Extra high pressure

A second consecutive day of blue sky was a bit unexpected: the forecast was cloudy with showers! I think I remember that in the olden days (pre-warming) we could rely on weather forecasts for about a week ahead. Nowadays, it seems they can't even get it right for the next 24 hours. I rather suspect the computer models that they use to make forecasts no longer work now that we have warming.

Still, making hay.....

I went down to the local river, where Wild Garlic and Bluebells make the first appearance. A few heads of garlic were in evidence:

Flowers of Wild Garlic - Allium ursinum

And a single Bluebell plant had started to open:

Bluebell flowers just opening

 I also caught a few shots of hoverflies. First of the smaller species is usually Melanostoma scalare:

The hoverfly Melanostoma scalare (male)

I always think that if you were hoverfly-sized, then a flower must be a wonderful place to explore, rest and feed.

Syrphus hoverfly species are a little bit earlier this year:

Syrphus sp. hoverfly (female)

There were a great many craneflies in the air. This female (long, pointed abdomen) stopped long enough for a shot:

Female Cranefly

The larvae of craneflies are the 'leatherjackets' that eat the roots of grasses and make empty patches on lawns.

As I'm writing this, we appear to be heading for a third consecutive day of blue sky, so I'm off out again.

One sunny day

This year seems to be following the pattern of the previous two: once the frost is gone, we enter a period of extended rain and showers that lasts all the way through May and beyond. Any days with sunshine, therefore, are both welcomed by me and utilised fully by insects.

I have seen a couple of white butterflies on verges as I drove along, but this is the first that has settled long enough for a photograph. It's a male Green-veined White: the females have more spots which are also more pronounced.

Male Green-veined White

This is the first of this year's spring butterflies. These Green-veined Whites will have at least one further generation in July, and maybe another one later in September, but I rather suspect this will be a two-brood year given the lateness of the first. Just to keep things amusing, the second generation have more pronounced markings, with second generation males looking quite like first generation females....

The Speckled Wood is also rather late this year:

Speckled Wood butterfly

This is another butterfly that can have three generations per year.

Here's the underside:

Speckled Wood - underside

A couple of years ago, I was photographing fungi in September, and a Speckled Wood landed beside me on some fallen leaves. I turned to reach for the camera and when I turned back I couldn't see it, although I knew exactly where it was. It took me a good 10-15 seconds to see through the camouflage and get the shot.

Most of the 'regular' hoverflies are now present, although still in quite small numbers. This is the extremely common Melanostoma scalare, probably my most frequently-encountered hoverfly:

Female hoverfly - Melanostoma scalare

I still haven't seen a single Orange Tip butterfly this year. Last year I reported that someone had very carefully gathered every single specimen of Cardamine pratensis on the patch and left them in a pretty little 'posy' at the end of the hedgerow. I suspect the entire local population was wiped out at that time. I'm hoping that some mated female finds the couple of flowers that have opened this year and restarts them. The simplest act can have the most devastating effect.

Still new

A few interesting opportunities have presented themselves over the last couple of weeks.

I rather like this shot of three different hoverflies all nectaring together in a rare opportunity. Normally these insects would disturb each other and the smaller ones will fly off to find other flowers, but in this gap in the rain, any source of food is welcome and their tolerance is greatly increased.

The larger one is a Syrphus sp., probably Syrphus ribesii. The medium-sized one is a male Platycheirus sp.: you can just make out the elongated and yellow front feet. The third is a female Melanostoma scalare in the locally frequent dark form.

Trio of hoverflies on Dandelion

In the last post, I showed one of the many male wasps that can be found wandering over flowerheads at the moment. Male bumblebees have also been ejected from the hives, and can be found in much the same situation: surplus to requirements:

Male bumblebee

Male bumblebees can be identified by basically being more colourful than the workers or queens, usually in conjunction with wider yellow bands and yellow on the face.


