Welcome to Mantid Microcosm, a blog created to record the amazing minibeast microcosm I have discovered in my garden.
I enjoy documenting the lives, behaviour and growth of the wildlife I find through words and photos and sharing with those who are interested.
Remember the eggs from last post? Well, I kept an eye on them and watched them become fairly transparent with a glimpse of the bugs inside. Then one time when looking through my lens, I noticed that some were emerging. I can't see that well just looking through the camera but when I got the photos into the computer, I could see the little bugs that were emerging. Very exciting!
Bugs seen through eggs and some empty eggshells. See the red eyes?
Newly emerged Spined Citrus bug on eggs.
View of newly emerged bug on eggs from below.
The newly hatched bugs stayed on the eggs for the first day or two, probably to allow their exoskeletons to harden.
If you have been following my BLOG you will remember that last year, the mantids had to contend with a large number of Salticidae, or Jumping spiders to use their common name.
I did see a few of them again this year including the one I shared in my last post that unceremoniously devoured one of my babies!
However, times change and this year the spider of the moment appears to be the Lynx spider. These are also amazing looking spiders with their spined legs and have the same method of catching their food; stalking and pouncing on their prey. However unlike the Salties they don't jump around the foliage but just run and climb with occasional connection lines strategically placed to help them around. They are very quick and not as tolerant of a lens in their face as the Salties either so getting photos has proved tricky hence many as they ran away or under a leaf trying to hide.
I wanted to post about these and got delayed and now have even more to add but will stop here and do another post as soon as I can. I've been taking photos and editing them and just need time to get it all uploaded and posted so come back soon! You will be amazed; I sure am!
Now if you are squeamish about looking at spider photos, then it's time to leave. However, if you want to see how amazing these little inhabitants of my garden are; scroll down and take a look.
Lynx spider under Hydrange leaf
A Lynx spider with dark stripes on Hebes plant in back garden but I have also seen these on the Hydrangea.
Lynx with a fatter abdomen which may be swollen with eggs.
The garden is sprouting into action and the insects are definitely on the increase. As you can see from the picture below, the Hydrangea bushes have come back with healthy green leaves but I have already spied a few leaf or plant hoppers so time will tell how much they damage the plant.
Fresh green spring growth over the two Hydrangea bushes.
After saying my mantids are back, this week has been worrying as I hadn't seen any except this one below which was the victim of one of the Jumping spiders which have moved back into the Hydrangea hunting ground!
I also witnessed this Jumping spider putting on a great display in front of a smaller one until it had lured it close enough to capture. It was amazing.
Here is an animated gif I made to show how they jump from leaf to leaf:
Jumping spider with a small jumping spider for its meal.
The little hunter became the hunted when this jumping spider caught it for its lunch!
This sight really saddened me and I kept searching for its little siblings in vain all week. I had started to believe that all three had suffered a similar fate when yesterday I was telling my son of the situation as we walked past and there was a little mantid in plain sight!
I investigated further with camera in hand and found about eight more tiny mantid nymphs on the bushes and the Cumquat tree beside them.
They really are still very tiny but clearly many of them are able to avoid capture and also catch their own meal which is a challenging job for one so small.
Baby mantid looking at me.
I have also found three adult Spined Citrus bugs now and some of their eggs; three batches in fact! If they are all successful, my citrus trees could be in trouble however I am willing to leave them in order to see what happens. I'd like to see the nymphs when they are little which I didn't see last year and I remember that last year many of the eggs were not succesful anyway. There is a parasitic wasp that lays in them and I suspect that is what happened.
Spined Citrus bug eggs on cumquat.
Spined Citrus bug eggs on leaf.
Last year I found some Katydid nymphs on the Cumquat tree but this year, like with the Citrus bugs, I have found an adult one at the very start of the season so I suspect there will be offspring from this one too.
Katydid adult enjoying a Cumquat flower.
Finally, a little brownish plant or leaf hopper I found which was new to me as well. Last season's were all those bluish green ones.
Small brownish leaf/plant hopper on Hydrangea leaf. I love the markings on this one!
Winter is over and spring has arrived and so have the insects, spiders and bugs that were in diapause or hibernation and the new bugs that have just emerged into their next stage of life. I really don't know where a lot of the bugs hide but it is not uncommon to find moths and beetles in garages for shelter and ladybird beetles all congregating in crevices of outdoor furniture or buildings where they presumably just slow down their systems until the conditions improve. To catch you up on what happened to the original microcosm, that is the Hydrangea bushes and Cumquat tree; below is a photo of the Hydranga bushes that I pruned to remove damaged leaves but then new growth appeared which now covers the bushes in a healthy lush covering.
