Blue Skimmer Dragonfly: Orthetrum caledonicum

Blue Skimmer Dragonfly
Orthetrum caledonicum

Location: Western Australia, South West
Season: Summer, December
Order: Odonata 

Suborder: Anisoptera 

Family: Libellulidae 

Genus: Orthetrum 

 Orthetrum caledonicum

Blue Skimmer Dragonfly is commonly found in Australia. It is powder blue in colour, hence the name Sky Blue Dragonfly. The fly's body has a waxy coating and when light passes through the colloidal wax, all light is absorbed but blue light is scattered by the particles, making the insect look blue (Tyndall Effect). The process of colour change is called Pruinescence.

Blue Skimmer Dragonfly with remnants of yellow still on the abdomen undergoing pruinescence

The young males, which are freshly moulted from the larval stages are yellow in colour. This is before they are coated with the waxy substance which results in the blue colour. The colour changes from yellow to blue can be seen in maturing males. Males and females look different. The female is not blue at all, even the mature ones.

In the two photos below, the dragonfly is yellow, which could be a young teneral male or a female. 

Young Teneral Male or Female Blue Skimmer Dragonfly 

Young Teneral Male or Female Blue Skimmer Dragonfly 

When I first saw this yellow dragonfly which is actually a Blue Skimmer, I confused it with the Australian Emerald Dragonfly (and misquoted it on Instagram). The description and pictures in the field guides I read had stark similarities. Two things confirmed for me that these are Blue Skimmers. One, I actually saw the process of Pruinescence as demonstrated in the second photo. Two, I actually spotted an Australian Emerald Dragonfly! Please pardon the quality of the picture below, I must get a good shot next time. But the metallic green coloured markings on the abdomen can be seen. The eyes are bright greenish blue. 

Australian Emerald Dragonfly
Could be a Tau Emerald as T mark is not visible in the photo
Hemicordulia australiae

Blue Ringtail Damselfly: Austrolestes annulosus

Location: Western Australia, South West

Season: Summer, December

Order: Odonata 

Suborder: Zygoptera 

Family: Lestidae

Austrolestes annulosus

Very pretty and very delicate! The Blue Ringtail Damsel Fly was found sitting in my garden, which is pretty dry at this time of the year. This damselfly is supposed to be found near creeks and water sources. Simple way to distinguish between dragonflies and damselflies is position of the wings when they rest. Damsel flies neatly fold their wings while resting whereas the dragonflies spread them apart.

This is called the Blue Ringtail because the end of the tail has a ring, as seen in the above photo. 

Reference: Brisbane Insects

Villa Bee Fly

Location: Western Australia, South West

Season: Summer, December

Order: Diptera 

Suborder: Brachycera 

Infraorder: Asilomorpha 

Superfamily: Asiloidea 

Family: Bombyliidae

Subfamily: Anthracinae

Tribe: Villini

Subfamily: Exoprosopinae

Genus: Villa

This is not a bee but a bee fly which belongs to the same family as bees (Bombyliidae). It is resembles a bee to make its predators think it is a bee hence warding them off. Bee fly is a stingless fly. It is a main pollinator for many desert plants. My resarch shows that this is a Villa Bee fly. Species identification depends on the venation, the colouration of abdominal bands, the colour and distribution of tomentum (hair on the sides). This bee fly I spotted has black and white banding with the 4th band the lightest. The tomentum on the thorax is yellowish. There is a distinct white spot at the top wing base (humeral plate), the costal margin of the wings is dark. I can't tell what species this is.

Here is a guide to species identification of Canadian Villa Bee Flies: http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/kme_06/villa.html

Here is some information about Australian flies of subfamily Anthracinae
http://australasianasiloidea.myspecies.info/category/asiloidea/bombyliidae/anthracinae

Jewel Wasp Or The Emerald Cockroach Wasp

Jewel Wasp or Emerald Cockroach Wasp

Jewel Wasp or Emerald Cockroach Wasp

What a beautiful creature! The metallic blue green body with contrasting orange colour of the 2nd and 3rd thighs! It flies with shimmering wings and when it sits, its antennae dance! It is the Jewel Wasp or the Emerald Cockroach Wasp.

