This post contains some trash, and a candid photo of JJ...

I first became aware of the poet Thomas Hood through the Bonzo Dog Band and their song called 'Shirt'. Viv Stanshall and the lads in turn went on to influence Monty Python...'That's just the name of the shop Sir..' Anyhow, Thomas Hood was famous for "Bridge of Sighs", but also "The Song of the Shirt". Thomas himself turns out to be a bit of a joker, playing practical jokes on his wife.

What's all this leading up to? Merely that today (as I write) is May 4th (no Star Wars jokes here) and I thought I would mark the entrance to this favourite month with another of his works: this one is luckily entitled 'May'...

I'm pleased to be able to report that the blue-tits that have been checking out the garden nest box since late winter, have decided that it would once again make a suitable home for them and on April 26th I took this photograph of the 8 eggs already laid by the female.

I checked the box this morning and although there are no signs of imminent hatching, they do all still look good and intact.

Here's hoping for a successful brood, with no visits from the 'hood cats. The defence system is still in place, so fingers crossed.

Now that there are so many wild flowers blooming, there is pollen to be had by any hungry insect. This next photo is of what I like to call a pollen beetle. To be correct though, I think it is a beetle from the Byturidae family, called a Fruitworm Beetle. There are just 2 species here in the UK and I think this one could possibly be Byturus ochraceus.

The increasing amount of sunshine has also tempted out lots of little jumping spiders; at least it has in my garden...

 Salticus scenicus - A Jumping Spider

To Sprawl (verb):

If you sprawl somewhere, you sit or lie down with your legs and arms spread out in a careless way.

This is the larva of a woodland species of moth called Asteroscopus sphinx. Its common name of 'The Sprawler', is said to come from the larva's habit of throwing back its head in a defensive attitude. These moths occur in Spain, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Turkey and even Moscow. 

Luckily, I found mine (at least the larva) in the woods not more than a mile from my house! The larvae feed on various deciduous trees; this one was on oak.

I found this next beast on a gatepost: all I can tell you is that it's a fat bee! I think somebody once called me that...oh no, wait a minute, that was 'a Fat B' come to think of it. I suppose I can also tell you that this is a female. As for pinning down a species though; there's more chance of me listening to a Justin Bieber album on repeat.

When you have been hooked on bug hunting as long as I have, it's always a special day when you find something that you have never seen before. I have found quite a few species of harvestman now, (I'm never quite sure if the plural should be written as harvestmen?) but this is a first for me...

Homalenotus quadridentatus - A Harvestman

Homalenotus quadridentatus mainly occurs in the south and southeast of the UK. Only limited information is available on phenology, but it is said to be found all year due to adults living for more than one year. Breeding is likely to occur in mid-summer. Quite a spiky harvestman.

Time to reveal my next bug find: this one may surprise you. It's kinda strange looking. Here's a clue to its identity...

Yes, this bug recycles its own waste. Basically, instead of discarding  any unwanted 'packaging', it makes good use of it as camouflage. Once it has located its prey; consumed all the edible parts by...well, I won't bother you with the gory details, but once done, it hoicks what is left onto its back. It does this each time it eats and the resulting trash deposit soon becomes quite pronounced.

 But what is this insect, what will it become?

Yes! A bit of a Cinderella story really: this odd looking 'Trash Bug' morphs into a beautiful and delicate Lacewing. Another of nature's marvelous inventions. The one thing that bothers me a little about calling them nature's recyclers,  is that eventually, they will undergo one final moult to become the adult insect; that will leave behind the exoskeleton (exuvia) along with all of the detritus and so the cycle/recycling is not quite complete?

I wish to make it clear that the portrayal of myself as 'fat' was purely a rather feeble attempt at comedy. I am actually sylphlike. Oh! Hang on though, that is a feminine term right? Erm, svelte then, is that applicable to males of the species?

Just in case I have chosen badly with both of those descriptions of my...frame, here's a rare candid photograph that proves beyond doubt that I am no Billy Bunter...

Publish and be damned...

I need your input blog-readers. I had a nice email from somebody who used the  blogger 'contact JJ' option, that was very complimentary about my little blog, but mentioned at the same time about my writing style.

They were expressing a preference for the more factual updates, over the, well frankly, sillier ones. 

And so I would love to know what others think. I want to get the balance right because, although this is my blog, it is nothing without you loyal readers. Please do let me know any thoughts, good or bad, by using the same contact option, or just adding a comment at the bottom of this post.

                                                                        Thank-you,

                                                                                        'JJ'

Here we go then (at last) no frivolity included! Oh, before we get too far into this update, I need to apologise for the brevity and lack of tremendously exciting subject matter. I have already made a note to myself to try harder next time. The whole story is a little convoluted and uninteresting in itself but I did actually start this update almost two weeks ago and between then and now have had a bout of man-flu...

It's always a thrill to find my first jumping spider of the year and as usual, I spotted my very first on the wall of the house the other day...

Salticus scenicus-A Jumping Spider

There are of course several really similar jumping spiders here in the UK but I think my ID is sound for this one.

On the very same wall I also came across this nicely marked Nursery Web Spider...

Pisaura mirabilis - A Nursery Web Spider

To complete the spider trio; a teeny thing found in the garden on the same day...

This one might be a tad more difficult to identify to species level It could be either Araniella cucurbitina or Araniella opisthographa. Commonly known as the Cucumber Green Orb Spider I think.