Pruned Hydrangea bushes with some new growth appearing.
The cumquat tree did not change much except some cumquats were picked and some fell. The damage done by the citrus bugs was not extensive despite the fact that I found at least three or four on the tree altogether.
However, I dug out a lot of the fishbone fern you can see in the background because it is very invasive and uses the water of the other plants because it has an extensive fibrous root system. I also planted a native hibiscus nearby which is not a Hibiscus at all but has flowers of a similar shape to Hibiscus. Another thing worth mentioning is the slow decline of the casemoth numbers in the back garden. If you read my earlier post, Dainty Flyers and Curious Nomads then you will be interested in what happened to the caterpillars with their own mobile homes. For a good way into the colder weather they seemed to remain on the plants around the garden where I'd seen them before but I knew that some insectivorous birds preyed on these as I'd seen Currawongs doing just that on a tree next door which was obviously a good place for them also.
Currawongs feeding on case moth caterpillars on Pencil Pine Tree.
I have also seen this Butcher Bird visiting my back garden so now when I noticed that the Case moths seem to have almost all gone, I wonder if that is why he came to visit.
Butcher Bird sitting on branch - look at its sharp hooked beak.
But, isn't this post about the bugs returning?
Yes, of course! I saved the best to last!
Now that you have a very brief summary of what happened over winter, I will tell you what sparked my blog back to life!
Slowly I have been seeing more insects in the garden; butterflies, bees, flies, lots of spiders and so forth but the warm days have been interrupted by colder, very windy days and some rain so it has not been ideal weather to be a flying bug or to be a bug photographer.
Saltie or Jumping Spider with other spider for lunch!
Hoverfly on leaf
However, today was a glorious spring day; the sun shone, there was only a slight breeze every now and then and it seemed like spring was really here at last.
I was looking in a spot where I often see some salticidae or jumping spiders near one of my orange trees and glanced at the mantid ootheca (egg case) on the fence behind it. I took a closer look and realised it was open with all the tiny little holes where the mantid nymphs emerged so I looked closely for a little mantid nearby but no luck.
I moved over to the original Mantid Microcosm and looked once again as I do often among the leaves of the Hydrangeas. Eureka! A tiny brown mantid nymph; definitely only in its first instar/stage of life. Then I saw another and circled around the bushes to the Cumquat where another quickly ducked under the fruit it was on, hoping I would did not see it.
I'm really happy that my mantids have succeeded in producing another generation and I'm sure I'll find more as time goes by like I did last time.
The microcosm has seen many changes since my last post with the latest being the arrival, at last, of autumn. It was a long hot summer here which took its toll on all living things. Fortunately, the rain did eventually arrive so the garden needed less attention except for mowing lawn and pulling the many weeds that sprang up after the downpours!
I was fortunate to find some eggs and tiny caterpillars of the Dainty Swallowtail (Papilio anactus) butterfly on my citrus trees. I found some on the lemon, cumquat and on both orange trees but mostly on the healthier navel variety where I found the most. I brought some inside to care for and keep an eye on because despite the fact that they eat the leaves of my citrus, they don't seem to do any long term damage and I prefer them to survive to adult so I can see the beautiful butterflies in my garden.
Dainty Swallowtail ~ Papilio anactus egg on tip of young leaf with small caterpillar in background.
I have raised these caterpillars before so knew they are very easy to look after, simply providing fresh citrus leaves often and ensuring there are good sturdy stems for them to attach their cremaster and girdle.
Swallowtail caterpillars attach their hind end to the stem with a cremaster which is a support hook or cluster of small hooks at the abdominal end, and then make a girdle of silk around their middle to hang from the stem. After a while they shed their skin for the final time and take the form of a chrysalis.
Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar's body completely reforms itself into that of a butterfly; a most amazing metamorphosis!
Here is a short video I made to demonstrate this wonderful life cycle.
I released five of these into the garden while the weather was still warm and since saw an occasional Dainty gently fluttering around the gardenm feeding on the Buddleia flowers and laying eggs on the citrus trees. However, I still have two pupa which I think will probably remain in their chrysalis until next spring. This is not uncommon in lepidoptera life cycles; they will overwinter at any stage - egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or butterfly/moth. I would think the chrysalis is the ideal stage as it has the most protection inside its casing which you can see is very well camouflaged in citrus tree green!
