Benburb bioblitz

This bioblitz was based around Benburb castle, but also included the grounds of what is now known as Benburb Priory. The 17th century castle is being restored and the priory was formerly a manor house built in the 1880's.

The underlying geology is limestone and the site slopes downwards towards a river which is extensively engineered with cuts and sluices, and could almost be regarded as a canal. The riverside area has been allowed to run wild and is covered with Giant Hogweed, Bamboo, Japanese knotweed, Laurel and Himalayan Balsam. The grounds closer to the Priory are maintained as a decorative garden, but again, large areas are running wild, with a collapsed victorian greenhouse/orangery attached to outbuildings. This feature runs for some 50 metres and was clearly an important structure in its day. This is a shot of the old glasshouse:

Part of the glasshouse area with priory in the background

The south-facing glasshouse area contained a mixture of wild and cultivated plants, notably an overgrown herb garden, and attracted a huge number of hoverflies, butterflies, solitary bees and bumblebees.

Here's a shot of a Holly Blue on the approach path: 

Holly Blue butterfly

We made a quick survey to see where we should concentrate our efforts and it was clear that the riverside paths would be most productive. When I noticed that the area was limestone, we looked for Garlic Mustard, since this is a host plant for the Orange Tip butterfly and we immediately found an occupied flower:

Orange Tip egg on Garlic Mustard

We saw many Orange Tips, both male and female along the river bank. This female was nectaring on Herb Robert:

Female Orange Tip on Herb Robert

The same area yielded 14-spot Ladybird:

14 spot Ladybird

And a 10-spot ladybird with the rear spots missing. The 10-spot must be the ladybird with most variation in the spotting:

10-spot ladybird

Also from this area were the hoverfly Leucozona lucorum:

The hoverfly Leucozona lucorum landing on Bush Vetch

And I caught a glimpse of a huge pond skater down below in the cut next to the river. It's a poor shot, but there is only one pond skater this size. It's Aquarius najas, and is around 5 cm long from front foot to rear foot:

The River Skater Aquarius najas

New to my Species List.

We found a couple of leaf miners in the wooded area closer to the castle:

Phytomyza chaerophylli on Cow Parsley

And:

Phytomyza ranunculi on Celandine

Phytomyza ranunculi was also found on Creeping Buttercup.

Closer to the castle, I found a moth larva grazing on lichen on a fence post. It's Brussels Lace, Cleorodes lichenaria:

Larva of the Brussels Lace moth

That's a good example of the formal name clearly stating the nature of a species.

A final shot of Lords-and-Ladies or Cuckoo Pint, which I only ever find on lime:

Arum maculatum

Overall we submitted perhaps a hundred species on the day. This is far fewer than I would normally expect on a day's hunting, especially on a bright sunny day, but the habitat is essentially 'cultivated but abandoned', so the biodiversity could be expected to be low.

Ballyraine National School

Last week I gave a wildlife talk to pupils from Ballyraine NS in Letterkenny. After that, we went out for a walk around the school grounds to see what we could find and photograph. This page shows some of the interesting finds from that survey, and the text is intended for a school audience.

The first location we visited was the Butterfly Garden. This is packed full of flowers that attract butterflies and other insects.

Our first find was the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus. Hoverflies are important for pollinating flowers, trees and fruit.

The hoverfly Helophilus pendulus

Next we found a 2-spot Ladybird. These are much smaller than the more common 7-spot Ladybird, which we also saw.

2-spot Ladybird

Another part of the Butterfly garden contained Lupins, and these attracted workers of the White-tailed Bumblebee:

White-tailed Bumblebee

You can see the bright orange Lupin pollen in the pollen baskets on her legs. This pollen will be taken back to the nest to feed the growing grubs.

At first, I thought this was a little Sepsid Fly, but some research reveals that it's the much rarer Rivellia syngenesiae, which I haven't seen before (and there are no previous records in the National database!)

Rivellia syngenesiae

That little fly is only 3-4mm. long!

We then moved to the area of woodland at the edge of the School grounds, where we found a number of leaf-mining species. Leaf-miners live inside leaves, eating the middle layers of the leaf where they are protected from predators such as birds and other insects.

The mine of Phytomyza ranunculi on Creeping Buttercup

We also found the mine of Caloptilia syringella, which mines Lilac, Privet and Ash:

Mine of Caloptilia syringella on Lilac

Caloptilia syringella is the only leaf-miner on Ash, so it is fortunate that they also use other plants which will help them to survive if the Ash trees die in the next few years.

