Moon, fungus and Wasp

When I took the small dog out for a toilet break around 0600 on 21/4 the moon was still high in the sky and nearly full.

 In the afternoon Frances spotted these fungal fruiting bodies on a stump opposite Shady Gully.  Due to their growth habit she wondered if they were the bioluminescent Omphalotus nidiformis.  They were a good match for that species in my fungus books.

As she got home, Frances also spotted an attractive insect wandering about on the drive.

I'd welcome suggestions of species- I can do no better than family Vespidae.  It has been suggested sub-family Eumenidae, genus Palastor is a possibility.

I referred the sighting to the Australian Museum for advice;  Here is their excellent reply - it took a while but I guess they are busy!

The insect in question is as you correctly pointed out is related to honey bees, wasp, ants (Order: Hymenoptera). This species in particular is  confusingly known as a Common Wasp-mimic Bee (Hyleoides concinna). They are in the family of bees collectively known as plasterer bees or polyester bees, due to the method of smoothing the walls of their nest cells (Family: Colletidae). Additionally, when a specimen was brought to Europe by Cook’s expedition, the entomologist Fabricius described it in 1775 as a wasp and called it Vespa concinna. It is a mimic of Potter Wasps, so you were very close to the right answer when you described as Paralastor. The important difference is that a Paralastor species can fold its forewing longitudinally, but the bee can’t. The bee does tend to hold up her wings in the v-shape of a wasp, but relies on the colour of the wing to imitate the folding. The front half, but not the rear half is darkened.

One of the links above goes to the Atlas of Living Australia which has records from the Nadgee Nature Reserve (on the far side of the Howe Range) so in the general area  but not very close.  I'll be reporting it to the ALA in due course.

By chance I was thinking of dropping down to the Inlet about 1900 to get some images of the moon rising,  So we swung by the fungus site - which we found easily - but luminescence was not evident.  I shall try to confirm the ID with Fungimap.

The moon was rising nicely.  The first image was from a grassy knoll (with no snipers evident).

 We then moved to the Broome St fishing platform,

 Moving a little along the shore to get out of the street light got some reflection in the water.

Just for fun I have post-edited the image to underexpose it a bit.

Overall I think we proved the concept of going down to the shore to photograph moonrise and will play with the idea more of other nights.

On the night of 23 April I glanced at the moon about 2100 hrs when taking Tammy out for her final toilet break  To my surprise there was quite a good view from our drive.  I hadn't expected to get the reflection in the Inlet so clearly.

The light in the foreground is from a street light: I didn't expect a flash to help the process!