We had a fierce storm the other afternoon causing one of my cats to bolt under the bed.  The rain teemed down and I actually jumped when I heard the first clap of thunder. It didn’t last long fortunately and afterwards the sun shone through the damp foliage with the smell of rain lingering in the steamy atmosphere.  This is my favourite time to take photographs and I love the dew drops and the renewed freshness of everything in the garden.  It also brings out many garden guests from their hidey-holes.

I saw a branch move and on closer inspection it was a stick mantid and it’s the first time I have seen one. When I saw my macro photographs of this creature I was in awe at the features of this insect.  The ability to camouflage is the first thing and then those powerful jaws for chewing.  The joints are also incredible as you can see in this shot – such a well designed insect.

Stick Mantid

I then discovered a few small spiders hiding under leaves and again, it was my first time seeing these particular ones as well.

l to r: young garden orb-weaver and a flower spider

A jumping spider

Agapanthus

Agapanthus is flowering at the moment and the lilac blue petals are gorgeous.  The genus name means flower of love, from the Greek agape, meaning love, and anthos, meaning flower, although the significance of the name is unclear. Agapanthus has been used medicinally for cardiac complaints.

I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing when I discovered my next garden guest who was crawling underneath the leaves, trying to get away from me.  She resembled a microscopic afgan hound and she was really tiny (about half the size of your pinky fingernail). She is a cotton cushion scale, also known as Australian mealybug or Fluted scale and it took a bit of research to discover what this weird bug is. The white cottony substance is her egg sac and they feed on leaves and twigs.

Cotton Cushion Scale Mealybug destroyer

An enjoyable photo shoot in my garden after the storm and I have identified some new insects to add to my sightings.