Magpie Moth

Spotted this moth on the back lawn this afternoon:

Magpie Moth - Nyctemera secundiana:

I initially thoughtt it was a small Common Crow butterfly but soon  realised it was a moth by the way it held the wings at rest.  The food for this species
is the weed Thickhead  or Crassocephalum crepidiodes of which we have a lot.

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_tigermoths/MagpieMoths.htm

Our garden has now dried out enough to get serious again - on the weekend
 we weeded the vegetable garden ready for some more plantings.  Also we
planted a new Meyer Lemon  and a grapefruit variety called Honnef's Surprise. The latter is similar to the Poorman's Orange -  a New Zealand grapefruit variety that we like but couldn't get here. Both citrus have been planted well above ground level to get better drainage. This was done by using 4 bales of sugar cane mulch to retain a barrow load of soil and compost :

Anne pruned the Tropical Peach as well.  Some other fruit trees were staked up as they leaned too much after the prolonged rain.   Figs are in full swing
-jam was made today as the quantity is too much to eat fresh.  Yard  long beans from one of the aquaponics growbeds continue to be picked every 2 days . The ants are getting into it though and need to be hosed off -  they are spreading/feeding aphids that seem to like this plant but hosing works well enough.
The trees that fell over during the heavy rain/flods I had cut off about 1 m from the ground and stood up-so far the Moringa has sprouted and has one Kauri and one Papaya.  Just shows it is worth doing this especially for small to medium sized trees that are worth trying to save.  Long term  I wonder though how good the root structure will be.  
 We also bought 2 more chooks on the weekend (Australorps). These are for the enclosure where the ducks live. It was getting overgrown with weeds  and hopefully they will clean it up.

Heavily into academic work for the next few months so will be out in the garden less.

Tom