Damsels

Damselflies are the smaller-size version of Dragonflies, with the abdomen being about the same size as a matchstick. The male of the Large Red Damselfly is bright red, with the female being predominantly green, but with varying amounts of black.


Note that the rear of the female's abdomen has been bent during the hatching process. This is a problem I've seen a few times and it will probably prevent her from mating successfully unless she is able to adapt to her 'peculiarity'.



The Common Blue Damselfly is usually more flighty than the Large Red, but this one appears to have hatched only recently. Damselflies hatch out a uniform pink colour (they are described as 'teneral' in this condition) which can be seen on various parts of this specimen. The colour soon changes from pink to the adult's normal colouring.


This close-up shows:

• The remainder of the teneral colouration, and
• The spines on the fore-legs which help to grip onto prey that is usually caught in mid-flight.

More moths

As the warm nights continue, more moths are coming to light:

First, Common Carpet - Epirrhoe alternata alternata. Food plants are the bedstraw family: probably Cleavers in my case.

Then Pebble Prominent - Notodonta ziczac. Foodplant Willow. The side-view colouration is a wonderful camouflage if seen against wood and leaves, looking rather like a cut-off branch.

Also to light, the Dark Barred Twin Spot Carpet - Xanthorhoe ferrugata.


And this pale specimen that wouldn't open its wings when landed. This specimen has mystified the good and the great: work ongoing.

Last, but certainly not least, the Small Magpie - Eurrhypara hortulata. This is one of the so-called Micromoths, but is larger than many 'macromoths'. The separation into micro and macro is an accident of history, with all species in a certain book defining the 'macromoth' list and all others being micromoths, but some larger species were simply omitted from the first book.


All species on this page are new to me.

Mimicry and more

Here's a close-up of the Bumblebee Bombus cryptarum:


Bombus lucorum was recently split into 3 species: Bombus lucorum, Bombus cryptarum and Bombus magnus. Bombus cryptarum was added to the Irish list in 2006, and consistent sampling has shown that my local population contains this species. I recently posted about the Cuckoo Bumblebee Bombus bohemicus, which was known to be parasitic on B. lucorum sensu lato, but I don't know if it also parasitises B. cryptarum or if I also have B. lucorum s-s, which I rather suspect. Work to be done, here.

The best diagnostic feature of B. cryptarum is the black notch in the forward yellow band, just in front of the wing joint:

Just as the parasite B. bohemicus is a lucorum lookalike, we also have the hoverfly Eristalis intricarius:



Note the distinctive Eristalis loop in the wing vein.

There are two main reasons for the mimicry. In the case of parasitic species like the Cuckoo Bumblebee, it may need to be able to get into the nest undetected, so it looks rather like the host. In the case of the hoverfly, it can either be to get into the nest undetected, or to fool predators into thinking that it is a Bumblebee, and can sting. Eristalis intricarius larvae live in the bottom of ditches, so they are applying the mimicry to avoid being eaten by birds.

Eristalis intricarius is known to be widespread, but in low numbers, and of the 50 or so specimens I have found over the past four years, they can all be pinned down to two separate patches of ditch, each no more than 10 metres long. So there is something that controls their distribution very tightly. To make things even more confusing, the two ditches (roughly 1.5 km apart) could hardly be less similar:

One runs North-South, the other East-West. One is at the edge of cattle pasture; the other, the fringe of a bog. One is fringed by Meadowsweet, the other Soft Rush. Just about the only thing in common is some Hawthorn and some Gorse and Bramble. Interesting......

Moths to light

On warmer nights, we tend to find more moths (and flies, etc.) attracted to light. These two species are both new to me.

Firstly, Least Black Arches - Nola confusalis - a tiny moth no more than 1cm. long:


And Yellow-barred Brindle - Acasis viretata. The fresh green colour fades very quickly to yellow.


These species are both associated with broadleaf trees and hedgerows.

Sun!

The hottest place in Ireland, today, and it showed: hoverflies and bees of all kinds were on every flowerhead.

This is another of the mining bees from my garden: the beautiful Andrena cineraria.


That shot required knowledge of the behaviour of the bee: they land and very quickly bury their heads in the florets, so all you get is an abdomen shot. But they tend to do a slow 360 degree turn before they fly off. So if you watch where they land and wait for them to complete their rotation you can get the shot as they prepare to take off.

A few butterflies are now making an appearance. So far I've seen Green-veined White, Peacock, Orange Tip and Large White. This Small Tortoiseshell is clearly showing signs of age..they overwinter as adults and have been flying around for a couple of months, now:

The hoverfly Rhingia campestris rears its young on cow dung, but it has lately been seen in urban areas, so perhaps it has migrated to domestic dung.


One of our smallest hoverflies, Syritta pipiens. The inflated thighs appear to be mimicking a minute bee which is now extinct.



And this one's for Aynia....7-spot Ladybird.

Mining Bees

Mining bees are a subset of 'Solitary bees'. Solitary bees don't form communal hives or nests, rather they make their own nest - in this case a small tunnel in an earth bank - and lay their own eggs which they look after on their own. 'Solitary' is sometimes a misnomer, perhaps, since they often form communities of individual hives clustered together in close proximity.

This is Osmia rufa on a Dandelion:



And this is the same species near its nest:


Again, notice the absence of pollen baskets: solitary bees often gather pollen by squeezing it together under the abdomen and/or thorax.

I have a south-facing bank in my garden and there are many Osmia rufa and Andrena cineraria mines all in close proximity. These bees use landmarks such as stones and sticks to find their nests and it's interesting to see how lost they become when you're sitting watching their tunnels: a human makes a serious alteration to the visual geometry of the place.

Cuckoo Bumblebee

Last year I found a few specimens of Bombus bohemicus, which is parasitic on Bombus lucorum. Today I noticed the head of a bumblebee poking out from some grass:


After a few minutes' observation it was clear that I had another Bombus bohemicus in front of me, so they clearly managed to find a lucorum nest last year.


The main identification feature is the yellow tail band which almost mirrors the curved golden band on the thorax. Another give-away is the total lack of pollen baskets on the legs.

These cuckoo bumblebees find a nest where the host queen has already laid eggs and then a fight to the death ensues. The cuckoo females then lay their eggs in the host nest. The host workers hatch out and then proceed to feed the young of the cuckoo bees for the duration of the season.

I find this total destruction of the host to be a rather dramatic form of parasitisation, since the parasitised nest will not produce any hosts for the following year. Strictly, these cuckoo bees are kleptoparasites, since they don't live off the body of the host: they 'merely' steal the pollen that would have been used to feed the host larvae.

Status of Bombus bohemicus in Ireland: threatened.