Now, to other lepidoptera species in my microcosm; the Saunder's Case moth, a most fascinating species which lives its larval existence inside a casing made of silk and covered with short pieces of stick or leaves. We have had several of these creatures crawling around and feeding in our garden over the last year. I have mainly found them on the strappy plants called Dianella that you can see in the video in my back garden and also on the other strappy plants known as Dietes. However, these caterpillars seem to be able to live on many different host plants and wander around the garden to plants of their choice.
The Pencil Pines next door also hosted a large number of these caterpillars which a flock of Currawongs found a delectable feed one day much to my amusement as they are stunning birds to watch in their aerial antics!
Saunder's Case Moth on branch with long leafy pieces decorating its case.
Saunder's Case Moths are unusual in that the female never leaves the case even after pupating but mates with a male and lays eggs from within the casing. More information can be found HERE.
Below is a video of one of the casemoth caterpillars I found moving across the lawn.
Since the insect season is almost at a standstill, future posts may have more about some larger residents of the garden; the local birds, which I have also found very interesting this year and hope to continue to see many different birds in and out of our microcosm.
You must be wondering what I have been doing since I did not post as soon as I had intended to and the time has just whizzed by which happens in summer when a lot is happening.
For a little while, it seemed that the main area of my garden which I had christened the Mantid Microcosm had become far less active and there was not a great deal to report.
I had already mentioned in my last post how the number of saltie's (jumping spiders) had reduced drastically and then it seemed that the mantids began to disappear also. I was suspicious of the wasps or maybe the carnivorous birds like the Wattlebirds that hunt in my garden but whatever the reason, the Hydrangea bushes which had been teaming with spider other invertebrate life was rather sedate and even the plant hoppers slowly diminished since my last post.
The one species that has remained is the fungus eating Ladybird beetles. In fact, over the last month their numbers have increased since clearly the fungus on the Hydrangea leaves is encouraged by the hot weather and then the watering we have to give the garden for it to survive provide just the right amount of humidity for it. So I have now managed to photograph the larva, pupa, and adult but I still have not found any eggs! I looked again today and got quite a sweat up standing out in the sun searching on and under leaves. Every other stage is there but where do they hide their eggs?
Sequence showing ladybird beetle stages of development: larva, pupa and and adult with a pupa next to it.
I am happy to say that despite the reduction in numbers of invertebrates in the main area of the garden; the MM (Mantid Microcosm) I have found praying mantids dotted around the garden and various other interesting creatures including a beautiful moth which only flies and feeds just before dusk. It was on the Buddliea bushes in my backyard which for some time had a mass of lavendar coloured flowers all over them. I think I had seen this moth before but it flies really fast and is a dark, mainly black colour so I had decided it was an Australian(Yellow) Admiral in a hurry which they often are and can look quite dark especially from a distance.
However, the beauty I discovered was a Grapevine Moth - Phalaenoides glycinae, and it is just as beautiful as many butterflies!
Grapevine Moth on Buddleia davidii flower.
Here is a link to some information about the Grapevine Moth
Another interesting moth that may have been disturbed and flew into me one day.
So, in order to make this more interesting I have decided to post about what is happening in my garden as a whole since the small area I concentrated on has either lost or dispersed its population.
The other thing that kept me busy for a while was the new pond I decided to put in next to my other pond. We have a lot of Pobblebonk (Eastern Banjo Frogs) - Limnodynastes dumerilii calling in our pond and, although we also have a pond down at the back of the yard, it is under the overhang of a huge Sugar Maple tree next door and has never really attracted the frogs much since it fills with leaf litter.It has now has become more like a bog as the plants in it have spread and multiplied until they almost fill it. I did take them out and divide them once but it is a huge job and so now I decided to leave it as a bog garden rather than tackle it since it never really worked as a pond.
Lucky for me, my son pulled out his pre-moulded pond to make a larger one with a pond liner and gave me his old one. Then, lucky again; he suggested that he and his brother both come over and we have a working bee to put it in so we did!
This is how we put in our new pond. The old pond is hiding behind all the reedy plants in the background.
The boys dug out the very tough, vigorous Buffalo grass lawn to the shape of the new extended pond garden and then dug a hole for the pond, all the while checking with me where I want things. It was great; we bought some new plants to place around the garden and then a few days later I got stepping stones to make a path through between the two ponds.
The plants I bought to put between the stones should have been spread out more as you can see in the picture below. They are lawn substitute plants and one of them, Penny Royal - Mentha Pulegium, is meant to deter fleas so good for the dog and fragrant when stepped on. It is the one that has grown over the pavers at the lower half and I will need to lift them over it or cut it.
