Somebody keeps putting topsoil on my allotment...

...the plot thickens!

Here's the scenario: 3rd March 2017 I was sitting quietly in my studio today, just reading-up on bloody-nosed beetles. I had seen a Flickr photo posted by my friend Tim, and was intrigued as to why they are common where he lives in Jersey, and yet, I have not found any locally. It was a faint, fluttering noise that distracted me. I stopped and listened; it seemed to be coming from the corner just under my window. 

   Once I had removed all of the gumpf that was obstructing my view, I could just make out movement between the end of the worktop and the wall; the gap is tiny. Using the back end of a plastic scalpel handle (the only thing to hand that fitted), I tentatively worked my way along the gap. As I reached the far end of the worktop, out popped a very tatty looking, but rather large moth.

   It doesn't take the world's best expert in identifying moths (which is handy, 'cos I am far from that) to know right away that this is a male emperor moth. No problem identifying the moth, but would it be so simple to work out where it came from and what it was doing there? Probably: it is surely obvious? I have a number of emperor moth pupae/cocoons that are over-wintering, and like the hawk-moth I recently blogged about, one must have emerged early.

   All I needed to do was examine each cocoon carefully to see which one was no longer intact. A job made somewhat easier by knowing that the larger ones were likely to be female; as my moth is male, I only need check the smaller ones. And so one-by-one, I gave them the third degree. Having scrutinised all but one, I knew, because I am sharp as a new pin with these things, it must be the final one! Nope...that one was intact too. Eh? I must have missed something? I probed them all one more time with the same result, all intact. 

   Well now...

Assuming this isn't an unexplained apparition (can you have an explainable apparition?) there has to be a rationale. Think JJ...think! Er...erm...

   Awe...ah! Jeez, I....maybe...no wait!  I had emperor moth larvae once before and I kept them in here, in my studio. I remember that I had raised them almost through to pupation and had read that they pupate on their food-plant. Reassured that they would indeed build a cocoon on the bramble they had been feeding on, I left the lid off their house one night and come morning, there was no sight of any of them. Despite a frantic search, I didn't ever locate a single caterpillar.

One of the original caterpillars

   I assumed that they must have found their way outside and into the garden. I put it down as a learning experience and determined to do better if I ever had another chance. Could it possibly be that one of the original larvae did manage to build a cocoon and it remained here undetected? Is there a faint chance that this moth emerged from that cocoon?

   Well I do know, have heard of these insects remaining as a cocoon through two winters, and even read of a case where one didn't emerge for three...but four? Is that a possibility? I would like to think so, and frankly, what other explanation could there possibly be? I have contacted a couple of people who know far more than I about moths, to see if either of them can give me a definitive answer. I'll let you know how that pans out.

And that's where you might expect this fable to end. But no...

   The two days weren't quite as annoying as that flashing image, but I had another nasty head cold, so they were fairly tiresome. Anyhow, back to the narrative; you know how it goes...'I was sitting quietly in my studio today, when I heard a faint, fluttering noise that disturbed me'. Surely not? It couldn't be, could it?

Well slap my ass and call me Samantha! As they say...don't they? Oh! Okay then, stone the crows, I'll be a monkey's uncle! This time it was emanating from t'other end of the building. It didn't take long to discover that it was indeed a second moth. Another male emperor, and this one seemed to be newly eclosed as it looked perfect. What a beauty it is too; I have seen some fabulous moths in my time but this one...

Now I know that this is part camouflage, and part defence in terms of design and colour but man! Mother Nature sure excelled when she devised this one. 

Forsaking any further developments, this means that 2 of the original larva must have survived in here for close on 4 years then eclosed. I have not heard of anything like this before, but can't think of a possible alternative. Unless you know better? 

Style,grace and class.....Not!

Phew! Finally made it back here to update. Life gets in the way sometimes...so unfair!

At the closing of my last update I hinted that I'd been lucky enough to witness another 'first' regards invertebrates moulting. This time it was, well let me show you a photograph, maybe you will recognise the individual?

Click any photo for a larger view

A bit unfair I suppose because it is kinda contorted here as it struggles to free itself from the exoskeleton, but it is actually a speckled bush cricket...

I guess I watched for around 15 minutes and it still wasn't completely free of its old 'skin'...so vulnerable for such a long time.

Back in June whilst visiting Blean Woods near Canterbury, I spotted what I thought were emperor moth eggs-the only doubt in my mind came from the fact that they were on grass and I know that bramble is the main food-plant for emperors...

I took a few home to observe and meantime had another look at emperor eggs to see if these were a match...

I found these on the internet and they look a good match to me.

The only thing to do was to wait for the caterpillars to emerge, offer them both grass and bramble and see which they preferred?

It was quite a wait! Like a pregnant father I paced up and down for the next 15 days-slightly melodramatic? Possibly, but I had started to think that nothing was ever going to happen. But then...

Hmmm...looking very like emperor caterpillars aside from being a tad more hairy, or possibly just that the hairs seem a bit long? Once they'd demolished the shells, I added fresh bramble and grass and waited...

I guess you'd call the result inconclusive! Some headed for the grass, others the bramble and each tucked into their chosen meal. Perhaps the first moult would prove conclusive?

Well certainly with that orange banding starting to appear, they are looking less emperor-like, but what could they be?

They continued to feed and grow well and by the time of their last moult I finally realised that what I had were not emperor moth caterpillars at all but fox moth.

A new one on me, I hadn't seen either the moth or larvae before but they are impressive caterpillars, being about equal in proportion, but slightly slimmer, than the emperors...

The amount of butterflies and caterpillars I have been sighting has definitely increased dramatically of late, after what has been another poor year to date, at least locally. On a wander around farmland the other day, I saw these small tortoiseshell caterpillars...

By the way, as they approach pupating, caterpillars increase their intake quite markedly and here's a little video of one of my poplar hawk moth cats doing just that. This is real time..it's also a bit shaky as it was hand-held by...my shaky hand...

Just a reminder that this won't show in the e.mailed version of my blog

Now as often happens, I have been preoccupied with leafhoppers of late, just because I found an interesting one whilst looking for something else and that started me searching for more...and more...and...well, you get the picture? And if you haven't got the picture yet-here it is...

I couldn't offer an identity for this tiny nymph but, it's kind of cute, especially so when you consider the next photo...

I had to get the macro lens on this one as they are so small, I suppose it was about 3mm or so but once I had,I could see the huge hole in its abdomen, or perhaps more accurately, where its abdomen had been?

 Gruesome enough, but then...I was sure I could see movement inside! I waited a while and checked again-holy smoke! (apologies for all the exclamation marks) There was something and like a scene from Alien, it began to emerge (Don't use another exclamation mark John....don't...don't...just don't!.........Bugger!) What crawled out of the hopper was this...

What is it? No idea would be the closest I could get at present. It sort of looks like a dayglo hoverfly larva but, as 80's songstress Toyah once sang...'It's a mystery' for now at least.

Vying for the title of brightest addition to this blog update is this next little hopper nymph...

At least I can i.d. this one though; it's a rhododendron hopper. They turn this bright yellow colour at about the third moult, having previously been off white...

The adult is quite colourful too...

Erm...this is a bit out of sync should have added it when I was talking about parasites but anyhow; is this perhaps another, or even the same type of parasite still inside a hopper?

I may be at risk of repeating myself here but this kind of thing is what keeps me so interested and enthralled by nature. This year is the first time I have found/seen anything like this and each year brings something new. As somebody once said...'No man can be truly called an entomologist, the subject is too vast', or something similar to those words and the point is that there will always be a surprise around the corner as long as I keep looking.

Now...what this entry needs to really complete it with style, grace and class is a picture of some caterpillar poo...

You'll thank me one day you know? The next time you're at a dinner party and the conversation turns to invertebrate feces, you will be without doubt the only guest who can offer to identify caterpillar poo. Just to ensure that should that fact not be sufficient for folks to think you're some kind of oracle, you could quickly add that the poop of the alder moth (for that's what this is) is....groovy! 


Until the next time...

Cold comfort...

Comfort's Wood lies half a mile south of our village (or town as the traders prefer it to be known) and is a place I know very well and walk on an almost daily basis.

For this blog entry, I thought I'd share just some of the finds from today's walk.

Please click on any photo for a larger version

Meadow Brown Butterfly

I've already noticed the drop in numbers of Meadow brown butterflies and even though they seem to be one species that cope reasonably well with lower temperatures, if we get many more morning such as we had today, when it seemed unseasonably cold, spotting these will be much harder.

The Common Blue has had a very tough time locally this year and numbers are well down on last season...

Common Blue Butterfly

This female that I found in Comfort's Wood today is only the third individual I've seen all year thus far and that's a real disaster for the species. I'll be watching with interest to see how they recover come next year.

I normally try for a nice clean background for my butterfly shots but I'm quite happy with these showing some of the habitat in this instance. It's a shame though that this female is in such poor condition.

Aphrophora alni (Alder Spittle-bug)

The rosebay willowherb that has lined the woodland rides for a good few weeks is now coming to an end regards flowering, however, it still seems to be called home by a good number of bugs and insects.

