#762 - 767 - Assorted Inverts (and a plant)
#762 - Idolothrips sp. - Giant Thrips
IDed for Mitch Smith, photo used with permission.
It’s certainly an odd-looking insect, and gigantic for a thrips, but the giveaway is the tapered shape of the body and the feathery fringe to the wings - very few insects have wings like that. Combine that with the sheer size of it, and I IDed i on the first attempt.
Idolothrips has two known species, but depending on which source I consult those species are spectrum and marginatus, or spectrum and dissimilis. This is not helpful. It feeds on fungal spores on dead eucalyptus leaves.
Photographed in Wulgulmerang, Victoria.
#763 - Bentwing Soldier Fly
A tiny Stratiomyid on a garden tap, with the wings bent down at the end of the abdomen. This is apparently not unusual for some groups of soldier flies.
I saw this one a day after my musing about the Depressa sp. Lauxannid that had curved wings - so much for my observation that few flies have bent or folded wings. Of course, beetles and other groups of insects have famously folded wings, under their wing-covers. The intricate origami of earwig wings is especially impressive.
Success, Perth
#764 - Fam. Clionaidae - Boring Sponge
Or the damage from one, anyway, on a Pipi.
Boring Sponges chew holes in shells and limestone with a mixture of acid and mechanical action - quite often the mollusc will still be alive, and try to combat this attack by laying down more layers of shell. It rarely works - the Boring Sponge Cliona celata, for example, is a pest of oyster fisheries. Cliona delitrix on the other hand usually targets massive corals, and can completely hollow out the interior of one, while killing off any of the coral’s living tissue nearby. There’s also Cliona patera, or Neptune’s Cup, a larger sponge up to a meter across, that was thought to have been fished to extinction, but was rediscovered near Singapore in 2011.
Woodman Point, Perth.
#765 - Cucumis myriocarpus - Prickly Paddy Melon
Note the grape-sized watermelon-like fruit, covered in soft spikes.
AKA bitter apple, gooseberry gourd and gooseberry cucumber. Not to be confused with the larger, and edible, Afghan or Camel Melon Citrullus lanatus, which is also called a Paddy Melon here in Australia, and is almost as widespread. Or, for that matter, with the pademelons, which are pocket-sized kangaroos,
A common poisonous weed in dry pasture across much of Australia and California. Native to Southern Africa.
Spearwood, Perth
#767 - Melanerita atramentosa - Black Nerite
A medium-sized algae-scraping sea snail found on intertidal rocks of the Southern Pacific and most of the Southern Australian coastline. Most common in the mid to upper intertidal zone, attached to sloped or vertical rock surfaces, or hanging from the underside of rocks so it won’t cook in the sunlight down here.
As they get older they start to wear thin in places, showing notches and white patchs under the glossy black.
Cape Peron, Perth
IDed for Mitch Smith, photo used with permission.
It’s certainly an odd-looking insect, and gigantic for a thrips, but the giveaway is the tapered shape of the body and the feathery fringe to the wings - very few insects have wings like that. Combine that with the sheer size of it, and I IDed i on the first attempt.
Idolothrips has two known species, but depending on which source I consult those species are spectrum and marginatus, or spectrum and dissimilis. This is not helpful. It feeds on fungal spores on dead eucalyptus leaves.
Photographed in Wulgulmerang, Victoria.
#763 - Bentwing Soldier Fly
A tiny Stratiomyid on a garden tap, with the wings bent down at the end of the abdomen. This is apparently not unusual for some groups of soldier flies.
I saw this one a day after my musing about the Depressa sp. Lauxannid that had curved wings - so much for my observation that few flies have bent or folded wings. Of course, beetles and other groups of insects have famously folded wings, under their wing-covers. The intricate origami of earwig wings is especially impressive.
Success, Perth
#764 - Fam. Clionaidae - Boring Sponge
Or the damage from one, anyway, on a Pipi.
Boring Sponges chew holes in shells and limestone with a mixture of acid and mechanical action - quite often the mollusc will still be alive, and try to combat this attack by laying down more layers of shell. It rarely works - the Boring Sponge Cliona celata, for example, is a pest of oyster fisheries. Cliona delitrix on the other hand usually targets massive corals, and can completely hollow out the interior of one, while killing off any of the coral’s living tissue nearby. There’s also Cliona patera, or Neptune’s Cup, a larger sponge up to a meter across, that was thought to have been fished to extinction, but was rediscovered near Singapore in 2011.
Woodman Point, Perth.
#765 - Cucumis myriocarpus - Prickly Paddy Melon
Note the grape-sized watermelon-like fruit, covered in soft spikes.
AKA bitter apple, gooseberry gourd and gooseberry cucumber. Not to be confused with the larger, and edible, Afghan or Camel Melon Citrullus lanatus, which is also called a Paddy Melon here in Australia, and is almost as widespread. Or, for that matter, with the pademelons, which are pocket-sized kangaroos,
A common poisonous weed in dry pasture across much of Australia and California. Native to Southern Africa.
Spearwood, Perth
#767 - Melanerita atramentosa - Black Nerite
A medium-sized algae-scraping sea snail found on intertidal rocks of the Southern Pacific and most of the Southern Australian coastline. Most common in the mid to upper intertidal zone, attached to sloped or vertical rock surfaces, or hanging from the underside of rocks so it won’t cook in the sunlight down here.
As they get older they start to wear thin in places, showing notches and white patchs under the glossy black.
Cape Peron, Perth