New pond garden now it has grown a bit, getting a sprinkle of water.
The good news about this extended pond garden is that I saw a couple of frogs testing out the new area only the next night. One hopped past me across the path and the other was in the pond giving the water a trial swim around. I suspect it will be a while before they breed in there since it does not have adequate shelter for them but I do believe they will eventually!
Here he is "hiding" under a leaf.
He did a rapid swim around the pond and ended up back staring at me!
The silly season kept me busy with other things but I still kept a watchful eye on my Mantid Microcosm and have been taking photos too...of course! So now I think it is time to update you on what is going on in the world of mantids, spiders, plant hoppers and ladybeetles. But wait...there's more! The Cumquat tree seems to be attracting all kinds of mini-beasts or invertebrates or bugs; doesn't matter what you call them as long as you know what I mean!
Things had been going along as normal with the two mantids on the Hydrangea bushes, one, or maybe two, actually when I went out at night to look I found seven!...on the Cumquat tree and still the one on the Hydrangea behind the two main ones. Then recently I found a new threat to my fruit on the tree; a Spined Citrus Bug - Biprorulus bibax. These suck the juicefrom the rind of the citrus and cause damage such as browning and eventually fruit drop. So, although these are very interesting looking bugs, I was not thrilled to find them on my Cumquat tree!
Now I think the mystery of the eggs can be solved at last! I looked up my little book on citrus pests and found a photo of the eggs of this bug and guess what? Yes, the same as our mystery eggs! It lists their major natural enemies as small parasitic wasps called Trissolcus oenone, which paristise the eggs and a predatory assassin bug, Pristhesancus plagipennis. I thought some of the mystery eggs had been parasitised and I think that may be correct. There are very many little flying wasps around the garden and I wouldn't doubt some of them came out of those eggs! Nature has a way of working things out sometimes.
As you can see from the later photo, I found the bug, actually two of them, again but now they are adults and have their nasty looking spines. They would blend in well on my Lisbon Lemon tree since it sports very nasty spines that I often prick myself with when pruning, but I haven't seen any on there as yet.
I decided to capture them to prevent their spread from occurring to the lemon and also to protect my two orange trees which are developing fruit. Now that the bugs have wings, yes there are wings under there now, it is tricky to take photos since occasionally they just take off but not very far thankfully!
Adult spined citrus bug
Damaged cumquat fruit.
As well as the Spined Citrus bugs attacking the fruit, there are quite a few Katydids of various stages on the tree too. They eat the leaves and flowers and also bite pieces out of young fruit, causing a large chalky-white scar and fruit drop. So, another assault on the poor Cumquat tree! My book only lists a tachnid fly and wasp parasites as their natural enemy but despite their camouflage, I am hoping that birds, spiders or my mantids might decide to have one for a meal! All of these predators have very sharp eyes so let us hope they help keep the population down somewhat.
Katydid nymph - early instar.
Pre-adult Katydid-Caedicia simplex nymph
See how the Katydids change their appearance as they grow. However, they still have those very long antennae even when their body is very small. And look at those big rear legs suited for jumping from leaf to leaf for food or to escape a predator. This small one is on the Hydrangea leaf but later I found them on the Cumquat tree. The adult can fly so can move from plant to plant quite easily.
Adult Katydid - Caedicia simplex blending in very well with the foliage.
The last thing I want to share with you about the Microcosm this post is the disappearance of the many Salticidae spiders. I know I mentioned this before but have only seen one saltie in that area in recent weeks although there are some other small spiders who spin small webs to catch their prey. I didn't think much of this fact until I saw a post on Facebook recently by Minibeast Wildlife of the jumping spiders they found in a Mud Dauber wasp's nest they accidentally smashed. It seems the spiders are paralysed by the wasps then placed in the nest for the developing wasp larvae. I happen to have a small mud dauber wasp nest right near the Microcosm that I had not yet mentioned since I was hoping to get a photo of the builder first. I actually saw the wasp leaving the nest recently but it is rarely around. Hopefully I will be able to tell you more about this in the future.
I regret that technical and family circumstances prevented me from posting earlier so I feel I could write much more but think this is enough for now and, all going well, I will post again much sooner next time! See you then!
Reference:
Citrus Pests - A Field Guide. (A Companion to Citrus Pests and their natural enemies: Integrated Pest Management in Australia) Smith, D., Broadley, R., Feutrill, C., Beattie, A., and Freebairn, C. (Eds). 1997. Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane and Horticultural Research and Development Corporation, Sydney.
