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Scale Insects

26/12/2016

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PictureSeverely sooty mould affected plant

​I am amazed at how little I know about the natural world when I delve into what I often think is a simple subject
Like many people, I thought that mealybugs are powdery and scales waxy and didn't know much about psyllids at all. Not so!

Psyllids are commonly seen in lerps (oyster shaped shell of dried honeydew) and in galls. When exposed, the adult females look like a tiny wingless cicada.
Mealybugs and scales are sucking insects (like aphids) that secrete a layer on their body to protect themselves and are immobile or slow moving. They are all slow moving or stationary sucking insects, that excrete honey dew from their anus. Ants attracted to the honeydew harvest this and protect them from predators. (This brings a whole new aspect to the saying "kiss my __"  enough said). Excess honeydew secretions that drip down the branch are used by moulds to create a black sooty stain that can be seen on the stem and the ground below the shrub.
What we see on plants are almost all female. The adult male looks like a tiny wasp and only exists to mate. I have met some humans like that but they eat, and also live much longer. Some scales have dispensed with males entirely and produce clones of themselves (parthogenesis). Some reproduce via eggs, others by live birth, to produce mobile young called crawlers. Once it finds a nice spot a crawler develops a coat or 'shell', and some dispense with legs and antennae.
There are few easy rules of thumb to distinguish between them.  This article may help.
Mealybugs are flat, oval in shape, and have a powdery coat. They prefer moist warm conditions and are not found in the wheatbelt, where we only find scales.
 
Scales are very diverse. A few  form galls on eucalypts, some look like mealy bugs, some look like "typical" waxy scales, but many have a cottony exterior and strange shapes. Here are three categories:-

 Gall-inducing scales (family Eriococcidae genus Eriomorpha), produce galls (small knobby plant growths) in eucalypts Females and males have different shaped galls and the males leave theirs to mate with females. Males have different shaped galls to their female mates. This includes Gumtree scale Eriococcus coriaceous
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a gumtree gall
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a gumtree gall
Waxy scales (family Coccidae) tend to have a smooth coat, including the gross looking Tick Scale.
The images below is an unusual scale that sucks mallet bark and is protected by ants that build a glued litter cover to protect them from predators. See this blog.
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protective cover built by ants
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scales underneath note reddened sucked area
Cottony scales from the ancient Margarodidae and Monophlebidae families are the most common type in Foxes Lair.These have a cottony coat and/or weird  cottony appendages. The one below that I found on a marri twig was surprisingly colourful with dinky little legs.
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top view
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underside
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Cleaned up female
In the species below found on a quandong, females lay up to 600 eggs in an ovisac (egg sac), gradually moving along and extending it as they lay. After laying the last egg, they die at the end of the sac. 
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Intact and dissected ovisacs
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Scales at varying stages of development
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Crawlers from inside of an ovisac
Here are some more   
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scales on prickly poison
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On a Fabiaceae note winged male
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Wolwolling Pool

6/12/2016

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Greetings fellow Foxies,
Wolwolling pool is a remarkable pool in the main bed of the Arthur River south of Highbury. In her book “Wolwolling Reflections” on the history of Highbury, Gwen Warren writes that the pool was a favoured camping place for indigenous Australians and was one of only 2 permanent freshwater pools around Highbury for shepherds, who with sandalwood cutters were the first white settlers there. Wolwolling is an aboriginal name meaning ‘Weeping women’ because scores of aborigines died from a catastrophic measles epidemic after contact with Europeans, and were buried near the pool. Wolwolling was also the original railway siding before becoming the Highbury township.
The general direction of the Arthur River has changed little over millions of year.  It was once was the headwaters of the Collie River before land movement caused it to be diverted then captured by the Blackwood near Towerinning Lake. The Arthur rRver then  became relatively sluggish with an extensive broad valley system.
In another Foxypress I explain how lakes form and much of these flats and associated lakes have become saline. Vegetation surrounding the pool itself is still fairly healthy with York gum and salt sheoak trees, Needlebush (Hakea preissii) and unfortunately lots of weeds.
The image below shows a view of the pool (see arrow) looking east. The pool is located where the river has cut around a roughly east/west trending upland that has caused the river to become faster and deeper. I suspect that the rock under the upland is a line of dolerite (black rock), that has weathered to form York gum red clay. This can block or redirect groundwater that may form a spring.
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To get to Wolwolling Pool, turn east off the Great Southern Highway onto Wiese Road south of Highbury, drive over the railway crossing and the sharp right then left turns and stop or turn left just before the river crosses the road. The first and second tracks to the left join just before a large boggy patch. Park here and walk in about 200 metres. Driving is not recommended as the track in can be wet in winter and is almost impassable in 2 spots.
Please don't camp here as the place is already suffering from unmanaged 4-WD vehicle traffic and mosquitos are likely to be thick in the evening. 
One can also launch a canoe at the crossing for a pleasant 400 metre paddle in the growing season.
Morning is the best time to visit.
The pool was a popular swimming place before the days of swiiming pools, reticulated water and amoebic meningitis warnings. 
It was very pleasant there this July after good rain. The water slowly flowing into the tree lined pool was clear and brackish with water weed for the ducks. Great bird watching place, lots of bird song and sooo peaceful.
Lake surrounds contain the succulent samphire that is seen on salt land but rain washes salt out of the topsoil, and soil between red to green samphire plants is densely coated in bright green water-loving Cotula (Billy button) plants that will produce a carpet of yellow flowers in spring. Later I saw a pair of black swans with cygnets.
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Samphire and cotula
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Nine Acre Rock

