Two New Moths

Two more macro moth species were added to the garden list on the night of July 18th to take the total to 259. They were Large Twin-spot Carpet and Purple Clay, neither of which is unusual, in fact, Purple Clay is quite common. Unfortunately, the Purple Clay specimen was a bit battered and had probably been on the wing for several weeks.

Another Large Hoverfly

A previous post mentions the largest UK hoverfly, the hornet mimic, Volucella zonaria. In the same family, but not quite as large is Volucella inanis, which infiltrates wasp nests as opposed to hornet nests. This species also had an historic distribution centred around the London region, but has also undergone a range expansion both north and west. I don't see this hoverfly as often as Volucella zonaria, maybe because I'm not really looking for them and zonaria is more impressive. Anyway, I found a female today feeding on oregano and marjoram flowers, which seemed totally unconcerned with me and remained on a few plants for quite some time, which allowed the attached photos to be taken.

I know very little about hoverflies and only identified the few Volucella species I know by looking at google. However, another more common member of the Volucella family was present on the buddleia today, Volucella pellucens, which basically has a bulbous black abdomen with a broad white band across it.

Buddleia Magnet

We have a wild buddleia that we leave to grow near the front of the house, because of the butterflies and other insects that it attracts. My last post talked about the Silver-washed Fritillaries, but today and yesterday (19th and 20th July), I have also seen a Hummingbird Hawkmoth (the attached photo is a bad attempt from a previous year - my camera is not good enough to capture a sharp image of their whirring wings!) and Volucella zonaria. Both species are often seen on this buddleia. Butterfly numbers should increase, but we are seeing Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Meadow Brown, Large, Small and Green-veined White.

Another strange sight from today was a Silver Y moth, a regular migrant. I thought it looked odd just hanging down with its wings open and upon investigation I realised that it had fallen prey to a spider, a type of crab spider I think. The photo shows the moth and the spider's legs around its head!

Silver-washed Beauties!

On July 18th, whilst leaving the house to go to a friend's BBQ, my wife informed me that a Silver-washed Fritillary was on the front garden buddleia. I arrived to find a rather smart male and then also a rather tatty female (males and females have slightly different wing markings). I only managed a record shot of the male, as he was quite flighty and I have also attached quite a smart female from 2006. This is the third year in the last four that Silver-washed Fritillary has been recorded in the garden and I suspect that there is a small population in the adjacent woodland, although in good years, of which this is apparently one, they do tend to wander. Funnily enough, at the friend's BBQ about a mile and half down the road, I observed another female Silver-washed Frit on their buddleia!

The following day, a male and female were seen again. The male appeared to be behaving quite aggressively and would feed occasionally on the buddleia, but would also harass other 'orange' butterflies, namely Painted Lady and Comma. When the female SWF put in an appearance, she was parried into a bedroom window with a thud and they both tumbled off.

Hobby and Harlequin

A Hobby flew south through the valley this morning (July 11th) and was my first garden sighting of the year. They tend to be seen more in late summer/autumn, especially after the young are on the wing, but there are only ever a handful of sightings each year.

On July 12th, my wife and daughter found a Harlequin ladybird on the same patch of irises that I had previously found a Harlequin pupa, so very possibly the emerged adult. It was quite distinctive, being black with two orange spots, but they are a highly variable species. The attached photo even shows me reflected in the wings! I have seen some hundreds of adults locally this year, generally in large nettle beds, so they are obviously spreading very quickly.

Two's Company....

I've attached quite an interesting picture of multiple Southern Hawker exuvia. It is not uncommon to see one exuvia clinging to the back of another, I guess because of the limited pond foliage, larvae invariably choose to climb up the same stem occasionally. However, I have never before seen three exuvia together like this! I counted 28 Southern Hawker exuvia on Saturday 4th, so this is obviously the most numerous dragonfly species living in the pond at present.

Marbled Magic

The first Marbled White butterfly of the year was seen at lunchtime. Unusually for this garden, it didn't just fly straight through, but nectared on the patio bedding plants (lobelia) for a few minutes. Marbled White is a scarce visitor to the garden, probably annual, but only one or two sightings per year and normally about July. It is a beautifully marked black and white butterfly and the attached photo shows this well, although this is not from the garden, but was taken locally.

Yesterday (2nd), my wife saw a Small Tortoiseshell, which alighted briefly on a patio lavender. Surprisingly, this was only the second garden record, although this species has undergone a population collapse. 2009 does appear to be seeing a welcome revival in its numbers.

To date, 21 species of butterfly have been recorded in the garden, with Silver-washed Fritillary and Purple Hairstreak being two of the more unusual visitors.

Mid Summer Stag and Dragons

The first stag beetle of the year whirred through the garden yesterday evening, always nice to see. I only see these huge beetles on a few days around mid summer and they are generally flying over at 15 to 20 feet, so I have yet to get close enough to one for a photo. The larvae of stag beetles live in rotting wood for 6 to 7 years before they emerge as adult beetles and there is certainly plenty of that in the largely unmanaged woodland adjacent to the house.

After watching the stag beetle, my attention was drawn to the pond, where I could hear faint dripping. I then noticed some pond foliage moving and was delighted to see a Southern Hawker larva climbing up a stem, where it eventually found its final resting position. Slightly beyond this was another larva that had begun its transformation into dragonfly. I was able to watch the dragonfly begin to emerge from the skin through a small slit just below the head. It was about half emerged before the light faded and will no doubt have flown by early morning. The only time I have seen semi-emerged dragonflies in the morning is when the weather suddenly turns wet, as this seems to delay the process. I have attached a couple of photos of just such an instance when an Emperor Dragonfly had emerged, but was still drying out its wings. This was taken in 2005, but it gives you an idea of what I saw this evening.