Tiny gap in the rain

It had rained for 48 hours and I spotted a small gap in the cloud, so I drove the two miles to this part of the hedgerow (Leg 2) as fast as I could. By the time I arrived it was raining again.

Five minutes later.....

I glimpsed this insect half-hidden under a leaf. What do you think it is? (the major - and huge - clue is clearly shown).



Not Bumblebee, but a Bumblebee mimic, the hoverfly Eristalis intricarius:

Notice how the scutellum (the orange bit) is wide and hairy, giving the appearance of a golden band, like a bumblebee. The clue in the first image is the obvious 'loop' in the wing veins....the 'eristalis bulge'.

This is a close-up of the face, showing the tiny antennae and the three ocelli or minor eyes between the main eyes. Many flies, bees and wasps have these extra eyes which are very sensitive to light change, and are used to detect movement.

A rolled leaf is like a magnet to me, and I reckoned this was the home of a micromoth larva. (You can see the ejected frass (dung) to the left of the image).


Sure enough, a little poking and prodding revealed the larva of the Timothy Tortrix micromoth. Notice the areas of buttercup leaf that have been consumed.


This micromoth larva is gravely at risk. Within half a metre of the larva I found two potential predators. First the so-called flower bug, Anthocoris nemorum (about 4 mm long). These are predators of moth, butterfly and sawfly larvae.

And also this wonderful, minute (3 mm.) Ichneumonid. These parasitic wasps also target larvae.


The rain had barely stopped for a minute when three male Orange Tips appeared from under the edge of the ditch. No time to waste when the ladies are expected to be out and about.

Rain-enforced research

It hasn't stopped raining since the start of May, so that got me researching new things to do with the site. My hit tracking program has a new facility based on the Google maps tool, and the following screen shot shows the site hits since Monday 4th May.



Hits range from Chico in California to Canberra in Australia. Some will be aggregated e.g. all the Eircom hits in Ireland are deemed to come from Dublin, since that's where that particular ISP is based.

UK hits include: Glasgow, York, Reading, Brighton, London, Manchester, Leeds, Stoke, Oxford, Cambridge, Ipswich, Northampton, Luton, Bedford, Belfast. So quite reasonable coverage, really.

You might recognise your own hit and, of course, I've managed to put labels on a few of them myself.

Later

Added a link to a new map I created on Google Maps:

(this one's interactive)


View Raphoe Wildlife in a larger map

May gets going

The opening fronds of Lady Fern are incredibly geometric:


The first of the micromoths for this season: Micropterix calthella. Length? 3mm. Love the yellow 'wig'.


Is is just me, or are the Germander Speedwells particularly good this year? Serious eagle-eyes might spot a couple of Bush Vetch flowers in there, too.


Female Syrphus ribesii hoverfly:

I'm reflected in the thorax.

Grasses and Horsetails

Grasses can be very tricky to identify, but I'm working on them. This is Meadow Foxtail - Alopecurus pratensis.


And this is Sweet Vernal Grass - Anthoxanthum odoratus. More to follow.


There is a small patch of the hedgerow where I have four different Horsetails within about 15m of each other. I already showed the Equisetum arvense. This is Marsh Horsetail - Equisetum palustre:


Note: small number of smooth ridges round the stem and white-edged teeth.


This is Water Horsetail - Equisetum pluviatile:


Note: more numerous ridges with black teeth.


The fourth version is the hybrid between Field Horsetail and Water Horsetail - Equisetum x. litorale. If I can get some illustrative shots of this I'll put them up.

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.

Drumboe cornucopia

Drumboe is always very productive. I got too many shots today, so the question is: plants or insects first? Flowers it is.

Wood Speedwell is always tricky to photograph. It usually likes shade, but a few specimens were in a clearing where an ancient Beech was removed last year:



Bugle seems a little early this year, but I suppose it's almost May.


I really like the pale green leaves of Beech when they're brand new:


Two clumps of Marsh Marigolds were well advanced in the drainage channel that flows into the Finn:


Yellow Pimpernel certainly likes shade:

Butterflies

We had two glorious days of sunshine and suddenly the butterflies were out in decent numbers.

Orange Tip males emerge before the females and set up territories along hedgerows and sunny banks. I'm always surprised by just how bright those wingtips are.


The underside is a mosaic of black and yellow scales that resemble moss or lichen. Good camouflage:


And here's the underside of a Green-veined White that also emerged on the same day: