Observations by ellurasanctuary

~8.5mm long, ~9.5mm winglength

Marie found another in the shade house. Less worn than our first, 4 years ago. Found in April again.

I got some shots of the antenna, and have added more shots to our 1st sighting; which you can quickly get to via the tag.

https://www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html#Aleucosia-obtusa

S2 Male

Kindly id'ed by Axel Kallies @kallies on our web site.
We originally though this was Stibaroma melanotoxa.

I'm going to post a number of other examples as I'm having trouble working out if they are the same.
Their hindwings vary in the intensity of grey/black/brown; as well as their forwings.

https://www.ellura.info/Lepidoptera.html#Stibaroma-aphronesa

S1 Male

Kindly id'ed by Axel Kallies @kallies on our web site.
We originally though this was Stibaroma melanotoxa.

I'm going to post a number of other examples as I'm having trouble working out if they are the same.
Their hindwings vary in the intensity of grey/black/brown; as well as their forwings.

https://www.ellura.info/Lepidoptera.html#Stibaroma-aphronesa

It looks quite grey and has no yellow eye ring, compared to the 1st one we saw (in the link below). Is this age, gender or just individual variation?
We were super stoked when we just went for a stroll thru Ellura and both saw a Southern Boobook land in front of us high up in a mallee tree.
The only other time we saw & photographed one was 10 years - 10 days ago, in twilight.
Classed as RARE in our region.
Finally descent shots in full sun, well apart from shadows from the tree 🙂 We've been hearing it at night a lot lately, I really should go out and record it's call. Sounds a bit pigeon like.
Ninox (Nixon) boobook ssp boobook
https://www.ellura.info/Bird.html#Ninox-(Nixon)-boobook-ssp-boobook

They're all desktop sized photos, so you can zoom in 🙂

~15mm long.

Another Clear-winged Striped Bee Fly (Villini sp ES01)
https://www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html#Villini-sp-ES01

This one is larger than the others we've measured, and is our S8. It has the more usual clear wing without the shading around the cross veins.

This is an old one, but we managed to get an antennae shot. Not sure if it's good enough to help with id further than Villini though.

~13.5mm long
~13mm wing length (hard to be sure as they are damaged)

Looking closely at the ventral shot, do the fan like structures around it's rear end indicate female?

I think this is the same as the majority of Villini Bee Flies we see. The only difference here is a bit of shading in the wings around a couple of the cross veins.

It's quite worn, particularly around the scuttelum & wing shoulders. As such, shows some heavy bristles coming off the scuttelum, and how heavy the wing shoulders are. Normally these are hidden by hair. But close inspection of our photo's finds they do exist in the others.

We were, unusually, able to get a shot of one of the halteres here. Bee flies tend to hid them quite well in their dense hair.

I was surprised to find we haven't posted this on iNat yet. This one is the 14th we've imaged.
Funny how the things we are used to get ignored, and it's the unusual that we spend our time on 🙂

We call this one:
Clear-winged Striped Bee Fly (Villini sp ES01)
https://www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html#Villini-sp-ES01

~14mm long.

Ringtail Ichneumon Wasp-Metopius sp

Can't see any ovi-positor, so assuming male? However, the first one had much thicker antennae, so it's possible this is the female?
This is our second Metopius. We assume it's a different species & not just gender variations. The first had a much more stripy abdomen. But they both share the same shield face. This has more of a dark shaded area towards the back of the wings.
NB: the strange saddle on it's back.
Plus the very large labium.
https://www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html#Metopius-sp

Can't find this one anywhere.
~8mm long, ~15mm wingspan.

Not sure what the worm has to do with it. May have been attached to the moth when caught? It wasn't caught on purpose. Would be keen if anyone has any insights on it, but I didn't get any better shots that in the dorsal image here.

91mm wingspan, 40mm long, Female
Sitting by the front door under the carport last night, almost trod on it!
Was very hot, 41.5 deg, and dry, not rain for 2 months. At first thought it was a type of rain moth, didn't look very hawk like with it's dappled wing pattern, wings spread out but pink body not showing.

~8mm long male, with 5mm long antennae. VERY long for a bee!

Syn: Lasioglossum (Parasphecodes) hiltacum

Found drowned. I don't like posting dead specimens, especially drowned ones in poor condition like this as the hair is all matted, but this is the only one we've found. Perhaps I've found them before and stored them under flower wasps, due to the long antennae? I'll go and have a look.