Thread: Natural Sculpture

I've been milling logs with a big bandsaw at the tree loppers yard and come across all sorts of interesting pieces of wood.
I mainly turn logs into billets by basically cutting off the irregular outsides of logs to form a bark free regularly shaped "cant"

This is a red iron bark having its outsides removed (flitched)
ronbark2.jpg

This is part a flitch from the outside of a Spotted gum that has been infested with Longihorn beetle.

IMG_5337.jpg

From Longhorned Beetles (Family Cerambycidae) - Queensland Museum

This native beetle occurs in open forests and woodlands throughout Australia. It has been accidentally introduced to many overseas countries where it is a serious pest of eucalypt plantations. The white, legless larvae of this beetle bore under the bark of recently dead or sick eucalypts for several months. Mature larvae bore into sapwood and hardwood to pupate.

The intricacies of the Longihorn larval tracks forming a natural sculpture is mesmerising
Here's a closer up image showing where eggs were laid by a beetle (red arrow).
Neest.jpg
The larvae start out small and grow so the tracks get bigger and spread out - how the heck do they initially know how to stay out of each others way.
Remember this is all happening under the bark and on top of sap wood.
As they get bigger they form bigger tracks and only then do they start to cross tracks - desperate for food I guess.
Just before they pupate they eat down into the wood - not many get to form a final pupae. I guess they get eaten or die or whatever.

Here's another one showing another egg laying spot.
IMG_5340.jpg

Back in 2014 I was milling a newly felled Spotted Gum for a nature playground I managed to cut the head off an adult beetle just as it was starting to emerge from the tree.
This is a composite image of the same headless beetle emerging over a period of a couple of minutes
Longihorn.jpg

Still working out what Im going to do with flitch - hang it up in the garden I suppose.