Then on to Waterview at the end of a laneway between the chicken processing factory and the nursery at 
Sorell. Here Robin took a gall from a wattle to examine the grub inside and explained the finer points of 
wasp life cycles. The wasp is likely to be Trichilogaster trilineata, which is the one that creates the same 
looking galls on other wattle species. On land there were Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Ravens, a family of 
wrens and Little Wattlebirds with their nest in a Callistemon near the track. Near the river mouth there 
was a Hoary- headed Grebe, plus a few Pied Oystercatchers and Little Pied Cormorants. 
But then somebody noticed a peculiar heave of Robin’s bosom as “the baby woke up for its feed” so we 
drove to the Sorell picnic tables by the river for morning tea, watching the baby possum taking its feed 
and stretching its legs. There Lynne also discovered an egg sack of a Bird Dung Spider, Celaenia 
kingergi , in a nearby tree. It feeds on moths, which it attracts to its outstretched arms by emitting 
pheromones similar to those of female moths. Two species of spider and a caterpillar were photographed 
for later identification. 
At Orielton Rivulet the Skylarks larked about above us and there was a distant Red-capped Plover but 
not much else. At Frogmore Creek we crossed the stile, walking down towards the lagoon across the 
dried up mud flats only to find a few White-fronted Chats and a distant view of a Kelp Gull colony. 
Two small brown skinks, probably metallic, ran away under the Disphyma crassifolium. Standing out at 
the waters edge there were four Little Egrets and one Great Egret. During a lunch break, Lynne 
explored a patch of Acacia genistifolia near the road and found it was harbouring a very pale green 
caterpillar, which makes webs in the leaf axils which she is identifying as well as populations of 
Corylophid beetles that are 1,2mm and large spider nests. Nearby, Lynne also spotted a lone Meadow 
Argus butterfly (. Junonia villida), whose larvae feed on planitain. 
Mass beetle strandings - reports of Adoryphorous couloni wanted! — Lynne Forster 
Thousands of the winter scarab beetles, Adoryphorus couloni , had washed in to shore at Bonnington 
(Barilla Bay) and filled the air with the sound of scouring sand as the females, and possibly the males, 
buried themselves by the thousands. Bill and Els had noticed an increase in ravens on the spit over the 
last week and raven scats full of A. couloni elytra and exoskeletons was testimony to their consuming 
interest in these plump sources of protein 1 . The ravens had, it seemed, hardly made an impression on 
beetle numbers. There is a theory that strandings of vespertine 11 beetles occurs on moonlight nights when 
disoriented beetles fly towards the moon’s reflection and fall into the water where they are unable to fly 
away once they are weighed down by water trapped by setae. It was also a week ago, when evening 
temperatures warmed up, that I encountered small numbers of these beetles attracted to lights in the city 
and crawling along footpaths. After spending two years underground, their adult life above ground is 
short-lived. Life underground provides no guarantee, however, that they’ll survive to adult stage. If 
female scoliid or thynnid parasitic wasps sniff out the larvae they burrow down to paralyze them then lay 
an egg. 
A. couloni is only one of many species referred to as ‘cockchafer’ Although the 15mm beetle appears all 
black, the common name for it is redheaded pasture cockchafer, in reference to the red head of the larvae. 
There are in fact many species referred to as cockchafers, including, Scitala sericans, Sericesthis nigra, 
Sericesthis nigrolineata, Heteronyx spp whose larvae gnaw roots of, mostly, grasses, and Acrossidius 
tasmaniae whose larvae eat the leaves of grasses and some weeds (Cathy Young, pers. comm.). 
According to DPIW entomologist in Devonport, Lionel Hill (2008) 111 , A. couloni is a native insect that 
was restricted to northern Tasmania (and interstate) prior to 1987. Since then it has turned up in the south 
with mass flights in Hobart and the East Coast and is spreading but hasn’t been found at altitudes above 
200m. DPIW is mapping its distribution and are interested in any specimens, euthenased by freezing, 
with location details lv . 
Reference to McQuillan et al. (2007) v yielded some interesting information about the biology of this 
species which I have paraphrased. Larvae take two years to develop but generations overlap. By the end 
of their first year larvae are eating grass roots, especially of ryegrass and can be a pest of pastures. Their 
activity slows down during winter, followed by frenzied eating in spring to put on as much weight as 
possible because as adults this species does not eat. Larvae then dig deeper below roots and create a cell 
of compacted earth in which they pupate. While adults emerge from their pupae the following autumn, 
they remain underground through winter while they mature sexually and emerge synchronously at dusk 
when the weather warms up in spring to mate. There also needs to have been enough rain to soften the 
Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 332 Oct 2008 p6 
