​Greetings fellow Foxies,

The bush in Foxes lair is still benefitting from a burn in December 2009, particularly on gravel soils. In the image below taken from the Breakaway Walk area last year, pink Mirbelia dilatata flowers show the burnt area compared to sedge dominated bush to the left that hasn’t burnt for 40 years.

​There is also a great resurgence in lovely hairy flowered Jacksonia epiphyllum on the entry road in late October. Last year I happened to get a pic of a rare weevil and returned regularly to see if I could collect a specimen for the WA Museum. Alas no more rare weevils but many other interesting little beasties.

For a visual exploration of other wonderful beasties click this Google Photos link

The balga Xanthorrhoea preissii, a grass tree, is a striking part of our bush that was use by Noongars for medicine, tools and sustenance. Grass trees are monocotyledons but neither grasses nor trees.
 Carbon dating has found grass tree ages of up to 1,000 years. Also, they have special contractile roots that pull seedlings underground so that plants on sandy soils may not develop an above ground stem for 10 to 30 years. I reckon that the five-metre plant I found in Candy Block must be ancient. Unfortunately, twenty-eight parrots are now attacking its new growth.
 
The grass tree at Foxes Lair is the smaller Xanthorrhoea brevistyla that lacks an above ground trunk. It is an insect magnet when flowering in November.
 
I regularly see severe insect attack on balga flowering spikes and brought one home for examination. The green stem had frequent reddish- brown sunken lesions with gum exuding from small holes. The split stem revealed tunnels containing bardi grubs, surrounded by reddish brown fungal infection. Once again, a canker fungus that affects eucalypts and other shrubs

Interestingly, a previous investigation on wandoo crown decline in Foxes Lair  found a similar combination of insects and fungus. The fungus causes severe damage to trees and shrubs. Fungus doesn’t seem to affect the balga trunk, presumably because flowering spikes naturally die before it can spread further.
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​The bardi grubs are larvae of longicorn and cockchafer beetles. They have tunnelled up through the entire flowering stem.
The flowers and seeds were attacked by a brownish caterpillar that eats them under a protective cover it makes from its frass (poo) and silk.

​Last year I received a shock when one of two apparently healthy balgas that I had photographed earlier snapped off at mid stem

​The centre of a normal trunk is filled with living fibrous material above a woody cone-shaped base that remains long after a plant has died. The living centre is surrounded by old leaf bases held together by natural resin, which provides support and excellent fire protection.
The fibrous centre of the dead balga was completely replaced by a soil-like material containing wireworms, which were attacking the interior of the surrounding leaf bases

​As Noongars ate bardi grubs that were in the centre of dead balgas, I suspect that they had chewed out the living material before wireworms moved in.
This balga had been surviving with a decayed centre for some time until the weakened stem snapped. It is a natural process and dead remnants can be attractive in their own right.
 
Unfortunately, increased in Australian ringneck parrot (twenty eight) numbers are causing premature balga death from them continuously chewing the new growth.

​ Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
There have been many comments recently about widespread shrub death in Foxes Lair due to the exceptionally dry spring and summer.
Certainly, there is more death than usual, but this doesn't explain the scattered pattern in Foxes Lair with dead plants next to healthy ones.
Luckily my esteemed colleague Detective Doug volunteered to investigate this problem.
 
The great man randomly selected two each of dead and healthy Dilwynnia laxiflora (pea flower) plants for examination

​Dead plants.
The roots were very bent and thickened, particularly the tap root that snaps easily. Borer channels were on both the outside and inside, including one that contained a jewel beetle emerging from its pupal case.

 Problem solved?
No, being a true scientist, Detective Doug insisted on also examining the healthy specimens
Roots of both live plants had also  been attacked, although to a lesser extent than dead plants.
The first plant had a few minor lesions but otherwise appeared normal. However when split in half lengthwise the root was hollowed out and contained a hibernating? jewell beetle. These beetles are common on pea flowers in October so presumably they hibernate until spring.

The second healthy plant showed evidence of insect attack that appeared to be confined to the surface. However, when cut in half it was obvious that insects had entered and tunnelled up the centre of the root. While doing this they brought in spores of a canker fungus, shown by the blackened areas. This fungus invades healthy tissue, blocks water and nutrient transport and kills the plant. 
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Conclusion
These plants are routinely attacked by borers and may survive for more than a year until invading canker fungus kills them or they snap off. Increased water stress from extended dry weather hastens plant death.
Case closed
​
Interestingly, a previous investigation on wandoo crown decline in Foxes Lair  found a similar combination of factors.

Keen to learn more I googled madly and became very confused, but finally found this simple guide to the world of bugs.
Adult spittlebugs are called froghoppers and are a subgroup with other hoppers because the winged adults are very aerodynamically shaped and jump with the fastest jumping speed in the insect world (too fast for most predators).
Incidentally hoppers in turn are grouped with cicadas into suborder Auchenorrhyncha (because adults have hard forewings which held roof-like over the membranous hind wings on the back.
And all of these are grouped with aphids, scales and true bug because they all have piercing sucking mouthparts and go through 5 nymphal stages to the winged adults (Order Hemiptera).
 Simple isn’t it ?.

No doubt, you know that plants have two fluid conducting systems in their trunk and stems (a bit like our arteries and veins). Shallow phloem channels carrying sugars down from the leaves to provide energy for plant cells are targeted by aphids and scales, which they in turn secrete from their bum as a sugary treat  for ants.
Spittlebugs also tap into the deeper xylem channels that transport water and minerals up from plant roots and provides them with more liquid to make their spit.
 
Back to spittlebugs – there are two groups
Family Clastopteridae: Machaerotinae - Tube Spittlebugs (above). Their nymphs build and live in tubes.
Family Aphrophoridae  Spittlebugs. Nymphs produce bubbly 'spittle' on the stems of shrubs or small trees to protect them. Check for them before cursing those uncouth bogans who expectorate on our plants