The BIGGEST fly I ever saw !

Last July while conducting my butterfly transect I encountered the biggest  fly I ever met,at first I thought it was just  an unusually large Noon day fly but it quickly became obvious that it was something else .
A visit to the reference books turned up Tachina grossa a tacnid fly,these prey on large hairy catterpillars on which they lay eggs, that hatch and burrow into the caterpillar eating it alive, leaving the vital organs till last so as not to kill it prematurely.

Uncommon Things

In 2010 I have found some uncommon things in the Horse and Jockey area.In June I found several Bee orchids at a site where I had previously seen them,so called because bees try to mate with the flowers and in so doing pollinate them,although they can self pollinate if bees don"t  show up.

A Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)27/06/2010



27/06/2010



I also found the Marsh Hellebourine another beautiful orchid.

On the 7/07/2010 I found the caterpillar of the Small Eggar moth which has only been previously found in the Burren, and earlier this year in Donegal.This caterpillar lives in tents in Whitethorn hedges and the moth flies January to March.

 Adelphocoris seticornis nymph

Adelphocoris seticornis adult

Later in July I photographed a shield bug I didn"t recognise ,it took a while but it has been identified as Adelphocoris seticornis ,a rare bug only previously recorded 3 times in the S E of the country.I found both adult and nymph stages so it is breeding on site.

The site also has Marsh Fritillary butterflies on site these have been covered in a previous blog report.

The site is small all these were found in an area of less than 100m x 100m of cutover bog.

December Moth (Poecilocampa populi)

It was a tropical 6C last evening and I was surprised at the number of moths that surfaced ,5Wintermoths,the Mottled Umber posted already ,and my favourite the Decembermoth of which there were 3.

This is a large black moth with big antennae,that flutter about urgently before settling down.It is one of ten moths of the Eggar family .

Mottled Umber Moth

After the cold weather one mild night and nature recovers ,tonight we met several moths as we travelled the road (slowly due to unmelted ice) and on arriving home found this moth at the gable end yard light.

                                                         Its a Mottled Umber (Erranis defoliaria )a male (female is wingless),its flight period is Oct -Jan

Beetles

Beetle are a hugely important part of our biodiversity disposing of huge amounts of waste ,be it plant or animal waste in a natural biological way.These are some of the ones I was lucky enough to find this year.

Dor Beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius)

                                                               Great Silver Diving Beetle (Dyticus marginalis

Hypera (Antidonus) zoilus (Weevil)

Click beetle (Athous hirtus?)

Click beetle (Athous hirtus?)

 Cockchaffer Beetle ( Melolontha melolotha)

TWO BANDED LONGHORN BEETLE  (Rhagium  bifasciatum)

RED HEADED CARDINAL BEETLE  (Pyrochroa  serraticornis)

Type of longhorn beetle Grammoptera ruficornis

A CLICK BEETLE (ATHOUS HAEMORRHOIDALIS)

Donacia vulgaris

Phratora vulgatissima

Agonum mulleri

Acilius sulcatus or possibly Acilius canaliculatus

Galeruca tanaceti

Aphodius rufipes (dung beetle)

Soldier beetle (Rhagonycha fulva

Visitors to my bird feeder

This cold spell has a lot of people feeding the birds, and other creatures that they might not suspect are visiting their feeders .

Last December my plastic feeders were wrecked one evening when I returned home ,badly chewed  up I replaced them with steel ones that lasted,then I saw the culprits one morning,3 red squirrels,eating the peanuts I had put out the previous night for the birds.
They usually visited at dawn and before dusk,peanuts being favoured over seed although seeds were eaten too.

On another night I saw a small mouse which was identifyed as being a Woodmouse ,they live and forage mainly in the trees eating berries and small insects,I found this one rather cute and camera friendly.

A memory of Warmer nights

The colder nights  put me in mind of the things I saw last Summer in particular the cockchaffer beetles also called "Maybugs".The first night I put out my moth trap they came in like bullets clattering into doors,the yard and me.The ones I felt weren"t bad it was the ones that attached themselves to my clothes and were found on the bedroom floor the following morning by my wife that caused problems :)

Cockchaffer Beetle (Melanthona melanthona)

As the photos show they are really beautiful if time is taken to examine them up close,(my wife and I disagree on this point)
Just look at those antennae !

FOXES CALLING!

In these cold evenings I can hear foxes calling as they seek mates and defend their territories.Foxes mate in Nov-Dec and young are born in Feb -March,usually 3-4 cubs.Finding enough food for adults and cubs can be demanding and a varied diet of small rodents,birds,frogs ,worms and any uneaten pet food keeps them going till the arrival of the main rabbit season,cubs stay underground for several weeks cared for by the vixen ,who doesn"t leave the den and is fed by the dog (male).
The cubs start to play outside the den after 6-8 weeks but depend on their parents to feed them.
These pictures were taken in mid May.

Gradually they accompany the adults on foraging trips and learn the tricks of the trade.Last June I saw two adults and four cubs at dusk in a hayfield playing through the big bales ,looking for frogs and beetles,an occasional skelp from mom or dad kept an order of sorts! This playing lasted for over an hour before dad decided to do some serious hunting and went off on his own.
Cubs leave the family at 7-8 months and fend for themselves,saddley only one in four survive the first year.

The Sprawler

This is the sprawler moth which is on the wing from late October till early December,it is not widely recorded as not much trapping of moths is done at this time of year and it is probably underrecorded as a result.This one came to my yardlight over the last few nights around 8pm ,it may be a female as they fly earlier than the males which usually fly after midnight.Any sightings of it would be welcome.
To biodiversity@cabraghwetlands.ie

PLANT ID PLEASE !

Can anyone id this plant please ,found beside flowing water in a bog.About 60-70cm high,a square stem ,flower pinkish, seen in November. I am thinking Marsh dock but not sure.

NOT ALL CATERPILLARS WILL BE MOTHS OR BUTTERFLIES

    Last year I found several of these larvae on Meadow vetchling and tried several times to id it .Photos were sent to various experts without success,but it was confirmed to be a sawfly larva ,this year I decided to keep one in captivity and rear it an adult to see if it could be identified.After 4-5 days it moulted and a larva with  different pattern emerged as below                                                                                                                          I again sent of photos and John Grearson one of the uks leading sawfly experts responded with an id ,Tenthredo notha,a species that has only been photographed previously as a larva in Czechoslovakia,it apparently alters its pattern before retreating to plant root area to hibernate for the Winter.

Sawflies get their name from the saw like appendage they use to cut their way into plant tissue to lay eggs.The photo below is of a sawfly that drowned in a hoverfly pantrap,it is possibly Abia candens,the larva of which feeds on the leaves of Devils bit scabious.The "saw" can be seen at rear of abdomen.

                                                       

                                    

Larval stage Abia candens below.

This is a rose sawfly larva Arge gracilicornis.
Sawfly larva have six or more pairs of legs , more than the lepidoteran caterpillars which have only five pairs.

CATERPILLARS

There are over 1600 species of moth,35butterflies and many sawfly larvae here are some of the ones I have found and identified.Some change pattern and colour between instars(periods of growth stages when they get new skins to replace older ones that are to small),

Early instar Oak Eggar Moth

                                                                                                                                                       instar Final instar Oak Eggar Moth

                           Timothy Tortrix Moth

                                Buff Ermine Moth

Knotgrass Moth

Small Eggar Moth (only previously known from Burren)

Vapourer Moth

Dot Moth

The Magpie Moth

Burnet Companion Moth

Foxmoth

                                                                                                                                              The Cinnebar Moth