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.

Watch out for the Billy Witches...

I mentioned in my last update to the blog that I was going to try and find a leaf-roller weevil in action. In other words, actually rolling a hazel leaf.

Well...I have to report that I have not yet manged that, but did find a freshly rolled leaf-and so at least I now know that they have started on the process of rolling the hazel leaves that will become home to the next generation of larvae...

              

My local woodland is now reaping the benefits of the coppicing that took place a couple of years ago, and the rides are full of wild flowers and in particular buttercups...

On my last visit,I noticed that these were attracting cantharis beetles. I counted thirty in one area alone...

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR LARGE VIEW ON BLACK

The fabulous wasp beetles were also buzzing around the buttercups as well...

Although these beetles mimic the marking of a wasp, they are completely harmless and are usually happy to pose for photos. Although,I think this one was trying to shake a leg?

If you are one of my readers that dislikes spiders, and I know there are a few...perhaps you might consider skipping the next photo? Although, to my eyes, these are kinda cute!

I think these are probably Araneus species spider-lings  At this stage they bear little resemblance to the adults with this yellow colouring.

Another insect that seems to be around in larger than usual numbers is the snipe fly. These are quite large as flies go and look at first glance, a little like the big robber flies...

Snipe flies of the genus 'Rhagio (which I think this one is) are sometimes called 'down-looker' flies, after their habit of perching head-downward on tree trunks etc.

The news from my garden moth trap is that I seem to be catching fewer than earlier in the year, as far as numbers go. There have been some interesting finds though. I recently had this visitor...

A Common Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha)

This is the cockchafer or 'May Bug' or even.. Spang Beetle, or 'Billy Witch'.

I think this may be a male? You are supposed to be able to tell male from female by counting the number of 'leaves' on those fantastic looking antennae. Males sport seven,whilst females have six. I am sure that looking closely at the antennae on the right of this picture, I can just about make out seven?

These beetles were abundant once upon a time. That is until the dreaded pesticides were introduced. However, since the new regulations, they are making a comeback.

But the real star of the year so far must surely be this next beauty...

An Eyed Hawk Moth

This took my breath away. What a moth this is. It is a big insect and wings open, measured well in excess of 3" The colouring and markings and texture are superb and when it opens its wings to reveal those eye-spots...Wow!

You might just recall from last year (although, why should you?) that I had some caterpillars of the buff-tip moth that pupated...

I had my doubts as to whether I had managed to keep any of them successfully through the winter months, I kept a close check on them and things didn't look good. Come early spring I felt a few of them for signs of movement but most seemed hard and lifeless.

I had given up hope by late May and decided to clean out the container that housed them. Lucky for me that I did because, on opening the top, right at that very moment, there was a moth emerging for one of the pupae; I grabbed my camera and took some photos...

A Buff-tip Moth just out of its pupa

Once fully recovered from the effort of emerging and having sat for almost 3 hours, just drying out and inflating its wings, the moth looked like this...

Eventually it folded its wings into the recognised resting position, along it's back and the full beauty of this creature and superb camouflage became obvious...

                                               

I am so pleased that I managed to keep these and had the privilege of observing the whole life-cycle, other than the egg stage. Since the day this one emerged, I have had a further 4 that I've been able to release.

The only other thing of note, besides the sparse amount of moths in the trap (which by the way I have added to the diary page,but still need to identify most of) is this wasp...

I had three of these one night in the trap. I think they are Ichneumon wasps but wouldn't like to go further than that. They are parasitic wasps and can be tricky to identify fully.

I seem to have lots of new things I could add to the blog,and may even have got a little out of sequence with some finds but, I think that'll do for this time and I'll try and update again soon. I hope once again that you have found something of interest in this latest entry and, as always, thank-you for your interest.

Until the next time then...