1/12/2016

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Greetings fellow Foxies,
Over the years my family and I have visited an interesting group of ruins that nestles below a large granite dome in the Pingeculling Nature Reserve, 14kms east/south east of Brookton. The easiest way to get there is to take the Brookton-Kweda Road from Brookton, turn right on Ashfield Road and right into a gravel entry on a ridge shortly after. From Narrogin the visit could be combined with a stop at Mourambine church and then approach from the south via Mourambine Road, Davis Road then the winding Ashfield Road.
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The ruins on private land are fascinating if one has the time to explore them and an understanding of the site. However this is not a good place for families with young children and the infirm, as tourist facilities have deteriorated, there are no paths or directions, and one could trip over objects hidden in the weeds.

In the excellently written book ‘Kalkarni the Brookton story’, Athol Thomas describes Johan "Jack" Hansen, Brooktons’ first illegal immigrant; a Danish national who jumped off a whaling ship in Albany and made his way to the goldfields before taking up the ‘Rock Hill ‘farm in 1907. For the next 54 years, until his death at 81 in 1961 he only left the district once for a one-day trip to Narrogin.
To quote the book
…he was seen in the town only on Thursdays, when he took his produce to market in his horse-drawn dray. This was mainly fruit and vegetables from his well-maintained orchard and garden. He returned with stores to eke out his meat supply of kangaroos and rabbits. His skills as a shipwright were of little use at Nine-Acre Rock but his manual dexterity enabled him to create axles and pulleys from bush timber and grass-tree butts, make his own bolts and nails on his rough forge, and build his own baker’s oven and meat smoker. He contrived a hay shed on several levels, enabling him to gravity-feed chaff to his horse troughs by pulling on a rope near his bed. His water system also relied on gravity; water was siphoned from a pool high on the rock to supply kitchen and bathroom.
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Jack's bath
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Possible wool scouring vat
If the weeds aren’t too high one can wander around the ruins of shacks, sheds, machinery, orchard and animal pens.
Jack was a man after my own heart who wasted nothing.
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Water supply
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The house that Jack built
The rock is culturally significant as an initiation place for Noongar men. It is separated from the farm by a wild thicket of dead and living sheoaks that is not for the faint-hearted. However but the effort is rewarded by great views and unspoilt rocks and plants. Winter-wet depressions with Pincushion plants, scented sun orchids, Prasophyllum gracile leek orchids and book triggerplants can lead to shallow pools that are teeming with life. I spent some time watching strange wormy things devouring a drowned caterpillar. Groves of pink everlastings on the western side were stunning this season. Boulders
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boulders on eastern face
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View towards Brookton
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Everlasting carpet
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Pincushion plants moss and book triggerplants
Attached is an extract from
Thomas Athol 1924-
Kalkarni: the Brookton story
ISBN 0-646-38104-0
1. Brookton (WA:shire) – History.I. Brookton Shire (W.A.:Shire). Council

jack_hansen.pdf
File Size: 322 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

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