The Silver Wattle in flower is our flag bearer for Spring. It is one of the most dramatic displays in Australia's temperate forests for us and animals. The tree is a feast for the eyes with the abundant flowers and a huge range of animals cash in on the bounty.

Locally in the Forest Gallery the male Satin Bower Bird is using it to decorate his Bower and the Red-browed Finches grab the flowers in their beaks and use them as a performance prop to impress a potential mate.

Check out the fun and games that's sure to be going on over the next few weeks.

Acacia dealbata Silver Wattle Flowering in the Forest Gallery Photo: Andrew Kuhlmann Source Museum Victoria

While recently showing visitors one of our huntsman spiders I received the comment "that's not a huntsman". The fact was that it wasn't the same as the huntsman that the person was used to seeing around their home.

So what is a huntsman?

Huntsmen are spiders belonging to the family Heteropodidae, a very diverse group of which Australia has over 200 species. Most are large spiders with latrigrade legs (legs that allow them to move sideways). While many species are brown and grey, there are plenty of colourful huntsmen with green, orange, red, blue and yellow making up their patterns. They are wandering hunters, and don't use a web to snare their prey. They simply capture their prey with speed and agility, quickly latching onto it with their fangs. Although they are venomous, as a group they are considered relatively harmless as their venoms have very little effect on humans.

As for your local huntsman, depending on where you live you may have several and they may be quite different in appearance.

The Murray Banded Huntsman (Holconia murrayensis) from Hattah in north west Victoria. Photo: Alan Henderson Source: Minibeast Wildlife

A Banded Huntsman from Brisbane (Holconia immanis). Photo: Alan Henderson Source Museum Victoria

A Badge Huntsman (Neosparassus diana) from Melbourne Photo: Alan Henderson Source Museum Victoria

A Giant Green Huntsman (Typostola barbata) from Bacchus Marsh. Photo: Alan Henderson Source: Minibeast Wildlife

A Tiger Huntsman (Typostola sp.) from Cairns. A species we discovered in 2006 and is still awaiting scientific description. Photo: Alan Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

Our 3 Australian Lungfish are certainly settling into their new home. They arrived at Melbourne Museum at the end of May where they lived in our back of house facility for the first few weeks while we kept a close eye on them and learnt their likes and dislikes. They quickly settled into their new surroundings and were literally ‘feeding from the hand’ by the second week. Being transferred to display for the opening of 600 million years in the first week of July was probably more traumatic for the keepers than the fish – a new fish tank no matter how well you prepare it can always have problems. We have been testing an array of water conditions daily to ensure any fluctuations are kept to a minimum. The 3 Lungfish have been behaving like true stars on display; they spend much of the day relaxed at the bottom of the tank and come to the surface for short periods to gulp some air into their lungs. Next time you are at the Museum make sure you find your way to this new and fascinating exhibition in the Science and Life gallery.

One of our Australian Lungfish on display in the new 600 million years exhibition. Photo: Benjamin Healley Source: Museum Victoria

Feeding time; these Australian Lungfish get fed a range of pellets, earthworms and other treats. Photo: Benjamin Healley Source: Museum Victoria

The Australian Lungfish enclosure is part of the story of life leaving the water and moving onto land. Photo: Benjamin Healley Source: Museum Victoria

Over the last year Andrew has been part of a group of Museum staff busy getting a bike fleet for Museum Victoria. He has been doing this in between looking after the Forest Gallery, Milarri Gardens and all the other areas around the museum where we have exhibition gardens. Today – he got to pick up the first five bikes. These bikes will be housed across our 4 campuses of Museum Victoria: Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks, Immigration Museum and Moreland. We are lucky enough to have one of these bikes being hosted by our department, giving us naming rights. This bike has been called The Silver Perch – named after the fish in Milarri Ponds that are so speedy and agile – we are hoping the bike will be the same! So if you see The Silver Perch travelling the streets of Melbourne you will know where it has come from. We are hoping these bikes will help reduce the need to use cars and taxis to conduct short trips either between campuses or to do the quick run to the hardware store.

Andrew giving our bike its first test run on the Museum Plaza. These bikes will reduce our need to use cars and taxis travelling around Melbourne. Photo: Nicole Alley. Source: Museum Victoria.

It’s the end of an era in Live Exhibits, Luke Simpkin, Manager of the unit since its inception in 2000 has moved ‘upstairs’ to take on a new challenge as Manager of Exhibition Operations. Luke’s many achievements include the monumental development and success of the Forest Gallery and the ever popular Bugs Alive! Luke will be missed by the ‘Blue Crew’ for all his marvelous work… and also for his ‘seniors moments’ that kept us all fully entertained over the years! Good on you Luke.

As a farewell Live Exhibits presented Luke with a glass case filled with significant items linked to his time with the department. Included in the case was an original artwork – a beak crafted bower built by our resident male Satin Bowerbird ‘Jack’. Jack was a bit miffed when we pinched it for Luke, but had built himself a new one in less than 24 hours.

