More flowers from Cloud Farm

Here are some photos I took on Christmas Day, when at "Cloud Farm". Several are of garden plants, but several are of weeds (such as the Dandelion seed head from yesterday). I do not mean to create the wrong impression by showing lots of weeds, but several of these images are of weeds which just happen to be remarkably beautiful flowers.

Blue Convolvulus - a popular garden plant.

Pink Marguerite Daisy - with a strange combination of pink and orange colours. This serves to remind us that Nature can make up its own "rules" for colour combinations, and get away with it.

See what I mean? This is the "Eye" of the Marguerite. This is a larger image than I normally upload - so click to enlarge it, to see the finer details of the flowers.

Yes, I meant to say "flowers", for the "centre" of all "daisies" is actually a composite flower, made up of many individual flowers. If you enlarge the image you will clearly see the see regular 5-sided flowers around the edge of the orange centre of the "flower". The orange "buttons" are simply "as-yet-unopened" buds of even more flowers.

Here is a Scotch Thistle, yet another "composite flower". It is a truly beautiful flower, despite being a terrible weed in Australia.

And there is also a remarkable creature - a Stick Insect, which is a "pet" (called "Celine"). But it warrants examination for its strange details. The Existentialist reader will be asking: "Strange" - compared to what? Have a look - I think you will get my point.

This Stick Insect is quite different from two other Stick Insects which I have written about previously - both Australian, but only one was a local "wild" individual. It seems these Insects are popular for study in schools and universities.

This insect is Carausius morosus - the "Indian or laboratory stick insect". (*** PLEASE SEE CORRECTION UPDATE BELOW) The body is arched up and forward, (though it does not carry itself that way when "relaxed". The body of this insect seemingly bends in the opposite manner to the way a Prawn might be "folded". As it has no "stinger", this is not the same purpose as a Scorpion's favourite body position when arming itself for attack, although the angle is superficially similar.

Note also the small wings, which are just forming - above the front legs.I was particularly intrigued with the head form, especially where the neck enters the head. Of course, being a vertebrate myself, I assume that all creatures ought be designed around a "spinal cord". This creature is an invertebrate. Maybe that makes a difference in the way in which this insect's head can be "wired up".

This insect looks to me as if it is designed by the people who designed those toys called "Transformers" Check out the details of the leg shape, seeming to aid its leaf camouflage.

The feet are interesting "V shaped" claspers. No doubt very effective in helping the insect to hang on to vegetation high in a tree, under windy conditions.

CORRECTION AND UPDATE

I have been advised by Martin Lagerwey that this insect is a "Spiny Leaf Insect" (Extatosoma tiaratum). It is a native Stick Insect.

"It is covered in sharp spines and the legs have flattened leaf-like projections. The head has an odd pointed cone shape and looks like it is on back to front. Males have much slimmer bodies, and two pairs of fully developed wings and can fly. Females have stout abdomens, a single pair of tiny wings and cannot fly. They rely on camouflage to avoid predators, looking like a stick with leaves. When disturbed they can strike out with their spiny legs. They often curl the end of their abdomen over their back like a scorpion. The Spiny Leaf Insect is a popular insect pet."
Other Names
"Giant Prickly Stick Insect, "Macleay's Spectre"
"It is found in coastal regions of Queensland and northern New South Wales."

Source: http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Spiny-Leaf-Insect/Extatosoma/tiaratum.html

Thanks to Martin Lagerwey for providing the correct information.

He has a private website with information on many Stick Insects and other creatures.

http://martinsinsectworld.biz.nf/sticks.html

As regular readers would know, I do the best I can to correctly identify any creatures I find. 

I am always happy to get correct information, when my insect ID is incorrect.

Denis Wilson.

I may be contacted via the "comments" facility, or via email, from the My Profile page.

Children's Pet Show at the Robertson Show

The Robbo Show of course does a great set of "kids' pet" awards. In this particular case it has an award for the "most unusual pet". I confess to failing in my job as amateur reporter, because I was so taken with the Stick Insect that I failed to note which "pet" won the main prize. Instead I rushed over to get a couple of close-up shots. That's right a "Stick Insect" won the second prize for the Most Unusual Pet. What beat it out of first place? Clearly the award was not judged by your humble reporter, for this Pet would have won hands down, if I had been a judge of this competition.

Did the First Prize go to the three-legged cat, the pet tortoise, the flop-eared rabbit (I am pretty sure it won the cutest pet award), the pet rats, the Tree Frog in the aquarium, or the Raccoon skin ("Pet Road Kill" - my favourite, if just for imagination) .

It seems the family of the owner of the Stick Insect had attended an Open Day at CSIRO (in Canberra, I assume) some time ago, and there were a number of "hatchlings" which were available for the public to take home. Unfortunately I forgot to ask the obvious question of when that visit took place, for then I would have known more about the life history of this amazing "pet". This amazing Stick Insect has happily grown since then. Judging by the way it was devouring Eucalypt leaves, flat-out, while I was observing it, it probably does not take a lot of "looking after", other than providing it with a regular supply of Gum leaves. I was fascinated by the way its mouth was positioned so that it can eat vertically along the edge of the leaf. You can clearly see the notches along the edge of the leaf where it had eaten previously. Obviously it eats its way down along the edge of the leaf, then returns to the top, and starts again. It eats down in a straight line, for you can see the leaf underneath the head is approx 3mm higher than the leaf above its head. In other words, it shaves about 3mm off the edge of the leaf in each "pass".

For the record, the insect was at least 10 inches (approx 25 cm) long. The insect is sitting on the up-turned red plastic lid of its cage, which was about 18 inches (approx 45 cm) long.

This variety of Stick Insect might well be an interloper, from Brisbane, where it is reported to be quite common. From information on the Chew Family website, it is obvious that this Stick Insect is a mature female Goliath Stick Insect. These insects are reported to be very weak fliers, just moving as little as possible, eating their way around whatever plants they are located on. The males, which are much smaller, are apparently more mobile, actively seeking a mate.

I have only seen one relatively small, brown Tesselated Phasmid Stick Insect in the local area.

Here is the full insect which I found low down in the bush in Kangaloon, at the base of a large Eucalypt tree.And here is an "head-on" view of the head of the wild specimen I had found (obviously viewed from above, because I did not wish to disturb this insect).My original report on the finding of this insect is found here.

For the record. My little friend, Tas entered Lena in the "Scruffiest Pet" award, and she got second place, which I thought was just great. It takes "judgment" to come second in that competition. If she had won outright, that would have taken some explanation, but second scruffiest, I think is just great.

Here is Lena licking her nose with her pink tongue, while Tas poses with her for this photo. Seriously, I think Lena would have been a serious competitor in the happiest pet award, but there is no such category.

And for a quirky insight into the running of the Robbo Show, how about this? I had no small change to pay for Tas to enter Lena in the Competition (which was about to start). So the Steward agreed to me paying the entry fee in a few minutes (as soon as I could get some change). An honour system. Fine with me. Then Lena won second prize, and suddenly we had $2:00 in prize money, which I promptly paid to the Steward, to retrospectively cover Lena's entry fee! Don't you love it?

All day long, Lena very proudly wore her red sash (2nd scruffiest) and also a white sash for the 4th smallest dog. (The winner of that competition was a Chihuahua puppy which could easily have sat on the palm of my hand.)