The lights at the front door are still attracting the occasional moth, along with other insects that are attracted to light.

The wet weather tends to flush scales off their wings, so identification becomes even trickier than usual. This shot of the Common Marbled Carpet shows just enough detail to provide an identification:

Common Marbled Carpet

A number of different Thorn moths appear in Autumn: their colours and shapes enable them to merge in with fallen leaves. This is a new species for me - the Canary-shouldered Thorn:

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Food plants are Birch, Alder, Willow, Lime and (not around here!) Elm.

New to my species list.

Pink-barred Sallow is another Willow feeder:

Pink-barred Sallow

The larval foodplant is Willow catkins and the adults nectar on Ivy flowers.

The Ichneumonid Ophion luteus is also attracted to light, and is often found inside light traps that have been set out to attract moths.

The Ichneumonid Ophion luteus

This micromoth appeared on my kitchen window in broad daylight, and I was delighted to notice that it is also new to me. It's Acleris sparsana, a Beech feeder.

Acleris sparsana micromoth

New to my Species List.

I spotted this pair of pink mushrooms on my lawn:

Mycena pura

They smell strongly of raw potato (some say radishes), so that points us neatly towards Mycena pura.

I also noticed this little mushroom nearby:

Psilocybe semilanceata

The little pimple on the top alerted me to the fact that it might be Psilocybe semilanceata - the original 'magic mushroom', so I took a spore print to check:

Psilocybe semilanceata spores x 400

• Spores oval and smooth
• Spores 12-15 microns
• Spores purple-brown

That'll do.


One of the questions that I'm most commonly asked is "When did you start being interested in wildlife?", and my answer is simply "As soon as I could walk". My father was recently going through his collection of 35mm slides and he found this shot of me with a young Starling chick:

Me aged 7 with a Starling chick

Maybe I should make that my profile picture.

Good Weather

We're currently in the best spell of weather that I can remember since moving to Ireland 12 years ago. It's already an early year in many places and it's difficult to keep up with the backlog of images that I'm taking. Nice complaint to have...

I'll start off with a picture of what has to be my favourite bee - Andrena cineraria. Andrenas are all solitary bees, digging their own little tunnels, laying the eggs and collecting pollen to feed the growing larvae. Andrenas are generally quite difficult to identify, but Andrena cineraria is very distinctive with its grey shoulder stripe. She looks rather like a thin bumblebee worker:

The mining bee Andrena cineraria

I haven't seen any female Orange Tip butterflies yet, but they're obviously around. This single egg was laid today behind the flower where the seedpod will form:

Egg of Orange Tip butterfly

The egg is clearly very fresh (it's green), but it will be orange by tomorrow.

I got a nice side-shot of the very common Melanostoma scalare hoverfly:

Male Melanostoma scalare hoverfly 

These are by far the most numerous hoverfly at this time of year. Later on in the year, the females fall prey to the parasitic fungus Entomophthora muscae in very large numbers.

Moths are continuously coming to light at night, and I spotted this little (1 cm.) moth:

Moths of that size are usually micromoths, but this is one of the macromoths that confuses all newcomers to moth identification. It's the Least Black Arches - Nola confusalis, which feeds on a number of woody shrubs. Judging by the specific name, I rather suspect the people who originally named it were a bit confused, too.

Something to look out for:

Entry holes of Cocksfoot moth larvae in Cocksfoot grass

The Cocksfoot moth is very numerous around verges with Cocksfoot grass, and will shortly be seen flitting around like glittering dust. If you look at stems of last year's grass and peel back the top leafblade you might well find these holes indicating where the pupa has overwintered. These minute moths are well worth looking for: their metallic slate-grey background with white feathering is very beautiful.

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.

Gathering pace

Some images have an artistic component to them, as well as scientific fact. I rather liked this crop on the shot of a female Melanostoma scalare on Dandelion.

Melanostoma scalare is one of the more readily identified of the smaller hoverflies due to the 'oven glove' shape of the yellow markings on the abdomen.

