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...

Antarctic Echoes might be a good choice...

Time to put away the holiday brochures and write another blog update. I am thinking of postponing my planned trip to North Korea for a bit anyway. At least until the terrible twosome stop trading insults. Just who does that Kim Jong-un think he is, with his double-barrelled name? He needs to take a chill pill and put some Vangelis on the iPod.

As for Mr Trumpton, he says his hands are too big: not the body part I had in mind! Anyway, I didn't mean to start with a rant that has nowt t'do with this blog, so let's get back in the saddle eh. So what's new Johnboy? Well how about this spider egg-sac that I discovered under a bramble leaf whilst walking in the woods...

I flipped the image so that you don't have to practice the 'shirshasana' Yoga position to view it. I thought, well, assumed really without checking, that this would be the egg-sac of a garden-cross spider (Araneus diadematus). It looked the part. However, as is often the case, first impressions can be way off the mark. Where is the mark by the way? Have you seen it? 

What did make this construction then? A wasp? Did you say wasp? Well done...

It looks like a Braconid wasp, but can't be that. So what then? Hymenoptera for sure but no idea as to species yet; I do know they were tiny and there were legions of them that emerged. 

I have been following the progress of some large white butterfly eggs that appeared on the nasturtiums in the garden...

Unfortunately, overnight rain took its toll on some of them...

                   

             

Others did survive though, and in this next picture you can see that they are nearly ready to emerge, the heads are at the top of the eggs...

It wasn't long before new life was emerging...

The newly emerged caterpillars eat the eggshells as a form of nourishment. 



Now the caterpillars have all become chrysalis' and probably will stay in this state until next spring...

There are two distinct colourways...

This looper caterpillar was doing a pretty good job of pretending to be an oak twig when I spotted it...

The buddleia bush in the garden continues to attract insects. I have counted seven species of butterfly now...

According to BBC Springwatch, Red Admiral numbers have increased by 200%

From Buddleia to Buddha...

Whilst out driving in my Volkswagen Golf car, which somebody rather rudely described as "an old banger", I had to stop and investigate when something dropped on to the windscreen. It turned out to be a Red-legged Shieldbug and so I thought it would be rude not to grab a photo or two before sending it on its way...

On another day, I was sitting in the car at the entrance to my local woods when this critter flew in the open window...

Despite it being September, this is a Mayfly. 

Now here's an interesting observation...."Where?" Well it's coming, just be patient! "Good things come to those who wait" is what my mammy would say to me: I would reply, "Yes, but only the stuff nobody else wants". Here it is then, I saw this Tree Damsel Bug in the garden recently...

A Tree Damsel Bug - Himacerus apterus

Perhaps it arrived in the garden from next door's conifers, where they feed on aphids and others small insects. The damsel bugs I mean, not the neighbours. What intrigued me though, was the fact that it was drinking, or appeared to be, from the bird bath water. I had no idea these bugs would actually drink in this way but its proboscis was definitely in the water.


Shall we end this update by returning to where we began then: Araneus diadematus, or the Garden-cross Spider. There are quite a few Green Shieldbugs around in the garden now, but this poor thing became lunch for the female spider...

But wait!

I cannot leave you with an arachnid photo, because I know how wimpish you are  about spiders and we don't want nightmares do we. Er...does anybody remember Swiss Toni?

Toni was a character from TVs 'The Fast Show' and everything in Toni's life was "A bit like making love to a beautiful woman". And so I thought I might purloin his phrase and create my own little meme...

And so here it is: my end of update moan. This is from 'finallygoodnews.net' and is actually a worthy story about the effect of pesticides on the bee population. But just look at the photograph they have chosen to use to illustrate the story! It's a Hoverfly for ***** sake. What is it with these people that they cannot even be bothered to research properly? Although, they should already know what a bee looks like surely?

It gets worse yet. The full size image within the story proudly proclaims underneath 'Honey Bee in Flight'. I thought about letting them know of their mistake, but somebody already had.