Labour Day Weekend

Spent most of the Labour/Labor Day weekend in the garden. The name is quite telling; loads of digging and rearranging. Big mess too. Nearly all done now, will do a bit later on tonight and that should be it. Until the mail order bulbs arrive...
Anyway, spotted a couple of nice visitors to the garden. The first one actually didnt need much spotting, being the colour that he is. "What's that mad yellow thing tearing accross the deck?" I thought and was stunned to find this fine caterpillar. Thanks to the website What's that Bug?, I was able to identify it as a Banded Tussock Moth Caterpillar. The end product, btw, the moth I mean, is pretty non-descript; just a sort of dull beige. At least on the upper wings, I didnt see any photos of what was beneath. So seeing him was a bit of a coup; he looks like a Chinese Dragon really. Perhaps that's the idea; too scary to eat.
Then I saw this massive ant, easily an inch long (not really clear from the photo, I realise, but look at the cool shadow). I hope to ask the Whats that Bug site what type of ant it is....















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