More house guests

The bathroom window was the favourite point of entry for most insects at night as it is the only window we left open that doesn't have a fly screen. Not so many guests visit through that window now though, as the thought of our newborn daughter being bit by a disease-carrying mosquito is incentive enough to remember to close it! We have a bath in the back yard with some water plants in it and mosquito eating fish (Australian Pacific Blue-eyes and Chinese White Clouds). Lots of mosquito wrigglers mean no extra food is necessary for the fish. However, I think we need to get a few more fish.

Now this is probably the scariest insect I've seen in the house after the very large brown huntsman. What a lethal looking back end! It was 2-3cm long with a head like a fly, wings like a wasp and... is that back end an ovipositor? It nonchalantly hopped onto the fly swatter from the bathroom ceiling and allowed itself to be flicked out the window.

My underpants on the clothes line seem to be a favourite resting place for moths. This lovely one about 1.5cm long made it into the house in the washing pile.

This beetle impressed us with its break-and-entry skill and stamina. First it managed to push its way past a loose bit of fly screen, then it did laps of the living room in the air. Most beetles just hit the first wall they find and fall to the ground for a rest. When I went to pick it up it hissed at me and was surprisingly strong when resisting being pinned to the ground for a photo (no real pins were used in the taking of this photo)! Is it a female rhinocerus beetle? I've heard these beetles are the strongest insects in the world by body weight. It was 5-6cm long. It seems to match the description in the Queensland Museum fact sheet.

I believe this is a gum tree shield bug, Theseus modestus (ID source - Wildlife of Greater Brisbane). It decided our bathroom basin was the place to quietly expire. Only having 4 of your 6 legs left is probably a good reason to give up.