Gum trees at my place - Corymbia citriodora

Ok, so it's not a Eucalyptus but it's still a gum. Corymbia citriodora is also commonly known as Spotted Gum. It was previously classed as Eucalyptus maculata and while there is still debate surrounding the reclassification of some Eucalypts, it's now mostly known as Corymbia. I'm not going to go into depth about the difference in Eucalyptus, Angophora and Corymbia here (in this post) but if you weren't very familiar with the Spotted Gum and you came across it, you'd think it was a Eucalyptus (which it is or at least was but just not classified that way anymore).

Spotted Gum is a dominant species on my property. It's a familiar gum tree right across western Brisbane and quite easy to identify. Spotted Gum is a grey, tall and smooth barked tree. It has dimples all over its trunk, which look like someone has pressed their thumb into the trunk numerous times. It's mostly a very erect tree, with a fairly open canopy. It's present on shallow, stony soils, which makes it abundant throughout western Brisbane. The flowers and leaves are a very important food source for wildlife. It's a really beautiful gum tree and I consider the tree a major part of identifying this area as my home.

 

You can see in the photo above, this Spotted Gum is rather straight, tall and the limbs start a far way up the trunk.

 

Dimple like impressions are obvious all over the trunk. Each year, generally in Spring, it sheds its bark in patches.

 

 

 Close up view of the dimples.

 

Fairly open canopy.

 

So if you are not familiar with this gum tree, you very well might have one in your garden, street or local area, especially if you live in Western Brisbane.

Gum trees at my place - Eucalyptus major

I've been meaning to get back to my posts about gum trees. Previously in this blog I wrote about getting to know a local area, walking there as much as possible and becoming familiar with the trees. Looking at the bark and the structure of the tree but not having the need to try and identify the tree straight away. Wait until you feel familiar enough with one or two trees, that you can point them out easily, perhaps even away from the area you are frequenting. I will (still) get back to finishing that set of posts but first I really wanted to introduce you to the gum trees at my place.

So the first gum tree I would like to introduce is Eucalyptus major, also known as Grey Gum. This is not a dominant tree on my property, in fact there is only one. It is only moderately common in my area of Western Brisbane and in patchy distribution. However, I think (at certain times of the year) it is really easy to identify and it's also a very pretty gum, one of my very favourites, so here it is on my blog.

The Grey Gum has several shades of grey bark but at different times of the year it sheds its bark in patches to reveal this very distinctly orange bark underneath. Overtime the orange will fade to grey. When it rains the orange is very vibrant and easy to notice and identify. The grey bark is matte like in appearance and while the Grey Gum is a smooth barked gum, when you run your hand over the grey bark it's scaly and rough.

Because the Grey Gum is matte like, claw marks of koalas and possums are really visible on the bark, as you can see in the photos above. This gum mostly grows on stony soils in hilly areas (which is my place).

I have some gum nuts here from the Grey Gum in my collection but no photos of them, so I will be back to upload photos shortly. Isn't it a beautiful tree? I love it.

Lemon Emigrant Butterfly

We all really enjoyed having the caterpillars over the past fortnight. My daughter found five in the garden. We put all five in the cage with food and watched. Two died within a few days. Three made it to the top of the cage and all three managed to attach silk and hang upside down. One didn't form a chrysalis and died (still attached) and the last two formed chrysalis. Then of these two, one constantly twitched within the chrysalis until it fell to the cage floor. I didn't think it would make it but it continued to twitch until it hatched out of its chrysalis. Then it crawled to the top of the cage but would not sit still. It continued to fall and move and had a really difficult time getting its wings out straight to dry. The remaining one still attached to the roof of the cage, hatched out and hung upside down to dry its wings. After a few hours drying time, they both started to flutter about, so we decided it was time to release them. When we released them both, the butterfly who had a straight run so far, flew off eagerly. The other one didn't seem as confident and struggled to fly away gracefully.

It was an amazing process to watch. Of the five caterpillars, it was really only one that developed successfully to adulthood. The others all struggled or died along the way. I'd think that the one which twitched constantly may have even been picked off by a bird, had it still been outside developing in the garden. It was definitely a process of survival of the fittest.

 

The Lemon Emigrant Caterpillar

The Lemon Emigrant in chrysalis form

 



 



 The emergent butterfly

 

This is a photo of the butterfly which fell to the ground while still in the chrysalis. Its wings are still crumpled as it has only just emerged. It's making its way to the walls to climb to the roof of the cage.

