At the beginning of this month I posted some pictures of a pretty little bug moving around a big white patch of gunk on my outside wall. The bug turned out to be a “true bug” in the Hemiptera order, also called leafhoppers or planthoppers. Specifically, I thought it may be a Eucalypt Planthopper (Eurybrachyidae).

At the time I wrote that post, I wasn’t sure that the big white patch of gunk was related to the bug, though it seemed likely. Now it’s certain. Three weeks after the first sighting, this happened:

Tens of tiny little bugs hatched from the egg sack. Each bug is minute – just a millimetre or two long. Too small for me to see properly with the naked eye. The above image is zoomed in.

I saw the bug creating the egg sack on 24 November, and the little creatures hatched around three weeks later, on 16 December.

Here’s a sideways view, so that you can see the forest of tiny antennae:

Now they’ve all dispersed, leaving us with just a white patch on the wall. I’ve seen similar patches before, and wondered where they came from. Now I know!