Yellow Bark Louse
This animal is 4mm in total length. I spotted it on a native bush with small leaves. It was moving like a music fan shaking its head from left to right and being held down looking like in trance and neglecting its environment. Only on my camera screen I noticed that it was actually weaving the cover for its eggs, 15 exactly. The eggs are certainly less than half a millimetre, even if they look like rice - miniature rice indeed. The animal was busy for quite a while. The location is quite exposed to a lot of other insect traffic. The leaf for its egg nest shows considerable chewing damage. I wonder if that is conincidental, chosen or even by its own design and build. The animal is obviously all yellow. I believe that it's a fly. It shows a very fine triangle 'nose'. The antennae are extremely long in comparison to its body length. The wings remind more of a cicada, long, membraneous, transparent. Abdomen is segmented. Eyes are compound, relatively small and far apart. So, it could be anything and I will look further into its identity. Since it lay eggs it must be an adult. Update: QuestaGame experts pointed out that this is a Bark Louse in the suborder Psocomorpha and that it eats fungi. Thank you. Unfortunately, the eggs have gone with more of the leaf eaten. Update 15/8/2016: today when I found a different Bark Louse, I bumped into a 100% match for this species. See http://www.flickriver.com/photos/gbohne/sets/72157626146477281/ The only issue is that this animal must have been recorded under a different taxon in Australia. Can we assume that this is a global species?
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