The season progresses

It's very interesting that at the very time when I'm photographing queen bumblebees, the EU has been trying to decide whether or not to ban or curb the use of neonicotinoid based insecticides. The most recent vote was indecisive, with UK voting against a ban and Ireland abstaining. But despite those disappointing votes, a two year ban has been implemented. I'd say the trial ban with a review in a couple of years certainly won't further damage the chances of our bees (and hoverflies!) surviving. It will, however, damage the profits of large, wealthy (and hence influential) producers, so I can guess where the pressure is coming from. Sooner or later we will all wake up and realise that we haven't got any food because the pollinators are all dead. 

The fourth of my queen bumblebees of the year is Bombus pascuorum:

Queen Bombus pascuorum - Common Carder Bumblebee

These are among the later of our local bumblebees to emerge, after B. lucorum s.l., B. terrestris and B. pratorum. I rarely see the queens of B. pascuorum, whilst it is relatively common to see the other queens hunting along hedgerows looking for a nesting spot. This is probably due to the fact that B. pascuorum is a surface-nesting species and the queen can therefore choose her nesting-spot relatively quickly.

The s.l. (sensu lato) after Bombus lucorum indicates that this is actually a complex of at least 3 species: B. lucorum, B. magnus and B. cryptarum. These three species are extremely difficult to separate when looking at anything other than queens. It seems that B. cryptarum is an upland, western species, B. magnus appears to prefer heathland and B. lucorum s.s. (sensu stricto) is a lowland species.


The reference is:

Niche differentiation of a cryptic bumblebee complex in the Western Isles of Scotland
JOE WATERS, BEN DARVILL, GILLIAN C. LYE and DAVE GOULSON School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK

I managed to get a shot of a queen 'lucorum' this morning:

Bombus cryptarum queen nectaring (empty pollen baskets)

My local specimens of the lucorum complex all seem to be B. cryptarum, since they always show the distinctive thin line through the collar as indicated in this close-up:

Bombus cryptarum queen, showing the thin line through the yellow collar

That's how I'm recording them for the moment, anyway.

The 1k challenge is making me look much more closely at almost every specimen I see, and today I thought I  had found a new snail:

Cepaea nemoralis - Dark-lipped Banded Snail

So I keyed it out (height = width, > 8mm., no umbilicus, dark lip round aperture) and it turns out to be a common colour variant of the Dark-lipped Banded Snail - Cepaea nemoralis, which I've had before.

I took a few other shots, including this face shot, which shows the stalked eyes rather well:

Cepaea nemoralis, showing eyes

Preferred habitat is moist vegetation in cooler areas.

Going back to my initial moan about pesticides, I'm pretty sure that politicians are the wrong people to handle environmental issues: they are driven by short-term votes rather than thinking about longer-term issues. Is there some body or mechanism that can act outside government? If not, I fear that our wildlife is doomed to be a perpetually low priority.

Serendipity

My photography sessions are dominated mostly by the weather, and even when the weather is half-reasonable I can still struggle to get half a dozen decent shots. Sometimes, however, everything clicks and I manage to get a good range of illustrative images.

Scaeva pyrastri is a hoverfly that can be readily identified by the abdominal markings: they are paler than most species and the inner part of the curve is further forward than the outer part. In this shot, you can also see the hairy eyes, which separate it from other similar species.

Scaeva pyrastri hoverfly

Scaeva pyrastri is thought to be immigrant from mainland Europe, and I know that there has been a mass migration of moths to Ireland in the past couple of days, so this hoverfly has almost certainly flown from France to breed here. (The brown hoverfly at top left is Eristalis pertinax).

Eristalis intricarius is one of our best bumblebee-mimicking hoverflies:

The bumblebee mimicking hoverfly Eristalis intricarius

That yellow/orange 'band' is very convincing in life, but when you see it close-up, it's clearly just a scutellum with longer than usual hairs.

