Mother Nature is always right?

I could have titled this blog update 'Why bother', or even 'Don't always believe what you are seeing'. These are actually notes I scribbled to myself on my phone whilst out walking. 
I do that sometimes; I file them under 'Blog fodder' in my phone, as useful little prompts for future updates.
One day I'll get to write about my little note that reads: 'Is nature amoral?', but for now let's consider 'why bother' shall we. Here's a photograph of what I found that prompted me to write this particular note...

A beautiful wasp. Yes it is a Chalcid wasp, possibly something like a female 'Ormyrus nitidulus'. Ormyrids are often recorded in association with plant galls, but are not gall-formers themselves: rather, they are parasites of the insect larvae that formed the galls. Probably because of their minute size, they are under-recorded and so their true status is hard to determine objectively.

And the question I was asking myself was...

But the real question is, why does nature bother?

Yes, why does nature bother with creating such a vividly coloured creature when it is so very small and barely visible at all?

Dunno! But I'll come back to it after I have had  a think because I do have a bit of a theory, deary!

Take a look at this chart for Aglais io - the Peacock Butterfly...

It has the larvae period as mid May to early July and pupae as 2nd week of June to 1st week of August. Yet here we are at the very end of August and I have discovered some larvae on nettle. Intrigued to see what happens, I am monitering them and at least three have now become pupae. They are quite stunning at this stage...

You can see the remains of the shed 'skin' just to the left of the pupa. So what is going on with this really late sighting? Well this butterfly is generally single-brooded, but in good years, with the right weather conditions, a small second brood may appear. These do over-winter as adults and so should just about have time to take on some fuel before hiding away for the winter.

This is what the adult butterfly looks like...

The other note I mentioned at the top of this update was 'Don't always believe what you are seeing'. Here's the photograph that prompted me to record that one...

I've deliberately displayed this small to better represent how it looked to me at first sight. It was actually not as clear as this photo because the light was poor at the time, it had actually been raining.

Anyhow, I just thought something along the lines of 'Hmmm, there's maybe a tiny hoverfly egg or something there'. When I took a closer look through the lens I could see exactly what it was and so I carefully moved it onto a leaf for a better photo...

A short while later there were two!

Or perhaps there were two (or even three) all along, but I just didn't spot the other one, because I think where I have circled in this photo might be an exit hole?

And so here's the grizzly truth: these are wasp parasites that have invaded the caterpillar. The tiny larva lurks inside the flesh of the caterpillar, soaking up its host's nutrients and drinking its blood. The wasp larva must keep its host alive, so it avoids damaging the vital organs. The caterpillar swells as it eats, not knowing what lies ahead.

When the larva is ready to break out, it releases chemicals that paralyse the caterpillar. With its host stuck, the larva uses specialised, saw-like teeth to eat its way through the thick skin.

Remarkably, the wounded caterpillar does not always die. Some species even watch over the newly free larvae until they spin their own cocoons, ready to become adult wasps.

Information courtesy of The Natural History Museum.

Returning to my question, why does nature bother; this beautifully disguised moth is a living example of great camouflage. One of the techniques nature employs to avoid predation...

It barely resembles a moth does it, as it  settles head-down with wings wrapped tightly around its body, on a grass stem. 

Other creatures are disguised by Mother Nature to resemble something much more fearsome than they actually are by the use of false eye spots: like this Emperor moth...

Still more add in nasty tasting hairs as well as bright warning colours, witness this Sycamore caterpillar...

But is that the reason nature bothers to give the tiny wasp such garish colours?

BBC SCIENCE tackled the question of why  some insects have vivid, metallic green, blue or gold colouration. It discovered that this effect doesn’t come from pigments, but is an example of ‘structural colouration’.

  

Microscopic ridges and transparent layers on the surface of a bug's body act as an array of lenses that direct different wavelengths of light in such a way that some colours cancel out and others are amplified – the rainbow effect on a DVD is similarly caused by  pits on its surface. 

This metallic sheen may have evolved because it offers bright colours that can serve as a mating signal over long distances. Alternatively, some researchers have suggested that it might mimic the appearance of raindrops on leaves, helping to camouflage the insect.

Perhaps my hunch about camouflage wasn't too far off after all? The truth is probably akin to what Agatha Christie once said about what other people are thinking...'nobody knows'.