Location: India

Season: Winter, November

Order: Hymenoptera

Suborder: Apocrita 

Superfamily: Apoidea 

Family: Ampulicidae 

Ampulex compressa

More interesting than the external appearance is the behaviour of the wasp. Unlike most wasps which paralyse and eat their prey, the Jewel Wasp paralyses a cockroach and then puts it into a daze in order for its offsprings to grow inside of the cockroach. The wasp uses its neurotoxin rich venom to sting the cockroach twice, both at surgical precision. The twice stung cockroach readily gets the eggs laid in its body, becomes a living meal for the new born larva. How it paralyses the cockroach is a marvel. 

 The female wasp when ready to lay eggs, flies around looking for cockroaches. She sneaks up on an unsuspecting cockroach and subdues it by holding it with her jaws. With one precise sting, she injects venom into the prothoracic ganglion. The venom causes paralysis of the front legs of the cockroach (due to a post synaptic block at the octopaminergic neurons). Once the cockroach is paralysed, the wasp injects her second dose of venom into the cockroaches head, by piercing the cockroach's exoskeleton with her stinger, precisely locating the ganglion in the nervous system and injecting the venom into it. This second sting controls the mind of the cockroach. The head sting induces first 30 min of intense grooming (due to dopamine in the poison), followed by hypokinesia during which the cockroach is unable to generate an 'escape response'. The cockroach now becomes a puppet in the hands of the wasp. The cockroach also looses less water, consumes less oxygen and survives longer. The wasp leads the cockroach to her burrow, by dragging the whole live but paralysed and mind controlled cockroach which is much larger than the wasp herself. The wasp lays a single egg onto the abdomen of the cockroach. She then blocks the burrow to contain the cockroach inside. The mesmerised cockroach does not resist any of this.

The egg hatches into a larva, which chews its way into the cockroach's abdominal cavity and becomes an endoparasitoid. The wasp's larval development, from egg laying to pupation, lasts about 8 days during which the cockroach must remain alive but immobile. The larva thrives by feeding on the cockroach from inside. The larva produces an antibiotic substance to keep the cockroach's insides clean and free from microbial organisms that reside within. The adult hatches out of the by then dead cockroach. 

This chance spotting of the beautiful wasp has taught me a lot!

References:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/arch.20092/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/neu.20254/abstract
http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Libersat/pdf/JCP.2003.pdf
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/07/if-youre-going-to-live-inside-a-zombie-keep-it-clean/

Blister Beetle: Mylabris pustulata

Location: Karnataka, India

Season: Winter, Novenmber

Order: Coleoptera 

Family: Meloidae 

Mylabris pustulata

We have a field full of Pigeon Peas (Toor Dal) growing in our farm in rural Bangalore. There are a lot of these beetles floating about from flower to flower. They are huge and it looks like the wings struggle to keep them in flight. They are very pretty to watch but they don't do good for the crop.

As the name Blister Beetle and Pustulata suggest, the exudate from these beetles can cause blisters on the human skin.

References: Recent Advances in Ecobiological Research, Volume 2, Wikipedia

Black Pintail Beetle: Tomoxioda aterrima

Tumbling Flower Beetle on African Daisy

Tumbling Flower Beetle

Filiformis Antennae of Tumbling Flower Beetle

Location: Western Australia, South West Region

Season: Summer, December

Class Insecta

Order: Coleoptera

Suborder: Polyphaga

Superfamily: Tenebrionoidea  

Family: Mordellidae (Tumbling Flower Beetles)

Updated on 2/12/2015
Correction of identfication: This beetle looks like a Black Pintail Beetle - Tomoxioda aterrima
Originally Identified as Tumbling Flower Beetle


A tiny black insect with shimmering gold and silver bands was found on the African Daisy flower. It is the Tumbling Flower Beetle Black Pintail Beetle; Tomoxioda aterrima. The pintail, which is a projection of the abdomen and its arched back are prominent features. What made me think it was a beetle is the filiformis antennae (present in certain beetles and cockroaches). The behaviour of the beetle confirmed my diagnosis. It rolled itself up with its pointy tail, fell upside down - played dead, and just waited there for the predator (me with my camera pointed close to it) to go away. It leapt and jumped out to disappear from my sight. The tumbling action got me worried for the little one but the fact that this action is a defence mechanism put my mind at ease. It must be okay somewhere.