And just as I was standing up from taking that shot, I saw the very bumblebee that it is mimicking:

Bombus lucorum (agg) (right) and Bombus pascuorum (left, both workers)

That's a nice shot of two of my 6 local bumblebee species.

Helophilus pendulus is perhaps the most common single species of hoverfly on the patch at the moment. I know that there are a few related (but rarer) species that might be around, so I examine each specimen very carefully just in case. Today I got that 'eureka' moment as I found this male Helophilus hybridus:

Helophilus hybridus (male)

Helophilus hybridus larvae are associated with black mud where Bulrush is present, and the adults don't disperse very far. There is a stand of Bulrush about 300m. from where this shot was taken.

Here's an archive shot of Helophilus pendulus for comparison:

Helophilus pendulus (archive)

Notice that the yellow abdominal markings are quite different, and the rear legs are yellow only at the 'knee' in hybridus, but the yellow is extensive on pendulus.

The larvae of some fly and micromoth species feed on the seeds of composite flowers such as Knapweed. The seeds are an excellent food source, and the larvae can feed inside the undeveloped seedheads in relative safety.

Notice the word 'relative'; some parasitic wasps are aware that there are larvae inside the flowerhead, and at the appropriate time (now) we can see the Ichneumonids searching the unopened flowerheads. When a larva is detected, the ovipositor is deployed and we see the drilling operation that takes place:

Ichneumonid ovipositing in larvae inside the Knapweed flowerhead

The eggs are deposited inside the body of the hidden larva and will remain there until the larva has reached full size. At this time (or soon after the larva has pupated) the ichneumonid egg hatches out and the ichneumonid larva eats the host before pupating inside the husk. This egg-laying process can be seen in perhaps three days per year.

Here's an unusual shot of the process from the rear:

Ichneumonid ovipositing

A few days ago, I showed a picture of a very atypical Square-spot Rustic. Here's one that looks as if it has read the book and followed the rules:

Square-spot Rustic

Here's a link to the original post, for comparison.

High heath

It was surprisingly warm in the hours preceding the predicted storm, so quite a few insects had taken the opportunity to fill up on nectar.


This tiny solitary bee was nectaring alongside an even smaller Empid fly on Common Catsear:

Solitary bee and Empid on Common Catsear

Notice the very thin and upturned ovipositor on this tiny Ichneumonid on Marsh Ragwort:

Ichneumonid on Marsh Ragwort

Quite a few insects are reaching the end of their season and will either die soon or hibernate. This is the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus which has been quite scarce here this year:

Helophilus pendulus on Devilsbit Scabious

And there are still a few Common Carder Bumblebees around:

Bombus pascuorum on Devilsbit Scabious

I've seen a few Small Tortoiseshell butterflies flying around the garden this week. This one nectared on Knapweed for a while and then posed perfectly for its portrait:

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Small Tortoiseshells hibernate in sheltered places and then wake in March or April to start off next year's generation.

This is a first for me:

The Stonefly Leuctra fusca

It's Leuctra fusca, a member of the Stonefly family and is known as a Needle Fly for fairly obvious reasons. The nymphs are fully aquatic, but I found this adult hiding on the underside of a Willow leaf which I was examining for the orange fungal rust. The nearest running water is a stream about 50 m. away.

I always check the front lights for moths at night, and I spotted this Lesser Crane Fly. Those legs look almost ridiculously long.

Lesser Cranefly attracted to light

The proposed fungal foray to Ards in about 2 hours' time hasn't quite been called off yet. But it's going to be close.....

New Science

Salmonberry - Rubus spectabilis - is a highly invasive member of the Bramble family - originating in western North America - that was originally brought into Northern Ireland as cover for game birds. I saw my first specimens about 5 years ago in a couple of places, but now it's appearing almost anywhere I look in higher locations. The flower is a bright purple, and the berry is a salmon-pink colour (and is incredibly bitter, as I found out to my cost).

