"Down Under" III.....

Today we are looking at a Vine Moth..... it is also sometimes called a Hawk moth...
I don't know its scientific name sadly....
All I know is that it was sitting in the corner of one of the door frames and was quite happy to be photographed.It lays its eggs on the vineleaves which grow on our patio. Come spring, which here will be next month, September , the little caterpillars start hatching and munching away on the vine leaves....which isn't much fun for us or the vine as they can make quite a mess. You will be starting Autumn in September and have some glorious weather before the cold sets in....

The moth on the right we found in the front garden on the mulch. It is sometimes called a rain moth, because they can appear here before we get rain in the autumn ,or winter if the rains are slow in coming...their scientific name is Trictena atripalpis  so you would be able to Google it.They mostly live in the Southern part of Australia. Their wingspan can be as big as 16cm....but I don't think this one was that large.
It you click on the photo you can see its glorious markings, just beautiful....

On the left is Daddy Frogmouth and his chick...
The Tawney Frogmouth nests in one of our non-native Ashtrees and has used the same nest for three years now. In this case the male sits on the nest to hatch the eggs,  usually only one or two eggs, bit like our male Emu which also looks after all the eggs.....
On this particular day it had been blowing huge winds and I think the little chick was blown out of the nest, which is a very flimsy affair of a few sticks and grass. I came out to find them sitting on the rotary clothes line, Daddy trying to pretend I wasn't there while junior posed for the camera.....he is all fluff and feathers isn't he.....