Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
I think he meant pleasing attention to detail?Eh? Did she have stripy legs?
More Unusual Insects: Bee Fly
- Thread starter exchemist
- Start date
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Is there a butterfly named after her? I couldn't find anything apart from a "Who" song.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
This little guy has to be in the top five in the most interesting bug category. Where it’s found has to be one of the most isolated, treacherous and yet spectacular places on the planet. Don’t know if I’ll ever get there but on my places to see bucket list…Ball’s Pyramid. Have cousin in Oz, might be time to pay her a visit.
en.wikipedia.org
Dryococelus - Wikipedia
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
To me, any kind of stick insect is noteworthy. We hardly get them at all in the British Isles. I saw my first stick insect while on holiday in Brittany. I’ve seen several in the garden there over the years. I had always imagined stick insects to be tropical, but apparently they are widespread and it is Britain that is unusual in having so few of them. But your example is obviously special.This little guy has to be in the top five in the most interesting bug category. Where it’s found has to be one of the most isolated, treacherous and yet spectacular places on the planet. Don’t know if I’ll ever get there but on my places to see bucket list…Ball’s Pyramid. Have cousin in Oz, might be time to pay her a visit.
Dryococelus - Wikipedia
Ball’s Pyramid looks interesting in its own right, geologically - a volcanic stack remaining after erosion of a shield volcano, according to Wiki. I wonder why a shield volcano there. Shield volcanoes make me think of hot spots like Hawaii.
foghorn
Valued Senior Member
You are right, in that it was once over a hot spot, but the plate has been shifting north.
Lord Howe Museum
TheVat
Valued Senior Member
"Reproduction can happen without the presence of males (parthenogenesis) and this quality has allowed the species to survive when they are low in numbers."
Though they should stop naming their children Jesus. Such a cliche.
Though they should stop naming their children Jesus. Such a cliche.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
Yes, I see the hot spot is thought to be somewhere south of a couple of seamounts in the Tasman Sea that are themselves to the south of Lord Howe island. Lord Howe island and Ball's Pyramid seem to be due to fairly recent volcanism, ~6.5m years ago. Evidently this hot spot has not been strong enough to break through for a while so nobody knows exactly where it is today.
Lord Howe Seamount Chain - Wikipedia
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Our urinal has a frosted glass window, mid stream I was most alarmed by an enormous moth battling against the glass. I looked further up was what I thought was a wasp was climbing down towards it. A horrible site.
I think the wasp was too skinny, could have been a hover fly according to a colleague. Just as hideous at that distance.
I thought of this thread.
I think the wasp was too skinny, could have been a hover fly according to a colleague. Just as hideous at that distance.
I thought of this thread.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
A Pee Fly?
TheVat
Valued Senior Member
Is the larval stage a caterpisser?
Perhaps the frosted glass distorted this scenario…..
Have witnessed a spider killer wasp take on a few spiders. When the spider is a good size, initially there’s a stare down, spider makes itself look big, both jockey for position with wasp looking for opening, and eventually confrontation with the wasp doing its best to apply the paralyzingly sting. If successful, and never seen wasp lose, the wasp will carry the victim to its nest and lay and egg on the spider for the larva to eat alive. Not a pleasant fate. Pretty sure these wasps, Pepsis wasp I believe, vary in size with some capable of taking out a tarantula.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
No both monstrosities were my side of the glass, a foot from me.
Barely escaped with my life.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
The rest of your post reads like a horror story.
I guess it does. Watched a battle take place on my deck. After the battle, the wasp struggled to take off with the spider, striking the glass panes that surround deck several times. Eventually it was able to drag spider to a point under the panes and take his cargo to meet its fate.
The one wasp here looks like some purple metallic beast. They’re very distinguishable from most other wasps because their abdomen/stinger is attached to the thorax by a strand of its body that looks like a thin needle.
Just learned it’s called the Blue Mud Wasp in these parts
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exchemist
Valued Senior Member
I have often seen orb weaver spiders in the garden catch wasps in their webs, kill them and truss them up in silk before taking them away to be eaten. But they were regular wasps, what Americans call yellow jackets, not these specialised ones you are talking about.
Pretty much spider free on the deck. These things show up and crawl into every crevice or crack looking for baby food. Occasionally they are rewarded. One of my favourite bugs. Never been stung by one and never saw one land on a human. They just look wicked.
TheVat
Valued Senior Member
We have paper wasps here which are quite non-aggressive. I've walked right onto them and they just bounce off, or land on clothing and then relaunch. One sting in twelve years and I had to do something blatant - unseeing grasp a plant it was perched on, so the poor thing had to sting me to save itself from crushing. A nasty sting but, as with wasps generally, the pain is fairly shortlived.
en.wikipedia.org
Silly person. Maybe you need to watch this movie: