They live mainly below ground and may be found after rain or when clearing leaf litter, wood piles and other cover. The eyes are present but are very basic allowing the snake to see little more than light or dark – or so scientists think. They are completely harmless and feed underground on ants, termites and their larvae and eggs.

Do send in pictures if you see anything unusual like this in your backyard.

They also move very fast at around 1 meter per second. At temperatures of up to 70°C the Saharan Desert Ant can forage for food and thus get an advantage over less heat tolerant species.

Several other related species are also known to tolerate extreme temperatures and yes one of them Melophorus sp is found in central Australian deserts.

This species has tiny scales on the wing that refract light somewhat like a prism to give it a vivid colouration. The hope is that this technique could be used in paints and cosmetics bringing us extra bright electric colours.

According to WWF's most recent findings some 138 plants and animal species are listed as threatened with extinction in this country. They include the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat, the Green Sawfish and Major Mitchells Cockatoo.

Let's hope we get it together and protect more habitat in this country. What can you do?? Simply planting native species in your garden helps provide food and habitat for some of our more common species. Over the last few years I have been gradually planting natives in my garden and it feels good when Black Cockatoos are seen feeding in our own back yard and different species of skink appear in the leaf litter. We can all do a little bit don't you think?

At Louisville Zoo in Kentucky their 6 metre Reticulated Python laid a clutch of 61 eggs but keepers initially assumed they were infertile as she has not had any male company and it is not unusual for snakes to lay unfertile eggs. However, when keepers removed the eggs it appeared that some looked full and healthy so the decision was made to incubate a few to ascertain whether they were in fact fertile.

Six babies snakes emerged from their eggs, which stunned the keepers. So some shed skins of both mum and babies were sent to a lab for genetic analysis. Those tests confirmed that the offspring were produced by the mother alone, without male sperm.

Biologists still debate what defines an individual organism. To pass the test you must have: genetically identical cells that can communicate, that have a common purpose or can at least coordinate themselves. This giant forest killing colony of Honey Fungus is now considered the world's largest organism. Most of its living tissue is invisible underground and the mushrooms are the fruiting part of its body. It covers an area of 9.6 sq km and is somewhere between 1,900 and 8,650 years old.

It's taking up too mushroom (sorry).

They are small reaching up to 15cm when flexing and have 8 tentacles or arms, but commonly golf ball sized or smaller. They have blue blood, three hearts and extremely potent venom, but are not aggressive and do not attack people.

They feed on small creatures such as shrimp, crabs, fish and bivalve mollusks. Prey is grabbed, pulled towards the mouth using tentacles to hold the prey firm and then using their sharp beaks to pierce the prey and introduce venom. The venom is in their saliva, they do not have fangs.

Only 3 known deaths are reported, no anti venom is available. The bite is usually painless with symptom such as weakness, facial paralysis, nausea and vomiting developing within a few minutes. Patients that have been paralyzed by the neurotoxic venom hear everything but cannot respond. So no negative remarks – support with CPR and seek urgent medical attention. The venom will gradually wear off and victims recover providing artificial respiration has been provided.

First aid is pressure immobilization bandaging and CPR to provide respiratory support if paralysis occurs. Rapid and prolonged mouth-to-mouth is known to have saved several bite victims in Australia.