We're looking at one of Australia's most famous reptiles, the blue tongue skink (or lizard). There's a lot more to blueys than meets the tongue. They're adaptable little critters beset on all sides by an array of foes, but they're a sentient snag success story. I could rant about them 'till I'm blue in the face.
I found this guy (and it is a male) on the footpath walking into work yesterday and thought it would make an excellent #weevilwednesday . It is a Phalidura (or Amycterus). When I first found one of these I had no idea they existed, the giant forceps make it look like it is some monstrous hybrid between a beetle and an earwig. Only the males have them, I have no idea how they use them. #AustralianWildlife#Coleoptera
Great photos! For the arachnophobic, the article includes, right down the bottom, a picture of a spider but it's unbelievably well camouflaged, so you can look at the ant pictures without seeing it at all, and you'll have to scroll and scroll to get to the spider itself :)
Ultra-rare 'punk ant' with Sid Vicious-like mohawk photographed in Far North Queensland - ABC News
For my non Aussie followers, mostly. This is a lovely introduction to some of the most charismatic and lovely of our native animals - wombats, possums, pademelons, tasmanian tigers, and quolls! Great footage and a charming host :) #AustralianWildlife
The Weirdest Marsupial You've Never Heard Of | Strange Creatures of Tasmania - YouTube
An old photo from near the start of my photography career. The enigmatic Nothomyrmecia macrops, a rare ant found only in mallee habitat in South Australia. This species forages on very cold nights along tree trunks to catch insects immobilized by the conditions, and I nearly got hypothermia trying to get this shot.