The male hoverfly to the upper right of the next image is Platycheirus clypeatus, but I can't see enough of the female to make an attempt at identification. She might well be a female P. clypeatus, however, since I often see pairs feeding together.

St. Marks Flies are so-called because they usually emerge on or around St. Marks day - 25th April. Things are running a little late this year, however.

My first Ichneumonid of the year was this tiny (7mm) specimen running around on and under a Bramble leaf. I saw a couple of them along the hedgerow and I presume they were looking for some moth or sawfly larva that I couldn't find.

Scathophaga sp. dungflies feed on dung as larvae, but are voracious predators as adults. I often see them poised and ready to pounce when suitable prey comes along.

Comparison

Smaller hoverflies have been a bit scarce this year, so it was interesting to get two very illustrative shots within minutes of each other.

These are both males (the two large eyes meet in the middle, divided by a very narrow margin), and they seem very similar at first glance. Abdominal patterns are obscured by the wings, so we can't use those as confirmation of species, but we can easily get to family for both. (Both are roughly the same size: about 12mm long)

For the first one, we have a delicate specimen with a relatively longer abdomen, dark scutellum (the D-shaped bit between the wings) and smaller feet. The yellow fascia ('face') is also small and delicate. Melanostoma fits well for family and scalare would be a good bet for species.

The second specimen is much more robust, and has a more pronounced fascia and much larger front 'feet'. The front feet alone point to Platycheirus sp., and I'd hazard a guess at Platycheirus scutatus based on location and overall feel, but that isn't a positive id.

Here's a shot of one of the larger front feet, known as 'inflated tarsi' in the references.

Sun!

The view East from Leg 2 of the Hedgerow:



This is by far the smallest local hoverfly - Neoascia podagrica. In order to see them, I have to sit on a verge and wait for tiny shimmering dots to hover into view. This specimen was about 5 mm long. For those of you raised on inches, that's about 1/5th of an inch. Check it out on a ruler.


It took a little while to resolve this pair of Cixiids. These are true bugs - related to the much more common leaf hoppers.


Rhingia campestris is a very visible hoverfly with its rosy abdomen clearly seen in flight. The long 'nose' is a sheath for its extremely long, folding tongue. Previously seen only in rural areas (its larvae live in cow dung), this is now being seen in more urban settings, leading to the assumption that more domesticated dung is also being used.


This male Melanostoma scalare was nectaring on Germander Speedwell and Dog Violets:

Sawflies are closely related to bees and wasps. The female's sting is modified into a saw which is used to cut slits in leaves to hold her eggs.

Drumboe insects

Drumboe has a very rich insect population: I find some of my most interesting species here. This is Nomada leucophthalma, which is parasitic on the mining bee Andrena clarkiella. This is yet another prime example of dependency timing: A. clarkiella uses only the pollen of willows to feed its young, and willow pollen is only available for perhaps 6 weeks of the year. So the Nomada must locate an available Andrena nest and lay its own eggs there in a very short timeframe. Nomada sp. are known as kleptoparasites: they use the pollen the Andrenas have collected for their own offspring.


This specimen was flying along the vertical earth bank looking for Andrena nests. They fly facing the bank and move sideways as they search. This behaviour can be seen for only 4 weeks of the year. Shot was manual focus!



This is an Andrena, but not the one parasitised by the above Nomada. Andrena haemorrhoa, about 15 mm long:



Smaller hoverflies are making an appearance at last. This is a male Melanostoma scalare:


The larger Eristalis pertinax has been around for a couple of weeks. This is a female:



A single Speckled Wood was the first of the year for me. I also saw one Orange tip male and a Green-veined White, both of which I showed the other day.


St. Marks Flies are so-called because they usually start to appear around St. Marks day - April 25th. They're usually pretty accurate.


I have never found a convincing identification for this one, but it should be Bibio marci.