Back on the mainland

Just one week before we pack up and leave Australia, but there's still plenty to see and do.

We were amazed and puzzled to see this large insect fly up onto a branch.  The wings looked like a dragonfly and were as big, indeed bigger, than some dragonflies.  But the body was nothing like a dragonfly.  Something about it made me think 'lacewing', so I Googled Australian lacewings and it came up straight away - It's a blue-eyes lacewing and the wings can reach 11cm.  No kidding!

Spiders everywhere of course, but not necessarily identifiable.  This one had pretty yellow stripy legs so qualified for a photo.

This is a Common Buttercup - common to Australians, that is, but unknown to us pommies.  This is Ranunculus lappaceus.  Did you know that ranunculus means little frog?  Goodness knows why botanists named it that - maybe something to do with the seed pods.

If you are squeamish don't look at this photo - oops too late.  Probably the ugliest fly in Australia, but there are plenty of contenders for that prize.  It was certainly one of the biggest.

You will often see trees like this one in Australia, and it is often called the Scribbly Gum.  The scribbles are caused by the larva of a moth which eats its way into and under the bark and follows a zig-zag path and then doubles back on itself.  The tree produces scar tissue in response which the larva finds highly nutritious. The larva makes its way out to pupate and eventually the outer bark falls off showing the zig-zag tracks.  There are about 10 different eucalyptus trees showing scribbles and about 14 different moth species scribbling.  The best known tree is Eucalyptus haemastoma and the first moth species described was Ogmograptis scribula - a micromoth.

This a really pretty lizard - and check out the false eyelashes! So far it is unidentified so I'll call it the Eyelashed lizard for now until I find out what it should be called.

There are more than 50 different species of Australian sundew, and many look similar to this one.  It was only about an inch across and growing in a damp crack in rocks near a stream.  The genus is Drosera.

This looked to me like a skipper butterfly from the way its wings were held, but the Australian name for it is Greenish Grass Dart (Ocybadistes walkeri), though it is listed as a skipper butterfly.

This also looks like a skipper, but so far I've not been able to identify it.

Something not quite so pretty to look at and definitely one of Australia's less pleasant animals - it's a leech.  We stopped to look at it and to take photos, thinking "that's interesting, we didn't know Australia had leeches", and we'd never seen them before.  But just as we were setting off walking again we realized that we'd got several on our boots and socks.  After a bit of panicky scraping we managed to get away without any involuntary blood donations.