Came out on the verandah in downtown Paluma this morning to find a giant of the jungle sitting quietly on the deck furniture.
Male (we think) Hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules) 240mm wingtip to wingtip, 180mm overall length. … that’s very big for a male as Wildlife of Tropical Northern Queensland lists maximum size for the larger female as 225mm.
Wildlife of Tropical Northern Queensland and Guide to Australian Moths say range is Cape York south to Ingham — so the southerly extent of the range is a bit understated in both books.
The females have the largest wing area of any moth in the world.
The leaves of the medium sized rainforest tree Bleeding Heart (Homalanthus novoguineensis) is said to be the favorite food of the Hercules caterpillars.
We have a Bleeding Heart which is trying to climb onto our deck.
The leaves are being well munched and we did find a caterpillar there after we spotted the moth. However, it didn’t look like the Hercules caterpillars from the books.
Jamie Oliver has come across this caterpillar before and was able to provide an ID — Iscadiainexacta (Walker). Iscadia and Hercules share a preference for Bleeding Heart.
According to the Butterfly House websiteIscadia has a great party trick — “The caterpillar pupates in a papery cocoon covered in bits of chewed leaf. The pupa is famous for being able to produce sounds when disturbed, by rubbing projections on the abdominal skin against the hind surface of the cocoon.”
Hercules also has a surprising twist of biology — the adult moths don’t eat, they survive on food stores from when they were caterpillars, says the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary website. The adults live for only 10-14 days which they devote to finding a mate. The mating game is initiated by the female which emits a pheromone that can attract male suitors from over 2km away.
The caterpillars grow up to 12cm in length and are dotted with yellow spikes. Such a huge caterpillar makes sense when we consider how large the moth itself is.
The largest ever Hercules Moth had a wingspan of 36cm, says the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary website.
Just lately a very persistent prowler has been making a nuisance of itself in homes and gardens at the eastern end of Paluma Village. The perpetrator is a rather lengthy Night Tiger Snake, otherwise known as a Brown Tree Snake or Doll’s-Eye Snake (Boiga irregularis).
It all started with the onset of the warm weather and the wet season. Lynda at the Manali House started noticing that the Night Tiger was making regular visits to her front verandah. It wasn’t long before Lynda noticed that her closely guarded nest of Shrike-Thrush chicks had been raided. The chicks disappeared overnight and Lynda found the slithery culprit curled up in a nearby shrub with some distinctive lumps in its belly. Put that down to nature I suppose, but then the Night Tiger started to take some liberties around the place……
Several times Lynda was woken to things that go bump in the night, only to find the Night Tiger in her back room, actively rifling through the contents of boxes and other things in the search for food – geckoes, cockroaches and frogs.
The guilty reptile being relocated to the rainforest.
The next time Lynda encountered the snake it was in her lounge room, having a snooze under her favourite recliner. It was promptly relocated to the garden. Just last week, the Night Tiger was back in the lounge room, this time comfortably resting on the bookshelf. A late night call was made to the neighbours for some assistance in relocating the Night Tiger to the outdoors again. It was relocated to the forest at the eastern end of the village, but we are convinced it will be back, when it wants an easy feed of geckoes and tasty frogs or birds.
A spot of reading? The Night Tiger Snake resting on the bookshelf in Lynda’s lounge room.
My own encounter with the Night Tiger was one evening upon returning from an outing. I walked up my drive-way only to find the ‘stalker’ outside my garage door. With some skilful wrangling via my gumboot, my umbrella and a cake tray, the snake was re-diverted back up the driveway. It took off, heading again for Lynda’s place. No doubt it was missing the cosy lounge-room and its recliner!
Re-diversion of the Night Tiger Snake away from my garage.
The Night Tiger or Brown Tree Snake is a nocturnal snake (as we have obviously discovered!). They are arboreal and can often be found in buildings and in tree hollows. They feed mainly on birds, eggs, frogs, geckoes, small mammals and other reptiles. These snakes have a large head with distinctive and protruding large eyes with vertical pupils (I am not getting close enough to look into its eyes!). The head is distinct from the narrow neck. They are usually brown in colour with darker cross bands on the back and sides (hence the common name of ‘Night Tiger’). Specimens in northern Australia tend to have bold reddish bands with a creamy to orange belly. This snake can grow up to 2m in length. They are not usually considered dangerous, but they are venomous.
Text by Michele Bird with Photos by Paul Venn, Lynda Radbone and Michele Bird. Noting that the quality of our photos is not great, given the night time conditions and in my own case, the shaking hands and rapidly beating heart!