 

You can see in the two above photos, that the butterfly who emerged from the chrysalis (that stayed attached to the roof) continued to sit on the empty chrysalis while it dried. Where as the one who crawled to the roof continued to move about to dry.

 



Before we released the butterflies, we had a little garden picnic and left the cage nearby. We watched other Lemon Emigrant Butterflies fly about and pointed out about 8 other species too. It was really lovely to see the look on my daughters face, as the strongest one flew away. I'm sure she will always remember raising and releasing the butterflies.

The loveliest thing about the process, is that today while in the yard my children pointed out Lemon Emigrants as they flew by in the garden. My son who can't talk yet has pointed them out numerous times and called for our attention. If anything, raising the caterpillars has helped my children form a powerful connection to these exquisite little butterflies. No longer is it just a pretty butterfly that they occasionally see flit past their day. This butterfly has a name and a whole life process they have watched and witnessed. It's brought them one step closer to nature.

We have chrysalis

Well we didn't have caterpillars for very long, they formed a chrysalis overnight. The caterpillars kept lumping up to the roof of the tank and then attached themselves.

Then in the morning we saw that they had changed and are now tucked into the world of their chrysalis.

Butterflies such as these ones (Lemon Emigrant) hatch from a chrysalis. The chrysalis is a life stage made of a hardened protein. A cocoon is generally spun with silk and perhaps leaves or sticks, by the pupa of moths.

It's really lovely to be watching this process and the transformation into a butterfly.

Bringing nature inside

Well since we have decided to keep some of the frogs for a little longer, we are really bringing nature inside our house. We often have a table covered in gum leaves and gum nuts. I collect loads of these and dump them out on the table to ID when I get a chance. This often means an array of insects and spiders scatter all about the table too. Though having the frogs in a tank in the kitchen, means we are reminded all day long of the wonderful secret life of frogs. I count them all the time and try and see where they are hiding, what they are doing and how they are changing. It's really remarkable to watch the changes in the frogs in such a short period of time. Currently we have 5 in the tank inside. We still have a heap of tadpoles in the tank in the shed, so depending on how we go with these five, we may keep more or decide to release them.

So of the five we have inside, there are four of the same species and one which is distinctly different. Now I am only guessing at this stage, as they are still very tiny and developing but I think all five are of the tree frog family (Hylidae). I think the four which are similar are most likely Graceful Treefrogs (Litoria gracilenta) which I wrote about in the previous post. Their underbelly is a very pale yellow and they have an orange eye. Most of the time they sit on the walls or roof of the tank. Except when feeding of course.

You can see in the photo there is a fork with a rotting carrot on the end. So in comparison to the fork, you can see how tiny these little fellos really are. I have been keeping a bucket of rotting veggie scraps outside. This attracts all kinds of small invertebrates. We hold a small container about the bucket and give it a shake. The Fruit Flies (Vinegar flies I'm guessing, will have to look into that too) fly up and into the container. I release these inside the tank for the frogs. I also use a fork and pick up a rotting piece of food and leave this inside the tank. It has a whole array of live food items such as maggots on the scrap and the frogs can pick whatever they like to eat. A buffet! So they are very cheap and easy to keep. Feeding time is so interesting and the kids just love watching the frogs hunt down and catch their prey.

So back to the species identification. The one which is different, is much larger and darker. Unlike the frogs pictured above (which climb the wall of the tank), this one prefers to stay on the rocks. So I am guessing it is a ground dwelling tree frog. I'd like to think it's Litoria brevipalmata or Green Thighed Frog. It's very hard to tell when they are still so tiny. The features which make me sway are the rich olive skin colour (which gets darker each day), the white lip and slightly pointed snout and the dark band that runs across the face. They seem to be classified as endangered, due to the very small geographic locations they live in but I will do some more research in the coming weeks.

Again you can see how tiny they are against the fork. Each day they are growing and changing and so hopefully I will be able to identify them soon. I'm really fascinated in them and the kids and I just love having them inside. I've written a fair bit about frogs in this blog so far, as it just happens to be what is in our lives at this moment.

My daughter loves to climb trees in our yard (and everywhere actually). Some mornings it's the first thing she does, still in PJ's. I have to get ready early as my kids like to get outside as soon as possible and I often find I'm out there still in PJ's, unbrushed hair and a coffee in hand. While she is in the trees, she often points out various insects etc. This week she collected several caterpillars from the Poinciana Tree. We have them appear every year and it's every noticeable when they are about because the tree gets crowded with Rainbow Lorikeets and Scaly Breasted Lorikeets, which both feed on this caterpillar. They also shred the leaves bare. I'm yet to identify this caterpillar but here is a picture. If you happen to know what it is, please let me know.

