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Moggill Creek

Catchment Group

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mccgadmin

Ladybirds, Ladybirds and more Ladybird Beetles!

June 18, 2021 by mccgadmin

When I started on this project of producing a Ladybird Field Guide for the MCCG I thought I might find about 8 species on my property. In a relatively short time I found over twenty species, some of which are very small and can only be reliably identified by taxonomists looking at their minute differences with a microscope.

The really colourful ones are relatively large, but are easily overlooked. Ladybirds are just as prevalent in the gardens in Kenmore as the large properties of Brookfield and Pullenvale so they are easy to find if you look closely.

Many are important beneficial insects helping control pests of citrus and some organically grown vegetable crops such as broccoli and cucumbers. There are also two species locally that eat plants, but their damage is minimal and one, the 28-spotted Ladybird, seems mainly to eat Deadly Nightshade on my property and while it should also be interested in Tomatoes and Potatoes though I have never seen one on my Tomatoes.

The rarer, almost identical 26-spotted Ladybird eats leaves of Pumpkins and I found one and a larva on a neighbour’s pumpkin patch.

28-Spotted Ladybird showing marks where it has been rasping the surface of a Deadly Nightshade weed. The big piece cut out of the leaf was probably by a grasshopper.

Many of the most colourful species feed almost exclusively on Aphis on a wide range of plants including Roses and Hibiscus and several vegetables. They lay their eggs usually on the underside of the leaves near the Aphids and when the larvae hatch they also feed on the Aphids and consume up to about 50 a day as they grow larger. The adults also eat other small insects and some supplement their diet on pollen during hard times.

A Common Spotted Ladybird feeding on Aphids which are oblivious of the danger and even climbing over their predator.
The upright standing eggs of a Three-banded Ladybird under a Milk Thistle leaf.
A final instar larva of the Variable Ladybird that has just shed its exoskeleton.

 

Another important group of Ladybirds eats scale insects which are important pests of Citrus, Roses and other crops and several native plants. They eat the young scale before they develop their hard waxy coat. Where scale are present they are usually attending ants that feed on the “honey dew” that scale excrete. The ants protect the scale from predators, including Ladybirds, but the Ladybirds pull in their heads and feet under their domed exterior and the ants can’t get to them. They lay their eggs under the scale to protect them and their larvae have many spines.

A Red Chilocoris Ladybird feeding on young scale insects on a grapefruit leaf. This species is sold for biological control of several varieties of scale in their citrus industry.

The fourth group feed on Mealybugs, which are an important pest of a wide range of commercial crops and even native plants.

A Mealybug Ladybird on a Ficus leaf searching for mealybugs.

They are most easily found on some of our Brisbane Box trees. Their larva are an amazing imitation of a mealybug.

The larva of a Mealybug Ladybird, which looks almost identical to the Long-tailed Mealybug but moves much faster.

The Fungus-eating Ladybird is the sole fungus specialist and eats Powdery Mildew a major crop disease of a number of vegetables and other plants when temperatures fall and moisture condenses on the leaves in the mornings. It is commonly found under the leaves of pumpkins as the fruit are ripening. It is thought that the beetles can detect powdery mildew by smell.

A Fungus-eating Ladybird grazing on powdery mildew under a pumpkin leaf.

A number of Australian Ladybird species have been distributed to New Zealand and the U.S.A. to control pests in horticultural crops. One of our Ladybirds (which are called Ladybugs in the U.S. but they are really a beetle not a bug) has saved the U.S citrus from the particulaly destructive Cottony Cushion Scale.

 

The only problem is that we exported the Cottony Cushion Scale to the U.S in the first place!

 

Photographing such tiny animals with a high powered macro lens in the field has been a challenge. I found mid-morning was best as the Ladybirds were warming up in the sun and not moving around as they do later in the day when they tend to hide on the back of the leaves when they detect movements and shadows. I collected some of the 1 to 2mm black ones on the native trees by shaking the branches over an upturned umbrella and staging the photographs on a leaf while they are playing dead but that doesn’t last long before they take off and they are hard to keep in focus. It is possible to collect the Ladybirds and cool them in the fridge and stage the photos with good lighting to allow well focussed photos with a full depth of field. I prefer not to as I enjoy the challenge of using the natural light and conditions in the field and, if possible, show them in action feeding.

All photos and text by Ed Frazer.

Filed Under: Bush Bites, News Tagged With: ladybird

2021 Members Survey

June 17, 2021 by mccgadmin

The MCCG Committee is wanting to hear from you!
How do you use your membership?  Which activities do you enjoy participating in?  What would you like to hear more about?  What would you like the committee to know?
Please take 5 minutes now to fill in this Members Survey, your feedback is important as it will help us plan and deliver the MCCG events and activities more effectively to you.

Filed Under: News

Public Talk – June 24th – Dr Paul Campbell from ‘Save the Bilby’ Fund

June 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

Thursday 24th June, 6.30pm for 7.00pm in Brookfield Hall

ERADICATING FERAL CATS – A CASE STUDY

 

Australia’s extinction rate for mammals, is the highest in the world. The two major factors creating this extinction crisis are predation by foxes and feral cats, and habitat loss. Feral cats now occupy 99% of Australia.

Save the Bilby Fund (STBF) established a 25 sq km fenced predator exclusion enclosure in Currawinya National Park in 2003 and introduced bilbies there in 2005.