This attractive rainforest tree, a member of the Myrtaceae family, has many common names, including, brush cherry, scrub cherry, creek lilly-pilly, creek satin-ash and watergum. It grows mostly along water courses in rainforests and gallery forests at altitudes up to 1300 metres.
Worldwide, there are more than 1000 species of Syzygium ranging across PNG, the Pacific islands, Malaysia, SE Asia, India, Africa and Australia. Australia has 57 species, with 47 of them in tropical Queensland. Some species, easily recognisable are Paperbark satin-ash (Syzygiumpaparaceum with its purple fruit; Powder-puff lilly-pilly, (Syzygium wilsonii), with small purple fruit and a sub-species noted for its large magenta powder-puff flowers and lush creamy white fruit.
It is easy to understand how various Syzygium species, along with many other native Australian flowers, inspired May Gibbs to create her delightful bush babies. Who could forget the movie magnate’s daughter, Lilly Pilly with her skirt, beret and muff made of lilly-pilly berries.
Although Syzygium australe can grow to 35 metres with a trunk diameter of 60 cm, it is a popular plant in ornamental gardens as it can be shaped and pruned into hedges. It is a fast-growing tree and can grow 2 metres in a year.
The ovate leaves are simple, opposite and approximately 30×100 x 10-40 mm. Young leaves are bronze, turning to a deep, glossy green as they mature. They form dense foliage on this shapely tree.
photo by J. Oliver
Flowering can occur at any time of year. Flowers are clustered in axillary or terminal racemes. They are tiny, with white petals and numerous white stamens which give the flowers the appearance of delicate powder-puffs. Flowering can be sparse, hiding amongst the leaves, or abundant, giving a dense cover of white. Flowers are followed by a profusion of red fruit – berries. These are 14-23 mm long with one or two seeds surrounded by crisp flesh similar to apple in texture. The fruit is edible, although can be tart. It makes excellent jam and can be used as a base and flavouring for jellies, cakes and wine.
Some species of Syzygium were previously classified in the genus Acmena and others in the genus Eugenia. The species known formerly as Eugenia Australis is now regarded as two separate species: Syzygium australe and Syzygium paniculatum.
There are many examples of Syzygium australe in Paluma. A very old tree which usually bears fruit in profusion is outside No 75 Mount Spec Road, another, is outside the High Ropes course. Two more may be seen outside No 17 Mount Spec Road.
Text and photos (unless indicated) by Colwyn Campbell
On the way up the range road yesterday, Peter and Jan Cooke saw several examples of one of our truly spectacular native flowers, the Native Rosella or Marsh Mallow, Abelmoschatus moschatus tuberosus. The flowers look very much like a Hibiscus (they share the same plant family) and only last for a day or so. They favour drier coastal areas so you will probably not see them around the village. But they are certainly worth looking out for as you drive to Paluma.
Photo by Peter Cooke
The plant grows along the ground or can be partially upright. It dies back to an underground tuber in the dry season. The tubers, as well as the leaves and seeds are edible and were eaten by local aborigines.
Mistletoes are a group of parasitic plants belonging to the Order Santalales. Australia has a high diversity of mistletoes (over 85 species) with the majority in the family Loranthaceae.
Mistletoe (Amylotheca dictyophleba) in the cutting on Mt Spec Road
When we think of parasites we often envisage small or microscopic animals that can make you sick, or even kill you, but this way of living (where one organism harms another by using it for nourishment or other vital need) is widespread in all branches of life. In vascular plants parasitism has evolved at least 12 times, with the mistletoe form having evolved 5 separate times within the Order Santalales.
Mistletoes are considered to be obligate hemiparasites because they cannot grow independently of their host plant (the relationship is obligatory) and because they still have their own leaves that can provide a significant proportion of their energy needs through photosynthesis (hemi=half). A spectacular mistletoe in Western Australia looks more like a tree (it parasitises roots rather than tree branches) and is said to be the largest parasite in the world.
Mistletoe (Amylotheca subumbellata) Top left photo taken opposite the high ropes course (sth side of the road). Other photos taken on the cutting looking towards Whaley Cr.
Paluma hosts several mistletoe species and one, with beautifully shaped and gaudily coloured flowers is currently in bloom along the roadsides of the village. Its scientific name is a bit of a tongue-twister: Amylotheca subumbellata and it, unfortunately, doesn’t have a common name other than the generic “Mistletoe”. A. subumbellata has a restricted distribution (northeast Qld) with the majority of records from the Paluma region. Its clusters of small torpedo-shaped flowers with orange/red bases and yellow-green tips are very distinctive. Its leaves are also very distinctive, being narrow, strap-shaped and grey-green. One related and more widespread species that is also common around the village is the Bush Mistletoe (Amylotheca dictyophleba) has almost identical flowers, but its leaves are glossy green and ovate. It has very similar flowers (around the village they are more uniformly red), but they differ markedly from A. subumbellata in the shape and colour of their leaves, which are oval glossy green.
