native and exotic revisited

Drawing by Sue Jay, 2013, including annotions and descriptive text by Dominique Dunstan and others.

Wandering through Bride L2, I noticed some additions had been made to Sue's drawing. There was a fluffy creature in the tree, several new bugs, a rodent and a turtle of some description. I set about identifying the new species as soon as possible. I consulted Gould's Mammals of Australia, regarding the squirrel-like creature. Noting the semi-prehensile tail with white tip, sharply defined paws, large eyes and delicate ears I decided it might well be a sugar glider, Petaurus breviceps (formerly Belideus notatus, Gould,1863).

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After some dispute as to whether the small flying insect in the middle of the drawing should be classified under the order Lepidoptera or Hymenoptera, the matter was settled with the arrival just below it of the blue banded bee, (Amegilla cingulata). I must apologise for the incorrect spelling in the illustration. I'm only Homo sapiens.
The newly identified creatures are labelled in green and all appear to be native to Australia. In addition to those mentioned, they include the Murray River turtle (Emydura macquarii), the Greater stick-nest rat (formerly Hapalotis conditor) and the Giant grasshopper (Valanga irregularis). This grasshopper is sometimes confused with the Australian plague locust, however it is much larger, as can be seen from its scale relative to the domestic dog in the image at the top of this post.

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