You don’t need to travel to the Amazon or watch the Discovery
Channel to observe incredible wildlife. You only need to sit
out in a Tasmanian garden or open a door, day or night, and it will
usually appear within arm’s reach. Take a moment to watch the
creatures before you shoo them away. Few of them are harmful,
but they are almost always interesting; with brilliant colours,
intricate patterns and confounding behaviour.

Tasmania’s island status offers unique habitats that are home
to many endemic insect species that you will see nowhere else on
Earth. All you need to do is watch. Look around you
now….maybe there are compound eyes staring back at you? These
are a collection of some of the commonly seen insects found in
Tasmanian suburbia.

A female Common Backyard Mosquito Rampamyia notoscriptus obtaining a bloodmeal from the willing photographer by Tony Daley_1200pxA Golden Blowfly Calliphora stygia these large flies enter houses in summer but then try to escape at bright windows by Tony Daley_1200px.jpAphids Macrosiphum sp. feeding on the sap of a weakened Dahlia by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxBeautiful moths Prasinocyma semicrocea peering in at you on autumn nights by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxBumble bees Bombus terrestris have been established in Tasmania since the early 1990s by Kristi Ellingsen _1200pxCabbage White Butterfly Pieris rapae an introduced species that relies on many of our imported garden plants and vegetables for survival byDue to allergies our most dangerous species is the common Jack Jumper Ant Myrmecia pilosula by Kristi Ellingsen. _1200pxGarden Katydid Caedicia simplex sing the listing evening songs of a summer night by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxHarlequin Bugs Dindymus versicolor live in dead wood and can appear in large numbers by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxHorehound bugs Agonoscelis rutilia use thier long mouthparts to pierce plants and suck their sap by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxMating grasshoppers Phaulacridium sp. are regulars in the gardens by Krisit Ellingsen_1200pxMelangyna sp. Hover flies are important flower pollinators and their larvae often attack aphids by Tony Daley_1200pxNo Tasmanian childhood is complete without the Preying Mantis Tenodera australasiae by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxNocturnal Sugar Ants Camponotus consobrinus appear from thier nests in the late afternoon by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxTasmanians call this the Christmas Beetle Lamprima aurata although Mainlanders reserve this name for another beetle species by Kristi EllingThe Blue Ant Diamma bicolor is actually a female wingless flower wasp that packs a nasty sting by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxThe cream spotted Ichneumon wasp Echthromorpha sp. is a parasite on other insects by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxThe Honey brown beetle Ecnolagria rufescens is a frequent garden visitor by Kristi Ellingsen_1200pxThe Soldier Beetle Chauliognathus tricolor is often very obvious amngst white summer blossoms by Kristi Ellignsen_1200pxThere are a number of different Green Lacewing species. Youll find their eggs laid on fine silk stalks. This is Dictyochrysa peterseni by KrThis Ladybird Cleobora mellyi can be helpful in pest control This is eating leaf beetle eggs by Kristi Ellingsen_1200px

Images of these and more than one thousand
other species have been collected and identified over the last
decade and presented on the website Insects of Tasmania.

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