We have lift-off

This is the second day of sunshine and everything has leapt into action.

Along the sheltered ditch I found:

Lesser Celandine:

Lesser Celandine

Coltsfoot:

Coltsfoot

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage covers the rear wall of ditches and wet banks around here. Here's a habit shot from the back wall of the stream:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage on the ditch wall

I also checked the Greater Stitchwort plants just a little further along, but they're still pretending to be blades of grass:

Leaves of Greater Stitchwort

I also hunted for 7-spot ladybirds along the sunnier side of the track and found this single specimen just before the end:

7-spot Ladybird

Back home and I spotted this female Eristalis tenax hoverfly on Dandelion:

Female Eristalis tenax nectaring after emerging from hibernation

Females of Eristalis tenax are the only members of the family to hibernate. Other Eristalis species overwinter as pupae and won't emerge for a few weeks yet. So although the puparium will offer some protection from the cold, the female E. tenax has survived the exposure and now has a head start on getting her eggs laid.

Season under way

When I woke up this morning and saw the clear blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon, I knew that today was the day for the season to start. I waited until mid-day before I ventured forth, since insects need time to emerge, inflate and dry their wings and have a few test flights before they start nectaring, not to mention a decent temperature to support flight.


The first specimen I saw was a female Eristalis tenax, which was entirely expected (see my earlier post here). She was on a Dandelion, which flowers for 12 months around here:

Female Eristalis tenax on Dandelion

I chose that shot because it shows the very wide dark facial stripe.

I went to a sunny bank where the Celandines are in full bloom and quickly found a male Platycheirus albimanus, also on Dandelion:  

Male Platycheirus albimanus on Dandelion

I noticed that this close-up shot shows one of the conclusive identification features: a clump of thick, dark bristles under the front leg, near the top:

Male Platycheirus albimanus, showing dark tuft of hairs

Although this isn't the earliest I have seen this species (last year I saw it on March 27th), it is a good indicator that we're catching up at last.

Fungal rusts are usually specific to one family of plants, although some are unique to species. This is Puccinia umbilici on Navelwort - Umbilicus rupestris:

The fungal rust Puccinia umbilici on Navelwort

Notice how fresh the Navelwort leaf is: rusts don't waste any time.

I suppose I should clarify my 'specific to one family of plants' statement. Fungal rusts very often have two hosts which are completely unrelated. This odd situation arises because fungi need somewhere to exist when the primary host loses its annual growth (perennial) or dies altogether (annual). So they tend to live on one host in the summer months before transferring to their overwintering host. The most extreme example I know of locally is Puccinia sessilis which spends the summer on members of the Allium family (in my case on Ramsons), but overwinters on Canary Reed-grass, which I don't have locally. The airborne spores must therefore travel many miles to ensure their overwintering survival. The detail is even more complex, since the fungi have different parts of their reproductive cycles on differing hosts. Sometimes I begin to wonder if these travelling rusts are actually an amalgam of two species. The more I study wildlife, the more complex it becomes.

Finally for today, a shot of the fungus Milesina scolopendrii on Hartstongue fern:

Milesina scolopendrii on Hart's-tongue Fern

This one doesn't need an alternate host, since the fern is evergreen, but as an example of perversity, complexity and downright confusion, other members of the Milesina family (which all infect different ferns) rely on Pine trees as an alternate host.

Blue skies smiling at me

We rarely have high pressure weather systems over Donegal, but the past week has been like this:

Con-trail over Mongorrey

High pressure at this time of year produces sun during the day and frost at night, so we have had a couple of nights with -4 and -5c, but the days are warm enough to bring out the first insects.

I can almost predict that the first hoverfly of the year will be a female Eristalis tenax, and sure enough, I spotted this one today on a Dandelion:

Female Eristalis tenax on Dandelion

Females of Eristalis tenax overwinter as mated adults, so they are ready to produce eggs as soon as it's warm enough. Related Eristalis species overwinter as pupae, so although the tenax females have a head start, they are at risk if the winter is very cold.

I went up to see if there was any frog spawn at the usual places, but none was visible, although I have seen a few frogs at night. I did, however, see a few midges in loose clouds:

Midge cloud

This is still a good time of year to see lichens before the green growth obscures them. I found a large specimen of Peltigera membranacea (Rabbit's-Paw Lichen):

Peltigera membranacea - 'Rabbits-paw lichen'

The underside of the thallus is covered with spiky rhizines, which are used as anchors:

Rhizines on the underside of the thallus of Peltigera membranacea

There are quite a few different species of Peltigera on the patch, but P. membranacea is easily distinguished by the pale blue thallus.

Evernia prunastri can be distinguished from other similar species by the twin-forked branching structure:

Evernia prunastri on Willow

Cladonia portentosa is most often seen apparently growing on the ground amongst mosses and heaths, but it's actually growing on buried wood. This specimen is growing on a badly-decomposed log:

Cladonia portentosa on decayed log

Night brings out the spring moths, and my first for the year is the Dotted Border:

Dotted Border moth

The Dotted Border feeds on a wide range of broad-leaf trees as a larva. I'll leave you to work out where its name comes from.

Here's the result of living in a wet climate:

Peziza domiciliana

Peziza domiciliana is a fungus which is most commonly found indoors, growing through concrete. This specimen is happily growing in the boot of my car.

New to my species list (and not previously recorded in Ireland, although I find that difficult to believe).

A sunny day

Yesterday (Saturday) was bright and sunny, bringing out many hoverflies and bumblebees from hibernation.

The first hoverfly to pose for me in 2012 was this female Eristalis tenax:

Female Eristalis tenax

There are a couple of interesting points about that shot:

• Notice the very dark abdomen, virtually all black. The orange stripes are virtually invisible, which is due to the colder temperature during winter. These females overwinter as adults, and their offspring will have the benefit of warmer summer temperatures and will mostly have the 'normal' orange stripes.

• I noticed that the 'Eristalis bulge' in the wing vein (arrowed) showed up well in the photograph. This is a very useful feature to learn when identifying hoverflies.

This shot of the face shows the wide vertical black stripe between the eyes, which is a strong indicator for E. tenax (other species of Eristalis have narrower stripes or no stripe):

Female Eristalis tenax - front view

Now that the Willow has catkins, the early moths are taking advantage of this vital food source. This is the (male) Early Thorn moth:

Male Early Thorn moth

This is one of the few moths that hold their wings vertically, rather like many butterflies do. (The heavily feathered antennae are the clue that it's a male).

Keep learning

Over the years, as experience builds up, you make a series of 'rules' which help you reach an identification. Until yesterday, one of my rules was "If you see a bee which is less than 20mm long, then it isn't one of the social bees". Applying this rule, I leaned towards one of the Andrena solitary bees for this specimen: 

But it didn't match any of the images that I could find in the usual places. When I asked for help, back came "It's a Honeybee". Blinded by assumption (and not helped by the fact that this was roughly 60% - 70% as big as I would normally see), I had excluded the obvious. Factor in the fact that Honeybees have become very rare in our area, and the mistake is easy to make.

Assume nothing.

Moving swiftly on......

This Eristalis tenax hoverfly has the very dark colouring that we expect to see in early specimens. The summer generation of many of our hoverflies is much brighter due to the higher temperatures. This female will have mated at the end of last year and has managed to successfully shelter in some nook or cranny through the -17 degrees that we endured in December:

Female Eristalis tenax

The Willow catkins opened last Thursday (17th) and insects have been busy nectaring and gathering pollen ever since. This queen Bombus lucorum bumblebee found the pollen quickly enough:

Queen Bombus lucorum

She is now gathering enough pollen to feed the first few workers from her nest, and she will spend the rest of the year laying more eggs to sustain the nest and produce drones and queens for next year's generation. A few of the new queens actually become workers for a while at the end of the season, gathering pollen alongside the last of the workers.

