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Kookaburras and leafhopper egg sack
A few weeks ago I wrote about the true bug that laid a clutch of eggs on my wall, and the hatching of those eggs into cute little leafhoppers. Yesterday I took a picture of two kookaburras high in a tree, because I thought the angle was cute:
As well as the underside of the kookaburra beaks and their beady eyes, looking more closely, you can see…
Yes, an egg sack that looks just like the one on my wall. The two kookaburras and the egg sack were high, high up in a gum tree. Someday soon, tiny little critturs like these will hatch. I bet the mother bug wasn’t aware that two such fearsome beaks would be in close proximity to her brood!
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 24 December 2018 (Summer)
Location: Manly Dam Nature Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’56.2″S 151°15’22.5″E
Leafhopper bugs hatched from egg sack
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!
Tiny bugs – planthoppers or leafhoppers or something Hemipterous
Two odd little bugs have paid a visit to my house, one just recently and the other last year. They’re not birds (well, duh) but every now and then I like this blog to include interesting creatures that birds may come across.
Here’s the first bug. It was a reasonable size, a bit smaller than the fingernail on my little finger:
Pretty! A knowledgeable friend told me it’s a “true bug”, which is actually a classification of a set of bugs rather than a character reference. True bugs belong to the huge order of Hemiptera.
The bug was on a wooden wall, and spent quite a bit of time around a patch of white stuff with a hump in the middle of it. Perhaps a clutch of eggs? I didn’t see whether the bug spewed out the white stuff, but it did spend time wiggling its abdomen above it.
Here’s another picture of the same bug:
Evidently cicadas are Hemiptera too, though the cicadas around here are much bigger that this little critter. I’m thinking it may be a Eucalypt Planthopper (Eurybrachyidae) like these bugs.
Last year, another odd little bug paid a call. This one was very small indeed. It’s on the armrest of a garden chair:
Another view of the same bug:
It’s hard to tell which end is the front of the creature, and which is the back. In fact, it doesn’t seem to make much difference to the creature either. In this video, you’ll see the bug move forwards and backwards with equal comfort:
Cute huh. Let me know if you know more about either of these bugs.
Sydney Birder 