Beautiful high pressure

A rare high-pressure weather system brought dry heat yesterday, so a lot was going on.

My first worker bumblebee (probably Bombus terrestris, but hard to be certain) of the year was gathering pollen from a half-open Dandelion:

Worker Bumblebee with phoretic mites

When I got back to the computer, I spotted the mass of mites on her back, between the wings. Phoretic mites attach themselves to a number of different insects, but do not feed on them directly: they use the insects as transport between feeding locations, such as bee nests or corpses.

I previously showed mites on this page:

http://donegal-wildlife.blogspot.ie/2008/08/phoretic-mites.html

Notice that they attach themselves in a place where the transporting insect cannot easily wipe them off, and can also choose precise locations that disguise their presence.

Field Horsetail has pale fertile shoots which precede the green sterile ones:

Fertile shoot of Field Horsetail

The cone at the top produces spores which have 4 curved 'legs' that are very responsive to humidity. As the air humidity changes, the legs expand and contract, curling and uncurling. Little hooks at the end catch on to surrounding vegetation, and the spores pull themselves around in different directions order to increase their chances of dispersal. Here's a shot of the spores that I took in 2003:

Equisetum spores at x100

As an aside, I noticed that Google Chrome has a facility to search for 'similar pictures'. The list of images for this included Chinese script, pen and ink portraits and maps.

Bilberry (local name mulberry) flowers opened over the last day or two:

Bilberry flowers

Leaves have scarcely emerged before their fungal rusts appear. This is the rust Puccinia chaerophylii on Cow Parsley:

Puccinia chaerophylli on Cow Parsley 

 

Usual suspects and others

We've had around 6 days of wonderful spring sunshine, and suddenly everything is moving. I would expect to see Primroses:

Primrose

 And Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

But a 7-spot Ladybird was a pleasant find:

7 spot ladybird

The leaves of new season's Cow Parsley have been developing for a few weeks, and already the parasitic rust Puccinia chaerophylli has appeared:

Cow Parsley, with Puccinia chaerophylli rust

And a new species of micromoth for me:

Agonopterix sp. micromoth

I know it's new to me, but sadly I don't know exactly which species it is. It's either Agonopterix heracliana (90% chance) or Agonopterix ciliella (10%), but sadly I didn't know to catch it to examine the separating features. A new species to me either way. Both are Umbellifer feeders.

Lovely weather

Most of the flowering plants are working to the normal schedule: the cold winter appears to have had little or no negative effect. Primroses have opened up all along the verge and ditch edges:

Primrose

The Barren Strawberry can be separated from the wild strawberry by the notch in the outer edge of the petals and also by the slightly glaucus appearance of the leaves:

Cow Parsley is beginning to show faster growth now, and already the fungal rust Puccinia chaerophylli is in evidence.

Puccinia chaerophylli on Cow Parsley

References say May-June, although I have found it in mid-April. I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be an 'early year'.

Most of the early moths are showing up now:

Early Grey - a Willow pollen feeder

Early Thorn, found on many broad-leaf woody plants

Twin-spotted Quaker - another Willow feeder

Hebrew Character - one of our most widely-spread moths. Eats many plants.

Caddis flies are often mistaken for moths, but the wings are downy rather than scaled and the antennae are held in a forward-pointing position.

This specimen appears to be one of the Anabolea family, but it could be one of 25 different species.

Caddis fly larvae are usually aquatic and live in cases made from debris glued together and rolled into a tube.

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.