Sunny August

In this shot I tried to show the extensive Fuchsia hedging that paints much of western Ireland red at the moment, but the very bright sunshine made a decent shot very tricky.

Fuchsia hedging at Mongorrey

Note the very straight road stretching all the way westwards to the horizon. I had always thought that these long straight roads must be Roman roads, but the Romans never got this far, and the roads are known as 'Famine roads'.

The white umbellifer plants at the front of the shot are Angelica.

Many of the wasps that can be seen slowly crawling over umbellifers at the moment are males:

Male Vespula rufa

Vespula rufa can be identified by a combination of features including the red areas on the abdomen, facial markings and stripes on the thorax.

This Chloromyia formosa soldier fly was happily nectaring on the Angelica......

Chloromyia formosa soldier fly

until a Tenthredo sp. sawfly decided it would make a good meal and jumped on it:

Chloromyia formosa escaping from a Tenthredo sp. sawfly

Even at 1/120th of a second, the fly is just a blur.

It's not only the flowers of Angelica that attract insects: leaf-miners are also present. Phytomyza angelicastri is one of two species that I find locally:

Phytomyza angelicastri on Angelica

The Hawthorn parasite Taphrina crataegi clearly has some special habitat requirements. This is the only tree that I have found to be infected on my patch:

Taphrina crataegi on Hawthorn

I have also found it in one location in Northern Ireland, and in each case the tree overhangs lying water, but I know of many Hawthorns in similar situations that are unaffected, so it must be something more subtle.

As I was searching along a verge, a shadow passed over me and I looked up expecting to see a bird, but it turned out to be a huge Common Hawker dragonfly which was hunting along the same verge. I followed it for a while and it eventually rested on a Willow, so I managed to squeeze in a few distant shots:

Common Hawker dragonfly

And nearby I saw a Common Darter landing on a grass stem. She tolerated me for quite a while before flying off:

Common Darter dragonfly (female)

Slender St. John's Wort is my favourite flower, so I made an artistic crop of this pair:

Slender St. John's Wort

School Trips

This is the time of year when I take school groups out on walks to show them the delights of our countryside. I'm normally too busy doing identifications to get decent photographs, but I do manage to squeeze in a few.


This is the major season for hoverflies: hedgerows, verges, gardens and woodland are all buzzing with them as they carry out their vital pollination.

This is Cheilosia illustrata, which I only ever find - in small numbers - on Umbellifers (Hogweed in this instance) at the edge of woodland:

The hoverfly Cheilosia illustrata

The larvae of Cheilosia illustrata mine the lower stems of Hogweed.

The Syrphus family hoverflies are all very similar and can usually only be separated by examining microscopic characters.  This is Syrphus torvus, which can be identified by the hairy eyes:

The hoverfly Syrphus torvus (male)

The larvae of Syrphus torvus are aphid eaters.

New to me.

One of the great things about the internet is the way in which it connects people. As a result of online communications, I know that there has been a recent inwards migration of numerous butterflies, moths and other insects; Eupeodes corollae is one of them:

The hoverfly Eupeodes corollae

The larvae of Eupeodes corollae are also aphid eaters.


Soldier Flies are often mistaken for hoverflies, but the wing veins are distinctly different. There are a few metallic hoverflies, so the confusion is understandable.

Soldier Fly - Chloromyia formosa

This is a suitable place to show an Ectemnius wasp. Ectemnius wasps make solitary burrows for their larvae, which they feed exclusively on hoverflies. They have evolved to resemble hoverflies, presumably so that they can sneak up on them without causing them to fly off.

Ectemnius sp. wasp

Sometimes an opportunity arises to take a photograph which definitely fits more into the 'artistic' category: 

This Ichneumonid was closely examining the flowers of Bush Vetch in the hope of finding some larvae to parasitise. I saw this backlit shot as it was moving from flower to flower:

Ichneumonid on Bush Vetch

And now my new favourite photograph:

Ichneumonid parasitising moth larva in Cocksfoot grass

The female Ichneumonid has detected a moth larva inside the seedhead of Cocksfoot grass, and has swung her ovipositor round to inject an egg into the caterpillar. The egg will stay dormant inside the caterpillar until it pupates, at which time the egg will hatch and consume the contents of the cocoon. It takes a great deal of patience to get a shot like that. Each shot requires perhaps 30 minutes of watching the wasp moving from seedhead to seedhead and waiting for the moment of injection. These are my favourite photographs.

This has been a tricky year for Damselflies and Dragonflies: I have seen very few. A trip to a local pond solved that for me. This is The Blue-tailed Damselfly:

Blue-tailed Damselfly

And this is the Variable Damselfly - Coenagrion pulchellum, which is new to me:

Variable Damselfly

A tall, elegant grass has been bothering me for a couple of years, so I decided to identify it this year. It's Tufted Hair Grass - Deschampsia cespitosa - which forms tufts and has stems that reach up to my shoulders. I usually find it where I would normally see Damselflies, so they must need similar conditions.

Tufted Hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa

New to me.

After the deluge

A few days of fairly heavy rain and high winds kept most insects under cover, but a few dry hours brought them out in higher numbers than before.

It's well-known that many moths are attracted to light, but Caddis Flies, Beetles, Lacewings and Spiders also come to light traps and outdoor lights. This is one of the Brown Lacewings, which I have identified as Hemerobius sp., but I can't get it any closer without the relevant literature:

Soldier Flies are often mistaken for Hoverflies due to the large eyes and metallic colouring, but a glance at the wing veins confirms the difference. This is the Soldier Fly Chloromyia formosa, about 10mm long, and the larvae live in decomposing vegetable material:

There was a recent fuss in Ireland when a provincial newspaper published photographs of the webs of Ermine micromoths along with a column from their gardening correspondent on how to kill them. I saw red. The knee-jerk reaction that says "If anything does something that I don't like, I'm going to kill it" has to stop. Sooner or later, people are going to realise that we have to learn to coexist with our wildlife or we'll lose it forever. A mini-campaign ensured that dozens of emails from moth experts and wildlife specialists were sent to the paper. They published one of the letters, but declined to alter their position. I suggested that they might like to employ a wildlife correspondent alongside their gardening one, but I got no response (I did, admittedly, say other things in the email, too).

Anyway (steps down from soapbox), this micromoth is the wonderful Orchard Ermine - Yponomeuta padella - which makes webs on Hawthorn and Apple. The taxonomic structure of Yponomeuta is fluid, with a number of very similar species and with much work still to be done. Some of them can, however, be separated by the availability of foodplant and partially by appearance:

The nettle-feeding Mother of Pearl micromoth is larger than many macromoths at 30 mm. wingspan. I usually see it at dusk, but it occasionally comes to light:

Another new moth for me: Small Fan-footed Wave - Idaea biselata:

I spotted this red-banded ichneumonid on Bramble. The antennae are very long, and I could see no sign of an ovipositor, so I'm guessing it's a male:
A face-on shot of a Calliphorid:
I found this pair of Empid Dance Flies on Male Fern. These are more usually seen 'dancing' in clouds of what appear to be midges, but they are much larger: