Hoverflies

Hoverflies are some of my favourite insects,their slow drone on a warm day,beautiful colours and aerobatic displays always attract my attention.Their capacity to hover and fly backwards is amazing.They are also good pollinators and devourers of aphids.

These are some of the ones I have seen and identified; 

Platycheirus rosarum

                              Volucella pellucans

Leucozona laternaria

Scavea pyrastia(Hoverfly  at Bennetsbridge)

Sericomyia silentis

 (Helophilus pendulus)(Male) also called the  Sun fly because it like to bask in sunlight.

Leucozona lucorum

Episyrphus balteatus. This one is also called the Marmalade hover fly as it has extra orangy bits ! it is a migrant and I have seen it from Jan-Dec if the weather is mild.

Bumble bee mimic

I have volunteered to do Bumble bee transects and am currently learning to id them .Today what I thought was a small bumble bee ,both by sight and sound ,came near me as I worked.On closer inspection however it turned out to be a Hoverfly Volucella bombylans, a bumble bee mimic.A really beautiful insect that feeds on flowers and hedgerows,the larva scavenge in the nests of bumble bees and wasps.
The female enters the nest to lay her eggs and if discovered and stung by the bees or wasps  lays her eggs immediately by reflex action ,her death not being in vain !

Bottom Dwellers

On 05/04/2011 I was doing my butterfly transect when I  saw movement in the bottom of an open drain. It was a raft spider walking her baby!She had to mind it well  as two pond skaters had their eyes on it and kept making little runs at it.

A newt came into view then moving slowly through the mud as below,

Last year Coillte blocked one end of a drainage pipe ,creating a pond at one side of a bridge ,this area has thousands of tadpoles at the moment.Any of the hundreds that gather where the water overflows the barrier that are swept over face a huge threat, Great diving beetles,the newt,several Sticklebacks and 2 Water Scorpions  are all looking out for a free meal, andtadpole tastes good !

Water scorpion

The stickle backs also had  parasite to avoid 4-5 fish leeches were moving along the mud.

Fish leech can stretch from 25mm to 75mm.

This is a Water measurer ,note the position of the eyes (about half way along what looks like its neck)A strange looking creature for sure.

A hot day in mid March.

Today was 12-14 C around lunchtime, several Small Tortoise butterflies flew around and on a flowering Willow on a sheltered bank plenty of insects were taking advantage of free pollen.3 bee species and 4 fly species made the most of the opportunity.

Queen Bombus terrestris

This bees pollen sacs were full.

Honey bee

This might be Cheilosia grossa a hoverfly.

A Dung fly

A Flesh fly.

The Dock beetle (Gastrophysa viridula) a lot of these were in evidence too,this is a female with a swollen abdomen.

More Signs Of Spring

The lovely warm days recently enticed 6 of the 7 Marsh Fritillary caterpillar groups recorded last September  to come out and bask in the Sun.More info in a post last Oct.

I also saw 3 Bumble bees, my first this year ,nectaring on crocus,mahonia heather and snowdrops.

They have been identified as a Bumble Bee (Bombus Cryptarum) this is a rather enigmatic species and is generally lumped in with B. lucoreum.Some regard the faint S between the neck and wing joint as being diagnostic  although this is darker in northern area records that southern records.

the Eritalis drone fly was also working away.

Things in the Night

I went out after dark tonight and lots of things are starting to move,firstly I met two Dotted border moths on the gable end  of house under the yardlight ,these are fairly common moths with a long flight season from Feb -April .

Dotted Border Moth (Agriopis marginaria )

Then  I saw a 20 plume moth, This is a small moth that can be found all year round

Twenty Plume Moth (Alucita hexadacytla)

Then I went near open water to check for frogs ,none about yet but some water insects were in evidence.

Water Cricket (Velia caprai) This is a water cricket just the one tonight but I have seen small packs of them hunting along the water surface for smaller prey.They seem to work in groups moving along the waters edge at first while others move along the centre driving the prey into the edge for cover and their comrades in waiting.

Water Boatman (Notanecta sp.)

This is a Water Boatman ,which swims on its back,you can just make out the small hairs at its tail that it uses to propel itself through the water.There are several species and can be identified by looking at their backs for colour patterns.

