Insects


A guide to Australian insect families (from CSIRO) can be found at:
http://anic.ento.csiro.au/insectfamilies/

Daley, A. & Ellingsen, K., 2012. Insects of Tasmania: An online field guide

A useful introduction to Insects, visit:
http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/documents/9362/invertebrate_guide.pdf

A diagram of Insect morphology illustrating terminology with legend of body parts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_morphology#/media/File:Insect_anatomy_diagram.svg

A diagram of an insect illustrating terminology based on a worker ant, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaster_(insect_anatomy)#/media/File:Scheme_ant_worker_anatomy-en.svg

Photographing insects

There are two main ways to photograph insects with a camera: using a macro close-up lens or a zoom lens. If the insect tolerates your getting very close, then you can use the macro lens. For example, some moths will remain quite still when approached, believing they are camouflaged and invisible. However, many insects, especially those that can fly, will move away when you approach. This is especially true for insects like butterflies and dragonflies. So a good zoom lens is very useful for photographing many insects. If you are using a smartphone, then use a macro lens or a macro attachment. E.g. OlloClip for iPhone. If you want to have an insect identified to species then clear photographs are usually needed because minute parts of the anatomy may need to be checked. It is valuable to take several photos from various angles so that these anatomical details can be seen. Many insects are have particular plants that they feed on, and they can be identified more easily when the associated plant is known. So if the insect is resting or feeding on a plant, take note of what the plant is or ensure that a photo shows the plant clearly.

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Discussion

JulieMorgan wrote:
38 min ago
The form of the caterpillar reminds me of Aglaosoma variegata

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE
donhe wrote:
7 hrs ago
I suspect that the stripy patterns of Chlenias caterpillars change through the instars. Is there set of photos of all the instars of any Chlenias species ? I think the larvae sp. (a) and (b) of MOV are just different instars.

Chlenias (genus)
ibaird wrote:
Yesterday
Can't really see and orange head or other features of that species.

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE
donhe wrote:
Yesterday
Panacela lewinae ?

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE
Yesterday
Actually Kylie in a citizen science naturemapr assisted study of Canberra's pollinators we found that 79% of the recorded flower visitations by the European bee were on exotic flowers. But I don't want to sing their virtue as the European bees was a major pollinator of several weed species including Echium species (53% of all recorded visitations on this genus), Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare - 50%), St John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum - 30%) and the Dandelion Group (17%).

Apis mellifera
809,319 sightings of 23,242 species from 14,659 members
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