Asterope

I love these insects but geez - do they bite - and hard too!!

An amazing and well spotted spotting ArgyBee - it is very interesting that they have green caps... a lot of the blue-staining boletes that we *occasionally* get up here can look green but that is due to trauma.

Are these edible at all? not that they look particularly appetising!

It was an easy spotting - I had two of these living in my house :)

Actually - I dont think they have too much problem with the asian house geckoes, especially when they reach this size as they are MUCH bigger and often go for prey that the house geckoes cant handle - like huntsman spiders and large moths. I also observed them chasing away house geckoes... They are shy compared to the house geckoes but lots of houses in the greener suburbs of Brisbane still have one or two of these hanging around so they must be doing alright!

We have so many pretty cockroaches... They get such a bad rap due to their introduced cousins :(

Did you see any younger ones? they are covered in white fluff - when they are all feasting on tree sap it seriously looks like patches of snow...

I have seen these on many walks - always wondered if they were edible - like the European "chicken of the forest" fungus

Thanks for the comments - I had a brief hiatus from PN but im back ;) I have lots of spottings to upload too!

My firefly photography may be easier this year - moved house in january and not 3 days after moving in... spotted some in my backyard! looking forward to August/September when I can go back to the areas I have been looking at for the past few years and do some counts - hasn't been as wet as previous years so hopefully there will be more!

It hasnt got the branching of the xylaria hypoxylon - perhaps a different xylaria species?

There are quite a few different species of these wood ear mushrooms in the SE QLD area... and they are YUMMY in salads and stir-fries (much cheaper than buying them at the shops too!)

That is amazing!!