Vapourer cocoon and eggs

02 Thursday Jan 2025

Tags

British moths, moth eggs, moth pupa, Orgyia antiqua, Vapourer, Vapourer cocoon, Vapourer eggs

Here’s another find from December, this one attached to the local park railings. It’s the empty cocoon of a Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua), covered in the moth’s eggs. (I’ve blogged about finding one of these cocoons before, though that one was very fresh – see A Vapourer cocoon, 13 October 2023, which also included an image of the caterpillar.) Female Vapourers can’t fly (the UK Moths website has a photo of the female, which, at first sight, doesn’t look like a moth at all) – their sole purpose is to attract a mate and lay eggs. Presumably, this female scarcely moved from her cocoon, immediately emitting male-attracting pheromones as soon as she emerged. A male found and mated with her, and her empty cocoon became a very close and convenient place to lay her eggs.

250102 vapourer

E is for eggs

10 Tuesday Dec 2024

Posted by sconzani in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

barkfly eggs, eggs, insect eggs, ladybird eggs, moth eggs

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? An age-old question that I’ll leave you to discuss amongst yourselves. Eggs have featured in several blogs this year: a Coot and her eggs back in May (Coot eggs, 31 May); the spawn of Toads and frogs, 22 February; a lovely moth laying her eggs on grass stems (Pale tussock moth, 7 June); and, another insect, in Shieldbug eggs and hatchlings, 26 July.

241210 e is for EGGS barkfly and ladybird

There have, of course, been lots of other eggs I’ve seen that I haven’t written about, at least not this year. Those shown above are the eggs of a barkfly species, encased in a lovely silken cover, and a little clutch of ladybird eggs. And, below, are the empty egg cases of a Buff-tip moth and the tiny caterpillars that had recently emerged from them.

241210 e is for EGGS buff-tip moth

On narrow-leaved willows

26 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, leaves, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aculus tetanothrix, Euura proxima, hoverfly larva, insects on narrow-leaved willow, ladybird pupa, leafmines on narrow-leaved willow, mite galls, moth eggs, Phyllonorycter viminiella, rust on willow, sawfly galls

In early October I, and others, began a new leafmine search, for mines on narrow-leaved willows (see Leafmines: Phyllocnistis saligna, 3 October). In the months since, I’ve only found these mines in two locations, partly due to a lack of the host plants and partly, probably, because the moths have yet to spread very far (which may be because of a lack of host plants). I’ll continue the search next autumn but, in the course of my search – and this is one of the brilliant things about staring at leaves – I’ve found many other life forms that were making these leaves their home.

221226 on willow (1)

I found two types of galls: the first, above top, have been made by a species of mite, Aculus tetanothrix, and those immediately above are home to the larvae of the sawfly species, Euura proxima.

221226 on willow (2)

On the underside of one leaf I found this array of what I think are moth eggs and, on the right, is the pupa of a ladybird, and, below those, is a hoverfly larva.

221226 on willow (3)

There was also a different species of leafminer, the tiny moth Phyllonorycter viminiella, and I found a rust, which might be Melampsora caprearum.