A Diving Beetle larva. ( Don"t know much about his fellow.)

Caddisfly Larva (Glyphotaelius pellucidus)

This is a Caddis fly larva the white threadlike structures are gills that it uses to breathe.Caddisfly larva can be identified by the kind of cases they build to protect themselves.This one is I believe Glyphotaelius pellucidus which makes a case of fallen leaves.

This was the suprise of the night, this catterpillar was head down about 150mm (6") under water,catterpillars seemingly don"t know how to reverse out of trouble,but some also can live under water like the Brown china mark.I havn"t id ed this yet but will update when I do.

Moths again!

The rain has brought a rise in temperature, and the moths are back after a long break,the December moth only lasted 3 days this season due to the cold spell,hopefully it will recover in the next few seasons.

Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 06/02/2010

The Winter moths are back in small numbers and have been joined last night by the Pale Brindled Beauty  (Phigalia pilosaria) this is one of the bigger moths flying at the moment,and with its mottled colouring and bi-pectate antennae is easy to identify.

Signs Of Spring !

A beautiful day today and signs of Spring ,Snowdrops in flower,and one of my favourite birds the Starlings were bringing straws into a nest that they have been using for at least 40years.

These pictures were taken last year on 16/01/2010,they started out at opposite ends of the shed and gradually after much noisy courtship ended up together at the entrance to the nest.I don"t know how long they live, but only one pair nest here so how they decide its time to change tenants is a mystery  to me.They seem to raise two broods of 3-4 young and constantly amaze me with the amount of food they bring in all day every day,regardless of weather.The farm cats sometimes try their luck at catching them as do some magpies but after a lot of screeching are usually driven  of ,the magpies try to  lure the young out to the entrance to catch them and so far have not been sucessful as far as I know.

A very large "murmur" of Starlings have also spent alot of time this Winter feeding on one of the silage fields,they must eat grass because no  insects could have survived the low temperatures ,and constant "grazing of Lapwing,Redwing,Rook,Fieldfare and seagulls etc. 

Sexton beetle (not for squemish)

 As previously mentioned I sometimes run a mothtrap and more than moths turn up,flies beetles,caddisflies, etc,etc.Last June as I worked one a beetle with an atrocious smell arrived ,being covered in small brown mites it didn"t look to wholesome either.

Sexton beetle (Nicrophorous humator )

I identified it as a sexton beetle, so called because it buries dead birds and rodents before laying its eggs on it.It buries them to deny access to other carrion feeding species .When the carcase is buried it injects it with strong antibiotic solutions to slow down decay,then lays its eggs.The brown mites also have a role ,they feed on fungi that might speed up the decay and so the beetle doesn"t seem to mind transporting them from foodsource  to foodsource.It is also unusual in that it remains until the grubs hatch and will cull the numbers if too many survive and threaten the survival of all.It has evolved a way of concentrating the smelly fluids of the corpse which it uses to deter anything which threatens it .
A.M Massie a reknowned beetle hunter was conducting a bug hunt in the New Forrest when he found the body of a dead tramp,"You take the feet I"ll take the head" he called to his companion,they shook the corpse over a sheet laid out for the purpose ,several beteeles fell out and these are still to be seen in the British Natural History Museum labeled "Dead tramp.New Forest.A.M Massie . 

Ladybird killer

On April 29th last I found this seven spot lady bird on a fence post  ,it wasn"t moving and had a small brown cylinderical  object under it in a cocoon of some kind.It was the pupa of a ladybird killing wasp. Dinocampus coccinellae The braconid wasp D. coccinellae injects its egg into adults of large  ladybirds, especially the 7-spot. The eggs hatch into larvae which grow within the ladybird but do not kill it. They emerge and build a cocoon below the ladybird, attaching it to a leaf or trees trunk.They sever  the nerve endings  to the ladybirds legs  and it starves to death, The larvae pupate here before emerging as full grown wasps.  The living-dead ladybird may act as a  defence form other predators. 2010 was a very good year for ladybirds, numbers were up particularly  in August September .2011 will probably have a big wasp surge s a result.