More on the Fireblight Beetle
The Fireblight Beetle (Peltoschema orphana) is a native beetle and their larvae are part of the natural succession of the forests as they recover from the 2009 fires and a natural way of thinning out dense stands of wattles. Although they can also be seen in un-burnt roadside areas close to Yea on the Whittlesea-Yea Road.
They have previously been recorded severely impacting on Silver and Black Wattles in plantations in Tasmania. Where only a small portion of the wattles have been observed to recover.
Hopefully many birds, mammals and other insects are able to feed on the grubs. It would be interesting to hear any observations of wildlife seen feeding on the grubs or beetles.
This article below was from the The Courier-Mail Saturday 24 February 1934.
THE BÜSHLOVER By “FABIAN”
Fireblight
THE wattles seem to me the most unfortunate trees in the bush as far as parasites are concerned. A young healthy wattle Is a lovely thing, its foliage the softest and most delicate of all, but I do not think I have ever yet seen even a half grown one not disfigured by insect pests.
During a recent walk I came on a patch of small wattles in a little hollow. All were ugly, untidy, sickly, doomed, with very few leaves left, as though a fire had recently been through them.
On a close approach I saw that they were simply swarming with dirty looking little greenish grubs, and one had to come up close to see these at all. They were the larvae of the fireblight beetle (Paropsis orphana).
They looked like tiny twigs or leaves, but birds would soon see them, and I concluded that they must be unpalatable and therefore left alone. They had simply destroyed this little grove by eating the leaves.
I do not know whether what is called fireblight among orchard trees, is a disease or just the result of damage by insects, but this particular beetle is well named.
It lays its eggs by the thousand on wattles, and the hatched grubs do the rest.
What’ll happen to the wattles ?
You may have noticed the rusty-browning and defoliation of wattle trees around the district recently. This was particularly noticeable to us on a trip to the Strath Falls the other day – the effect can be seen in the centre of the photo at left, where much of the dense post-fire regrowth of wattles appears to be dying.
The wattle species affected are those with feathery bipinnate foliage: Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) and Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii). The culprit is what appears to be a small caterpillar, as seen in the photo at right (click on it for a closer look).
Fireblight Beetle larva
In fact the offender (approx. 1 cm long) is the larva of the Fireblight Beetle (Peltoschema orphana – formerly Pyrgoides orphana) as seen at left. The beetle is native to south-eastern Australia and feeds on Silver and Black Wattles.
The defoliation of these wattles is another interesting aspect of the post-fire recovery of the bush. Not all of the wattles will recover and, in the meantime, the thinning of the canopy will allow other native plants (and unfortunately weeds!) to regenerate.
Don’t let the coy looks fool you
While on my daily reconnoitre looking for the most recent roosting place of the local Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua), I was assailed by a shower of falling pine cones and branches. Perched in the trees high above me was a ‘squadron’ of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus funereus) doing what they do best – destroying vegetation. Don’t let the coy look of the Cockatoo on the right fool you. Minutes before this photo was taken, the truncated branch on which it is perched wasn’t so truncated. Their powerful beaks can easily grind through pine cones and two-centimetre-thick branches. Long known as harbingers of rain the only thing raining on this day was pine debris.
Ibis exposed
The other day, we noticed a large nest high in a sparsely foliaged Swamp Gum right beside the Broadford-Flowerdale Road, west of Strath Creek, in the intermittently-flowing Queen Parrot Creek. It turned out to be an Australian White Ibis nest, with 2 adults and a pesky youngster, apparently close to fledging.
What is unusual is that these ibises commonly nest in colonies, sometimes with the Straw-necked Ibis, whereas this nest was isolated. Also it is probably more usual for them to nest lower to the ground in secluded cover with a more reliable water-body nearby.
The chick was certainly insistent in its calling, as can be heard by clicking on the icon below.
Nest-box update
Just a brief update on the 14th August post Anyone at home? – our remote camera eventually did record a Tuan (aka Brush-tailed Phascogale) near the nest-box, but unfortunately did not capture it entering or leaving the box.