Reference: Bug Guide
Brisbane Insects

Grasshopper Nymph

This is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen, a baby grasshopper! This nymph was spotted jumping up and down in our garden from mulch to dry grass to pavement. It has the perfect camouflage and jumps away even before you can get a look, let alone click a picture.  

I am pretty chuffed I got this shot! Look closely and I'll tell you why it is a grasshopper and not a cricket.

Grasshopper Nymph

The antennae are short, shorter than the cephalus, the head, which distinguishes it from a cricket. Crickets have antennae longer than their heads. Grasshopper nymphs do not have wings. The nymphs have remnants of semi rigid wings which fully form when they grow up to be adults. 

The most interesting fact is that Grasshoppers have 'ears' (Tympanum, auditory sensory organ) on their first abdominal segment, behind the third pair of legs. You can actually see the ear like structure in the picture below! Look behind the behind the feather like corrugated hind limb.

Macro image of Grasshopper Nymph

Macro Image of Grasshopper nymph with it's tympanum marked out.

While the Grasshoppers have their ears on their abdomen, crickets have it on their fore legs!

I have concluded that it is a nymph of the common field grasshopper of genus Chorthippus.

Location: Western Australia, South West

Season: Summer, December

Spotted in daytime.

Subphylum: Hexapoda 

Class: Insecta 

Order: Orthoptera 

Suborder: Caelifera

Family: Acrididae 

Genus: Chorthippus

References: Brisbane Insects, Wikipedia

Adult Rutherglen Bug With Its Nymphs

Rutherglen Bug, Nysius Vinitor with First Instar Nymps on its body
sitting on Viburnum Tinus

Rutherglen Bug

Location: Bunbury, Western Australia

Season: Summer

Order: Hemiptera 

Family: Lygaeidae 

Genus: Nysius

Nysius vinitor

My garden is full of these lately. I spotted a rather tiny Rutherglen Bug with what appeared to be orange dots. When looked at closely, these were the nymphs stuck on its body. Probably one of the few colourful pictures of very ordinary looking Rutherglen Bug on the internet!

Rutherglen Bug is very tiny, about 0.5 mm in length, looks like a very tiny fly. It takes flight at the slightest disturbance. There quite a few around here that keep flying to sit on my hands. These are Australian and they attack some major crops. See references.

References: www.daff.qld.gov.au CSIRO

The Green Mosquito: Chironomid Midge

Male Chironomid Midge on Hare's Tail Grass (or the Bunny Tail Grass, Lagurus Ovatus)

Yellow Chironomid Midge on Lagurus Ovatus.

Yellow Chironomid Midge

The Big Swamp Wetland, Bunbury is a great place for bike riders. It is my favourite place to ride. My bike rides are made more interesting by the different insects I spot. This was one of them. It was so tiny that I could only see it with my macro lens. It looked like a mosquito, but green in colour. It was clinging on to the Hare's Tail Grass. The bright green body against the pale green Hare's Tail Grass was a standout. The plumose antennae on top of the feathery weed was a pretty sight to see through the lens. Not to mention the tiny iridescent wings! The yellow midge with bright yellow head contrasting the green body with black oval eyes did not have the feathery plumose antennae as prominent as the green midge (making me think it could be a female, due to lack of plumose antennae).

There were a group of them clinging on to the weed, basking in the sun. The sun worked against me to take a good picture but the insects were still enough for me to find an angle to shoot. I love those times when the insects pose for me!

