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 

 

Angelica time

The Angelica flowered this week, so for the next 3 weeks I will concentrate on nectaring insects. Angelica is a major source of nectar for bees, flies, hoverflies, wasps, sawflies, ichneumonids, beetles and various bugs, so it's always worth a close look.

Here's a shot of the impressive flowerheads just before they burst open:

Angelica opening

As I was walking between Angelica plants, I saw a dead bumblebee lying on the path, but it suddenly moved.  I looked closer, and saw that one of the Formica ants was pulling it laboriously over the path, presumably towards its nest:

Dead bumblebee being dragged by Wood Ant

Progress was rather slow, since the bee's claws kept getting stuck on stones, and the ant had to keep going back to free them. This slow progress went on for a while, and then the ant seemed to pause for a moment, then it went under the bee and somehow managed to flip it over onto its back. The ant went back to pulling the bee and progress was much faster, since the bee was sliding along on its glossy wings and the claws were safely in the air:

Bee after the ant had flipped it over

The whole procedure was watched by the much smaller red ant to the left of the first image.

It's clear that ants have great strength, but it also appears that they have reasoning power, too.

Cixius nervosus is one of the leafhoppers, and can be distinguished by the triple 'keels' on the thorax, and the lacy veins on the wings:

The leafhopper Cixius nervosus

Crane Flies are the 'Daddy Longlegs' that are so numerous at this time of year:

Cranefly on Cleavers

Their larvae are the 'leatherjackets' that eat the roots of grasses, often ruining large areas of lawn.

I rather like the way the leaves of the Cleavers mimic the legs of the Cranefly on that shot.

Avalanche

A few warm days and suddenly everything bursts forth: bees and hoverflies can be seen and heard as they go about their business of gathering pollen or hunting for nesting places.

I spotted this Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - on Dandelion. I watched her nectaring for a little while and when I got back to the computer I saw that her pollen basket was empty and looked to be in pristine condition. I'd like to think this was her maiden flight, and she was nectaring for energy before commencing her season's work filling those baskets.
The 22-spot ladybird - Psyllobora (Thea) vigintiduopunctata - is a little unusual in that they are herbivores. Well, that's how they're classified, but since they only eat mildews on dead or dying leaves, I rather think they are fungivores. These are quite tricky to find as they are usually deep in vegetation and are only around 3mm long. This one was on my car.