“Phasmids” – sounds exotic doesn’t it? It harks back to the Greek word meaning apparition or ghost. Pretty accurate for these critters, commonly known as Stick Insects. These guys can sway in the breeze like a twig, brilliantly disguised so that they are virtually invisible. It’s only when they venture onto man-made territority that they magically appear.

Well, until our move to the Tropics, I never realised they existed in such sizes or quantities. See if you can spot a couple of the smaller ones in the photo below:

                        Here’s a closer shot:

                              Then there was Big Mama…

                    …who happily wandered around my desk…

                                            …over my materials….

         …over my painting (that’s one of her many eggs that she laid)…

…making acquaintances along the way.

Time to spread her wings, although she can’t fly with those (which were very impressive when fully spread).

         To finally find a place where she can hang upside down in comfort.

                                A perfect place for me to sketch her!

              Future Phasmids below:

All these guys appeared at our windows in the evening, trying to get inside. I knew our early morning visitor (below) would like a tasty brekkies of Phasmid, so I brought them in for a resort break overnight. All the Eucalyptus they could ”poke a stick at” was supplied.

Poor Kookie waits outside my kitchen window until treats magically appear. She thanked me by shaking off all that water over my face.

This was Jez earlier with another Phasmid friend (from the same house that brought you the enormous Golden Orb Weaver Spider from a couple of posts back – they breed ‘em big in the rainforest).

It’s raining raining raining still. We’re cut off now (at Cardwell), with the rivers bursting their banks and flooding towns like Ingham. Townsville has copped a hammering as well. On the 6 o’clock news tonight they showed a crocodile that had been run over on one of Townsville’s main roads:

Run over croc recovers in Townsville bathroom

A wildlife carer in north Queensland is sharing her bathroom with a 1.6 metre crocodile run over by a car in Townsville early this morning.

Lana Allcroft from North Queensland Wildlife Care says the reptile has a sore eye, some gravel rash and is missing a couple of teeth.

She says the injured croc has not been as snappy as most people would expect.

“We keep a towel over his head to keep the stress level down for him,” she said.

“We had to move him out of the bathroom this morning so we could have a shower and he wasn’t real impressed with that, got a bit feisty.

“Also when we had him in the car bringing him home last night he was a bit upset, but once he’s in a place and his head’s covered he’s fine and he’s nice and calm and quiet.”

The croc will be collected by rangers later today.

Flooding and torrential rain in the north is creating hazards for other wildlife too.

Eleanor Pollock has an injured turtle in her laundry tub.

“He was run over going from one puddle to the other on the side of the road,” she said.

Mrs Pollock says carers are also looking after sodden baby possums separated from their mothers, and tiny birds whose nests have been washed away by the rain.

story courtesy ABC news.

There’s plenty of rain to come yet, and even the return of the cyclone of Thursday.

This was my mountain this morning. Still visible, with low clouds sliding down it’s sides.

The same mountain this evening, obscured by thick curtains of water soaking everything to the core.

The frogs have never been happier!

Be Sociable, Share!

•