A selection of Grass-veneers

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

Tags

Agriphila straminella, Agriphila tristella, British moths, Chrysoteuchia culmella, Crambus lathoniellus, Crambus pascuella, Grass moths, Grass-veneer, micro moth

If you have a tendency, as I do, to wander through grassy meadows, you may have noticed small pale-looking flying creatures that are disturbed by your passing. They flit up and disappear again so quickly – their wings gathered tightly to their sides and often perched head-down on a grass stem – that they can be very hard to spot, and you may not, as I initially didn’t, realise that they’re moths. There are 39 species of Crambinae (the Grass moth family) in Britain – so far I’ve only managed to photograph these five.

170829 Agriphila straminella Straw Grass-veneer

170829 Agriphila tristella Common grass-veneer

Agriphila straminella Straw Grass-veneer (left) and Agriphila tristella Common grass-veneer (right)

Chrysoteuchia culmella Garden Grass-veneer

Crambus lathoniellus Hook-streak Grass-veneer

Crambus pascuella Inlaid grass-veneer

I am extremely grateful to my friends from the South Wales Butterfly Conservation Group on Facebook for their help in identifying these moths.

Death in the cemetery

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cathays Cemetery, Cinnabar moth, Common blue damselfly, Common crab spider, Leptopterna species, micro moth, Xysticus cristatus, Xysticus species

The association of death with a cemetery is not exactly unexpected but, in this case, I’m documenting the death of wildlife rather than humans because, just as I see the beginnings of life happening in the cemetery (those Common red soldier beetles were just one example!), so I also see its ending.

160707 death Cinnabar & Common crab CathaysCem

Here a beautiful Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) has met its end in the fangs of a spider, probably a Common crab spider (Xysticus cristatus) but please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not good at identifying spiders. It seems the spider pounced while the moth was concentrating on laying her eggs on the undersides of these leaves.

160707 death Common Blue female CathaysCem

Common blue damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum) are quite small but this female’s lunch is even smaller and is probably a micro moth, but, as there are 1627 species of micro moths in the British Isles, I’m not even going to hazard a guess as to which one this is.

160707 death Xysticus sp & Leptopterna sp nymph CathaysCem

Once again, a lurking spider has successfully captured its next meal. I’m reliably informed this is also one of the Xysticus species of crab spiders, and its victim is a nymph of the Leptopterna species of grass bugs. The tiny flies are an intriguing mystery – they appeared to be travelling around with the spider like the pilot fish that live as ectoparasites in the company of sharks.