Another early morning virtual trip but this was one I didnt want to miss, a hike through the wilderness with our virtual guide Matt.
As a child he would roam the area overlooking Barranco Valley, but did not say the exact location as he didnt want it to known and the area be ruined with visitors.
Termites, spiders, lizards, mosquitoes all added to the atmosphere but I was glad I was sitting in the armchair viewing on screen.
Our guide had a particular passion for Grass Trees - Many species have an amazing ability to survive fire. A fire may burn their leaves and blacken their trunks, but the trees usually survive: the living is buried underground, protected by tightly packed leaf bases.
The ‘scribbles on scribbly gums are an icon of the Australian bush, but until recently very little was known about the cause of these distinctive scribbles.
The researchers discovered a previously unknown interaction between the scribbly gum moths and their eucalypt host.
The scribbly gum moth larvae bore a meandering tunnel through the eucalypt trees bark at the level of the future cork cambium, first in long irregular loops and later in a more regular zigzag which is doubled up after a narrow turning loop.
When the cork cambium starts to produce cork to shed the outer bark it produces scar tissue in response to the feeding of the caterpillar, filling the doubled up part of the larval tunnel with highly nutritious, cells.
These replacement cells are ideal food for the caterpillar which moults into its final life stage with legs, turns around and eats its way back along the way it It now grows rapidly to maturity and leaves the tree to spin a cocoon at its base, where it pupates.
The guide had an extra long selfie stick on the camera so was able to reach up into the caves, where we saw a birds nest. The view s inside the cave was incredible too.