Researchers detected feral cats inside the fence in 2012 and by 2014 the breeding population of bilbies was wiped out.

STBF took over the formal management of the Currawinya bilby enclosure from National Parks in 2016 and commenced an intensive program that removed the feral cats, oversaw the upgrade of the perimeter fence and reintroduced bilbies there. The removal of cats took over 4 years of intense effort and involved several methods, some much more successful than others.

This presentation will outline the process we undertook to eradicate feral cats, leading up to the successful re-introduction of bilbies into the enclosure in April 2019. Through this process Paul has gained an appreciation of why conservation groups underestimate the resilience of feral cats and the difficulty in eradicating them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bilby Photo Wayne Lawler

 

Presenter

Dr Paul Campbell is a Director of Save the Bilby Fund. He has a PhD from the University of Queensland for his ecological modelling of the fauna and flora of Fraser Island.

Paul has been a director of Save the Bilby Fund since 2010 and helped implement their ‘Bilby Tracks’ citizen science trips to outback Queensland. He is an experienced guide and outback traveler into some of the most remote parts of Australia.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: bilby, feral cats

Kids’ Day at The Cottage – Sunday June 13th

June 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

Lock in the date for the much loved Kids’ Day at The Cottage.  This year we will again feature wildlife shows, arts & crafts activities and much, much more.

Members can pre-registration now by filling in this online form.

For more information about Kids’ Days go to the main Kids Day webpage.

Sunday June 13th ~ 10am – 1pm

 

 

Filed Under: News

Wildlife Matters

June 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

In this month’s Wildlife Matters – Spiky Sightings, Rebecca Bain brings you in to the interesting world of the Echidna.   Did you know about Echidna trains? Or what about EchidnaCSI the citizen science app?

To read the column click here

Short beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Photo by Rebecca Bain

Filed Under: News

Know Your Wildlife!

June 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

Test your skills each month with MCCG’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!

You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin.  Answers can be found by searching in the MCCG Catchment Field Guides.

Here is the June quiz:

Which of these is NOT a marsupial?

Yellow-footed Antechinus (Antechinus flavipes) – photo Rebecca Bain

 

Fawn-footed Antechinus (Antechinus bellus) – photo Ed Frazer

 

Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes) – photo Ed Frazer

 

 

Answer:

The Fawn-footed Melomys is a rodent, a placental mammal, whereas the Antechinus are marsupials and carry their young in a pouch.

 

 


Published in

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Antechinus, mammal, marsupial, Melomys

Know Your Wildlife!

May 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

Test your skills each month with MCCG’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!

You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin.  Answers can be found by searching in the MCCG Catchment Field Guides.

Here is the May quiz:

Which of these birds is a brood parasite?

 

Photos by Ed Frazer

Answer:

  1. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) 
  2. Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis)
  3. Brown Cuckoo-dove (Macropygia amboinensis)

The Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis) is a brood parasite – it lays its eggs in the nests of
flycatchers, fairy-wrens, scrubwrens and thornbills, particularly the Brown Thornbill, Acanthiza
pusilla.

 


Published in

Filed Under: News

Wildlife Matters

May 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

In this month’s Wildlife Matters, Bryan Hacker had the good fortune to witness a noisy interaction between a feisty Cockatoo and a Lace Monitor.

To read the column click here

 

Photo: Bryan Hacker

 

All Wildlife Matters columns can be found in the Media Centre

 


Published every month in


 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: cockatoo, lace monitor, Moggill Creek

Vale Mike Humphreys (1942 – 2021)

April 19, 2021 by mccgadmin

Moggill Creek Catchment Group has lost one of its longstanding
members who has worked tirelessly as part of this volunteer action
group with the aim to conserve and improve the natural environment of
its catchment on both private and public land.

Since 1999 Mike has led the Gap Creek Bushcare Group working
to transform weed-filled undergrowth, and grazed paddocks, into a
creekside rainforest filled with a wide variety of local native plants. It also
includes a large planting of Richmond Birdwing vines to contribute to a
western Brisbane corridor hoping to bring back the threatened Richmond
Birdwing Butterfly species.

Far more often than scheduled working bees, the presence of his old
station wagon regularly parked at the Brookfield Rd entrance was
evidence that Mike was quietly working, bushcaring, somewhere on site.
Mike put in an enormous effort to bring the local landholders together to
plant indigenous species and create a healthy riparian zone along Gap
Creek. A very visible outcome is the establishment of a beautiful walking
trail along one side of the creek from Brookfield Road near Deerhurst
Road to Kookaburra Street which allows the local community to
appreciate the site’s on-going transformation into wonderful habitat for
native fauna.

Mike was always a strong advocate for the environment and his
enthusiasm and knowledge will be greatly missed by the MCCG. His
family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, Mike’s friends make
a donation to MCCG, either directly or via this gofundme site:
www.gofundme.com/f/hk6c42-michael-s-humphreys-memorial-gifts-for-bushcare

Vale Mike Humphreys.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Mike Humphreys

Wildlife Matters & so does the habitat!

April 1, 2021 by mccgadmin

Our usual Wildlife Matters column in The Local Bulletin  focuses on our incredibly diverse wildlife in the catchment but this month we have a slightly different focus.  Wildlife thrives in a healthy habitat and we are very pleased to feature one of our catchment sites that is being restored and well looked after.

Here is the clickable link for the YouTube Video

 

All Wildlife Matters columns can be found in the Media Centre


Published in

Filed Under: News

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