Andrew Allen Photography: March 2017

Friday 31 March 2017

Sawflies at Woodlands Historic Park

In recent visits to Woodlands Historic Park I've found a few different types of sawfly larvae, as well as two adults, one of which looked to be laying eggs...

ID unknown, maybe Perga sp.

I think these are Lophyrotoma interrupta

Unidentified sawfly species

Perga affinis

Mistletoe Moth (Comocrus behri) caterpillars

About a month ago (24/2/2017), I found some freshly hatched caterpillars on a low hanging mistletoe at Woodlands Historic Park. I had seen and photographed an adult Mistletoe Moth (Comocrus behri) nearby a few weeks before that, and considering the host plant, I wondered if these were Mistletoe Moth caterpillars.

February 24 2017

I could not find any photos of the early instars of the Mistletoe Moth caterpillar, so I decided that I would head back each week to see these caterpillars develop.

March 4 2017

March 11 2017

March 17 2017

Then, on March 23 2017, I came upon a dilemma. I found three obvious Mistletoe Moth caterpillars, but there were still about ten of the green-ish caterpillars I had been observing. It seemed as if the caterpillars I had been observing were something else.

March 23 2017

Mistletoe Moth caterpillar (Comocrus behri) March 23 2017


Mistletoe Moth caterpillar (Comocrus behri) March 23 2017	.

Mistletoe Moth caterpillar (Comocrus behri) March 23 2017

So I went back one week later for another look. This time I found six Mistletoe Moth caterpillars, and only one of the original type caterpillars.

March 30 2017

Mistletoe Moth caterpillar (Comocrus behri) March 30 2017

My suspicion that the caterpillars I have been following were Mistletoe Moth caterpillars (Comocrus behri) turned out to be wrong. The caterpillars I had been following were in fact caterpillars of the Red-spotted Jezebel butterfly (Delias aganippe). It was great to get back for a few weeks and observe their progress.

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Wednesday 22 March 2017

Oechalia schellenbergii

I recently found some information about Predatory Shield Bugs (Oechalia schellenbergii) and to my surprise discovered that some photos that I have taken and could not identify were in fact different development stages of this insect. It also turns out that I had photographed the eggs of this species as well. I was very happy to solve a bunch of identification problems, but I never expected them to be the same species!

Overall I think I have photographed six stages - eggs, 2nd instar, 3rd instar, 4th instar, 5th instar and adult.