Blue devil is a perennial plant of native basalt country that has not been ploughed or fertilised. It can withstand a lot of grazing, but not a lot of ground disturbance.

The flowerheads are spherical, metallic blue and spiny. They appear in summer. The plant dies down in autumn and re-shoots in late winter from its short rootstock and clusters of tubers.

The devil part of its name no doubt comes from its stiff prickly leaves and flowerheads. It does not become weedy.

Alongside the blue devil in the photo is a smaller, daintier plant known as lemon beauty heads. It is another February flower of relatively undisturbed basalt country, although it sometimes extends into the shale soils and open goldfields woodland.

Its roots are fibrous, rather than tuberous, and, like the blue devil, its silvery foliage dies back in autumn and re-sprouts in early spring.

Both species are suitable plants for native gardens, although they are not commonly available.

Another showy plant of late summer is Australian bindweed, with eye-catching bright pink pentagonal flowers. It is a lower-growing sprawling plant, also a hardy perennial.

Ever-increasing ploughing, fertilising and roadside clearing are threats to these and many other native plants of basalt country.

Boobook owl, agile antechinus, and feather-tailed glider are a few native animals caught on camera at a Lal Lal property. Footage of these and other creatures was shown at this month's meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat.

A black rat (the usual common pest rat) chased the agile antechinus away, although not aggressively. The agile antechinus is a native marsupial, in size between a rat and a mouse. It is widespread in the Ballarat district, but is not well-known because of its nocturnal habits.

The feather-tailed glider is tiny - the size of a small mouse. Camera footage showed this tiny marsupial scampering over a nest box and tree trunk. Again, it is not well-known because it is nocturnal.

Some of the animals would not have been known at the Lal Lal property without the evidence provided by the cameras.

No camera footage was available to discover the nocturnal culprit that ate garden sweet corn - almost ready to harvest - in a Wendouree garden. When all the evidence was considered, a black rat was determined to be the most likely culprit, rather than ring-tailed or brush-tailed possums.

We found this caterpillar on the pavement close to the house. We've never seen one before. Shortly after I took the photos, a kookaburra picked it up and took it home as an hors d'oeuvres. A.Z., Mt Helen.

Your bright green fleshy caterpillar with a pale line along its side and small white bristles over its body would have turned into a helena gum moth, a close relative of the better-known emperor gum moth.

It spends most of its time feeding on tender gumleaves in the tops of trees, so it is not often seen. It may have fallen. It looks quite large, so it might have been about to pupate.

The handsome moth is large and pinkish-brown, with four eye-like spots, very much like the emperor gum moth.

The status of the helena gum moth in the Ballarat district is unknown. It may be uncommon.