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