As can be seen by their shape, they are in the same general group of insects as cicadas. Most members of this group are sap-suckers.

Sometimes also called jassids, these leafhoppers are communal insects. They suck sap from eucalypt trees, but they don't seem to do much harm.

Adults are larger - about 12-15mm long, and with wings. They too are red and black, and they have two white spots on each black wing.

They are slow-moving insects, usually not moving until almost touched. When approached closely, they merely move around the other side of their stem or branch.

If seriously disturbed, they hop, jump or fly to avoid danger, but otherwise they remain together on the tree where they are feeding. The wingless nymphs (pictured) do not jump or fly.

Today's photo is a recent one from Haddon. The young insects (correctly "nymphs") will grow quickly and soon gain their wings. They will retain their sap-sucking habit when adults.

The photo shows something coming from their rear ends. This might be "honeydew", a sweet substance (usually liquid) that is often collected by ants. However, there are no ants visible in this photo.

More common locally than this red-and-black leafhopper is a smaller black-and-white one, sometimes known as the black gumtree leafhopper.

The gumtree leafhoppers are among the larger members of the leafhopper group.

Residents of Redan may have heard a loud double-noted bird call last weekend. This came from a male koel, a large glossy black bird with a long tail.

The koel's name is derived from its double-noted call. Another name is cooee bird, also because of its loud cry.

The koel is one of the latest birds added to the Ballarat region list. It was first reported here in 2007, when one stayed a few days in Wendouree. There is also a report from Mt Clear, plus a recent one (2015) from Daylesford.

The bird is extending its range, which once came south only about as far as Sydney. There are now quite a few reports in Melbourne every year, and it has also been seen in Bendigo and Geelong.

Its main food is figs, and it likes mulberries and other fruits as well.

All of the calling koels - and perhaps all of the Victorian sightings - are males. Females seem to be remaining in the northern parts of their range.

Can you identify these small white balls on the plant in the photo? The balls of fluff appear to be made of a spider web material and cover almost the entire leafy parts of the plants. P. & J. A., via email.

These are cottonwool mealybugs. There is a dull reddish very swollen small insect under each cluster of woolly webbing.

They are native insects, mostly found on wattles. The pictured plant is sticky wattle, a mealybug favourite, but they also occur on native wattles too, like hedge wattle and prickly moses.

Mealybugs belong to the same group as scale insects. They are sap-suckers.

They hardly move once they have a suitable spot on a plant, where they suck sap and swell like a tick or small leech underneath their protective webby "cottonwool" covering.