Dragonflies, freshies, spiders

... and other critters.

It's dragonfly season. During the the transition from the Wet to the Dry, i.e. now, Darwin's dragonfly population explodes. The locals tell us that dragonflies are the sign that the Dry is on its way. (Together with the tourists, but I have already complained about that in my last post.) Delightfully, the city of Darwin's logo is a dragonfly.

They're not the only insects that like the transition. We're now aware of the odd bitey thing, whether mosquito, sandfly or midgie. But it's not very different to Melbourne. Darwin has very few flies. Plenty of spiders, which as a spider fan, suits me. A few weeks ago, I did the St John's Ambulance First Aid course, in order to become a First Aid officer on our work floor. I learned that the only deadly spider in the NT is the mouse spider. Okay, and the Sydney funnel web spider, but that's only found here when it hitches a ride on a vehicle coming north. What about the famed and feared redback spider? Apparently, according to the excellent doctor delivering our First Aid course, not one person has ever died of a bite from the redback.*

I'm not going to suddenly produce photos of these critters, because I've never seen one. But I can offer another spider pic. Driving back to Darwin from Katherine, we stopped in a section of Nitmiluk about 45 km from the Gorge. The plunge pool at Edith Falls (another waterfall!) is closed for swimming during the Wet but we had a walk along the lakeshore and across the spider-infested bridge. Dozens of them! I like spiders so I was happy. I've since identified the beauty below as an orb-weaver spider endemic to the Katherine region called Argiope katherina.

I've shared some pics of the ferocious saltwater crocs in another post. But here is the freshwater crocodile. These might give you a nip (so might your puppy), but can't kill you with that long snout designed to catch fish, crabs, turtles, snakes and insects. Park rangers leave freshies in national parks. If you don't disturb them, they won't bother you.

Freshies also eat lizards. Here is a beautiful fella that we saw one day on our regular bike ride. Lee called it a very handsome scalyboi and really, that says it all.

* The internet disputes that, saying one person has died. But surely that's no reason for the dreadful reputation the redback spider has.