I examined a few plants recently and found a couple of leaf-miners:

'Agromyza ideana' on Salmonberry

'Stigmella aurella' on Salmonberry

The first specimen looks very much like Agromyza ideana, which is usually found on Raspberry, and the second looks like Stigmella aurella, which is found on Bramble. The current literature for miners in Ireland and Britain doesn't contain any records of these miners on Salmonberry, so these relationships are both new to science. (The European literature also has no entries for Stigmella aurella on Salmonberry, so that would likely be new to European science). Both mines are well-developed, indicating that these species will be successful in this new host. I'll have to write this up for the appropriate journals once the identifications have been confirmed by the appropriate experts.

Staying with mines, I checked a stand of Bracken where I had previously found my only specimen of the leafmining fly Chirosia histricina and I found it once again:

Chirosia histricina on Bracken

Underside of Chirosia histricina

Given the amount of Bracken that doesn't have this miner, it seems to have very specific microclimate requirements. The literature says 'shady places', and this is under Ash on a north-facing bank, which would certainly qualify as a shady location.

I was actually on a fungus hunt, but I didn't find much of interest in that respect. I did, however, spot a few specimens of the excellent bumblebee-mimicking hoverfly Arctophila superbiens:

Bumblebee-mimicking hoverfly Arctophila superbiens

I had only ever seen this species once before, in a location some 40 km away, so I was delighted to find it on my local patch. Identification is mainly from the very dark wing shade, the all-black legs and the orange hair on the thorax, whilst the abdominal hair is grey.

I coincidentally spotted the bumblebee which the hoverfly is mimicking - Bombus pascuorum - which is still around, but in decreasing numbers as autumn creeps in:

Bombus pascuorum on Devilsbit Scabious

The mimicry is very well-developed here, right down to the grey patches at the base of the wings.

I also liked this shot of the female Cranefly, showing those incredibly long legs:

Female Cranefly

Eyebright is showing all along the centre of paths now:

Eyebright

Eyebright is broken down into a number of species/subspecies. I'm sticking with Eyebright.

A couple of moths came to light on the one night we've had without rain:

Lesser Yellow Underwing

I caught this one at just the right angle to reflect the flash in its eye:

Flounced Rustic

Gap in the rain

Normal service has been resumed after wonderful weather in March, and I have been sitting (no, standing!) glowering at the rain for the last few days. I spotted a short burst of sun, so I rushed off to the most likely spot for a few moments.

The patches of Celandines are all fully open in the middle of the day, so the insects were making the use of the gap in the weather, too. The following shots of hoverflies illustrate some of the difficulties we have in making accurate identifications.

This is a male (eyes meet in the middle) Melanostoma species:

Male Melanostoma mellinum on Celandine

The (relatively) short abdomen leads me to Melanostoma mellinum, because the alternative, which is Melanostoma scalare, has a much longer abdomen in the male.

Notice the very slender front feet.

Next we have a male Platychierus sp. (notice that the front feet are much wider and longer than those of the Melanostoma). The legs also appear to be more robust than those of the Melanostoma.

Male Platychierus sp.

If I was a gambler, I'd say Platychierus albimanus, but I'd like a look at the abdominal stripes before committing.

The next is quite a different beast altogether. It's a female (eyes don't meet in the middle) Cheilosia sp. Cheilosias are darker, chunkier and larger than the two previous families, and although it's difficult to detect from this shot, the wings have a bronze tint to them. Other shots leave me quite convinced that it's Cheilosia albitarsis, and the size is ok for that, too. 

Female Cheilosia sp.

This male Eristalis pertinax was basking on a Buttercup leaf:

Male Eristalis pertinax

Given the absolutely pristine condition (clean feet, shiny wings, clean hair, no pollen), and the fact that the wings look a very little on the small side, I'd say this had just emerged and the wings still have to finish inflating.

