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#OzInverts

Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2025-04-05

This beautiful lady is Solenopsis invicta. Measuring barely over 2 mm long, she is a member of an incredibly successful species.

Unfortunately, she is far outside her native range, and doing incredible damage to her local ecosystem.

It isn't her fault that she's a fire ant.

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #FireAnt #Ant #Ants #SolenopsisInvicta

Ruddy brown ant with dark brown gaster, standing on grey dirt
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2025-03-08

Muscleman tree ant (Podomyrma gratiosa), so called because the large femur makes her looks like she lifts!

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #MusclemanTreeAnt #Podomyrma #Ant

Red ant standing on a grey tree trunk, with a black abdomen. Ant has bulbous femurs which makes it look muscular
NatashaTashTaylor@pixelfed.social
2025-02-01
Thought my first post may as well be my profile picture! This is a so-called Blue Ant, a species of wingless wasp which is over 20 mm long! This species, more formally known as Diamma bicolor. is part of a family of wasps known as the flower wasps (family Thynnidae).

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Werribee #Naarm #Narrm #Melbourne #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #BlueAnt #Diamma #Wasp #Ant
Appears to be a blue ant with red legs standing on a white background
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-12-06

Striped ladybird beetle (Micrapsis frenata) eating ... an angiosperm? I'm going with angiosperm.

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #LadyBird #LadyBug #LadyBeetle #Coccinellidae

Orange lady beetle with a black longitudinal stripe on each of the elytra, each end of the stripe having a 'hook', eating pollen out of a bright yellow flower
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-09-21

Happy #Pride all!

It's also the Great Southern Bioblitz on #iNaturalist this weekend so I've been spending all day taking pictures of animals. Here's a variable ladybird beetle (Coelophora inaequalis—a native Australian insect) enjoying the morning dew.

#GSBioblitz #WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Ladybird #Ladybug #LadyBeetle #Coelophora

Ladybird beetle with an orange colour and four black spots on the elytra. It's standing on a leaf and both are covered in dew drops
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-06-17

Ropalidia revolutionalis, the stick-nest brown paper wasp—because it builds long, thin nests out of a plant-pulp paper and is brown; descriptive names are helpful! This one's just starting her nest: each of those cells will soon hold an egg.

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Wasp #Hymenoptera

Brown paper wasp standing on a nest made from five hexagonal cells of paper in a row, with a sixth adjacent to the first two. This nest is connected to a stick.
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-06-11

The Celtis Leaf Beetle, Menippus cynicus! This native beetle's a personal favourite (I find them utterly adorable), and is known to eat the leaves of the invasive weed Celtis sinensis.
#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Coleoptera #Beetle

Medium-sized brown leaf beetle standing on the edge of a green leaf, with a green background.
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-06-07

Kongobatha diademata, the Snake Mantis! This one is just a nymph, but you can see its four wings starting to sprout from its back.

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Mantis #Kongobatha #PrayingMantis

Pale green mantis nymph standing on lichen-dusted wood. Its arms are folded beneath its head, and its legs in a wide stance. Its wings are very small, about the size of one of its segments.
Natasha TaylorTashTaylor@sauropods.win
2024-06-03

I've moved from Mastodon.Social to Sauropods.Win; in celebration here's a Muscleman Tree Ant (Podomyrma gratiosa), looking a little worse for the wear—she's missing a pair of legs!

#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Ant #Formicidae #Podomyrma

Muscleman Tree Ant (Podomyrma gratiosa). Long, thin ant with two pairs of leg (middle pair is missing) and red body. The gaster is black, as are the mandibles. The ant is standing on a grey tree trunk.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2024-06-01

Grasshopper!

Grasshopper nymph on tree trunk, the grasshopper is significantly the same colour as the tree trunk (sandy brown) but darker.
Auld Ma Twəggquinsibell@sauropods.win
2023-11-14

I think we should change the name of the Cabbage White butterfly to Cabbage Wight. It's a small change, but really boosts their cool-factor. Plus they're kinda more very pale green than actual white.

#wildOZ #OZinverts #butterflies

TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-09-28

Camouflage*! This little thing is the larva of a green lacewing! It has a bunch of detritus stuck to its back so it can safely hide from predators, while using the stabby bits on its face to kill common garden pests like aphids; these things are voracious predators!

*Omg I spelt it right first time!

A pale green lacewing with white, black, and grey fibres adhered to its back, standing on a patterned white or grey surface rendering it difficult to see.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-09-27

Cute little native cockroach! Tentatively ID'd this as Ellipsidion bicolor, not a pest species.

Dorsal shot of a yellow cockroach with a longitudinal black stripe down its wings, standing on a tree trunk.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-09-26

This is a member of Psocodea, which includes bark lice and book lice! I don't know anything about this order, so that's as narrow as the ID is getting.

Dorsal shot of a Psocodea centred with its antennae (approximately double body length) stretched out to either side, standing on a tree trunk
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-09-25

Don't have as much time to go finding bugs at present, but here's a bee by way of apology!

European honeybee covered in a thick dusting of orange-coloured pollen, climbing on a wilting orange-coloured flower
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-08-26

This intimidating creature is the stick-nest brown paper wasp! While they look scary, they're actually pretty chill (unless you touch their nest), and pretty small—only about a centimetre long!

Side photo of a brown wasp with a yellow face and large eyes, standing on a stick.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-08-17

Hibiscus harlequin bug (a.k.a. cotton harlequin bug), this is an absolutely gorgeous native species! Unfortunately I only had my long lens attached when I stumbled across this one, so I had to make do.

Large orange jewel bug with metallic green mottling standing on a leaf, surrounded by other leaves on a flat grey background.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-08-16

Australian garden mantis! Like all praying mantises, this little cutie is a vicious predator of insects!

Close up view of a green praying mantis head and thorax, with abdomen out of the focal plane, standing on a leaf
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-08-12

"Sister! Help me!"
*Ant leans forward*
"Long live the Queen."

A couple of spiny ants (Polyrhachis rufifemur) *not* in the process of committing regicide with wildebeest.

One golden spiny ant hanging off a piece of bark, looking towards a second spiny ant on the piece of bark.
TashTaylor@Sauropods.WinTashTaylor
2023-08-11

Last of my You Yangs shots, here's a mantisfly! Those arms share the same purpose as a praying mantis', but these insects are more closely related to lacewing!

Amber-coloured mantidfly with large green eyes standing prominently on a cluster of flowers

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