This adult phascogale has to be a female since all the adult males would have died abruptly from stress-related disease shortly after mating in May/June. We are reluctant to inspect the nest-box at this time, for fear of her abandoning the nest. So the questions remain: is this really her nursery nest site, does she have young in the pouch (there may be up to 8) or are they already at the stage of being left at the nest at night? The gestation is about 30 days and the newborn are permanently attached to the teats for about 7 weeks.
We’ll keep you informed if we get any further pictures, especially of young.
September 6 – the start of hostilities
Where’s that bicycle?
Today marked the start of hostilities in the annual assault on yours truly by the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen). For the past two weeks I have peacefully ridden my bicycle to the General Store to pick up the mail without incident. However today the magpies fired the first salvos – initially attacking on the bicycle path at Moore’s Reserve, then outside the Primary School and then finally at the bottom of Old Spring Valley Road.
I was surprised everything was quiet along ‘Divebomb Alley’, a notorious stretch of magpie heaven along Spring Valley Road. But the signs are ominous. Trouble (for me) is brewing. For the past month about twenty black and white marauders have been gathering, regularly carousing in the paddocks along the road. Sharpening their beaks.
I still bear the scars from last year when a magpie took a piece out of my ear on Melbourne Road in Yea. This year I have put in my order to Santa: Kevlar body armour, a full-faced helmet and a beach umbrella for the bike. However I suspect the Christmas delivery timeframe may be too late.
Nobel Prize in the offing
Call me crazy but I think I have discovered a solution to the global reliance on fossil fuels.
Coming back from a holiday in North NSW we found a nest built into the engine compartment of our Holden Astra which we had left parked at the house for two weeks. Popular opinion suggests, since the nest was so neat and tidy, the owner builder was a Rat (Rattus sp.) as opposed to the wished for Ring-tailed Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus).
All I have to do now is figure a way to entice a large population of the critters to live there and then harness them to the drive-shaft.
From small ideas big things grow. Stockholm here I come.
No nest-box needed !
We first heard this Striated Pardalote calling somewhere in a large Yellow Box tree in our front garden. Upon investigation, we saw it popping in and out of a hole at the end of a cut branch (see arrow on photo at left).
The Striated Pardalote builds a cup-shaped nest at the end of either a tree hollow or, like the Spotted Pardalote, a burrow in an earth bank.
We have since seen what is probably the male sitting on the branch, and announcing the coming breeding season with its loud chip-chip song, which you can hear by clicking on the icon below. The Striated Pardalote also has a contact call consisting of a soft trill.
Strippers in Flowerdale
Recently there has been a lot of stripping going on just outside Flowerdale … bark stripping that is. Young trees, particularly Red Stringybarks (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha) are having bark removed from them about a metre off the ground. Remote cameras have failed to capture the culprits. The most likely suspects are Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) or Swamp Wallabies (Wallabia bicolor). All are notorious bark strippers.
The reasons for this behaviour are as varied as the suspects – range marking, adding fibre to the diet in the absence of dry grass, or adding salt and minerals to a meal.
We will now focus a remote camera on the electricity pole on our property. Everyone knows that where there’s stripping, there is bound to be pole dancing.
Have to get a picture of a Swampy doing that!
More reptiles
We had rather unexciting results recently with a remote camera in a bush remnant on Kay and Neil’s property at Strath Creek , only recording a Black Rat, a wombat and a few kangaroos. However, this Marbled Gecko (Christinus marmoratus), discovered by Neil a few days later, was a nice little surprise.
This small lizard (approx. 70mm long, snout-vent) is quite common across southern Australia and is even seen regularly in suburban Melbourne. It is usually nocturnal and mainly arboreal, but also likes to hang around fallen timber and woodpiles, searching for spiders, insects and other invertebrates.
While sorting through photos sent in by members of the local community, we came across this lovely picture of a Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus) sent in by Ron from Flowerdale some time ago.
This well-camouflaged lizard (120mm s-v) is active during the day (but perhaps not too active at this time of year !) and like the gecko, it benefits from leaving fallen timber.
And another reptile picture was just received from Rutherglen. Can anyone confirm that this is also a Jacky Lizard despite the different markings?
