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Project Noah Nature School
Acalolepta vastator
Large (body 30mm) pale and mottled brown; a pair of pointy humps on top either side of thorax; very long (75mm) tapering curved antennae
This one at the tip of bracken fern (?) in very tall eucalyptus forest (national park)
The eyes are wrapped around the antennae - imagine the view ! Also officially a pest in it's home country! It's learned to drill into grape vines and 'timber' trees. I find something very unnatural about this assessment. Must check full implications and see what else might be treated this way. http://www.padil.gov.au/pests-and-diseas...
Spotted on Jan 28, 2012
Submitted on Jan 28, 2012
8 Comments
Thanks Emma and Lars. Sorry I missed your comments. It's hard to track all the threads in PN.
I've just found out this creature is officially a pest AND a local native which is a bit of a shock - it's a reminder that pest status is such a sapiens (growth!) oriented concept.
Oh my! Top shot, Argybee - Congratulations for it.
It truly is and your picture is beautiful too. Hope to spot these one of these days. We have so many eucalyptus trees here .
Thanks Emma. Awesome bug.
Awesome Argybee!!
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/856...
Thanks martin. I saw some of those eye-morphs - makes me want that better camera.
Nice find. This will be a male. Check http://www.padil.gov.au/pests-and-diseas... but I think you have a native species. And find some macro shots of the eyes morphing around the antennae. Cool. I've found your plant - check the link on our spider spotting.