Most miners make their own mine, but some species make communal mines. This photograph shows two larvae of the leaf-mining fly Pegomya solennis on Dock:

Larvae of Pegomya solennis on Dock (heads to the left)

Some other species of flies also use leaves, but in a different way: Leaf galls are growths created by flies (and sometimes other insects) to make a shelter to live inside and feed on.

This is a Pontania gall on a Willow leaf:

Pontania leaf gall on a Willow leaf

And these galls are made by another species - Eriophyes sorbi - which is also new to me:

Eriophyes sorbi galls on Rowan

In the same location, we found this tiny fly:

Tiny Fly with iridescent wings

And also this Dung Fly, which was waiting to pounce on any passing insect:

Dung fly poised to leap out on any unsuspecting prey

Towards the end of the walk we found some Foxgloves:

Foxglove, a highly poisonous plant

And a single Herb Robert flower framed by the fencing:

Herb Robert

I have submitted records of all these species to the National Biodiversity Database which will help to build up a record of where our species are located.

The school website can be found here.

Under pressure

High pressure, as in sunny weather, brings out all the insects, so things have been quite busy.

The Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - is the latest of my local bumblebees to establish a nest. Most of the specimens seen around are still queens stocking up their reserves before the workers emerge for the season:

Common Carder Bee on Bush Vetch

Members of the Empid family of flies are commonly called 'Dance Flies' due to their habit of forming mating clouds where individuals bounce vertically within the cloud. They are voracious predators, sucking fluids from their victims with their long proboscis. Sometimes, however, the proboscis is used to reach nectar in flowers:

Empid fly on Creeping Buttercup

Hoverflies are everywhere at the moment, which is good news: they pollinate flowers, trees and crops, so the more we see the better. Eristalis arbustorum can be separated from other Eristalis species by the lack of a dark stripe down the face in association with the swollen rear leg which is conveniently extended in this shot:

Eristalis arbustorum hoverfly

Rhingia campestris is an increasing species which used to be found mainly near farms (the larvae live in dung), but is now found in most habitats:

Rhingia campestris hoverfly

That long 'snout' contains a folded-up tongue which it unfolds to suck nectar that other insects cannot reach.

Leaf-mining species don't wait long after the leaves emerge before laying their eggs: they have to make use of their only food as soon as it's available. This is the very common Phytomyza ranunculi, which mines various members of the Buttercup family:

Phytomyza ranunculi mining Creeping Buttercup

I increased the light intensity on this shot to show the larva more clearly:

Phytomyza ranunculi close-up showing larva in mine

The mines of Phytomyza ranunculi can be separated from those of the much rarer Phytomyza ranunculivora by the pattern of 'frass' (dung droplets), which are joined up ("string of pearls") in P. ranunculi, but are quite separate in P. ranunculivora (Click here for comparison).


Most predators are adept at catching their own food, but some chance upon their next meal whilst simply wandering about. I saw this Lesser Dungfly discovering an already dead fly and after a brief inspection, it wasted no time in tucking in:

Lesser Dungfly with discovered corpse

I previously showed the newly-laid egg of the Orange-Tip butterfly. As expected, the egg has now turned orange and should hatch in the next day or two:

Orange Tip butterfly egg on Cardamine

Good weather encourages moths to emerge and they can often be seen beside lights at night: I keep one light running to see what I can attract. This is Common Marbled Carpet - a very variable moth (and this specimen is quite worn, making identification even more tricky):

Common Marbled Carpet moth

Just to show what we're up against in moth identification, here is a shot of Goldenrod Pug - Eupithecia virgaureata:

Goldenrod Pug moth

Compare that with my previous shot of the same species here. The only features in common are the (faint) elongated wing spots and the tuft of whitish scales behind the thorax. This colour variation has been named as f. nigra for fairly obvious reasons.

Lastly, a shot of the very common Buff Ermine moth. The caterpillars are very common in wooded areas and look like the business end of a stiff yard brush.

Buff Ermine moth

Smaller items

As soon as leaves appear, their dependent species are quick to follow. This leaf miner is Phytomyza ranunculi which mines Ranunculus species, such as Buttercups and Celandine, as the specific name would suggest.

This close-up of another leaf shows at least three larvae mining the leaves. Larvae shown are about 2mm long.


Germander Speedwell has started to flower. This area will be blue with them shortly. This flower changes colour once it has been fertilised and becomes more violet. I wonder if this is some kind of signal to bees that it doesn't need their services.


I spotted what looked like a gall on the leaves of Cow Parsley:


When I flipped it over to check the underside I saw characteristic signs of a fungal rust. This is Puccinia chaerophylli. Fungal rusts have a tendency to twist, expand and contort leaves and stems in order to increase the available sporing area.