Luke's Live Exhibits memorabilia case, complete with Jack's bower. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source Museum Victoria

Luke showing the team how to catch a big spider in 2001. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

Luke and the Blue Crew examining a load of new bugs from a QLD field trip. Photo: Jessie Sinclair Source: Museum Victoria

Our male Satin Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) are fascinated about all things blue. They spend their days flying around the gallery collecting pen lids, ribbons and other discarded pieces of blue rubbish. They use them to decorate their bower. These bowers are used to attract females to mate. It takes 7 years for a male Satin Bowerbird to mature, before that he has green and yellow feathers just like females. These young males are also fascinated with blue objects. This young male in the photo found a discarded hair tie that may have proved fatal for him. He had a very uncomfortable afternoon trying to get it off himself after it became caught around his neck. Being in captivity he was a little better off as we were able to catch him up and removed it quickly. If this had of happened in the wild he may have become tangled in a tree with the band and died. We try to keep an eye on what the birds are finding in the Forest Gallery, it is easy to check as most of the objects turn up in the bower. Anything like this hair tie or other objects that could be dangerous are promptly removed, other ‘treasures’ are left or spread around the gallery for the birds to re-gather.

Wearing a necklace is not what this Satin Bowerbird was planning for this hair tie. Photo: Alan Henderson. Source: Museum Victoria.

Overnight this Sydney Funnelweb was busy growing. Yesterday she was noticed unable to extend her chelicerae fully (where her fangs are) and her ‘colour’ was a little off. Reading this record I thought maybe she was reaching the end of her life but really she was just preparing to moult her exoskeleton.

To shed the old exoskeleton she had to burst out from inside. A new exoskeleton had been created under the old one but it was still soft and folded. She cracked open the top of the cephalothorax (her first body segment) then almost rolled out of her old exoskeleton. When she first came out she was white and extremely soft. The exoskeleton slowly hardens – this photo shows her when she is still vulnerable to predator attack as she cannot fight back with her soft fangs. This period is her main growing time as she ‘pumps’ out her new soft exoskeleton so that once it hardens it will be bigger than the one previous.

Over the next couple of days we will leave her quietly to strengthen her new exoskeleton. Some spiders, like funnelwebs are called primitive spiders and the females will continue to moult their exoskeletons this way even when they are mature. Other spiders like Huntsman will stop growing this way once they mature.

To get bigger, this Sydney Funnelweb has to discard her old exoskeleton. Photo: Alan Henderson. Source: Museum Victoria

Thinking about orchids, the usual picture that comes to mind is striking blooms visible from 100 paces. Southern Victorian orchids however are incredibly subtle and definitely not available through Interflora.

Our local species intricately mimic insects or offer ornate landing pads rich in nectar to attract a pollinator. The shape of the Fringed Helmet Orchid (Corysanthes fimbriata) (see image below), and other Helmet orchids, channel divine inspiration and are said to resemble the headdress from a dancing priest of a Greek goddess!

Watch out for the two other orchid species that will be flowering soon. These are the Blunt Greenhood (Ptrestylis curta) and the Dainty Wasp Orchid (Chiloglottis trapeziformis).

Check it out in the Forest Gallery display until the end of September.

At 2cm this Fringed Helmet Orchid is angling to attract critters at the smaller end of the scale. Photograph: Alan Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

It's census time again in the Live Exhibits department!

Every 6 months the staff in Live Exhibits undertake a census of our entire animal collection. This involves counting individual animals from over 150 species including spiders, birds, scorpions, frogs, snails, fish, insects, reptiles, crustaceans, centipedes and millipedes.

This process takes around a week as staff are counting animals as they complete their usual daily tasks. The information will be entered into our Animal Records database to be used for keeping track of how many animals we have in each display and enclosure.

Chloe is busy doing a census of our native cockroach population. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

Jack, the Forest Gallery's resident adult male Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) has recently constructed a new bower.

Male Satin Bowerbirds build a specialised stick structure which they decorate with blue objects. In the Forest Gallery this includes bottle tops, straws and scraps of blue paper, but in the wild can include blue flowers and berries.

The purpose of the bower is to help to find a mate. Female Satin Bowerbirds will visit a male's bower and decide from the way it is built and how it is decorated whether to choose the male to be the father of her chicks. The male will also perform a number of behavioural displays or dances to try to woo the female.

In the Forest Gallery, Jack usually constructs his bower in the same place, so we are in the process of setting up "Bower Cam", a camera located in the Forest Gallery which points to the spot the bower is in. Unfortunately this time around, Jack decided to construct his bower elsewhere. So we have had to relocate his bower to his usual spot.

This may seem harsh - I mean, Jack put a lot of time and effort into constructing this bower, and now we've disturbed it. Well this kind of behaviour is exactly what would happen in the wild, as bowers are constantly being sabotaged by competing males.

Hopefully Jack will accept that his bower has now moved, and he will shortly be able to be viewed on "Bower Cam".

Jack's new bower, which has now been moved to his usual bower site. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

"Bower Cam" will soon be up and running. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria