Rust and ash

Was just about to go to bed when this cute image caught my eye. It's two different colourations of the red-backed toadlet Pseudophryne coriacea. Nice little frogs.

Wandering where to pupate?

Snail over at A Snail's Eye View has written about Danaus plexippus, the Monarch or Wanderer butterfly here. What better opportunity to post a photo of the lovely larva! It's sitting on the seed pod of one of the species' host plants, Gomphocarpus, the swan plant, and appears to be in some sort of stand-off with a hemipteran of some description.

It's not a species I'm overly familiar with and in fact I think this is one of the only times I've ever seen the caterpillar.

Teaser III

So what's our little beastie doing here? And what are those funny looking things on its back? You may wonder... All shall be revealed in good time my friends.

Teaser II

This image probably won't help anyone very much, but it's sort of inspired by darky's comments regarding the mouthparts of the beetle.

That said, you could probably actually get down to species from this photo if you knew where to look.

Oh, and if anyone's interested, I've upgraded to blogger beta which turns out to be a mixed blessing. It appears to be no longer compatible with Picasa. And the new template tools looked promising but unfortunately were too rudimentary and inflexible for my needs.

Teaser - Subterranean beast

While on a walk at night recently I came upon a little beastie that happened to be active. It's a species that has a really interesting story to it, which I'll be spreading out over several posts. Or, at least, I'll show a few photos to get your interest up before revealing what it is. Unless someone guesses before that... Feel free to have a go.