With friends we became Bug detectives, discovering the homes of many insects,spiders etc.
The Ribbon Gum, like many other gum trees with rough or flaky bark, make excellent habitat trees for insects and spiders which hide safely under the bark. Often insects are so well hidden that they are not seen by nearby spiders that hunt them. Many animals which shelter under the bark during the day come out at night to feed and find mates.
Look closely for bug life on the bark. Find the oval shaped holes in the trunk made by Longicorn beetle larvae. These larvae ate the dead wood and left the tree through the holes they had created after they turned into adult beetles.
We estimated the number of holes present and looked for fresh sawdust from recently worked holes.
Because the temperature reached at least 30C we decided as a group not to complete our investigations but to postpone it to a later date when the weather was more condusive to explorations.
While others left to catch trains and ride bikes home