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Creiis longipennis
Tiny houses made from a sugary substance and covered with golden floss. The animal that lives here is a plant sucking bug called a psyllid.
The dome has a fine diagonal woven texture and the largest ones were about 6mm across. The creature itself was nymphal, shades of yellow with a soft, ribbed body, a couple of spots on either side, and a yellow mouth tube.
On older leaves of a eucalyptus in a local nature reserve.
The name 'lerp' comes from the aboriginal word 'larp' Dense colonies create thick encrustations and were often collected for food.
I lifted one side of this lerp trying not to damage it and, being a sugary, mix I was able to moisten the raised edge and 'glue' it back to the leaf. I think it worked well. I haven't seen these golden coloured ones before and wonder about the fact that the creature is a similar colour. I also considered the fact that often we find just the domes with no floss on top and maybe the floss is highly vulnerable to dissolving in a light rain or even overnight dew. Based on this idea I suspect these might be very fresh ones.
Like miniature cicadas these creatures create unique micro-sounds...
http://www.psyllids.org/CardiaspinaSOUND...
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Superfamily: Psylloidea
Family: Aphalaridae
Subfamily: Spondyliaspidinae
Check out the likely adult here https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/74...
52 Comments (1–25)
Thanks Arya.
Congrats Mark, animal architecture is amazing!
Thanks Shanna, sintija and Maria !!
This is a marvelous spotting - congratulations!
Amazing spotting!!! :)
This is a stunning shot, Argy. Congrats.
Thank you all so much. Glad you enjoyed it.
Congrats Mark, such an interesting design!
Argy,this artist :-) turn him self famous,a golden series ,congrats again on the SOTD
Amazing color and design. It looks fluorescent! I love the floss on top. This is definitely inspiring. Excellent capture and congrats on the SOTD.
Congratulations, Mark. Absolutely deserved.
A well deserve SOTD, congratulations, Mark Ridgway.
Congrats Mark on this very interesting SOTD!
Congratulations dear Mark..... and thanks for sharing this super spotting...
excellent spotting......regards..... :)Sri
Wow! Truly spectacular Mark!
Congratulations on a well-deserved spotting of the day!
Congratulations on this wondrous spotting, Mark!
Than you RiekoS
Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing such beautiful and wonderful spotting. It really is amazing about our nature.
I'll sleep with my bike helmet on then.
Congratulations Mark. You raised the hideout of the small insect, leaving him naked. I think it will take revenge. Prepare yourself.
Thanks Shekainah, Neil, Lauren. You're right Neil. Leuba and I often discuss how nature makes human fashions seem so ordinary.
Very neat spotting Mark and great information! So elaborate a structure.
Now that is quite spectacular. Wouldn't be surprised if some young milliner fashioned something like this for someone's head at the next Melbourne Cup.
Congratulations Mark, what a sweet spotting.