Camouflage and display

Fidder Beetle. Photo: Julie Clarke (c)) 2016

I'm awake at my usual time of 5.20 am or so and Christmas day has come and gone and thanks to a few family and friends I had a lovely time. My son Erin gave me a Eupoecila Australasiae (a scarab commonly known as a Fiddler Beetle because markings on its back resemble sound holes on a violin/fiddle) to add to my small collection of insects. Its warning colors (aposematism) of yellow and brown tell predators that it's poisonous or tastes bad. He gave me the beetle in a small tin, which originally held lip balm. The little tin in itself is a treasure.

Eastern Blue-tongue lizard. Photo: Laura Feeger (c) 2016

My son's partner Laura took a photograph of the Eastern blue-tongue lizard that's eating snails in their suburban garden in Croydon South. Both these photographs and my own photograph of two ducks in Treasury Gardens, Melbourne last week made me think about camouflage and display, things that use their bodies to disguise themselves in their surroundings and those that want to be seen.

More on this another time. Meanwhile time for us to consider the year that was and the new year. To all my readers may you have a wonderful 2017.