06 Tuesday Jul 2021
Posted in insects
Golden Large skippers have been flitting through the tall grasses of my local meadows for about a month now and soon, too soon, they will disappear for another year.
But, if they manage to escape the cutting blades of mowers and survive through whatever weather the winter throws at us this year, then the larvae that emerge from their miniscule eggs, like the one below, will guarantee we see these handsome creatures again next year.
05 Monday Jul 2021
Tags
7-spot ladybird, 7-spot ladybird lifecycle, British ladybirds, Coccinella septempunctata, ladybird life cycle
A few weeks ago I wrote about going insecting and showed a few of my recent finds, including what I suspected was a photo of ladybird eggs. Sure enough, when I revisited that particular spot last week, I found ladybirds in various stages of development. When I add in a photo, taken in a previous year, of ladybirds about to mate on a gorse bush, we have the full lifecycle: mating, eggs, larva, larva beginning to pupate, pupa and recently emerged adult (they often emerge quite pale), all of the 7-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata).
03 Saturday Jul 2021
Tags
British leaf mines, British moths, Enchanter's nightshade, Larval mines of Mompha langiella, leafmines on Enchanter's nightshade, Mompha langiella, moth leafmines
I’ve been lingering over leafmines again and have a new one to show you, this time on the lovely little plant that carpets the woodland floor at this time of year, Enchanter’s nightshade (Circaea lutetiana).
The mines, which start off as galleries but are often subsumed into the later blotches, are made during June and July by the larvae of Mompha langiella, a rather nondescript little brown moth. The larvae, as described on the British leafminers website, are ‘light yellow, with darker thoracic legs’ (see photo left below), and, most fortunately, I also found a pupa (below right), which are located ‘occasionally in a mined leaf or in a cocoon between the leaves or on the leaves’.
Though Enchanter’s nightshade is widespread in the places where I walk, I’ve only found one site with these leafmines so far. Can you spot them in your local woodland?
01 Thursday Jul 2021
This made me laugh out loud. I was watching a young Chiffchaff hunting for insects along a fence and around a signboard.
Being young and not wary yet of humans, the cute wee bird mostly ignored me so I was able to edge closer for some photos.
Then it spotted a spider’s web chock full of tiny creatures, a pix-and-mix for a hungry fledgling.
But it hadn’t twigged to the fact that a wire fence can be slippery and went for a backwards spin as it tried to pluck out the tasty morsels.
30 Wednesday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterfly, fritillaries, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Another visit to Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve last week produced my best ever views of Small pearl-bordered fritillaries so I thought I’d share a couple of photos of these stunning little butterflies.
They get their name from the series of pearl-like markings that can be seen along the outside edge of the underside of their hind wings, though I personally think all their markings, on both the upper- and under-sides of their wings are as exquisite as pearls.
29 Tuesday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
There’s no doubt about it – the European hornet (Vespa crabro) is an imposing, awe-inspiring creature, a giant of the apian world.
I spotted this one resting on a bramble bush during a woodland walk on Saturday and, as I rarely see them stationary, couldn’t resist getting some close-up photos. But not too close: these shots were taken using my 300mm zoom lens, so I was about two metres away. And I admit that, when the hornet became aware of me and turned to check me out, I did back off a little further. They rarely sting – only when stressed or threatened; it’s their sheer size (between 25-35mm) that I find a little intimidating.
But this beautiful creature obviously didn’t see me as a threat and proceeded to clean its wings and eyes while I looked on in awe. A special encounter!
24 Thursday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
British moths, moth larvae, moth webs, Spindle ermine, Spindle ermine webs, Yponomeuta cagnagella
It could be Halloween, with reports of ‘ghostly silken webbing’ that ‘can look rather sinister’ and give trees ‘an eerie appearance’. As well as covering parts of trees and hedgerows, apparently the webs are sometimes ‘so extensive that they can cover nearby objects such as benches, bicycles and gravestones’.
But this is June and in my local woodland, the one I showed you in yesterday’s post, the webs, though plentiful, are nowhere near that dramatic. These are the communal dwellings of moth larvae and, though there are several species of ermine moths, as the caterpillar-filled webs I’ve been seeing have all been on Spindle, I think I’m safe in assuming these are the larvae of Spindle ermine (Yponomeuta cagnagella).
Although these are the first webs I’ve seen, the Butterfly Conservation website reports that Spindle ermine is a common resident, though it is less common in northern parts of Britain. Look for Spindle trees and you might well see these webs for yourself.
21 Monday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, Brimstone caterpillars, Brimstone larvae, British butterflies, butterfly reproduction
We’ve watched Brimstone courtship (Butterfly courtship, 24 May 2021) and we’ve seen Brimstone eggs (4 May 2021), now let’s have a look at what hatched out of those eggs, the Brimstone babies … well, we might want to call them caterpillars or, more scientifically correct, larvae, but I couldn’t resist the alliteration of that title.
According to Peter Eeles’s Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, the Brimstone butterfly progresses through five stages, called instars, taking around 25 days from the day it hatches from its egg to the time it moults into its final instar. Six days after that, it pupates. By returning to Buckthorn trees where I’ve previously seen eggs, I’ve managed to find most of these stages, including, on Saturday, a final instar.
Eeles writes that, as early instars, the larvae tend ‘to rest alongside a rib on the leaf underside’ (shown in my first two photos) but from the third instar, ‘the larva now rests on the leaf upperside’ (above). In its final instar the larva has a typical resting pose, where it almost hangs off the leaf (below left), and it ‘exudes an amber liquid from the tips of the fine hairs that cover its body … This liquid may be distasteful to birds and therefore act as a deterrent’. The tiny orange globules can be seen in the photo below right. Now to find a pupa …
19 Saturday Jun 2021
Posted in insects, wildflowers
Tags
British moths, British wildflowers, Dyer’s greenweed, Mirificarma lentiginosella, Mirificarma lentiginosella larvae, moth larvae on Dyer's greenweed
A couple of years ago, I discovered through chats to local Butterfly Conservation Senior moth ecologist George that three rare moths use Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria) as their larval food plant. (There’s a Butterfly Conservation factsheet about these here.)
The larvae create little homes for themselves by spinning together the leaves at the tips of Dyer’s greenweed shoots, and, yesterday, after much careful searching, I finally found a ‘spinning’ that was occupied.
George has now confirmed for me that this little beauty is the larva of the nationally scarce moth Mirificarma lentiginosella. And he writes: ‘You now join the select club of people who have seen this species in Wales: you, me, and C.G. Barrett who recorded it in Pembrokeshire in the 1800s’. As you can imagine, I am extremely pleased to have joined this select club!
17 Thursday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
I’ve seen three Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies on my local walks so far this summer, two that looked as they usually do …
And one particularly darkly coloured creature. I don’t know what would have caused this variation, though there is some scientific evidence that very cold temperatures when a butterfly is pupating can lead to darker than usual wing colouring.
earthstar 
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