#auplopus

Formerly Fabriogenia. The change was news to me.

A worldwide genus of spider wasps, that amputate the legs of their prey before carting them back to prepared cells. Commonly seen in Australia, exploring treetrunks and under loose bark, antennae waving wildly. There's at least one fly and one beetle that mimic the colours and behaviour, presumably for protection - spider wasp stings are notoriously painful.

Spider wasps in the genus Auplopus are found throughout the world. Adult females attack and paralyze spiders with their venom, remove the legs for easier transportation, and return the spider body to their nest where their larvae will feed on it.

AYArktos' photo from Wiki, since I was too busy looking for insects around the place to photograph the statue.

Gundagai is a small town on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne, and site of the famous Dog on the Tuckerbox, from a doggeral poem written at least as early as 1857. The bullock team driver in the poem was not having a good day, and the poem was considered quite rude even without the popular variations with an added 'h'

And the dog sat on the tuckerbox five miles from Gundagai.

@purrdence and I hadn't planned on stopping there - we'd originally intended to catch the train from Wagga Wagga to Sydney. But we didn't want to infect anybody with COVID.