Favoritos de insiderelic

Galls were found on shoots of Maireana brevifolia on 20Aug22. Galls were collected and incubated in a jar and the enclosed pupae and emerged midges were photographed on 7Sep22 and 19Sep22 respectively.
(see also https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136903073)

This is going to be an epic post. I was at the Buckland native gardens and found a small Eucalypt (The tag, sort of near the base was E. barberi) covered with the most Apiomorpha galls I have ever seen. I've only ever seen one on a tree at a time. This tree had literal masses of male and female galls. I took a lot of photos and brought one female gall home (I have no idea why I didn't think to bring a male). My aim was to try and see some of the crawlers again. Anyway I didn't house the gall well, and it got a bit mouldy. I rehoused it, and everything dried out nicely but I assumes that the female would have died. No crawlers. The female was alive and well, so I took photos today, placed her back in her disected home, and have hoped that a rubber band around the gall will keep her happy!. Very interesting beasts.

This looks like Apiomorpha munita, that I have found before but I have no real clue.

The photos have further annotations here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zosterops/51077449602/

These magnificent images were captured by the camera on a radio-controlled glider being flow by Allen Moore.
The eagle was clearly not happy with intrusion into its air-space but fortunately only inflicted a small tear in the wing fabric of the aircraft.
(With permission).