The Bush Mistletoe (Amylotheca dictyophleba) has very different leaves and more uniformly red flowers. Fallen mistletoe flowers (probably A. dictyophleba) are a common site in Dec-Feb on the ground along village walking tracks.
The name mistletoe is thought to be derived from two Anglo-Saxon words: “mist or mistel” meaning dung; and “tan” meaning twig. This “dung on a twig” name is quite apt. Mistletoe fruit is a favourite food for the mistletoe bird (a common Paluma resident) but the seed in the fruit is surrounded by a very sticky substance that resists digestion. When a mistletoe bird sits on a branch and tries to defecate, the sticky mass containing the seed just hangs off the birds rear end forcing the bird to wipe its bottom on the branch or twig. The seed is now exactly where it needs to be in order to germinate and infest a new host tree. David Attenborough came to Australia years ago to film this process and the result is a delightful sequence, well worth watching here.
The best places to see both of the mistletoe species discussed here are in the trees on the north side of the road cutting from 27-21 Mt Spec Road, and on either side of the road opposite the High Ropes Course.
The Atherton Fig (Ficus leptoclada) is one of 15 species of sandpaper fig in Australia. These figs are non-stranglers and have (to varying degrees) rough sandpapery leaves. Unlike the strangler figs, they are dioecious (having separate sexes).
Atherton Figs are endemic to northern Queensland rainforests up to an altitude of 1,000m. They are common on road sides or in regrowth areas where they grow as relatively small trees (up to 15m) with slender trunks. The leaves are eliptical to narrowly ovate and about 8-12 cm long with a raspy feel to the lips (yup – you are supposed to “kiss” the leaves to assist in identification!).
This Atherton Fig on the track to Witt’s lookout is the smaller tree with brighter green leaves to the right of the large trunked tree
When in fruit, trees can be spectacularly laden in small brightly coloured fruit. Ripening figs show attractive shadings of yellow to orange-red and are born both on branchlets and on the main trunk or limbs. When ripe they are more uniformly red/purple and are up to 2cm in diameter.
The figs are eaten by fruit pigeons and the double-eyed fig parrot.
There is a lovely example of an Atherton Fig that is currently in fruit at the first small clearing about 100m down the walking track from McClelland’s lookout to Witt’s lookout. Look for coloured fruit on the ground. The tree has a narow trunk just behind a larger tree at the edge of the clearling looking back to McClelland’s lookout.
I have previously mentioned the close relationship between figs and the specialised wasp species that they rely on to pollinate their flowers. If you are interest in joining me in a deeper dive into the evolutionary biology of this relationship keep reading below (it might get a bit technical).
Figs and Fig-wasps: an evolutionary arms race that may never end
Figs are not actually fruit (which develop from the ovary of a single flower) but rather an enclosed cluster of flowers (synconium). Since there are a variety of insects and other animals that enjoy munching on flowers, seeds and fruit, it makes some sense to enclose all your flowers in a tough leathery pouch, but then the problem is how to ensure polination of your flowers. Figs do this through associations with a family of wasps that specialize only on laying their eggs in the ovaries of figs. The relationship is highly specific: one fig-wasp species for each species of fig.
The basic sequence of polination and wasp reproduction is as follows. The female wasps are just small enought to enter the fig body through a small hole. In the process they lose their wings and antennae and will not subsequently be able to leave the fig. Once inside they lay their eggs in as many female flowers as possible and then die. The eggs then hatch out into male and female wasps. The males never leave the fig but spend their lives searching (and fighting other males) for newly hatched females to mate with. The last act of a male is to chew its way to the outside, making a large exit hole that allows new females to leave the fig. On their way out, the females collect pollen from male flowers, and then seek out new figs to lay their eggs in.
Wasps are notorious parasites and the fig wasps are no exception. Their main interest in the relationship is to produce as many offspring as possible by laying eggs in the ovaries of female flowers, where the larvae develop by eating the developing fig seeds and surrounding tissue. The destruction of any developing seeds is clearly not in the best interests of the fig, so the relationship is a tense one: the fig just wants to use the wasp to tranport pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers (in a different fig), while the wasps, given a chance, would lay their eggs in all or most of the ovaries of female flowers, rendering them (and potentiallly the whole tree) sterile in the process. Thus while each species is dependent on the other, they are both trying to gain the upper hand with the evolution of traits that maximise the advantage on both sides. In effect this is an evolutionary “arms race”.
