an acacia story and a spider story

The leaves on Acacias are not really leaves at all. They're called phyllodes, and they're actually flattened leaf stalks that function like leaves. At the base of the phyllode is a gland, a raised bump that is a source of nectar all the year round. For this reason Acacias are superb habitat plants for the garden. I often see ants and flies moving around on the trees.

Indigenous Acacias that I recently planted are A. implexa, or Lightwood. The immature specimens have indented fern-like leaves. As the plant matures the divisions close up and become single long, curved phyllodes.

Most gardeners I know don't like it when insects or other wildlife chew the leaves of their garden specimens. They think it spoils the look. I feel happy when I see holes in leaves, happy that I have helped provide food and shelter for a few of the the fascinating non human creatures with which we share this planet. I just wish I could watch them more often while they feed.

This photo is blurry, but if you look closely you can see the back legs of an ant feeding on nectar, and you can see little drops of nectar at the end of the branch.

These leaves offer not only food but a place to lay eggs.

One day an intriguing small hole appeared near a step leading from the house to the garden. When I photographed it I glimpsed something with red legs inside. The photo is unclear, but clear enough to enable me to identify the inhabitant of the hole as a Spotted Ground Spider.

It's far from an exact id. According to the Museum of Victoria website  Spotted ground spiders Habronestes and Storena are two genera of spiders in the family Zodariidae. Within these genera there are 60 species of spiders. So this spider is one of 60 species!

Photographer: S Humphreys © Australian Museum

Spotted ground spiders hunt ground dwelling insects. They don't build webs like some other spiders do. Male spiders are found in leaf litter, under logs or rocks or even inside houses, hunting for insects and female Spotted Ground Spiders. The female is rarely found far from the nest, so I think this spider is probably female. In this case, the hole is the entrance to the nest, where there will be an egg sac with 50 eggs inside. I wish the spiderlings well and hope they make themselves at home in the garden.

Like many spiders, little is known about the biology of Spotted ground spiders. They vary in size from 6 to 20 mm long.  At ground level the hole is about 5mm in diameter. How large it is underground, and what it looks like from the inside can only be imagined. I remember reading somewhere that we know more about the deepest seas than we do about the world under our feet.

I'm linking this post to the Lessons Learned meme in the blog, Plant Postings. There's heaps to learn about the flora and fauna in the garden, and this post shares some of the information I am learning. Botany and Zoology lessons! If you check out Beth's blog you'll find lots of other lessons gardeners have learned in the last three months.