For Sunshine’s Macro Monday #32

It was a public holiday in Canberra today to mark the anniversary of the official naming of Australia’s national capital in 1913.  And a beautiful day it was.  It is such a privilege to live in this gorgeous city.  As well as being the seat of the Federal government, Canberra is the home to a number of research institutions and universities, so we have an abundance of very clever people living here.  Some of those people have developed and maintain the Canberra Nature Map, an online map of Canberra’s diverse flora and fauna.  It is a live map updated regularly by members.  As a result of this wonderful resource, we now know the name of the funky fly I posted photos of recently (see original post).

It was identified as Trichopoda giacomelli.  Trichopoda is a genus of tachinid flies, commonly known as the feather-legged flies or hairy-legged flies.  They are indigenous to the Americas.  Trichopoda giacomelli was released in Australia from 1996 as a biological control agent for the green vegetable bug, Nezara viridula.  Nezara viridula, commonly known as the southern green stink bug (USA), Southern green shield bug (UK) or green vegetable bug (Australia and New Zealand), is a plant-feeding stink bug.   Although believed to have originated in Ethiopia, the stink bug can now be found around the world.  The larvae of Trichopoda feed on the little suckers.  That being the case, I thought I would show you a couple of photos of baby stink bugs/shield beetles for this week’s Sunshine Macro Monday.

Here is a bevy of baby bugs sucking the life out of a lucerne seed pod.  Eek.

bugs

Now how about this colourful beastie (4 Instar of the stink bug life cycle)?

sb

Kudos to my husband who took these lovely photos.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

 

 

50 thoughts on “Suck It Up”

    1. I’m not sure how successful they’ve been, Su. Their numbers don’t seem to be large, but their job certainly is. The introduction was thoroughly tested by CSIRO before they were let loose. We certainly don’t want another disaster like the cane toad.

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      1. I’m glad testing was done. I understand the need to fight one invader with another, but I think both our countries have experienced the unintended consequences of that.

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  6. I recall a song that questions the efficacy of some ironic methods of biological pest control. ‘I Know an Old Lady’’ Sung by Burl Ives. The pictures are amazing and delightful. Thank you1 To you and your TL!

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