In hermaphroditic figs, where the separate male and female flowers reside in the same fig body, the solution that has evolved in the fig species is to make some of the female flowers inaccessible by hiding them deep under the inner surface of the fig where the wasp’s ovipositor can’t reach, while letting the wasp parasitise the other flowers so as to ensure some wasps are allowed to develop. This compromise lets some of the fig flowers develop fully mature seeds, but many are sacrificed to allow wasps to developed. The wasp on the other hand has lower than optimal reproduction since it can’t parasitse every female flower. This has turned into a relatively stable stand-off between the competing interests of the two species. However ….
In dioecious species (thought to have evolved from hermaphroditic speces) there are trees with figs that are all male, and other trees that are all female. In these species the balance may have shifted a bit in favour of the figs. In this case the male trees have male flowers but also female flowers that are sterile (the figs are more accurately described as “functionally” male). As per the above sequence, female wasps enter male figs and lay their eggs in the sterile female flowers. The offspring hatch out and the new fertilised females collect pollen from the fully functional male flowers as they exit the fig to find other fruit to parasitise.
The twist here is that the female fig trees have fruit (with only fully fertile female flowers) that are equally attractive to the female wasps (they are drawn in by a specific odour emited by the fig) but the ovaries in these female flowers are completely inaccessible to the wasp. So female wasps that end up entering a female fig wander around inside polinating the female flowers but never managing to parasitise any flowers before they die. This arrangement suits these fig species well since it can invest as much energy as it wants into the development of female flowers and seeds and only sacrifice a smaller amount of energy into the production of sterile female flowers in the male figs.
Since a small amount of pollen can fertilise a large number of female flowers there are often many more female figs compared to male. The female figs don’t get parasitised so the result is a high reproductive output for the figs. But if the majority of figs in any location are female ones, then the wasps lose out since most of the female wasps will end up in female figs and never reproduce. The fig species only needs to produce enough male figs to ensure adequate pollen production and sufficient wasp production to ensure the pollen is duly transported to all the female figs. At this point if you have been following the story you may (like me) think that its starting to look like the fig is “farming” wasps for the purpose of polination! Perhaps future evolution will see wasps being more and more like a managed speces. But since evolution is based on the accumulation of chance events, perhaps wasps will evolve countermeasures that enable it to parasitise female fig flowers, or avoid them in favour of male figs ….. and the “arms race” will continue.
Although New Year’s eve in Paluma (like many other places in Australia) lacked a fireworks light-show, there is currently an nightly light-show to be seen along the rainforest tracks thanks to the bioluminescent fungi that are currently emerging with the rains. This display may not last too long, but with the rains predicted to persist for another week at least, you stand a good chance of seeing some of these remarkable little mushrooms if you wander down the H-track or the Rainforest track after dark.
In previous years I have occasionally gone out on wet nights during the summer and, after waiting in the dark for my eyes to adjust, could see faint ghostly glows scattered along the forest floor. But when turning my torch back on there was nothing to see. Even when I located the source of the glow, it was just a wet leaf or branch. I have always assumed that this was luminous fungal mycelia (the almost invisible network of threads that represent the bulk of the organism), but until last year I had never seen any actual mushrooms glowing in the dark. I only saw a couple back then so this year the family and friends went out on two nights to see if we could see them again. On the first night we went around the H-Track and on New Year’s eve Juanita and I went down the Rainforest Track. On both occasions we saw 5-10 clumps of tiny brightly glowing mushrooms on small twigs and along dead sections of lawyer vine.
Mycena clorophos; photo by Juanita Poletto
These were many times brighter than the glow from the mycelia seen on other occasions. Unfortunately I did not have by big camera with me to attempt to photograph the bioluminescence (it requires exposures of over a minute to get a good image) and we only got pictures of the mushrooms illuminated by our torches. But there are many pictures of this species on the web, such as the one below, that provide an idea of what can be seen.
While there are several species of mushroom that bioluminesce, these ones appear to be Mycena chlorophos, a widespread species found in sub-tropical Asia, Indonesia, Japan and Brazil. The caps can be much larger than the 3-8mm diameter ones seen so far in Paluma.
Reseach on a different species of bioluminescent mushroom suggest that this trait has evolved to enhance the dispersal of spores by insects attracted to the glow.
Last Christmas a amethystine python dubbed “Monty” with a very large lump was seen on the rainforest track. Well his assumed penchant for Christmas turkey seems to be confirmed with a recent sighting of a very similar python with a very similar turkey-sized lump opposite the High Ropes course.
