#1654-1656
#1654 - Dermestid larva
Another of Chuen Man Chang’s fabulous discoveries - this one was under bark.
Andras Szito, a coleopterist based here in Perth, commented -
“Under high magnification probably you can see that the setae (hairs) look like barbed spear. (There are quite a lot with simple hairs). Many of the native Hide beetles living in spider’s “nests” and I believe the setae serving to keep the homeowner’s fangs away. Since almost all Dermestids (as far as we know) feeding on dry material of animal origin they find enough food in a spider’s nest in the form of insect carcasses. Sorry for being so vague but we know little of the native Dermestid fauna.”
#1655 - Platybrachys barbata - Teeth-marked Gum Hopper
Another find by Chuen Man Chang in Brisbane. This particular species is only known from that area.
The Broad-frons Planthoppers (Family Eurybrachidae, Tribe Platybrachini) are quite diverse in Australia. Adults are generally mottled for camouflage, and live on the trunk or larger branches of Eucalypts and Acacia. They may sidle off sideways, or even backwards, if they think they’ve been spotted, or if really pressed will leap off with a loud TICK and fly away.
Eurybrachid nymphs, on the other hand, have a pair of long wax filament attached to the end of their abdomen, and resemble small insects back to front They even walk backwards to complete the illusion. If attacked, they will leap forward, which confuses predators that were expecting them to jump the other way.
You may have noticed the white fluffystuff attached to her abdomen - that is the powdery wax they pack over and around their eggs, laid on the trunk of the host tree. It’s intended to protect the eggs, but it doesn’t work against the parasitic wasps that target them, or against any ladybeetles that find the eggmass and chow down.
#1656 - Erilla turneri
Chuen Man Chang again. They get some amazing photos of the species around Brisbane.
I don’t have any information on the species, though, beyond it being the only one in the genus, and that it was described by the English entomologist William Lucas Distantin in 1906.