Category Archives: insects

Up close with a Hornet

23 Monday May 2022

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This is the closest I’ve ever got to a European hornet (Vespa crabro). Now that I’m without a long lens and only using my Olympus point-and-shoot camera, I have to get within a foot, often closer, to get reasonable images. So, I was quiet and my approach was slow and steady, and the Hornet didn’t seem bothered by my presence, luckily.

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I wasn’t sure what this queen was doing on the ground but I have just been reading on Wikipedia (not sure how reliable it is, but looks well referenced) that Hornets use soil when building their nests (‘trace amounts of silicon, calcium, iron, and potassium were found’ in nest fibres) so perhaps she was mineral gathering for her latest construction project.

Jewels in the trees

21 Saturday May 2022

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Tiny specks of metallic green and red caught the light as the sun emerged from behind large fluffy clouds and touched the leaves of an Oak tree. But what were they? Even when I edged closer, I could barely make them out, so miniscule were they. Turns out these are parasitoid wasps belonging to the superfamily Chalcidoidea, and probably from the genus Eulophidae, but that’s as far as the experts online could go without microscopic examination of these startling creatures. An article on the Natural History Museum website begins: ‘Described as “gem-like inhabitants of the woodlands by most never seen nor dreamt of”, chalcidoids include some of the most beautiful insects on the planet’, and I think you can see why.

220521 Eulophidae parasitic wasp

The Brimstone, the vetch and the ants

20 Friday May 2022

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Two for the price of one today: a lovely female Brimstone butterfly, which I was really happy to catch feeding on Common vetch.

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But, lurking beneath the flower, you may be able to spot a small creature. It’s an ant and, if you’ve ever looked closely at the flowers of any of the vetch family (Common, Bush, Tufted, and the vetchlings), you may have noticed they all prove attractive to ants.

220520 vetch and ants (2)

I’ve only recently discovered the reason for this: these plants all have extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), tiny glands on the stems and other areas of a plant, where nectar is secreted. The vetches aren’t the only plants to have these EFNs – according to a report on the University of Florida website (and there are many other scientific papers online, if this subject intrigues you), EFNs have been found in over 2000 plant species. Scientists don’t seem completely sure why plants ‘feed’ ants in this way, though it may be a means of rewarding ant species for their protection against the plant-munching larvae of other insect species.

Cool cats

19 Thursday May 2022

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Butterflies, moths, sawflies – all have larvae that look like caterpillars, cats. It’s that time of year when I feel compelled to check any leaves with holes to try to find the hole-maker, and so I’m finding lots of cool cats. These are just a few of the recent leaf-munchers I’ve discovered, some I can identify, some I can’t but that’s not always important: Lackey, unknown, Mirificarma lentiginosella, unknown, unknown, Drinker, Orange-tip, and Copper underwing.

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A migrant returns

18 Wednesday May 2022

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Today’s guest has travelled thousands of miles to be here with us today (and is, understandably, looking a little jaded after such a long flight). Distinguished guests, please give a warm welcome to the Painted Lady!

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I’d seen a report from the Suffolk butterfly recorder on Twitter on 16 May that, a few days previously, Painted Ladies had been seen ‘in their thousands streaming through Spain from north Africa’, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for the first to reach us here in south Wales. It’s a migration miracle!

The return of Zorro

14 Saturday May 2022

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If you’ve been following along here for a while, you might remember last year’s ‘first for Wales’ find, the distinctive marks on leaves of Wych elm trees of the Elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) (Zorro comes to Wales, October 2021). For the past couple of weeks I’ve been monitoring the trees where I first saw those marks and, yesterday, found them again, with the larvae that create them in situ, happily munching away on the elm leaves. In fact, following a good look around the area, I found larvae on six Wych elm trees (and there were other trees I couldn’t access), and then found a single larva on a Wych elm at Cosmeston, perhaps half a mile away. It will be interesting to see how quickly these creatures spread through the local landscape.

220514 elm zigzag sawfly larvae

May bugs

13 Friday May 2022

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“‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. What’s goin’ on ‘ere then?” I said to myself.

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“We were out all evening flying about. Give us a break! We need some shut-eye,” squeaked the May bug, the Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha), trying to hide its eyes from the glare. I took a few pics, then carefully replaced the leaves so they could continue their snooze.

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New bug: Tachycixius pilosus

10 Tuesday May 2022

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During a recent meander around Cosmeston’s fields, I found a new bug – or, more precisely, a new bug found me. I had been poking around the leaves of a mixed bag of bushes, during which time it must have flitted from a leaf to my sleeve. Meet Tachycixius pilosus, a very handsome member of the Cixiidae family, which can be found on deciduous trees and shrubs between May and July.

220510 Tachycixius pilosus