#wellard

Tiny microleafhoppers found on Eucalypts. There's three described species in the genus, but there's a high chance this one is undescribed.

I don't know where the unusual name for the genus came from, but the closely related Dziwneono, also endemic to Australia and its Eucalypts, is named from a Polish phrase meaning 'it is strange".

Kahaono montana was the first true bug known produce silk, which it uses as part of the shelters it makes against the weather and other threats.

The Typhlocybinae contains well over 6000 known species, making the microleafhoppers the second largest subfamily of the Cicadellidae, but that number is probably a wild underestimate. Many species are vividly coloured and patterned despite being a few millimeters long, and many are serious plant pests. Kahaono montana, for example, can be so abundant on Eucalytus trees that the leaves become mottled and discoloured.

the Midshipman

cr.weibo

I wanted to do some chibis for some of the Hornblower cast! I know this isn’t everyone, but I included the characters I enjoyed the most from the series. I hope others enjoy this piece. I especially love how Horatio, Archie, Bush, Styles, Oldroyd, and Matthews came out tehe.

Native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, so unsurprisingly once it was introduced to Australia and New Zealand as a cover crop it found the climate very much to its liking. Also found in California and some other US states, but surprisingly doesn't seem as common there.

AKA Karrak to the indigenous peoples of the Perth region.

One of the increasingly rare Black Cockatoos found around Perth, with the populations threatened by habitat loss, starvation, and illegal trade in live birds.

The red-tailed black cockatoo was the first bird from Eastern Australia illustrated by a European, as a female, presumably collected in north Queensland was sketched by Sir Joseph Banks' draughtsman Sydney Parkinson in 1770. The actual scientific binomial for the species complex has been a bit more convoluted, since ornithologist John Latham named them Psittacus banksii in 1790 very shortly after English naturalist George Shaw had described them as Psittacus magnificus. Australian-born amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews proposed Calyptorhynchus magnificus in 1927, and it stayed there for several decades, although it was unclear whether the original bird had been Red-tailed Black or, more likely, the Glossy Black (Calyptorhynchus lathami). In 1994 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature agreed that Calyptorhynchus banksii would be the name, going forward.

There are five subspecies around Australia, with this one endemic to the SW.

A small flock was a regular visitor to the large Marri (Corymbia calophylla) tree in my front yard over the duration of the BioBlitz, since it was a bumper year for gumnuts, and Marri gumnuts form the bulk of the diet for these cockatoos. In fact, you can tell which species of Black Cockatoo has been feeding in your area by examining the wreckage under the tree - each has a particular technique for opening the fruit, largely determined by the shape and size of the beak.

One creation story from western Arnhem Land tells of the Bird-people Black Cockatoo and her husband Crow sprouting black feathers after becoming afflicted with a sickness from across the sea to the north. In fear of being buried underground, they transform into birds and fly high in the sky.

To the Tiwi people, the red-tailed black cockatoo is a psychopomp, accompanying the spirits of the dead.

AKA Calyptorhynchus funereus latirostris, Calyptorhynchus baudinii latirostris, and Calyptorhynchus latirostriis, ngolyenok, ngoolyoo, and G'noo-le-a. The first description was by farmer and ornithologist Ivan Carnaby in 1948, who suspected that Western Australia had more than one species, and was later proven right.

A large, endangered cockatoo from SW Australia, where it gathers in flocks to systematically wreck every Banksia growing in my home suburb. Banksia, other Proteaceae, Eucalypts with large hard gumnuts and other Myrtaceae form the bulk of the diet, but the large powerful beak is well adapt to destroy any hard fruit and open up wood in the pursuit of woodboring larvae.

Known to live for at least 35 years, but seriously endangered by habitat loss, loss of nesting sites, and extreme weather such as heatwaves.