By the way chums; if you are thinking this update has been bereft of the usual smattering of humour, I can only apologise. I think what happened was that I went to bed one night and when I woke in the morning, I'd somehow undergone a funnybone excision. Fear not though, I am hopeful of getting the surgery reversed, it's just that you know how the NHS waiting times are at present.

How about some bonking beetles, just to exercise your giggle stick a tad?

I think those are 'Rhagonycha fulva' but as they are only here for comedic effect, I won't be too discombobulated if they are not.

Time I was on my bike I think; now where did I leave it? Oh yes, it's in the garage with a flat tyre isn't it. Oh well, there's always the ever trusty shanks's pony!

5,000/7,000 is the answer. But what is the question?

NB: This update contains a video clip that may be too large to show in the e.mail version of the update; you will need to view online: HERE

 For many years my constant companion on  nature walks has been Herbie, the terrier: here is one of the earliest photos I have of him as a tiny pup...

Somehow, and I really have no idea how, but somehow since then, 15 years have passed. He's now an old gentleman and finds walking at all difficult, let alone rambles in the countryside...

Now partially sighted with almost no hearing, a touch of doggie dementia and a long-term allergy, he's pretty much confined to base, and that suits him just fine.

As I guess happens to us all as we age, sleep patterns are disrupted and whilst Herbs will happily sleep for 15 hours or more of the day, he also often wakes in the early hours.

Why am I telling you all this? Well because on one recent early morning visit to the back garden to enable him to empty his bladder, an amazing thing happened - something that I may never have known about otherwise. Here is a very obscure, tenuous clue, that I doubt you will know because you are not of...an age!

No? Surely you know all about 'The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion'? Okay then, too niche? How about Thomas Hardy's poem 'Afterwards'? It's a bit of a eulogy, but lovely poem all the same...

'If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm....'

Okay then, enough with the criptic clues now, I'll just show you the footage...

I have not seen a hedgehog for years now, and the last time I spotted one in the garden must be close to 20 years ago; it was before I had a digital camera, I do remember that much. 

It was so exciting to see this one looking really healthy and well fed: probably eating from scraps dropped from the bird feeding station, as well as helping to keep the slug population down. I've got a very strong light that I sometimes use for macro work and so decided to try and use it to get a closer photo in colour using my phone camera...

On one night the hedgehog spent about 5 hours feeding and wandering in the garden, between around 11pm and 4am. I'm not sure if it actually lives in the garden, as a rule I think hogs need more than one garden to call their patch, but I want to try and encourage it to hibernate here, if it has not done so in previous years.

I set to work on a makeshift hedgehog house, constructed from an old apple crate...

Here it is in situ...

The jury seems to be out on whether to add dry leaves to the nest box area, I decided to add some anyway...

The next job was to sort some food; perhaps not required right now, but maybe so later on. There is already a large stone saucer that provides a supply of fresh water. 

I did put some food out just to see if the hedgehog was interested, but all it seemed to attract was plenty of slugs...

This next image is again, from my phone...

So there it is, my very exciting news: the little garden that just keeps giving, what a joy for this boy!

Now don't get yer knickers in a twist, this is not a spider...

Odiellus spinosus - a Harvestman

When I was researching the species, this is what I found on the internet:

It prefers man made habitats and is most often found in gardens and around buildings.

It usually lives on the ground but will climb bushes, trees and walls.

What I can tell you is that this is the first ever sighting of this species for me. As for the 'will climb bushes, trees and walls' bit; I guess it'll do more than that because I spotted this one inside the loft space in the house.

Oh yes! My little poser in the title of this update. The answer was 5,000 to 7,000 and the question? Roughly how many spines does a hedgehog have.

Happy Flying Ant Day...

I have an unanswered question that needs to be addressed. Perhaps you can help: 

If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?

 I would like you to think about July 12 2020

Why that particular date JJ? Because, it's pertinent: which is much better than being impertinent don't you think? I used to get called impertinent at school if I ever dared to challenge anything the teacher said..."Don't be impertinent boy!"

Anyhow, that's by the by (if you don't know the etymology of that phrase, where have you been since the 1600s?), July 12 was the day we celebrated 'National Simplicity Day'. What do you mean, you didn't! It was easy enough surely? Here's the info:

On the 12th July 2020, we acknowledge National Simplicity Day - the annual campaign that asks us all to take a step back from our hectic lives and live in the moment.

