Insects
Butterflies
- wanderer
(not native, the “monarch” of North America) (almost always - very
conspicuous and common)
- lesser
wanderer (often)
- blue tiger
(fairly often – sometimes in large numbers)
- common
crow (often)
- common
brown (fairly often)
- common
eggfly (fairly often)
- blue
triangle (occasionally)
- orchard
swallowtail ( often, one of Australia's largest butterflies)
- Richmond
birdwing butterfly (very occasionally)
- evening
brown (often)
- jezebel
(occasionally)caper white (fairly
often – sometimes in large numbers)
- common
yellow (often)
- lemon
migrant (sometimes)
- various
blues (almost always
- regent
skipper (occasionally) - pictured to right
- various
others, including caterpillars and pupae as well as adults
Other insects
- Glow worms
(not really worms but the larvae of small gnats)
- Native
stingless bees - see on almost all our visits to Daisy Hill and
Redlands Indigiscapes, also often visiting native flowers in many areas
- Meat ants
- large mounds covered in tiny sticks and pebbles to protect it from
eroding in the heavy rain
- Phasmids -
we fairly often see large stick insects
- Praying
mantids - various sizes, green ones and brown ones, often
- Many others
Spiders (mostly harmless, some
only active at night)
- huntsman
spiders (big but not dangerous)
- wolf
spiders (bright eyeshine at night, big but not dangerous)
- golden
orb-weaver (sometimes very big, but not dangerous)
- other
orb-weavers
- leaf-curl
spider
- water
spider
- giant
water spider
- spiny
spider
- crab
spiders
- jumping
spiders
- St
Andrew’s cross spider
- trapdoor
spiders (burrows seen on some tours)
- funnelweb
(funnels sometimes seen on day-tours to Lamington NP, and spider seen
once on tour)
- various
others
Are our spiders
dangerous?
Not as much as some
would think.
The spider that
has caused the most fatalities in Australia (13 since
white settlement) is the Sydney funnelweb. Our local funnelwebs
have as yet not been known to cause any deaths. They are not generally
active during the day, and even
at night you’d have to try pretty hard to get bitten. There have been
deaths from redback spiders, but all were before 1955, when the
antivenine was developed.
Other
invertebrates
Glow worms -
these are in a captive situation, but breeding freely in a very
well-constructed artificial cave
- Lamington
spiny cray - a beautiful blue creature - is sometimes seen in
the rainforest creeks of the Lamington National Park, or even
wandering on the tracks
- A similar
and closely-related but red and white
freshwater cray is sometimes seen in the rainforest creeks of the
Border Ranges National Park, sometimes wandering
on the tracks
- Small
crabs of various species are seen in the mangroves near the David Fleay
Wildlife Park and on the island day-tour
- soldier
crabs (island day-tour, often)
- Land
snails, or more commonly their shells, are sometimes found in the
rainforest, including some of Gondwanan ancestry. Patterns made by
triangle slugs are seen on eucalypts, and occasionally the slug itself
- Various
molluscs, jellyfish, sponges and other creatures are sometimes
washed onto the beach at Fingal or Coochiemudlo, jellyfish are
sometimes seen in the
sea, and at low tide we can see chitons, galeolaria worms and other
rocky shore animals
- Flatworms,
large earthworms and other creatures turn up from time to time in the
forests
sugar glider
(occasionally), very rarely on 3-day wildlife
tour or
wildlife day-tour
Placentals
bush stone-curlew (almost
always on island tour)
comb-crested jacana
(fairly often)
wompoo fruitdove (fairly
often - but more often heard than seen, especially in warmer months)
koel (often in warm
months, more often heard than seen, on 3-day wildlife and
birding day-tour)
sacred kingfisher
(fairly often, on 3-day wildlife and
birding day-tour)
eastern
whipbird (almost always, on 3-day wildlife and
birding day-tour - more often heard than seen)
satin bowerbird
(often on
3-day
wildlife
and
birding
day-tour)
white-browed
woodswallow (outback tour only)
Reptiles seen on our tours
robust velvet gecko (very
occasionally on 3-day wildlife
tour )
small-eyed snake
(occasionally) – shy snake, usually seen from bus window at night on 3-day wildlife
tour 
Frogs are mostly seen on warm wet nights, and are more often heard than
seen
Fish seen on our tours