Lacewing eggs on tuart bark
Our walk leader's sharp eyes spotted the eggs of a lacewing on the bark of a tuart tree – they are very small, and each egg is mounted on a stiff hair that keeps it off the surface. The egg is nearly invisible to the eye, and unlikely to be found by small creatures walking on the bark. The lacewing is better known in its larval form – the ant lion. Ant lions create small conical depressions in the sand in which unwary ants can become trapped, ending up at the bottom of the sandtrap as an ant lion's supper!
Jans Banded Snake on path
As we walked back we found a Jan's Banded Snake on the path. This very interesting small snake is quite beautiful, with black and yellow bands, with a bit of red splashed on the yellow bands. Our poor specimen was quite dead, appearing to have only recently been run over by a bicycle on the hard limestone path.
Its proper name is Simoselaps bertholdi and it grows up to 30cm in length (averaging about 20cm), and has an unusual mottled and
Simoselaps bertholdi
flattened head (simoselaps means snub nosed elapid). There are four species in the Simoselaps genus, and three of them are very similar in appearance, and to make matters more confusing their geographic distribution can overlap. Jan's Banded Snake lives in WA south of about Exmouth, east through to South Australia and the southern-most part of the Northern Territory. It is related to the shovel nose snakes, and uses its snout to help tunnel through loose soil, sand and leaf litter. It eats small sand-swimming skinks and other small creatures it encounters in this thin layer that is neither truly above nor below ground. No doubt our poor specimen had to come up to the surface to get across the hard limestone path, prompting the query, ‘Why does the snake cross the road?'
Coastal Wattle - Acacia cyclops
Coastal wattle (Acacia cyclops ) is both in flower and in seed! This large bush is so named because each seed looks a little like a large, red eye. The blossoms, seedpods and seeds themselves are very attractive.
Acacia cyclops seed
Be sure to come along to our next walk! Check the Walks page for details.
Website development funded by a Department of Environment and Conservation Community Grant for Tuart Conservation and Management. Text and images copyright Friends of Trigg Bushland Inc except as otherwise noted. Website design by Nina McLaren and Peter Peacock 2008