You were most likely fixated on the other event that happened on July 12 right?

Yes, this was the day in the UK that saw thousands of flying ants emerge. Here's a photo curtousy of the Daily Mirror...

Not for this boy though: it was not until July 30 that the garden became overrun with them. 

Flying ant photographed in my garden July 30

Actually, although there is a so called 'Flying Ant Day' there is no one particular day that the ants emerge, but it is usually late July/early August. There is nothing peculiar about these ants really. They are just a common black ant (Lasius niger).

This from the Natural History Museum: 

 Why do ants fly?

An ant colony can only expand so much. At some point a new queen will need to strike out on her own to begin a new colony. She needs to meet and mate with a male from a different colony and find a new area in which to start building her nest. Growing wings and flying enables her to do this.

So each year, alates emerge from nests and take flight. They aren't interested in people or picnics - they are just looking for a mate.

Here is the amazing thing for me: after mating the males lives are over; they will die within a couple of days. The queens however will go on to quickly chew off their own wings and begin looking for a suitable site in which to nest and set up a new colony. Females can then live for many years; perhaps up to 12.

In fact, right now...

I was so pleased to see that the Hairy shieldbugs had survived in the garden and were doing well. I think this one pictured above is probably a mid-instar.

I also found one nice fresh adult...

This is...

Lasiocampa quercus - An Oak Eggar moth

I got sent this photo of a beautiful big moth to ID recently. It turned out to be a male Oak Eggar. The Oak Eggar, despite its name, does not feed on Oak, but is so-called because the shape of its cocoon is acorn-like. 

I had a morning clearing up in the garden recently, and when I was working on the woundwort plants, I had this leaf in my hand ready to throw out when I spotted something attached. I know it looks quite large in this photo, but it was actually only about 6-8mm and I almost dismissed it as vegetation debris.

Experience has taught me to take a second look though, and when I got the macro lens on it I could see it was what looked like a pupa of some kind.

Thinking about it, I realised that I had seen something similar before, and that turned out to be a Plume moth pupa. Only thing to do then was to keep it and see what emerged.

Here's the face-on view...

I'll come back to this in a moment; next I would like to share a photo of just some of the many butterfly eggs on the nasturtium plants in the garden...

The next batch look ready to pop!

And a batch of recently emerged Large-white butterfly caterpillars...

There are some final instar woundwort shiledbugs in the garden now too...

I think this one got photo-bombed by another tiny bug.

This amused me: it's from an Entomology group I belong to...

'Shall we return to the pupa story now JJ?' Erm...I think we probably should, before we forget!

The photos of the pupa (above) were taken on August 3rd and I didn't have to wait too long for things to change, because the very next day it began to darken: strangely, head first it seemed...

Finally the whole thing darkened...

Here comes the anti climax then. Last thing on the night of the 4th I was certain it would emerge but nothing happened. First thing the next morning I checked on the pupa, gingerly opening the container it was in, only to watch it fly off, never to be seen again!

However, you might be pleased to know that I did get a brief look at it as it departed and it definitely was a Plume moth; one of the brownish ones. Possibly Amblyptilia acanthadactyla (Beautiful Plume) as the glimpse I got of the markings looked good and the larvae of this species will feed on woundwort.

On one particular day, that day being yesterday! I had two species of cricket indoors; well one in the house, and one in my work studio. This male Speckled-bush Cricket appeared on the living room ceiling...

I placed it outside for a more natural looking shot...

Apologies by the way if it looks as if I have been over zealous cropping these photos: it's actually minimum magnification on the MP-E lens and so this is as much as I could fit in.

Next is the larger Dark-bush Cricket that actually dropped onto me whilst I was working in my studio...

I bet you didn't expect this next item!

The  title for world's biggest testicles (relative to body weight) goes to the tuberous bushcricket, a type of katydid, according to a study.

"I was amazed by the size of the testes—they seemed to take up the entire abdomen," said study leader Karim Vahed, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Derby in the U.K

 The hard, penis-like part of male bushcricket genitalia that's inserted into the female is called a....
"titillator"

I feel I should perhaps leave you to cogitate over those facts, and so will take my leave with this photograph of a female Speckled-bush Cricket...