Backyard Bugs

Often, when I'm in the backyard checking to see that my flower and veggie plants are doing well I'm also aware of all the flying, crawling, chirping and jumping bugs that weave in and out of all that's growing.

So much so, I thought that it would be fun, and a challenge, to try and photograph those little critters, some beneficial and some not so, living in the garden. Note, I have tried to name the bugs but I'm never completely confident in getting it right all the time - when you consider that some insect species exist in the hundreds and even thousands, you can appreciate how hard it is to get an accurate description. For example, there are more than 200 different species of cicadas, a large flying beetle that typifies the sound of summer with their incessant chirruping (which apparently only the males do). I'm content to just call them cicadas.

All images shot using my wonderful 400-800mm (equiv) Olympus lens. Not the sort of lens you'd consider for close up work but, as you can see in these shots, its 1.3m close focus limit produces exceptional full frame results...

Eastern Pygmyfly

A tiny Hoverfly - there are usually hundreds of these tiny little flies buzzing about among the flowers. Though they are only a few millimetres long, they do a good job helping plants pollinate.

Fruit fly about to ruin an otherwise almost perfect tomato!

Yellow Ladybeetle feeding on leaf mildew (yellow squash).

Common Grass Blue Butterfly

Assassin Bug

Australian Crow or Oleander butterfly

Cicada shell in the lawn. Cicadas are the loudest of all insects - there are more than 200 different species in Australia.

Honey Bee feeding on Lavender

A tiny Net Casting Spider

Common Garden Skink among the tomatoes. Skinks are good for the garden because they eat a lot of garden pests. In summer we must have dozens of these lizards living among the flower and veggie beds..

Unidentified Dragonfly

Common garden Millipede

Hibiscus Beetles, a big pest, seen here munching on a potted fig tree leaf.

Earthworms and millipede

I think this might be an African Black beetle, not good for the lawn and often the reason we get yellow spots on otherwise healthy grass.

Blue-banded native bee eyeing off my eggplants.

Adult skink venturing out into the heat of the day.

Not specifically a garden pest, the Mynah Bird will eat a lot of garden pests (good) but they are also fiercely territorial and will fight off other Mynah birds as well as most other suburban birds like kookaburras, ravens and magpies.

An interestingly patterned fly - no idea what type this is - possibly just an Aussie House Fly

Blue-banded native Bee. These are very hard to photograph as they do not stay in one place for more than a moment or two at a time.

A Green Vegetable Bug, nezara viridula, is a sap sucking pest that needs to be zapped as soon as it is seen!