With butterflies, spiders and Odonata have not been around in their usual numbers in the garden, possibly a seasonal thing connected with the long dry. This post is as the title suggests, a variety of creatures snapped in the garden. We expected a lot of St. Andrews Cross spiders after the many females with egg sacs last season, but so far only a lone small male has been found.
After a shower, a check of the rain gauge disclosed five millimetres and an unusually coloured Redback Spider, a small female in her brightest clothes….
Small grasshoppers are quite abundant and can be found sitting quietly and cooperatively on assorted vantage points, in this case the frond of an elkhorn fern.
Not far away a very small robber fly was perched on the brick wall, highly enlarged.
On a red gum, a mealybug ladybird larva, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri was slowly moving about.
Dropping from foliage to the ground, an assassin bug, Gminatus australis wouldn’t stop and was snapped on the move.
As previously mentioned, Odonata are scarce, but as always, very photogenic.
Black-faced Percher, Diplacodes melanopsis, male.
Females.
Hemicordulia australiae, Australian Emerald, black pterostigma, small yellow tail spot.
Teneral male Blue Skimmer, Orthretrum caledonicum, blue just starting to appear.
Lastly, a tiny moth perched on a Correa glabra flower, Thema brevivitella, (Oecophoridae)
The larvae of this genus feed on the dry leaf litter helping to recycle it into the ground.
Most images will enlarge with a click.