This is the Chironomid Midge, also known as the Green Midge. It is a non biting midge related to the notorious biting midges (Ceratopogonidae). The resemblance to mosquitos is because they belong to the same suborder of Nematocera (characterised by thin, filamentous, segmented antennae) and to the same infraorder Culcimorpha. The mosquitos branch off into the superfamily Culicoidea and midges branch off into the superfamily of Chironomidae. 

I am not sure what genus or species the one I photographed belongs to. Apparently there are so many obscure species of Chironomidae that it needs cytogenetic confirmation using their Polytene Chromosomes*. Genetically interesting fact about Chironomidae is that the Polytene Chromosomes were first discovered in the salivary glands of these midges (Balbiani in 1881) much before the hereditary pattern was studied in fruit flies. The salivary glands of chironomids are still used for the study of polytene chromosomes.

Chironomids are ecologically important. Many species of Chironomids adapt easily to anoxic conditions in polluted water. The larvae are red due to haemoglobin content which helps them get as much oxygen from the toxic environment. The abundance of Chironomids indicate low biodiversity in the ecological system due to presence of high level of pollutants. Chironomids are the food for fish and many aquatic organisms. The presence of midges in Western Australian wetlands is supposedly a nuisance for people's outdoor activities. This is because they are attracted to and cluster around UV light sources. They are small enough to pass through fly meshes. 

Location: Big Swamp Wildlife Park, Bunbury, Western Australia

(seasonal fresh water wet land)

Season: Spring (October)

Order: Diptera  

Suborder Nematocera

Infraorder: Culicomorpha

Superfamily: Chironomoidea

Family: Chironomidae 

*Polytene Chromosomes are formed through repeated DNA replication without actual cell divison hence they are easily identified by banding patterns. The pattern inversions and deletions help in species identification.

References: BugGuide, Wikipedia, Public Health WA, MDFRC.ORG.AU, www.armadale.wa.gov.au

Green Forester Moth

Spring in the South West of Australia is the wild flower season. Manea Park in Bunbury is one of the nature reserves that has an incredible landscape, some rare orchids and birds. The beautiful orchid blooms not only attract flower enthusiasts and photographers, but also attract many pretty bugs. I spotted this tiny moth that was shimmering in sunlight with a metallic green, orange, golden yellow multi chrome velvety sheen. Simply stunning and very elegant in its poise. 

It is the Green Forester Moth or The Satin Green Forester Moth.

It is a moth belonging to the family Zygaenidae. Of the 43 species of Australian Zygaenids, there are two species that are indigenous to Western Australia Pollanisus Nielseni and Pollanisus Cupreus. The one I spotted looks like P. nielseni. 

Here are some macro photos I managed to click. Just look at the multi chromatic, holographic metallic beauty!

Macro Photo of Forester Moth

Forester Moth (Pollanisus Nielseni) feeding on Cape Weed (Arctotheca calendula)
Look at the proboscis!

Forester Moth on Cape Weed

Forester Moth feeding with its proboscis

Further reading: Wikipedia: Pollanisus Nielseni
All photos in this post are mine.

Green Planthopper Or The Torpedo Bug

One fine december afternoon, on a tree leaf, this teeny tiny bright green moth-like insect was spotted. When looked closely, it had the most beautiful leaf like pattern on its wings. The wings resemble a leaf, complete with veins. The head is flat and pointed with a pair of pretty eyes. It seemed to prefer to 'walk' rather than fly and when it flew, it was a short flight, to actually come and land on my decolletage! A dainty little one this is!

Location: South Western Australia

Season: Early summer, December

Common Names: Torpedo Bug, Green Planthopper

Scientific Name: Siphanta acuta

Order: Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies) 

Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha (Free-living Hemipterans) 

Superfamily: Fulgoroidea (Planthoppers) 

Family: Flatidae (Flatid Planthoppers) 

Subfamily: Flatinae 

Genus: Siphanta 

Species: acuta (Torpedo Bug)

Macro image of Torpedo Bug (Siphanta Acuta) sitting on a green leaf

Torpedo Bug (Siphanta Acuta) from a distance

Further reading: Bug Guide, Texas Invasives