In Milarri Garden plants are dropping seed on to the dry ground this time of year ready to germinate when Autumn rains arrive.  Some such as Everlasting Daisies (genus Bracteantha) set seed within the daisy flowerhead in much the same way sunflowers do.     

Everlasting daisies set seed- one for each of the mini-flowers within the orange centre of the bloom. Photo: Serene O'Halloran Source: Museum Victoria

Old Man Weed (Centipeda cunninghamii)also known as Gukwonderukin in Wotjobaluk language- is a low growing annual herb producing small brown seed heads which break apart into hundreds of tiny seeds.  Old Man Weed can be boiled to make a tonic for respiratory complaints or rubbed directly onto the skin for aches & pains or skin complaints.

Tiny seeds of Old Man Weed Photo: Serene O'Halloran Source: Museum Victoria

Errol builds a bower

The young male Satin Bower Bird nicknamed Errol has been an ardent student of bower construction, learning by observing Jack the mature male at work.  His new bower may be observed at the edge of the garden in the 'Fire' zone of the Forest Gallery.  Visitors have been spending extended times just watching his antics and those of Jack who occasionally intervenes and steals some of the hard-won blue objects.  A male bower birds uses his elaborately constructed and decorated bower to entice females to mate.  The bower is not a nest, as people often assume.

Errol ponders where to place his bllue bottle cap. Photo: Luke Simpkin Sourcce: Musem Victoria

Bugs Alive

The large female Giant Green Mantid Hierodula majuscula on display in Bugs Alive- in the predator/prey section opposite the aquatic display- has recently produced eggs. In mantids, eggs are produced in a foamy mass called an ootheca, which is typically adhered to a twig or stem. The egg mass itself is fascinating- produced as a wet foam it hardens on contact with the air much like ‘foam-a-fill’ from a pressure pack can. In the wild the female will stay by her ootheca for perhaps a few days before moving away and never returning.

The nut-like ootheca can be seen, while the silhouette of the mother mantid hangs above Photo: Thomas Walker Source: Museum Victoria

Ootheca adhered to twig Photo: Thomas Walker Source: Museum Victoria

The ootheca containing hundreds of developing mantid eggs will be targeted by tiny parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs into the ootheca. The wasp hatchlings emerge first to feed upon the unhatched mantids, finally drilling a small escape hole when they have completed their own metamorphosis. Despite this attack, numerous mantids usually survive to emerge themselves in one of the most spectacular hatching events in the natural world. The babies- tiny replicas of the adult- emerge attached to sticky threads, which they use to ‘bungee jump’ out from the base of the ootheca, and hang below. After some minutes they detach and wander off to fend for themselves. The mantid ootheca in Bugs Alive will stay on display and we will alert staff and visitors when hatching begins. Stay tuned.

Forest Gallery

A Satin Bower Bird eggshell has appeared in the male SBB’s bower. The speckled eggshell appears to have come from an egg that has hatched normally so there is possibly a chick in a nest somewhere in the gallery. Staff are watching the birds’ behaviour to locate any nest and look for food collecting typical of a bird raising young. Last season the female successfully raised two chicks in a nest high in a Rough Tree Fern however this year the nest appears better hidden. The bower decorated with blue & yellow objects for which the species is renowned, and the shiny blue-black male that constructs it plays no role at all in raising the young. The bower is a built equivalent of the Lyrebird’s tail- it serves to demonstrate the genetic vigour of the male, attracts the attention of females and entices them to mate.

Eggshell in bower Photo: Thomas Walker Source: Museum Victoria

Milarri Garden

Christmas has come early in Milarri this week- the Christmas Bush Prostanthera lasianthos has come into full flower.

Chistmas Bush flower Photo: Andrew Kuhlmann Source: Museum Victoria

Known to the Kulin people as Coranderrk this tall shrub typically grows along the edges of waterways and flats in forests east of Melbourne and produces clusters of white bell-like flowers with speckled purple throats. Many of the aromatic Prostanthera have been used by Indigenous people to treat rheumatism. A narrow trench is lined with leaves and filled with hot rocks. Once the leaves are hot, the rocks are removed and the patient put in the trench and covered with more leaves and warm sand. The hard stems have a soft core making them also useful as fire sticks.

The foliage of the plant is an important food source for our grasshopper breeding enclosures supporting Bugs Alive! Blistered Pyrgomorph babies feed happily on the soft foliage.

Pyrgomorph grasshoppers on foliage Photo: Thomas Walker Source: Museum Victoria

Honeybees

The honeybees have been covered up for a week or so and have started to gain vigour. Honeybees prefer to maintain an internal hive temperature of around 34 degrees, which is easier to achieve in a box-type hive where frames are arranged alongside one another than in a display hive where both sides of each frame is exposed to view through glass. The double glazing helps but the covers insulate better. It is possible to feel the warmth of the crowded part of the hive through the glass. Visitors who want to see inside can ask one of the Museum’s Customer Service Officers who can take a cover off and show the action inside the hive. The supplementary feeder on top of the hive is using over 100g per day of sugar/water solution currently.

Honeybees in action Photo: Alan Henderson Source: Museum Victoria