Category Archives: insects

137/366 Bedeguar gall wasp

16 Saturday May 2020

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You might remember that, a few months ago, I posted about the (supposedly) empty galls of the Bedeguar gall wasp I’d found during a wet walk at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park (Empty pincushions, January 2020). A week or so after writing that post, I was back at Cosmeston and remembered to harvest one of the galls, which has ever since been sitting in a sealed jar on my kitchen windowsill.

Although the many holes in the gall made me think that all of its inhabitants had already hatched, I decided to wait and see if anything else appeared. Two days ago I noticed movement in the jar and, taking a closer look, found two different species of wasp had emerged.

200516 diplolepis rosae (1)

This is one of them, and I’m 99% certain this is the gall causer itself, the Bedeguar gall wasp, Diplolepis rosae, the offspring of the wasp that caused the gall to form in the first place. These wasps are so tiny – just 3-4 mm long – that most of us don’t usually see them so I was very pleased to have this one emerge from its gall.

200516 diplolepis rosae (2)

There is a bit of a story attached to the second wasp that emerged, and I am currently awaiting confirmation of its identity. As soon as I know more, I’ll write it up in a further post.

133/366 First Common blue

12 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by in insects, nature, wildflowers

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One of the benefits of some local councils not mowing all the road verges at the moment is that wildflowers that would normally be strimmed to death are now being allowed to grow and bloom.

200512 Common blue butterfly (1)

Not only does this mean we get to enjoy their glorious rainbow of colours but the wildflowers’ pollen and nectar also provide a nutritious feast for all the newly emerging insects.

200512 Common blue butterfly (2)

And it was on one such uncut verge that I spotted my first Common blue butterfly of the year today, this stunning, pristine, little male.

200512 Common blue butterfly (3)

If only the councils would mow less all the time, then we’d be able to enjoy both the flowers and the insects all through spring and summer, and it would also go a little way to reversing the huge decline in insect life that’s happening all over the world.

200512 Common blue butterfly (4)

128/366 Dingy skippers

07 Thursday May 2020

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Not only did I see my first dragonflies of the year yesterday at Lavernock Nature Reserve but I also spotted my first Dingy skippers (Erynnis tages).

200507 dingy skipper (1)

At least four of these inconspicuous little butterflies were feeding on their favourite food plant, Common bird’s-foot trefoil, or basking on the compacted earth of the tracks through the reserve, as is their wont.

200507 dingy skipper (2)

Their preferences for bird’s-foot trefoil and patches of bare ground are why these butterflies are often found on chalk and limestone grasslands, on brownfield sites and in disused quarries, amongst sand dunes and along open pathways adjacent to woodland.

200507 dingy skipper (3)

Sun, shelter and good food – it’s not much to ask for. But, sadly, the Dingy skipper is one of many declining species of butterfly in Britain, probably due to the way land is managed and to the intensification of agriculture. So, I feel very privileged to be able to observe and enjoy these lovely little skippers so close to home.

200507 dingy skipper (4)

126/366 The Lady of the Woods

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by in insects, nature, spring

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I know I already posted about seeing my first Orange-tip butterfly of the year (The ostentatious Orange-tip, 15 April) but, for those not familiar with this lovely springtime butterfly, I thought it might be useful to see a bit more detail. So, here is a typical male Orange-tip, from the top and the side. The speckling on the lower wings looks green but that’s an optical illusion – the colours are actually yellow and black.

And here’s a female from both angles. If you only see her from the top, you might confuse her with one of the other white butterflies, though the dark patches are different in all the whites, and the Orange-tip also has a distinctive wing shape.

I managed to find several eggs during a recent walk – the newly laid eggs are white but turn orange very quickly. You’ll find them on the caterpillar food plants: Cuckooflower, Garlic mustard and Honesty are three wildflowers this butterfly favours. And, for the first time ever, I found a caterpillar. This is a 2nd instar (i.e. stage) – the larvae proceed through 5 instars, progressively growing larger, until they are ready to pupate.

You might be wondering why I gave this post the title of ‘the Lady of the Woods’. Well, according to Peter Eeles’s superb publication Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies (every home should have one!), this is the name given to the Orange-tip by Benjamin Wilkes in his Twelve New Designs of English Butterflies, published in 1742.

123/366 Dock beetles

02 Saturday May 2020

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Iridescent Green dock beetles are out in force now on the Dock plants in one of my local parks. I’ve blogged about these gorgeous mini-beasties before (Green dock beetles, May 2016) so today I’m just going to share a few photos. Keep an eye out for these on your exercise walks, and don’t forget to check carefully under the holey leaves for eggs and their little grey grubs.

200502 green dock beetle (1)


200502 green dock beetle (4)

122/366 Species 10

01 Friday May 2020

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With the current restrictions on movement, my butterflying has got off to a slower start than usual but today I spotted my first Green-veined white butterfly of 2020, my tenth species for the year, during my walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

200501 Green-veined white (1)

This pristine male only appeared briefly, before disappearing amongst the leafy trees, but it was a joy to see him. These spring-brood Green-veined whites are often very pale – I can’t even see the small dark spots on his upper wings and he has only a hint of yellow colouring on his undersides. The summer brood, when they emerge in July and August, usually show darker markings – I’ll try and do a comparison post later in the year to show the differences.

200501 Green-veined white (2)

120/366 What’s in a gall?

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Back in October 2017, I blogged about a gall I’d found (More galls, part 2), the gall created by the Thistle gall fly (Urophora cardui). Here are two photos of those galls: on the left, the gall growing on the thistle (in fact, there are two galls – there’s a second one, still quite small, in the background to the left) and, on the right, a dried version, which I harvested from a thistle plant at the end of last year and which I’ve since been keeping at home in a jar.

According to my research, the Thistle gall flies don’t usually emerge until June but last week flying creatures began emerging from the gall. On closer examination, I found the empty pupae case (pictured below right) poking out of one of several holes in the gall.

So far, five little critters have hatched but these are not Thistle gall flies. They appear to be some kind of parasitic wasp, which I have not yet managed to identify – there are thousands of species of parasitic wasp and these are not the species that is normally considered the primary parasite of the Urophora cardui (which is a wasp called Eurytoma robusta).

200429 5 thistle gall fly gall parasite

Underside of wasp, photographed through glass of jar

I don’t know whether any Thistle gall fly larvae or pupae still survive within the gall or, indeed, whether anything else will yet emerge. So, for now, the gall remains in its jar, and I’ll post again if any other aliens appear.

This story has a sequel as all in this gall was not as it seemed – here’s a link to part 2, A Tale of two galls, May 2020.

200429 6 thistle gall fly gall parasite

One of the mystery wasps, sitting on the edge of the jar, as it was being released

116/366 A gall and its parasites

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in insects, nature, trees

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This must be the largest Oak apple gall I’ve ever seen – it was at least 1½ inches across, and it had attracted the interest of several small wasps, though these are not the wasps that created the gall in the first place.

200425 oak apple gall

I assumed that they were parasitic wasps about to use their long ovipositors to inject their own eggs into the gall, and it turns out my assumption was correct. Thanks to the British Plant Galls account on Twitter (@BritGalls), and to another Twitter user’s tweet, I’ve learnt that the tiny wasp in the photo below is a member of the Chalcis genus of wasps, probably one of the family of Torymidae. They are ectoparasites: their larvae feed on the larvae of the Oak apple gall wasp that created the gall in the first place.

200425 parasitic wasp