I love when I get rewarded for doing house stuff! Heading down to the bin and found this stunning insect just hanging out on the side of the house. I had pretty much no idea what it was, except that it looked shield bug-ish and had the good manners to match very nicely with my house's dodgy colour scheme. Turns out it's a Yellow-Dotted Gum Tree Shield Bug which is quite the mouthful, and totally lovely to look at.
As I was grabbing some snaps it flew awkwardly towards our camellias and got tangled in a single strand of spider silk, hanging precariously by its back legs, slowly spinning around and around. Now I'm a good human for the most part so with no spider in sight, I scooped it up and popped it onto the foliage and as the bug cleaned itself of the sticky web it opened its wings and the light shining threw them created a gorgeous red/orange spotted and dotted pattern. Wow! And once it was free of the residue It clambered under the leaves and out of view which left me able to finally get to the bin!
Yellow-Dotted Gum Tree Shield Bug
Northern Illawarra
