Leaf Beetle Grubs and a Tiger Snake Encounter
I found this group of Leaf Beetle Larvae feeding on Eucalyptus viminalis in my backyard. Leaf beetles belong to the family Chrysomelidae. These ones appear to be of the Genus Paropsisterna.
The photos were taken with a Canon 7D and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro lens.
( All photos, videos, and text on this blog are by @mostly.nature )
I've included my fingers in this next shot to give a bit of scale. They are quite small.
They next day I went to look for them and found one individual had moulted into it's next stage and has a black stripe along it's back. This now makes me think that these are Paropsisterna variicollis .
Today I went up the backyard for another look and was welcomed by a Tiger snake right at the spot where I needed to be standing. That's not unusual. We've had about twenty snake sightings in the yard this summer; the most we've ever had. I grabbed a quick shot as it slowly slithered under some cover a few feet away. Unfortunately I had the macro lens on the camera so I could not safely get a closeup of the head. I've put a full crop inset of the head end in the image below. Tiger snake are generally shy but are also highly venomous so I don't like pushing my luck with them.
After the snake had moved aside, I checked out the beetle grubs. They have split off into two groups but still only one has the stripe along the back. Assuming my ID is correct, I don't have a photo of the adult of this species. I'll be keeping an eye on them to see how they develop. (That is if the birds don't find them first.)
Small Longhorn Beetle Close Up A Caterpillar With a Rather Macabre Hat Seagulls Perform Circus Act 
Wolf Spider With Her Multitude of Babies |
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Nice to see pictures of the grub like that but I’d be so freaked out to see those close up in person!
Nice post!
Interesting backyard :)
I was going to say that the art of macrophotography simply fascinates me. I have not done much of it, but I hope to gear up for it sometime soon. What a fascinating hobby, or profession, to have. But then I read of your encounter with the tiger snake. Tiger snake, you say. Now that would seem to attach an entirely new perspective to the creatures of one's backyard. Kind of like having an elephant in the bathtub, but one that happens to have large venomous fangs. Yikes! I don't know if I could deal with that, but, I suppose you must. Thanks for sharing.