With the early willow pollen season being so short, no time is wasted before the willow-dependent moths appear. This is the first Common Quaker - Orthosia cerasi - of the year:

Common Quaker - Orthosia cerasi

The Common Quaker is readily identified by the large, rounded, 'kidney mark' which has a pale, thin, outline which matches the colour of the thick band near the trailing edge of the wing. 

Light is our toy

Yet another day of wonderful light, so I went out several times during the day.

The patch of Phaeolepiota aurea has continued to expand (I think it might be a ring-forming fungus), and this mature specimen had dew on the cap surface:

A vertical close-up provides a nice abstract shot:

This Fenusa dohrnii sawfly larva was clearly visible as it mined the Alder leaf:

Yet another sawfly larva on Bramble:

This Autumn Hawkbit flower is just in the process of opening from the bud:

A couple of shots of the hoverfly Eristalis tenax on Smooth Hawksbeard:

Lovely eyes.

Where to start?

At the beginning, I suppose.

(Keep your eyes peeled for hidden insects....I'll be asking questions at the end.)

Earlier on, I was over on Weaver's blog identifying a pincushion gall, and this is the first shot I took this morning:

It's a gall caused by the plant louse Livia juncorum on Juncus rushes. Galls are abnormal growths caused by insects or fungi for their own benefit: usually food and/or shelter. Other insects know about these benefits and some galls attract lodgers (inquilines) and, of course, predators and parasites. The record number of species found inside a single Oak Apple gall was over 50!

The Marigolds at our front window attract plenty of hoverflies and this sunny morning saw the wonderful Eupeodes luniger:

I also saw Leucozona glaucia on the last of the Angelica:

This all-black hoverfly made my heart flutter a bit, but after a lot of analysis (finally concluded by detailed examination of the wing veins) I determined it was just a very dark Eristalis tenax:

This more usual version was conveniently to hand so that I could show the comparison:

As some of you will know, I've been carrying out a study of sawfly larvae on willows for the past few years, and I thought I would check to see if any Nematus pavidus sawfly larvae were in evidence. Just as well I did, because this lot hatched yesterday:
So this is officially DAY 2. I'll be tracking these larvae and their parasites for the next month or so. They're a bit earlier than usual, so it will be very interesting to see if the parasites are correspondingly early.

This is the next batch ready to go:

It's amazing what catches your eye, even from a distance. This is the larva of one of the Pug moths:
These are very difficult to identify as larvae and the best way of finding out what they are is to breed them through and then identify the adults (which, unfortunately, is also difficult with Pugs!)

On the same Willow as the Nematus pavidus larvae, I found this Baetid Mayfly. I have no idea why it has emerged so late in the year:

Ok.......hands up who spotted the Frog Hopper in the centre of the Livia juncorum. (easy)

And who spotted the bright orange Tephritid fly larva at the bottom right corner (very carefully cropped) of the image of the Pug moth caterpillar? (difficult)

Still on the Angelica

The Angelica is still our major nectar source, and it should still be in flower for the next two weeks, although the central umbels have now gone to seed. I wandered along the lane examining all the Angelica, but also glancing at other plants as I passed.

This shot required observation and anticipation: the Eristalis tenax hoverfly was wandering in a fairly straight line across the Ragwort, so I focussed on the flower and took the shot as it came up over the horizon.

Meliscaeva cinctella is one of the later hoverflies to emerge. The larvae are predatory on arboreal aphids.

The Nematoceran fly Sciara hemerobioides is all over the Angelica at this time of year. The larvae are fungus eaters, and the adults live for only a few days:

This Ichneuminid intrigued me. Why? It was only 5 mm. long:
Another new moth came to my window. It's the Antler Moth. Guess where it got its name from.