My Backyard

Recently, I went to Belmont to get some photos for my street photography blog. I love the suburbs of Highton and Belmont. Many of the areas I’ve lived in or walk around are close to the river and have much more interesting bugs than I get at my house in Corio. Of course, my garden is pretty crap there.

I was walking to the bus stop on Roslyn Road when I saw this on the path. It was a bunch of harlequin bugs, or dindymus versicolour, feasting on something that I couldn’t figure out. I thought it was cool… although it was less cool when I missed my bus!

[Read more…] about Bugs In Suburbia

I did some weeding while at my parents recently. I weeded a patch that is a lot damper than the other areas of the garden and was able to find different bugs to what I normally saw.

Pie Dish Beetle

[Read more…] about Interesting Invertebrates In Mums Garden

I was visiting my family recently at their old house. Before I got there, Seth found this and put it in a jar temporarily to show me. It is a red-lined geometrid. The markings under its wings were fascinating.

My house

I’ve had to step back from my research with every animal I find, but I still try to seek out ID’s when I can.

Below is Agrotis porphyricollis.

Aedia leucomelas

Yesterday, I was visiting family to celebrate the end of the semester. Seth decided to test out the microscope, so I quickly went into the backyard to round up interesting things to look at. It was cool seeing what appeared to be cells in flower petals and a blade of grass.

Below are images that Seth took of the larval casing. He placed it under the microscope, focused and took the image. Not bad! It’s a $50 Aldi one so isn’t the most intuitive. I’m planning to experiment more with microscopy… although I can see that leading to more money being spent. It is pretty fun though!

Stand off #1

[Read more…] about Backyard Bugs: Grasshopper Stand-Offs