On this Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday, I thought that I would issue a challenge to our Politics & Environment Weblog community:
To whom or what does this face belong?
I can tell you that it is not a member of Australia’s legislature. Neither is it employed in Australia’s public service. It is definitely Australian, but it is not a contributor to our discussion on this blog, so it would be vexatious to suggest any of our local identities.
I’ll wait to see what our readership comes up with, before revealing the identity.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
It’s an insect, right.
Now I think you should provide another clue – please.
I’m going with snail. Perhaps some type of sea snail. Those things down at the bottom are stalks and the ridge at the top is a shell.
The multifaceted mirror deals are it’d hearing aids.
It’s an elderly sea snail.
Before I do, Jen, why do you think it is an insect?
I see he/she/it is wired for sound, so I guess it ends in “pod”
No insect!
Most insects need and have huge eyes.
Don’t snails have eyes at the end of stalks?
I go for insect because of the two polygonally aggregated bubbles on either side of the structure.
Hi Neil,
It’s an insect because we have a head with antennae, compound eyes and ocelli.
Given the ocelli are dorsal, we could have a species of Hymenoptera, Diptera, Odonata or Orthopera? I suspect Orthopera (grasshoper).
That should be Orthoptera with a second ‘t’.
They are insect eyes I should have added, thereby making the structure a head, and from the protrusions I suspect it might be a moth and venture it might be a Bogong moth? But since it’s probably QLD rainforest insect, hardly a Bogong.
So its a moth of indeterminate identification.
Crikey, Latin at 10 paces!
Louis, from memory, moths/Lepidoptera have lateral not dorsal ocelli. so not a moth.
I will get my insect morphology book out of the garage tomorrow and check.
Also the mouthparts are wrong for Lepidoptera.
Jennifer,
Slaving in the galley, it occurred to me that it isn’t a moth, but the head looks like it belongs to a praying, or is it preying, mantis. It’s the structure above it’s head that puzzles.
ET with heat seeking goggles, hiding in a discarded shell?
Some additional hints:
I rotated the original photograph 168 degrees clockwise and cropped it to about 30% of its original image size.
It was feeding on the sap of a lychee tree, when I photographed it.
Well, eyes are still in the right place but one must invert it.
Looks like a fruit bat, but the eyes contradict that since they are not mammalian.
Hmm, novel phenomena for me, but it remains an insect.
The eyes have it, you know, putting on his best Peter Seller’s character of the Goon Show.
Reckon it’a s stick/leaf insect of some kind. Thrown by the compound eyes. Going through phasmid pics…
Is Neil being cryptic and the name is something to do with the queen?
Sorry Arnost,
Neither a phasmid nor anytyhing to do with HRR.
mantis shrimp of some kind? getting warmer?
Well, being Australian rules out Britney Speers so it must be a dragonfly.
Neil,
Admit defeat, have no idea.
Order Hemiptera (well done Jen); Family (I think) is Pentatomidae
Neil
Based on the above comments, how did Jennifer guess it?
I see nothing to support your last comment.
Neil, Hemiptera have sucking mouthparts. this creatures doesn’t look like it has sucking mouthparts?
That stinks and it buggs me no end! 🙂
Should do stuff like this more often – was just getting warmed up!
so the sucking mouthparts are hidden behind those non-functional ‘mandible’.
yes, it was fun. thanks Neil.
and for those who haven’t ‘refreshed’, this is the complete creature: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003152.html
Cha — I was so close.