Animals

Breeding season: spring, summer and autumn, after heavy rains. Males call most of the year, except summer, from concealed floating vegetation within waterbodies. Eggs are pigmented and contained within a large foam mass, which is concealed among aquatic vegetation or flooded burrow. It spends most of its life underground and emerges only after rain when its time to feed and spawn. It is powerful burrower and jumper.

Oviparous (egg laying).

Oviparous (egg laying). Females dig a nest on land in soil to lay eggs in spring or early summer.

Breeding season: April to June. Clutch size is 5-15. Nesting takes place in winter. The male and female remain together for about five months, which includes courtship, nest building and egg-laying. The nest consists of a platform of grass on the ground. The large eggs (dark bluish-green) are laid at intervals of two to four days. The shells are thick, with paler green and white layers under the dark outer layer. The female dominates the male during pair formation but once incubation begins, the male becomes aggressive to other Emus, including his mate.

Caterpillars hatch from single, mandarin-shaped, bluish eggs. Eggs are laid on the leaf of a food plant. This species flies very close to the ground.

Active only during the hottest part of hot, sunny, and relatively still days. The adult moths live for 1-4 days. Larvae spend 2 or more years underground. Adult moths emerge from underground between November-December. Females lay 100 to 150 eggs; they rarely fly and mostly walk. Males can make long flights but do not travel more than 100 m away from suitable habitat patches. This means it is difficult for them to colonise new areas at a distance.

Nocturnal. Female Garden Orb-weavers live about twelve months. Eggs are laid late summer-autumn and the female usually dies by early winter. The egg case is a fluffy silken cocoon attached to foliage. The spiderlings hatch and disperse during autumn to build their own tiny orb webs among vegetation. During spring the spiderlings develop more quickly and mature during summer.

Solitary. They can keep very still for long periods of time to ambush prey as it moves past, seizing the prey with their powerful forelegs. Females lay hundreds of eggs inside a foamy substance which hardens into a case, usually attached to a leaf, stem, wall or fence.

Breeds July-December in southern Australia. Forms permanent pair bonds although will pair again if one does not survive. Nests in tree hollows or similar. Clutch size is between 3 and 6 eggs. Both sexes incubate eggs and care for young. Young fly at 6-7 weeks. Huge flocks of birds congregate and roost together at night.

Breeds from August-January in the high country, migrating south in autumn and winter. A bulky cup nest is built in a tree cavity or fork of a tree up to 20 m high.