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Family: Flatidae
This rough-textured egg mass was predominantly grey with white and black mottling. It was oval shaped, about 5 mm long and 3 mm tall. The egg mass was on the underside of a banksia leaf. The area on the leaf's upper surface corresponding to where the eggs were on the underside, appeared yellow (Pic #3) - a yellow ring with a less damaged centre. Two small ? mites were spotted beside the eggs.
Spotted on the underside of a juvenile leaf of a Coastal Banksia bush (Banksia integrifolia)
My thanks to Stephen Thorpe for the ID and reference. This was incorrectly labelled as Scale from the one reference http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_... It did look very like Scale especially given the damage to the other side of the leaf. But, these appear to be Hemipteran eggs like that of the Flatid Siphanta acuta.
6 Comments
It sure felt way too hard for eggs valgaavmiko. I'm resisting glasses too. :)
Now that you say it, I do see the eggs. I swear there are scale insects that look exactly like it. I need some new glasses ;)
Thank you Martin & valgaavmiko for your comments. My first impression of this was insect eggs - the grey tubular structures being cases with ? the black spots being openings on the individual egg cases. The roughness perhaps is because the eggs had hatched. I was going to contact Peter Chew (Brisbane Insects) to have a chat about it. I might do this...thanks again. In the meantime, I will label this as ? insect eggs.
Leuba, Stephen (BB) makes a good point that these look like eggs
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_...
I would have totally agreed with you, having seen the same reference to a soft scale insect. Particularly so since the discoloration is a typical result of hemipterans feeding. Does BrisbaneInsects have an incorrect ID for this?
I went through an entire catalog of scale insects native to Australia and their host plants. I only found one that was on Banksia and it was on Banksia serrata. The species was Frenchia banksiae
Yet another weird creature to track down.