Underneath a terracotta pot, I found this Moth Fly. Well I say Moth Fly, that's what I call them. I think possibly Psychodidae is the correct term. Also known variously as Owl Midges, Drain Flies, Filter Flies and Sewage Flies. It's a shame they have so many names 'cos they only live about five days and so by the time you have got to know them all, they will be gone.

On a recent walk in what was mainly coniferous woodland, I noticed in a couple of sunnier areas that the wood ants were appearing above ground in huge numbers...

Unfortunately I only had my phone to take pictures with but you can see there were lots of them. I also did a tiny video...

     

I think these are Formica rufa (The Southern wood or horse ant) and there is some very interesting info on these ants and their nests on the UK Wood Ants website.

A small extract: The wood ant’s nest is a marvel of insect construction and contains thousands of workers, over 250,000 individuals in Formica rufa. On the surface, the mound is made of a soil core surrounded in a “thatch” made of organic materials including pine needles, small twigs, moss, heather, dried grass and even pieces of lichen. The thatch is made in such a way that it intercepts the sun’s rays at right angles, acting like a solar panel to raise the temperature of the nest above that of the surroundings. This is important for the development of the brood inside the nest and to keep the workers warm enough to remain active, even on cool days. Workers will move the brood up and down the nest in order to provide them with the optimal temperatures for growth, sometimes bringing them onto the surface of the nest for an extra boost of warmth from the sun. The thatch is also an umbrella for the nest, each piece laid in a precise manner so that rain water trickles away from the nest, keeping it dry.

The heart of the nest is actually deep under ground and comprises of a series of tunnels and chambers. Inside a special underground chamber the queen will reside with her brood.

Wood ant mounds vary tremendously in size and shape, from tiny nests no bigger than a dinner plate, to humungous mounds over 1m tall.

Please check out the link for more: HERE

I think I may have disturbed this click beetle from its hibernation...

The last thing of note is this little springtail that I found. It was more what it was doing than the actual find that interested me. It's a fairly common collembola but I have never seen one on top of a slug like this...

It was also raising its abdomen in the air and 'waggling' it too...

I had no clue as to this behaviour; but I knew of somebody who might. Collembola expert and all round nice guy Frans Janssens. I fired of this email:

Hello Frans,

I wonder if, when you get time, you might be able to clue me in as to what is happening with the behaviour this collembola is exhibiting?

It was aboard this slug and even though I watched it for some time, showed no signs of wanting to climb off. It kept dipping its head as if drinking and at the same time sticking it's abdomen in the air and 'waggling'.

Any clues would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

JJ

Here is his reply:

Dear John,

The head dipping is not drinking but eating: Neanura muscorum is a typical suspension feeder and feeds on the slime the slug is covered with. But I have no idea why it uplifts its abdomen as such... I have seen it in Hypogastruridae: 
http://www.collembola.org/images/cowen/Hypogastrura-sp-20090226-Rick-Cowen-USA-South-Dakota-l.jpg
But I have no clue what they are doing.

Kind regards,

Frans

Ah well! If the expert isn't sure, I don't feel so bad about not knowing myself. As always I do wish to thank Frans for taking time out to answer my little poser though.

And so that is all I can offer for this update, I can add just one more photograph before I go though. A selection of springtails from the garden...

That's it! As Wellington famously said to Joseph Stockdale ..."Publish and be damned".

Until the next time...

Return of the inverts...

Aradidae have the common name of 'Flat Bugs' and if ever an adjective was  aptly used, surely it's right here?
Flat bugs of course refers to their extremely flat bodies...

Click any photo for a larger view

Although these bugs are fairly widely distributed across Britain and Wales, they are rarely seen as they secrete themselves under the bark of various (particularly native) deciduous trees such as oak.

The species that I found here is named Aneurus laevis and the first two pictures here are of adults of the species.

The nymphs (young) are totally different in appearance and could even be mistaken for a different species initially. Here's a photo of adult and nymph side-by-side for comparison...

And of the nymphs on their own....

I understand that there are 7 species in the U.K. and that they feed on fungi.

Cumbersome as they must look, they can actually fly as this original drawing demonstrates...

The last photo here shows a couple of nymphs at different stages of development...

With a vast improvement in the weather over the last few days,I have now been able to record several 'firsts' for 2013...by that I mean, the first example I have found of an invertebrate species this year. I'm holding my breath for this improvement to stay with us to give me time to spot a few more, that I know friends have already been lucky enough to see for themselves. 

On a sunny wall at the weekend I spotted and photographed my first salticid (Jumping spider) who was busily scooting around looking no doubt for an easy meal...

Salticus scenicus

The same day and this time in the garden, I came across my first nursery-web spider. This one was sunning itself on a wooden fence panel...

I love these common spiders with those little floppy 'ears' either side of the eyes. Somehow they seem to have very expressive faces~both this and the jumping spider are females.

Venturing further afield one day in search of inverts proved to be less successful than I'd hoped and more to the point, resulted in sore feet from wandering around in cold/wet wellington boots all day...well, probably not all day but long enough!

I did spot my first shield bug of the year though sitting on a tree in deciduous woodland. This one was Troilus luridus, a species that overwinters as an adult...

On any given day of bug hunting I always try and make time for a couple of arty style shots...

And this colourful little snail brings to an end another blog update.

Until the next time...