It’s been a busy week as I’ve began two work-placements with two organisations; one in the Maroochy River Catchment and the other in the Mary River catchment. I’m completing both as part of my bachelor degree at uni, and I’m having a great time and learning so much! I’ve also come across some interesting creatures during both placements.
On Wednesday night, I went frog monitoring with Eva Ford from Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC). Despite travelling to four sites, all we found were Litoria wilcoxii (Stony-creek frogs). As I’ve blogged earlier, this season appears to be the most abundant of this species for a while, according to Eva.
Despite not finding any other frogs, we heard Adelotus brevis (Tusked frogs), L. gracilenta (Graceful treefrogs), L. nasuta (Striped rocket frogs), a Mixophyes fasciolatus (Great Barred frog) and more Stony-creek frogs calling throughout the night whilst monitoring. Eva also came across this cool spectacle…
Cicada emerging from shell. They live in the ground before ‘hatching’ from and transforming into their ‘new’ bodies.
A cicada coming out of it’s ‘shell’. It’s beautiful colours might be why I’m finding it difficult to track down what species it is since the colours may only be so bright because it has just emerged from the shell (I don’t know).
Later on that night I came across a Morelia spilota mcdowelli (AKA Carpet Python). It was rather long, probably about 2 metres in length and certainly a beautiful find.
Carpet python
Morelia spilota mcdowelli (AKA Carpet Python)
The next day I was out netting macro invertebrates with Maroochy Waterwatch. At our second sampling site in West Woombye, I’d collected several decent sized tadpoles in my net, which I found rather exciting! Considering their size and colour and the apparent quality of water flowing by (since we found mayflies which are very sensitive to water quality), I thought they may have been Mixophyes iteratus (Giant Barred frog) tadpoles…
However after asking frog expert Ed Meyer, he reckons they’re L. wilcoxii (Stony-creek tadpoles)…which was a bit disappointing 😛 Still good to know there are frogs breeding in the area though.