And this is also an emerging specimen: the first Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - of the year. This has to be a queen, although these are much smaller than the queens of the darker bumblebees that we have around here.

Emerging Bombus pascuorum queen

This 7-spot Ladybird was running around leaves and flowerheads looking for aphids. Given the speed of the chase, this was a very difficult shot. No time for basking in this case:

7-spot Ladybird

It's really full speed ahead on all fronts at the moment. This Common Dog Violet - Viola canina - is also just opening: the petals still have to rotate to their final positions.

Viola canina

I've included a side shot to show the pale, notched, spur that identifies this species:

Hartstongue fern is usually the first to unravel. I have 15 or 16 different species of ferns on this stretch, so we should be able to follow the sequence of these as they open up:

Not bad for about 10 -15 minutes.

One of those days

Some days are just simply better than others.

Helophilus pendulus (to the lower left, below) is a very common hoverfly that has similar but scarcer relatives, so I always examine each specimen in the hope that it might be one of the scarcer ones.

Today I noticed that one of the many specimens was slightly different , especially in the amount of yellow on the abdomen. I managed one poor shot before it zoomed off to another area:
The photograph is just enough to identify it as Helophilus hybridus, which requires black, boggy soil for its larvae. The habitat matches precisely, so that's one new species for today.

There is a stand of young Alder trees just opposite where we usually park the car, and this unusual mine caught my eye:
The mine is unusual in that the larva starts off at the midrib, makes one anticlockwise circuit between two veins and ends up back at the midrib. Then it appears to disappear. In fact, the larva is now tunnelling along the inside of the midrib and will appear a few veins closer to the petiole and will then cut an oval piece of leaf which it takes to the ground and will then roll up and pupate inside it. This extremely sophisticated beast is the micromoth Heliozela resplendella, and is new species #2 for today.

New species #3 is the moth The Magpie. Notice the 'The'. For some unknown reason, about 60 of our moths have 'The' as the first part of their name. I suppose it happened as part of the original naming process and someone's list was kept differently and the names got stuck. Nice beast, anyway:

And the fourth and final new species for today is the Centre-barred Sallow, which is one of the few insects that is dependant on the Ash tree:

I would have been happy to call a halt on the page at this point, but I got a couple of other shots that are worth showing.

This Eristalis nemorum hoverfly insisted on trying to mate with a worker Bombus pascuorum bumblebee:
It made numerous slow approaches from above, each time forcing the bumblebee to move to another flowerhead. Eventually the bee gave up and flew away over the hedge, after which the hoverfly tried to approach a number of other bees and hoverflies.

Alder is host to a large number of insects and fungi, which is testament to its nutritional qualities as well as its obvious lack of protective toxins.

Taphrina alni is a rather scarce fungus which attacks the fruiting cones and forces them to produce these large, red tongue-like growths:
These growths (strictly-speaking, galls) are part Alder and part Taphrina, much in the manner of lichens, and their only purpose is to produce fungal spores.

The closer you look, the more complex it gets.

Four new species in one day.

Full swing

We've had a few days of sun now, and it's already getting difficult to keep up with the number of species I'm seeing.

Some water-walking insects are revealed by the shadows they project onto the base of the ditch. These 4-leaf-clover-type shadows are made by the water cricket Velia caprai. The insects themselves are present, but are hard to see as they scoot across the surface of the water.

A bit of refocussing (well, a lot really) and the insects themselves are revealed:

This Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - was nectaring on the Celandine. I'm presuming she's also a queen, although they're a lot smaller than the other local bumblebee queens.

An excellent juxtaposition of two beautiful beetles: 7-spot ladybird and the leaf beetle Chrysolina staphylea:

Plenty more moths are coming to light, although this one didn't quite meet the friend it expected:

This is the Early Grey - Xylocampa areola:

And two colour forms of yet another willow feeder, the Common Quaker - Orthosia cerasi: