Hibernating Hummingbird Hawkmoth

I'm sure that many people have seen the hummingbird hawkmoths hovering around their lavender or verbena flowers this summer.  Our verbena had an almost daily visit from one this summer, but you don't expect to see much of them at this time of year.  I saw one yesterday (8th December).  As I got the ladders down from under the carport, I dislodged a moth.  At first I thought it was dead but when I picked it up it started to vibrate its wing muscles.  I wasn't sure what it was so I dashed for the camera and got a few quick snaps in before it had warmed up enough to fly away.  It may seem odd not to recognize a hummingbird hawkmoth straight away, but at rest (or in a torpor as this one was) they are a fairly plain brown job.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth - Macroglossum stellatarum

The moth book suggests that it is the only one of our hawkmoths that can survive the British winter, and then only in the balmy south-west of the country.  I emailed the picture to the county recorder and he is of the opinion that they can survive the winter in Sussex and the fact that I had found a hibernating one helped support that opinion.  I just hope the disturbance to its slumber didn't use too much energy so that we see it as an early visitor next year.

The usual view - this one was photographed in Sicily feeding on Lantana

Beetle and Spider

Violaceous Ground Beetle

Here are a couple of recent visitors to our garden. The first is a relatively common species of beetle - the Violaceous Ground Beetle. I have seen the term Violet Ground Beetle as well but I think violaceous describes it better because it's not violet, it's black with violet highlights like the hair of many a modern-day goth.  It is nocturnal and flightless (which is probably why it's on the ground!) and eats slugs amongst other things. The Natural History Museum produced a very entertaining blog entry on this beetle which is well worth looking up at blog.nhm.ac.uk/tag/ground-beetle/.

Steatoda nobilis

Our second visitor was even bigger and was this 'false widow' spider with no common name, but goes under the catchy title of Steatoda nobilis.  It was introduced to this country from the Canary Isles or Madeira were it is endemic in the 1870s.  It tends to be associated with houses but in the South of England it can cope with the weather and lives outside.  Like all spiders it is poisonous (that's how they subdue their prey) and is one of only a handful of UK spiders that can break through human skin.  Its bite has been likened to a bee or wasp sting, but that doesn't stop the Daily Mail wallowing in pictures of people with extreme reactions to the bite or tales of near death experiences.  Not that I'd want to be bitten by one, but I'm not reaching for the spider extermination kit either.  There is also a related species found in Australia Steatoda capensis which is also called 'false widow' - as is the Red-back Spider (Lactodectus hasseltii) , the bite of which may well put you in hospital. 

Red-back Spider

New Moth Trap

We decided to upgrade our moth trap with a new Robinson trap which seems better as far as the number of escapees goes.  Also, the moths seem to batter themselves less.

Our first run of the new trap at the weekend produced a good crop of 51 species of moth, including 11 micro-moths.  We also had 2 species each of wasps, ladybirds, and shieldbugs.

The undoubted star of the show, if only in size was this beautiful Convolvulus Hawkmoth.  You can get an idea of the size from the shot of it perched on Maya's wrist. It is a spectacular insect by any measure.

In terms of rarities, though they seem to be getting less rare, this Jersey Tiger could compete with the hawkmoth at least in terms of colour.

And finally, this Common Purple and Gold micro-moth - a pretty moth in its own right - intrigued me.  It doesn't show up well in the photo, but if you look carefully you can see that the antennae curl round the two gold spots on the wing.  This got me thinking - has it evolved to do that, or is it just a natural antenna shape?  I looked at the photos of the only two other specimens of this species that I have and in one the antennae curved away from the spots, in the other they went straight across, so no conclusion there.  But if the spots have evolved to attract a mate, or for camouflage, or to deter predators, then you'd think that evolution wouldn't spoil the effect by draping antennae across them.  I will look at this species carefully in future.

Wasp Catering Service

Sallow Kitten - Furcula furcula

We had quite a good catch in our moth trap this weekend - a little over 40 species, probably the prettiest being this Sallow Kitten.

Sexton Beetle - Nicrophorus humator

We don't always get just moths though and beetles are common visitors like this sexton beetle - Nicrophorus humator - which as its name suggests has a habit of burying small corpses like mice or birds by digging underneath and pulling them down for undisturbed consumption.  If you look closely at its neck you'll see that it is carrying a passenger - an orange mite.

Common Wasp - Vespa vulgaris

Another visitor, who helped herself to yet another visitor was this common wasp - Vespa vulgaris - and you can tell its a female by counting the segments on her antennae.  There should be 12. (Males have 13.)

July Moth Highlights

We have used the moth trap on 3 occasions in July.  On the first occasion we had a bumper crop of 83 moth species (see the earlier post July moths), the second occasion we had 47 species, and on the third we had 33 species.  These numbers include both macro and micro-moths.  In total we had 116 different species in July.  We also had a very high number of species (25) that we had not had here before.

Below are some of the most photogenic species we found.

True Lover's Knot

Sallow Kitten

Leopard Moth

Dusky Sallow

Least Carpet

Horse Fly

Horse flies are not everybody's favourite insect, indeed they are unlikely to be anybody's favourite.  They get the name from their habit of biting horses, their thick hide being no obstacle to the mouthparts of horse flies.  And they are not only partial to a blood meal from horses, but will happily take blood from any mammals, humans included.  They are a large group of insects with about 160 species found in Europe, of which about 30 are found in the UK.  Another common name is the Cleg-fly though I have been unable to find the origin of the name except that it is from old Norse.  It sounds like something you may nail into the soles of your clogs, but then I'm from oop north so what do I know.

Bright Horse-fly

I found this one sat harmlessly sucking nectar from hogweed while looking for bumblebees - and it was at least as big as a bumblebee and I expect a bite from one would be quite painful.  I think that this specimen is called a Bright Horse Fly.  Otherwise known as Hybomitra distinguenda, it is distinguished from H. bimaculata by the extent of the orange marks on its abdomen, and from H. ciureai (a rare species found at Rye Harbour) by the colour at the base of its antennae.  The most striking thing about this insect, apart from its size and its orange marking is those incredible stripey eyes.

I don't think that the ladybird is in any danger from the horse fly, but it does look a very threatening pose.

Bright Horse-fly and scale model

Solitary Bee Hotel

You are probably familiar with bee hotels.  Many shops and companies sell them and they are basically a selection of holes of various sizes up to about 8mm in diameter, or a bunch of bamboo stems which provide ready made holes.  These are to attract solitary bees which use them for 'nesting'.  The term nesting is not entirely like the idea of somewhere to raise young and to look after them until they fledge like birds do.  In the solitary bee world, they are indeed to raise young, but the adult insect will not stick around to look after the brood.  They lay their eggs, protect them as best they can, and then die.  Basically most species use a tube-like space of some sort in which to lay their eggs, and many species use bee hotels whether that is their natural sort of hole or not.  If you buy or make a bee hotel, and why wouldn't you if you want your apple trees pollinated - you will see that they have been used when the end of the holes are blocked off with mud or some other material.

It is not just the end that is blocked up.  The female solitary bee lays an egg at the far end of the tube and then provides the egg with food - in most cases pollen.  She then seals that cell and lays another egg, leaves food, and seals off the cell.  She will carry on doing that until the tube is full.  When the eggs hatch the larva will eat the pollen, turn into a pupa (chrysalis in butterfly terms), and wait for spring when they will emerge as an adult bee to carry on the cycle.  There are more than 220 species of solitary bee in the UK and they differ in where they nest, and how they seal up the cells where the eggs are laid. Mining bees dig holes in the ground and use mud, leafcutter bees use leaves to make a tube, and then seal off the cells with leaves, mason bees use holes in mortar and use mud as seals.

Just recently I have come across two species that use fairly unusual egg-storing methods.  Firstly, one of the Pett badminton players, Jacqui, showed me photographs of a wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) that had been flying around foxgloves in her garden.  We have had this species in our garden for the first time this year.  The wool carder bee gets its name because it collects long hairs from plants such as the hairs inside foxglove flowers, or the hairs from the leaves of lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina), which we have also had in our garden for the first time this year. (Coincidence?! - no.)  It uses the hairs to seal off the cells, and will happily use the tubes in a bee hotel.

Wool-carder bee

Another species that I came across only recently is the fork-tailed flower bee (Anthophora furcata).  This is the only solitary bee species that digs its hole in dead or rotten wood and I took this picture of it excavating wood from the planks of a footbridge across a ditch near Toot Rock at Pett Level.  I'll cross that bridge with care in future, not because of the young bees there, but because both I and at least one solitary bee know how solid that plank is - or isn't!

Fork-tailed Flower Bee

July Moths

We have only managed to put out the moth trap once so far this month, but we had a bumper bundle when we opened it on Saturday morning.  We had more than 80 moths in total, at least 10 of which we had never recorded here before.  The full list is detailed below, with photos  of some of the more interesting ones.

* The asterisked ones are the ones we have not seen here before.  Not that they are particularly rare, it's just that we haven't been doing it that long.

All these moths have been recorded on iRecord, but as yet some haven't been verified.  I'll update the post when they are confirmed. (Updated 22 July 15)

Beautiful Hook-tip

Clouded Border

 We also had a Common Wasp and an Orange Ladybird that had been attracted by the light.

Large Emerald

Beautiful China-mark

Swallow-tailed moth

Angle Shades

Apple Ermine

Barred Straw

Beautiful China-mark * (micro)

Beautiful hook-tip*

Bird-cherry Ermine* (micro)

Blue-bordered Carpet *

Bordered Beauty*

Bright-line Brown-eye

Brimstone

Buff Arches

Buff Ermine

Clay

Clouded Border

Clouded Silver Common Emerald

Common plume moth (micro)

Common Quaker

Common Rustic

Common White Wave *

Coronet

Coxcomb Prominent

Dark Arches (more than 30!)

Dark Bordered Pearl (micro)

Dingy Footman

Dot Moth

Double-striped Tabby

Dun-bar

Elephant Hawk-moth (at least 15!)

European corn-borer (micro)

Fan-foot

Festoon

Figure of Eighty

Flame

Flame Shoulder

Toadflax  pug *

Fulvous Clothes Moth (micro)

Garden Grass-veneer (micro)

Gold Triangle (micro)

Heart & Dart

July Highflyer *

Juniper Carpet *

Large Emerald

Large Yellow Underwing

Least Carpet *

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Miller

Mottled Rustic

Oak nycteoline

Poplar Grey

Privet Twist * (micro)

Riband Wave

Rosy Footman

Rush Veneer (micro)

Satin Grass-veneer (micro)

Satin Lutestring

Scalloped Oak

Scarce silver-lines

Scorched Wing

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Silver Y

Small dusty wave

Small emerald*

Eudonia delunella (micro)

Small Magpie (micro)

Smoky wainscot

Snout

Spectacle

Spotted Magpie (micro)

Swallow-tailed moth

Sycamore

Treble Brown Spot

Triangle plume moth* (micro)

Uncertain

Vapourer

V-pug* Vine's Rustic

Waved carpet *

White Plume (micro)

White Satin

Willow beauty

Birdbath Visitor

Sometimes it's nice to sit with a book and a cup of coffee, and sometimes it's nice to look up and see what's in the garden.  And sometimes you get a surprise.  And very occasionally, whatever's out there sits there long enough for you to grab a camera, fit the right lens, and fire off a few shots.

Male Sparrowhawk, a little ruffled 

after his bath?

...and all feathers in place

Butterfly with a bow tie

When I first saw this Large Skipper butterfly, I thought that it had encountered a really small fly that had somehow attached itself to the butterfly's proboscis.  It was only when I got the photos up on a large screen that I could see that something - maybe the stamen of a flower - had got stuck on the proboscis.  Though the butterfly was clearly in some sort of discomfort - it was trying to dislodge the object with its fore-legs and also tried wiping it on the edge of a leaf - it was able to coil its proboscis and there is no reason to think that the butterfly couldn't feed normally, or even go on to produce the next generation.  An odd sight though.

I have since found out through UK Safari (www.uksafari.com), an excellent resource for identification and information, that the object on the proboscis was the pollen sac from an orchid.

Large Skipper - Ochlodes venata

A closer view showing what looks like a blob of nectar as glue

Moth Highlights

Moth numbers have been drastically down this year, though this weekend we did have slightly greater numbers than we have had so far this year.  There were 40 individuals of 16 species including micros.  The star of the show from the trap however, was not a moth but a beetle.

Great Silver Beetle - Hydrophilus piceus

Great Silver Beetle - Hydrophilus piceus

This Great Silver Beetle turned up.  We've never had one before and we've never seen anything that big before.  In case you are wondering, the coin in the second picture is a 50 pence piece, not a 20 pence piece.  Unsurprisingly it is one of Europe's largest beetles.  You may also be wondering why it is called a Great Silver Beetle when it is clearly black or a very dark brown.  This is because when it is not being distracted from its mating flight by the bright lights of Pett, it is an aquatic species and when it is diving under water a layer of air clings to its back and gives it a silvery appearance.

Eyed Hawkmoth - Smerinthus ocellata

Though the Elephant Hawkmoth tried hard by sheer weight of numbers (we had 8), the contender for co-star was this superb Eyed Hawkmoth.  The eyes that give it the name are hidden in this photo as they are on the hind wings.  It flashes the eyes if it feels threatened, but here it was perched comfortably on the side of the moth trap waiting for darkness.  The second photo is a close-up of the wing-tip, just to see if I could get close enough to see the scales - success!

Green Pug - Pasiphila rectangulata

Pug moths can be very difficult to identify as there are a number of very similar looking moths in the group.  We had two in the trap - a Foxglove Pug that we have seen before and is fairly distinctive, and this one that we'd not seen before.  It looked like a pug and was quite green.  Looking in the book, there was only one that had any green on it, and it was the imaginatively named Green Pug.

Collection Distractions

When I'm out pollen collecting for the Short-haired Bumblebee Reintroduction Project, I'm concentrating totally on the bees and on whether or not they are carrying pollen.  But sometimes something bright or unusual catches your eye and you just have to reach for the camera.

Woundwort Shieldbug - Eysarcoris venustissimus

This tiny, but exquisite little beast caught my eye because I'd never seen a shieldbug so small, and I'd never seen any of this species before.  It is called the Woundwort Shieldbug because the nymphs feed on Hedge Woundwort - Stachys sylvatica.  But the most significant thing from the point of view of afficionados of the bumblebee project are concerned is that they also feed on White Dead-nettle!

Sphaerophoria scripta

Sphaerophoria scripta

This hoverfly is just plain eye-catching.  Not only did it pose on the head of the thistle but it also struck the mid-air pose.  The remarkable thing about the mid-air photo, is not the luck of the photographer in getting the shot, but the fact that even with a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second, the wings are a blur, but the body is as still as if it were screwed to the ground.

Tenthredopsis litterata

This last distraction was a very lively and shy insect - hence the poor photos.  I saw several flitting about in the comfrey, but so far I've been unable to identify it.  I've got feelers out (sometimes you can't resist an antenna pun) but so far nobody has come back with a definite answer.  I think it may be a sawfly of some sort, but I'll update this post when I get more information.

The update is that it is indeed a sawfly - Tenthredopsis litterata but the only thing I can find out about it is that the larvae feed on cock's-foot grass.

Brede High Woods Walk

Pett Nats had an outing on Saturday to Brede High Woods.  This woodland has a mixture of habitats, chief of which are heathland and woodland and the number of species we recorded makes it a bit of a biodiversity hotspot.  At one point Lynne stepped towards the long grass in an open area and was amazed by the number of insects suddenly jumping and flying around.

Most of the bird life was detected by identifying calls - great tits, blackcaps, long-tailed tits, and thrushes to name a few.  The nightingales that we thought we heard on the recce for the walk decided not to turn up for the main event.

There is a huge range of plant life in Brede High Woods - everything from hornbeam and chestnut coppice to the smallest plants like milkwort and speedwell.  The photos below show a good sample of what we saw on a very enjoyable stroll around this fascinating patch of nature.

Pale St. John's Wort

Meadow Brown - seen on the recce, only Speckled Wood and Red Admiral were seen on the walk proper.

Yellow-legged Solitary Bee - Andrena sp.

Common Blue Damselfly - seen on the recce.
Normally Brede High Woods has plenty of dragonflies
and they were about but none posed for photos.

Heath Speedwell - a pretty heathland species much in evidence.

Skullcap - Scutellaria galericulata

Green-legged Sawfly - Tenthredo mesomela seen on the recce

Hoverfly - Syrphus torvus

Common Milkwort - Polygala vulgaris

Silver-ground Carpet Moth - Xanthorhoe montanata

Scorpion Fly - Panorpa communis One of several similar species.
Note the scorpion-like end of his abdomen.

Tree Bumblebee - Bombus hypnorum

Enoplognatha ovata A common spider.
We saw both male and female on the same twig but the female didn't pose

Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil - Lotus pedunculatus.
Sadly not yet in flower.

Common Spotted-orchid -
Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Hoverfly - Eristalis pertinax

Micro-moth Nettle Tap - Anthophila fabriciana

Bee mimic hoverfly - Criorhina floccosa

Micro-moth Yellow-barred Long-horn - Nemophora degeerella

Hybrid Larch (probably)

Meadow Grasshopper - Chorthippus parallelus

Roesel's Bush-cricket - Metrioptera roeselii

not a Speckled Bush-cricket as I first thought

Malachite Beetle - Malachius bipustulatus

Common Green Grasshopper - Omocestus viridulus

Smooth Tare - Vicia tetrasperma

Swollen-thighed Beetle - Oedemera nobilis
Only the male has swollen thighs (probably for show)

Froghopper - Cercopis vulnerata

Robber Fly - Empis tessellata
These flies are usually predators of smaller flies, but this one
with his long proboscis is also partial to a bit of bramble nectar.