The froghopper pictured above was perched on this plant and was doing its best to avoid being photographed by means of the usual trick of disappearing round the other side of the stem each time I was about to shoot.

Black Vine Weevil

The vine weevil in the photo above was something I wasn't expecting to come across today. I have not seen them in these woods before and knowing that they feed at night, didn't expect to bump into one early afternoon.

Once again, this was on rosebay willowherb.

On an artistic note-I was pleased with how this particular shot turned out. It was one of the few I took using flash to increase the light and I always aim to get as natural light as possible when using flash.

A Barkfly

Barkflies (Psocoptera) seem to have undergone an image change, they were once referred to as Bark-louse-or should that be lice? But it was decided that louse had nasty associations with dirt and disease, therefore the barklouse spin-doctors got together and came up with the alternative of fly.

Not often seen because of their small size, there are actually as many as 68 species in the U.K. with  almost every tree in Britain likely to be host to some of these creatures. This one was on oak.

A Grass Moth

I stumbled on this grass moth when I was photographing the vine weevil. I think it will be Agriphila species but unsure beyond that. Possibly A.straminella as I know that one is active during the day;not too sure though as I think that species has blue eyes?

 I also spotted this tiny moth on fleabane-I should know this one as I'm sure I've photographed it before but memory fails me once again.

My final 'spot' on my hour long walk around Comfort's Wood was a Common Darter dragonfly...

Common Darter Dragonfly

By now, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, as seems to happen with regularity this year and it had begun to rain. This one was perched on a small log on one of the footpaths. Determined to get at least one shot, I lowered myself to the ground and ignoring the dampness, set about getting my photo.

The rain didn't seem to be getting and worse and the dragonfly didn't appear at all bothered by me shoving my lens into its face, and so I felt confident enough to take a few extra shots that I could then 'stack' together on the P.C. for a sharper image with a bit more depth of field.

And so, this is the resulting image:it's a stack of 7 frames shot hand-held using natural light. I was quite pleased to be able to get the extra depth of field and clarity but, I'm not sure that I actually like it that much! It seems a bit too sharp somehow for natural light? 

That was Comfort's Wood then, on the last day of summer 2012. Last day? Huh! There didn't seem to be many summer days this year?

Until the next time then...



All shots taken with Canon 40d-Canon 100mm Macro. All natural light photos with the exception of the vine weevil and barkfly where I added diffused flash.

Dylan inspires me to shut up!

 "And how many deaths will it take till we know, that too many people have died?"

Any Dylan fan will know these words from the great 'Blowin in the Wind' but I'm offering them up here as an example of a rhetorical question.

Because.....

Here's another-"Do you think that I sometimes rabbit-on a bit too much through these blog entries?"

Well I'll do my best to make this update the exception by letting the photos do the talking.

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VIEW

A backlit sawfly larva

If you've ever wanted to see the digestion system of a sawfly larva, this is the picture for you!

A grasshopper 'moult'

It was only a couple of days ago that I said to a friend I'd never seen one of these.

Pholcus phalangioides

A soon to be parent carrying around her offspring

A PaleTussock Caterpillar

This is one of the skipper butterflies I photographed the same day that I found the moth eggs. I think this is actually a small skipper (that's it's name, I don't mean it's small, although, it is! Confusingly, there is little difference in size between a small and large skipper.)

Each year that passes brings different conditions and therefore some species perform better than others in any given year and I wondering if the weird-weather conditions this time around have been responsible for so many hoverflies being affected by fungus infections?

I've been studying this photo to see if it is all the same species affected and then whether it's also all males or females but can't be sure-I know there are folks who read my blog sometimes and will know though, so maybe my question will get answered in time?

It's very strange how these flies are compelled to climb a grass stem before they die-I read that it's something to do with the highest available spot? Quite why this happens is a mystery, 'it's a mystery I'm still searching for a clue. It's a mystery to me. Shot in the dark.....' Ahem! (Toyah, in case you were wondering? You weren't were you.)

The last picture for this entry is a wasp that I was able to focus stack to get more depth of field and detail. I think this may be a potter wasp but if this close-up of its face is evidence of a different species, please do inform me, I'm always willing to be corrected-in fact I love it!

Potter wasps belong to the family......hang on! I said I'd keep the rambling to a minimum...you'll have to look it up yourself!



Ooops! I promised to give you some idea of the size of the African land snails featured in my last blog update and so here's a photo taken with a 10p coin...

Alright then, I've realised my mistake myself and to avoid you pointing it out as well-this photo wasn't actually taken with a 10p coin...I used the camera.

Until the next time...