They are very well camouflaged on the mid-vein and are really hard to find. I'm thinking they are a moth caterpillar and will do some more research. We have tried to keep them in a cage twice before but they seem very unhappy and so have released them. You can see the Lorikeets feeding in the Poinciana in the photo below.

My daughter also found another caterpillar, which we have identified as the caterpillar of the Common Emigrant or Lemon Emigrant Butterfly (Catopsilia pomona). Of all the butterflies we have at our house, this is the most common. Over the years I have seen huge 'flocks' of them, particularly as I've driven through Western Brisbane. Some years I've noticed hundreds and other years very few. They are a lovely medium sized lemon coloured butterfly. I have tried on several occasions to get photos of them but it's so hard.

These caterpillars were just fine with us putting them in cage with sufficient food, so you guessed it, we are now watching caterpillars in our kitchen also.

We make sure to top them up with fresh leaves daily and I spray a little water into the cage. There are five and so far they seem happy, so we will keep them inside and watch them too. We are all keen to see them form the chrysalis and change into butterflies. So I'm hoping a future post will be about the successful transformation of these lovely caterpillars. Enjoy your weekend.

Discovering, raising and releasing frogs.

We have raised many tadpoles at our house over the years. I've always loved frogs and remember discovering and saving many tadpoles as a child from drying puddles. I think finding, raising and releasing frogs is a wonderful and exciting experience for children.

During rainy periods, we often find big clumps of frogs eggs in a foamy mass in our pond. The goldfish love to eat the frogs eggs, so we have often scooped them out and raised them into frogs in a tank in our shed. Once the tadpoles have morphed into frogs, we let them go. It is legal to keep and raise tadpoles in Queensland but they cannot be moved. So if you raise tadpoles they must be released back where they came from. I've only ever taken tadpoles from areas where I know they will not survived to become frogs. This has been roadside puddles in my street, which dry up rapidly or from my own pond. Here is our tank in the shed among everything else. I'd have a guess that we have raised and released maybe 50 or more frogs.

I highly recommend raising tadpoles but there are a few things to consider before collecting any to raise. You obviously need a tank. It is best to have one with a lid, as tree frogs will climb the walls as soon as the morph. The tadpoles we have raised have taken a few months to morph into frogs. We've had to constantly top up their water from a natural source, as this provides them with food. If you are interested, have a little read up from the many frog websites there are.

It has been raining constantly here for the past few weeks. We have found yet another frog species living in and about our pond, the Graceful Treefrog (Litoria gracilenta). They have this lovely long and drawn out moaning 'aaaaaare' call. They are bright green with yellow underneath and an orange eye. They also have a distinct purple hind thigh, as you can see in the second photo. There are two frogs sitting on the wire mesh in the third photo, all puffed up as they call.

So after all this rain, we have been raising many frogs in our tank in the shed. When they first morph into frogs it's very hard to know what species they are. I can identify which are most likely tree frogs, as compared with marsh frogs etc. Tree frogs have a very sleek appearance and climb the walls of the tank. The other species we've raised prefer to sit on the rocks or partly submerged. They also have a mottled and darker skin colour. We collected many different sized tadpoles recently, so everyday when we check the tank, we've had one or two tadpoles morphed into frogs ready to be released.

I released these two this morning into our garden. I think (but cannot be sure) that they were Ornate Burrowing frogs. Just their body structure and mottled appearance resembled the adults I've seen before.

My daughter was very interested in the tree frog species we have raised, so we have decided to watch them a little longer. We have moved them into a small tank and placed them in the kitchen (as you do!!). This way we can watch them and remember to feed them. We have placed a container with food scraps outside to entice fruit flies. I then capture the fruit flies in a small container and release them into the tank. The frogs love them and we all get a little thrill from watching the frogs catch them. As they grow we will collect a wider variety of insect food from the garden for the frogs to eat. Below you can see two sitting on the wall of the tank, with quite a distinct white bottom lip.

My children absolutely love tadpole hunting. When it's raining, we put on raincoats and gumboots and go searching. Even if you don't want to raise any, it's always exciting for children to discover them and watch them in nature.