• lab17
    • lab16
3 Jan 2020 – ouch!
 

Family day out at the Gold Coast today, marred only by the fact that Elliot Leach texted just as we were leaving the house, to say he’d found an Oriental Cuckoo at Tingalpa Reservoir! Still, I enjoyed the day out, and resolved to head to the reservoir first thing tomorrow morning to try to re-find it.

In the meantime, the amazing Victor W Fazio III has identified a photo of a Tineid moth that I took on 1 Jan – Moerarchis australasiella. See here for the record on iNaturalist. While this year will mostly focus on finding birds, I’m keen to take notice of other nature around my patch too. So far I’ve identified 13 non-bird species, all of which are up on iNaturalist. I’ll put up lists soon.

The brilliant Moerarchis australasiella. Apparently the larva bores into the dead stems of grass trees Xanthorrhoea spp, lining its boreholes with a silk tube which projects from the tunnel and has a silk cap (see here). Indeed, this moth was buzzing about in an area where grass trees had recently been burnt – perfect habitat. Next time I’m in that area I’ll look for the silk tubes produced by the larva.