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The Bleeding Heart (Homalanthus novoguineensis) is the preferred food plant of the caterpillar (above), which attains a length of 12 cm and produces Australia’s largest moth: The Hercules (Coscinocera hercules).
The female moth has a slightly paler and larger wing area than the male (below), whose wingspan reaches up to 27 cms.
This dominant 4.5metre male Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) resides a kilometre or so downstream from my own abode on Cooper Creek; a proximity that we never forget!
It has long been known that crocodile gender is determined by temperature. If the temperature of egg incubation is cool, around 30 degrees C, the hatchlings are all female. Warmer temperatures, around 34 degrees C, hatch all males. There is also strong population bias towards females; often as high as 10 to 1.
Like most birds that I see at night, this Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) was roosting strategically on the distal end of isolated vegetation, to forecast the vibrations of predators. In this instance, the climbing bamboo (Bambusa moreheadiana) provided safe harbour.
What was most unusual, though, (more…)
These voracious, venomous predators of the night are seldom seen and even more infrequently in pairs, but what can be said of the affairs of the Scutigeromorph heart?
Well first of all, they have a series of trachea originating at dorsal openings that channel oxygen into the pericardium. They also have (more…)
Take a long look into the face of the world’s largest two-dimensional wheel-web weaving spider: The Golden Orb-weaver (Nephila pilipes).
The red appendages, projecting forward from the head region, are sensory organs called palps. They detect scent, sound and vibration. Between them are the powerful chelicerae; made up of the base segment and the fangs. Above, the cephalothorax houses six eyes with a three-dimensional outlook.
Gigantism in these animals correlates with increased temperature, so I suppose it is inevitable that we should all enjoy a closer familiarity in this anthropogenically-exacerbated interglacial warming period.
The Rufous Owl (Ninox rufa) is as discreet as it is formidable. It can snatch a sleeping Brush Turkey off its roost and has also been known to take Scrubfowl, Papuan Frogmouths, Kookaburras, White Cockatoos, Flying Foxes, Gliders, Possums and a variety of insects and spiders.
Their nocturnal vision is legendary, with huge eyes that absorb as much as a hundred times more light than human eyes. Their forward-facing eyes cannot be rotated in their sockets, so they always look straight ahead.
I recently reported that the wet season had well and truly arrived in the Daintree, with over 700 mm of rain in five days.
The Australian mean rainfall total for 2007 was 497 mm, slightly more than (more…)
Can anyone identify this miniature rainforest critter?
It is about 2 mm long (cerci excluded). I photographed it on the distinctive new foliage of a juvenile mahogany (Dysoxylum sp.). (more…)