Wildlife October 2009

[Paul T]

If you don't like moths, then avoid the bogon moth migration through Canberra when it happens.  We get millions of them.  Our Parliament House is a massive light source and they collect in even greater numbers there.... unless they're attracted to all the hot air coming out of it. 

[angie]

Paul T

Liked that one Paul, our Parliament House is the same not with moths of course but all the hot air that comes out of it. 

Angie

[Lesley Cox]

Reading the link that Mark supplied about the moth which blocks bats' sonar, I read the relevant word as "echocolate" and thought that must be a term for going without.

Angie, for large blocks, Our Lady of the Cacao Bean will be able to advise you on local suppliers.

[Anthony Darby]

Etta, my panther chameleon has laid her fourth batch of eggs. Here's some of pics of three of my Pygmy leaf chameleons (Rhampholeon brevicaudatus).

[Maggi Young]

Antony, do you/Etta have success in hatching her eggs?

The Pygmy Leaf Chameleons are cuter than a cute thing! The stubby tails are so unlike the long curly grasping ones the bigger types have, aren't they?  I can see that this adds to the appropriateness of their name..... do many other types of chameleon have that sort of tail?

[Anthony Darby]

Maggi, I think there are several species of Rhampholeon, plus the smaller Brookesia spp., and they have stumpy tails.

Panther chameleon eggs take in excess of 9 months to hatch, so nothing due until after Christmas?

[Maggi Young]

Panther chameleon eggs take in excess of 9 months to hatch, so nothing due until after Christmas?

So Etta has produced succeeding clutches of eggs before the first hatch?

edit by Maggi: I have moved some posts off to form this new/renamed thread for Autumn!

[Lesley Cox]

And very leaf-like they are too. They are entirely delightful and VERY cute.

Can anyone identify for me please, the rather nasty things in the pic below. I've seen them before under logs and similar places but not in the numbers of yesterday when I lifted a polystyrene tray of plants and found several round groups of them. Being pretty sure they are nothing good, they were given a jug full of boiling water.

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Should we create a separate southern hemisphere topic then?  It most definitely isn't autumn 2009 here!! 

Lesley,

Are they some type of centripede/milipede?  I can't quite see them clearly enough in the picture to be sure?

[Anthony Darby]

Without seeing them in close-up, I would say dipteran larvae, perhaps akin to leatherjackets (cranefly larvae).

[Maggi Young]

I've changed the title of the thread!

[mark smyth]

Anthony are the eggs in a plastic container? How does she get to the bottom?

[Anthony Darby]

Yes Mark, just a perspex fish tank. She digs down into the sharp sand several times to find a suitable spot, disappearing completely in a chamber, lays her eggs and then covers them up. I suspect the 6" depth is not enough?

[mark smyth]

Are the eggs fertile?

[angie]

Anthony & Lesley

Liked Etta, looking forward to Christmas to see her babies

Lesley you obviously aren't scared of creepy crawlies I would have run a mile, the thought of them makes me cringe, need my chocolate.

Angie