neil

Like most birds that I see at night, this Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) was roosting strategically on the distal end of isolated vegetation, to forecast the vibrations of predators. In this instance, the climbing bamboo (Bambusa moreheadiana) provided safe harbour.

What was most unusual, though, was the sighting itself; being only my second of such a species in fourteen years of almost nightly scrutiny. The first, many years ago, was overhanging a section of Cooper Creek, where they are seen frequently throughout the day. In this sighting, the bird was quite a distance up an officially un-named tributary feeder creek, but perfectly positioned for a photograph.

I find it very significant that such a beautifully conspicuous plumage can remain so well hidden over the years. As an individual species, how can its part in the natural landscape be understood and appreciated when it is so adept at concealment? Its importance to other species and the interrelationships that define its ecological character are even less accessible.

The longer I persevere with my immersion into this ancient and secretive world, the more insurmountable its complexity becomes. Very clearly, one lifetime will not be enough. I take a degree of comfort from the obvious advantage of my children, benefiting from the contribution of the knowledge that their parents and grandparents are able to impart, but additionally, from the knowledge that they gain from their own observations and interrelationships. With only three generations I can see the growing accumulation of intellectual property.

Just imagine the intellectual insight of the thousand generations accrued by Australia’s indigenous people, the longest surviving human culture in the world.

These voracious, venomous predators of the night are seldom seen and even more infrequently in pairs, but what can be said of the affairs of the Scutigeromorph heart?

Well first of all, they have a series of trachea originating at dorsal openings that channel oxygen into the pericardium. They also have a single dorsal heart which pumps oxygenated blood about the tissues of their relatively large and active architecture.

Generally, arthropods have open circulatory systems within which circulating fluid (haemolymph) passes directly through tissues, but in the scutigeromorph, a more complex distribution system is controlled by cardioarterial valves. Also, large respiratory copper proteins, called haemocyanins carry oxygen through the haemolymph.

Socially, the two individuals photographed were engaged in a repertoire with what appeared to be a greater enthusiasm on the part of the larger male. Reproduction is most probably via indirect sperm transfer. Male scutigeromorphs strategically deposit a sperm droplet and then encourage the female to this location through behavioural ritual. The female receives the droplet directly through the genital opening.

Take a long look into the face of the world’s largest two-dimensional wheel-web weaving spider: The Golden Orb-weaver (Nephila pilipes).

The red appendages, projecting forward from the head region, are sensory organs called palps. They detect scent, sound and vibration. Between them are the powerful chelicerae; made up of the base segment and the fangs. Above, the cephalothorax houses six eyes with a three-dimensional outlook.

Gigantism in these animals correlates with increased temperature, so I suppose it is inevitable that we should all enjoy a closer familiarity in this anthropogenically-exacerbated interglacial warming period.