Carla Oliver and friends were heading down the mountain on the afternoon of New Year’s eve when they saw Monty crossing the road.
It would be great if this were indeed the same python as last year, especially since these large slow moving reptiles (especially after a big meal) can be very vulnerable to being run over when crossing the road. Let’s hope this becomes an annual sighting!
A couple of weeks ago, we were gifted with the rare treat of boobook owls. Boobooks are Australia’s smallest and most widespread owls, and, as with most owls, are seldom seen. In the Hawk Owl family (genus Ninox), these fledglings appear to be the more commonly distributed subspecies, Ninox boobook ssp boobook, rather than the rainforest subspecies of lurida, which is interesting as it means both subspecies must overlap in range here at Paluma.
We had heard both boobook and lesser sooty owls the previous evening, and saw at least one of the adult parent birds very early, from the bedroom window. The photos were taken from the lounge room window. These fledglings were being guarded by an adult bird, who quickly flew into the forest when spotted, but the fledglings stayed put for most of the morning, giving us a glorious opportunity to watch them watching us!
Owls are apex predators in many environments, and are at risk of consuming or accumulating toxins used to control pest species such as insects and rodents. While in Paluma, commercial spraying of pesticide is not a threat to these birds, the indiscriminate use of rodent poison certainly is. We ask all residents to consider live trapping for control of rodents over use of toxic baits. This provides not only the opportunity to identify the trapped animal, and release in a suitable location if one of our valuable endemic species, but also prevents the inevitable leeching of these toxins into our environment. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to have more owls around so that they can control the rodents instead!
It seems appropriate that during this month of Christmas we feature an evergreen conifer as our tree of the month. The Black Pine (Prumnopitys amara). This species is widely distributed in north-east Queensland as well as New Guinea and Indonesia. It can grow to 60m and has a frequently dark to blackish trunk with scattered cracks. Mature leaves are long and narrow with a distinct groove along the mid-vein on the upper surface. The species name “amara” is from the latin word for bitter and refers to the fact that the leaves, if chewed, are initially sweet tasting but then turn bitter.
Prumnopitys amara leaves (Botanic Gardens, Sydney) Photo by Peter Woodard; Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
None of these features are easy to distinguish in the field, but luckily the fruit are very easily recognised scattered on the ground along walking tracks. They are bright red and globular (20-25mm wide) with a shallow flesh around a hard gloubular seed. Fruit can be found on the forest floor from December to February. They are eaten by Cassowaries, and several species of rainforest rat.
Prumnopitys amara fruit collected behand Paluma Dam, February 2016
Black Pine nuts are one of about four species of rainforest seeds regularly that were used (and relied on) on by rainforest aborigines as a source of carbohydrates. While some of the seeds required lengthy preparation to leach out toxins and bitter chemicals, Black Pine seeds, could simply be collected and cooked for thiry minutes in a grond oven and then cracked open to reveal the tasty kernels which were then pulverised between two stones.
The timber from the Black Pine is used in New Guinea and Indonesia for general building purposes as well as funiture including butter churns.
Other conifers around Paluma
Conifers belong to a group of seed-bearing plants (including Cycads and Ginkos) in which the seed is not enclosed in and ovary (Gymnosperms – meaning naked seed). The seeds of conifers (Pines and relatives) are borne within cones. Australia has several conifers that are endemic (found only in Australia) and one which is considered to be a “living fossil” (Wollemi Pine).
The Black Pine is one of only a few naturally occurring rainforest conifers in the Paluma region. Two others that can be potentially (but not commonly) seen are “Plum Pines” or Podocarps (Podocarpus grayae and Podocarpus elatus). Both are called Brown Pine and both are endemic to Australia. While not strictly a rainforest pine the Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghami) can also be seen naturally on the slopes down to the coast along the range road, and there are several large specimens that have been planted out around the village. It is not restricted to rainforests, and is common around the rocky coast of Magnetic Island.
There are other species of native pine that don’t naturally occur in Paluma but that have been planted out around the village. These include a small Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwilli) around the first corner of Smith Crescent and a Kauri pine (probably Agathis microstachya*) behind the Paluma Environmental Education Centre. Two small potted native “Christmas trees” adjacent to the the Community hall include one conifer naturally found only in the mountains west of Mossman (Mt Spurgeon pine, Prumnopitys ladei) and a variety of casuarina (not a conifer) called the Daintree Pine (Gymnostroma australianum).
Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver
*Note: the Kauri pine behind PEEC is, on closer inspection, most likely to be Agathis robusta. It is distinguised by its smooth bark with thin flakes. – Jamie
