Farrow - Insects of south-eastern Australia: an ecological and behavioural guide

This book is dedicated to the late Ernest Lewis, Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London, and friend, who introduced me to the fascinating world of beetles

Roger Farrow 2016

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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Farrow, Roger, author.

Insects of South-Eastern Australia : an ecological and behavioural guide / Roger Farrow.

9781486304745 (paperback)

9781486304752 (ePDF)

9781486304769 (epub)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Insects Australia, Southeastern Identification.

Insects Australia, Southeastern Pictorial works.

595.70994

Published by

CSIRO Publishing

Locked Bag 10

Clayton South VIC 3169

Australia

Telephone: +61 3 9545 8400

Email: publishing.sales@csiro.au

Website: www.publish.csiro.au

Cover photographs by Roger Farrow

Images by Roger Farrow except where otherwise credited

Edited by Peter Storer Editorial Services

Cover design by James Kelly

Typeset by Thomson Digital

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd

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Original print edition:

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Contents

A jewel beetle, Castiarina decemmaculata (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), at Tinderry. Length 10 mm. It is feeding on nectar from a flower of a tea-tree, Leptospermum myrtifolium. There are over 480 colourful species in this endemic genus, making it one of the largest genera of beetles. Several species may coexist feeding on pollen and nectar from the same flowers at the same time, and mating between different species is sometimes observed. Some of the more spectacular species have been over collected and their survival is threatened.

Insects can be the bane of many walks in the bush, whether from the annoyance of the pesky bushfly or the persistent attentions of biting flies, while our gardens are often a source of mosquitos that drive people inside at dusk. On the other hand, such walks can reveal a whole new world of insect diversity, species richness and intriguing adaptations through camouflage, mimicry, feeding mechanisms and many other attributes. Insects may be visiting flowers, patrolling the air, feeding on plants or just hanging about, but whatever they are doing there is a story to tell. I have attempted to tell these stories in this guide, which starts with the feeding strategy and behaviour of the target insect in its natural setting, rather than the appearance of the insect itself. The guide is directed towards anyone with an interest in the rich natural history of insects in south-eastern Australia, including bushwalkers, natural historians, environmentalists, land care and conservation groups, gardeners and educators, among others, as well as entomologists. Although the fieldwork for this guide has been mainly conducted in the Southern Tablelands of NSW and adjacent ranges, most of the insects covered have a much wider range in south-eastern Australia and beyond. I hope that users of this guide will find this approach to insect identification easy to use and more eco-friendly than the traditional method of catching and preserving insects for later identification.

The diversity of insects in any particular area is also an indication of the quality and conservation value of that environment because so many ecological processes depend on insect activity, whether it is pollination of flowers, recycling of nutrients or providing food for vertebrates, such as birds and reptiles. Insects rarely receive the recognition they deserve as indicators of the conservation values of different habitats, compared with vertebrates and plants, and this guide is also an attempt to raise the profile of insects in the environment.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so an emphasis is placed on the photographs of insects behaving in their natural environment with the identity of host plants given, where relevant, as well as the location (see encountered in our area in a particular feeding group and family, and will usually provide a genus and common name, and possibly a species name.

Roger Farrow, Tilembeya, June 2015

A spectacular jewel beetle Stigmodera macularia feeding at flowers of a bearded heath Leucopogon muticus. Length 25 mm. Lithgow, New South Wales. This beetle was described in 1805 in Insects of New Holland by Edward Donovan from insects collected by Joseph Banks or William Bayley on one of the three Cook Expeditions. Donovan personally engraved and hand coloured his prints.

Insects are normally identified from collected, preserved and labelled specimens and it is often much more difficult to name a species from a photograph that may not show the characters required for a formal identification. However, I would like to thank all the colleagues that looked at my photographs and helped identify many insects.

To David Rentz for grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches; Paul Brock for stick insects; Graham Milledge for mantids, Gunther Theischinger for dragonflies and stoneflies; Penny Gullan for scales and their allies; Murray Fletcher for leaf hoppers and their allies; Max Moulds for cicadas; Gerry Cassis for true bugs and earwigs; Tim New for lacewings; Chris Reid for leaf beetles; Dan Bickel, Neal Evenhuis, David Ferguson, Stephen Gaimari, Martin Hauser, Christine Lambkin, Bryan Lessard, Michaela Purcell, Gunther Theischinger and David Yates for different flies; Alice Wells for the caddisfly; Ted Edwards and Michael Braby for moths and butterflies; Marina Tyndale Biscoe and John Feehan for dung beetles; Ken Walker for bees; Bruce Halliday for the mite, and Mark Harvey for the scorpion and false scorpion. Particular thanks are due to Kim Pullen for beetles, flies, wasps and many others and for his expert knowledge about the local insects. Any errors of identification that remain in the book are mine.

Additional photographs have been supplied by Denis Anderson, Martin Butterfield, Nony Edwards, Ted Edwards, Esther Galant, Penny Gullan, Christine Kendrick, Diana Mortimer, Stewart Needham, Adrienne Nicholson, Stef Oberprieler, Rod Peakall, Kim Pullen, Linda Rogan, Janet Russell, Philip Spradbury, Ken Walker, Denis Wilson and Tony Wood. The photographic opportunities were greatly aided by my friends at the Native Plant Society of Canberra on our weekly forays and monthly field trips when many interesting insects were drawn to my attention.