Quite a lot of “activity” going on in the garden at the moment in the insect world from creating life, giving birth, protecting eggs to  the newly hatched youngsters exploring their new world.  I’ve said it many times but I am continually amazed at what goes on deep among the foliage in my garden and I am privileged to witness and record it through my macro lense.

Summer Lovin' - Vinegar Flies

I captured these two vinegar flies getting “friendly” and these tiny insects with very distinctive red eyes, only have a two week life cycle.  They are often around rotting or old fruit and the immature maggots develop quickly in the rotting fruit.

Lacewing laying her eggs - Nymphes myrmeleonides

This is the first time that I have seen an insect do this – quite fascinating

On the subject of laying eggs, here are the eggs of a shield bug and some little youngsters.

Shield Bugs and Eggs

Shield Bug Eggs

If you look closely, you can see the head of one of the shield bugs emerging from the egg, well at least I think that’s what’s happening.

Dome-back spiny ants - Polyrhachis australis

Insects also work relentlessly to protect their larvae and I saw these dome-backed spiny ants hard at work building their nest among some leaves in my garden.  Lots and lots of team workers all toiling away and webbing leaves together with silk produced by the larvae.

Lady Lynx guarding her eggs

Female lynx spider [Oxyopes sp.] with her egg sacs and little junior spiders emerging.

Other insects who work in colonies are wasps and I photographed two types of wasps building their nests and securing the safety of the larvae.  They construct papery nests by chewing weathered wood and mixing it with saliva.  The nest consists of a number of cup-like cells, grouped together to form a comb.  The comb is attached to a surface, such as a branch, twig or rock face, by one or more stalks.  Different types of paper wasps have their own distinctive nest design as you can see in the photos below.

Two paper bark wasps - Ropalidia revolutionalis

Native Paper Wasps - Ropalidia romandi

I’ve left my favourite find until last and I had to do a double take when I first saw them.  It wasn’t so long ago that I photographed an adult one and I discovered a whole bunch of newly hatched stick mantids [Archimantis latistyla] who are exact replicas of the adults in miniature form but black – so incredibly cute with the praying action already happening!

Stick Mantid Cadets

Junior Stick Mantids - Archimantis latistyla

There must have been about thirty of these tiny junior stick mantids, all exploring their brand new world.  When I went back the next day they had all gone!