few rocks to check for scorpions and found these instead. Looks like C. lividicoxis to me but with no records south of Qld I am doubting that ID.
Does anybody knows which kind of association the two ant species on the picture have? They used the same nest entrance...xenobiosis?
Smaller than the Notostigma and collecting in numbers on the sheet
Suggestions as to what this is? It has developed teeth, so it isn't from the M. Mandibularis species group.
Unidentified species reminiscent of Myrmecia Chrysogaster on Kangaroo Island
Two ants found inside this gall from Euc when it was broken open. Close ups to follow
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
This was less than 2mm, found under bark. Unfortunately I wasn't particularly interested at the time and didn't take enough care with the photos.
If anything is going to distract me from a fancy psyllid on a railing, it's a fancy beetle. I knew that I hadn't seen one of these before and I could quickly find it in the Grove, Forster& Porch Beetles checklist. A Tasmanian endemic, Leaus tasmanicus. It looks so much like lichen. I almost didn't notice it becuase there was broken lichen on the rail too. I suspect something knocked off lichen and the associated beetle at the same time. I then had to add another thing to have to stare hard at, seeing if I could find well camouflaged beetles in lichen. As usual this failed.
I originally posted this on Bowerbird under Prolasius - Kate Sandiford corrected it to Ochetellus with the following comment: "The ant in the first image looks as if it has an acidopore and the right profile for the formicine genus Prolasius but the lack of ocelli, concave clypeus, and short scapes rule it out. The combination of naked pupae and bean-shaped larvae places these ants in the subfamily Dolichoderinae, while the five dorsal protuberances on the larva place them in Ochetellus. Perhaps one of the lighter-coloured forms of O. glaber? See: https://www.antweb.org/images.do?genus=ochetellus&name=glaber&rank=species ."
The ants were found moving the pupae along a branch on a standing small dead tree - they were transporting them from one small hole to another.
Beach darkling-beetle Edylius canescens, Saltworks Beach, Little Swanport, Tasmania, March 2021
This is one of the most unusual weevils I have come across. As you may be able to notice this Cossonid weevil lacks eyes. This is because it lives deep under rocks and mimicks ants to obtain food.
Most Cossonid weevils are found in wood, making its habitat most unusual for a cossonid
Beach weevil Aphela helopoides, Beechford, Tasmania, November 2020
Much smaller than usual suspects. Only about an inch in length
Beach beetle Phycosecis litoralis, Stony Head, Tasmania, March 2021
I took almost identical shots 12 years later so you see how little the trees have changed in that time. See here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19510264