Category: Insects

Blue Damselflies

damselfliesdamselflies2.30 p.m.; Common blue damselflies are mating down by the pond, the blue male clasping the olive female.

She rests on the water surface as she carefully lays an egg on a submerged leaf of pondweed then the pair move on to lay the next.

newt and damselflyThere are smooth newts lurking below. One grabs a female and swallows her head end first, the two wings protruding from its mouth.

blue damselflyI watch for a few minutes. The males zip around like little blue neon tubes, chasing each other and resting in the sun together on the leaves of plants around the pond.

smooth newt

damselfliesThe pairs flying in tandem continue to lay, often just inches from a waiting newt below.

Tree Wasp

Macro photograph taken with my new Fujifilm FinePix S6800 bridge camera.

My sketch from the photograph
My sketch from the photograph

I LET a couple of wasps out of the studio window this afternoon but inevitably the odd one will get trapped indoors and I found this one lying dead on the windowsill in the spare bedroom, giving me a chance to take a closer look at it.

The photograph was taken with my new Fujifilm FinePix S6800 bridge camera. I always like to draw from the photograph before turning to the field guide but comparing photograph and sketch I’m surprised how out of proportion I drew the central part of its face. The little sketch (right) drawn directly from the wasp itself is more confident and proportionate than the one drawn from the computer screen. But the macro photograph brings out details that are barely visible to the naked eye.

The tree wasp has two small yellow spots on the rear of its thorax.
The tree wasp has two small yellow spots on the rear of its thorax. 14 mm.

As its name suggests the Tree Wasp, Dolichovespula sylvestris, often builds its nest in trees and shrubs but at the weekend we found one nesting on the ground on the grass verge by the path at Walton nature park. It has also been recorded as nesting in barns, empty bee-hives and nestboxes.

In the 3 second film clip below you can see a wasp flying out. I didn’t block the flight path for longer than necessary.

Tree Wasp nest

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing moth, Noctua janthe
Underside of moth, 10x.

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing moth, Noctua jantheI found a dead Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Noctua janthe, lying on the path in the greenhouse this morning and, as I’d plugged in my USB microscope to take a closer look at the fungus I decided to take a few shots of the moth too.

wing scales

broadborder4

The saffron yellow underwings are a striking contrast to the drab upperwings. The border looks as if it has been painted with Impressionist brushstrokes when viewed at 60x.

I suspect that the light blue scales are reflecting daylight from the window.

moth scales, taken at 200x magnification

Zooming in to 200x reveals comb-like ends to the scales.

Coloured scales camouflage the moth when at rest and reveal distracting colours when it is disturbed and it opens its wings. It’s also possible that the coating of scales and the furry edges of the wings help muffle the sound of the moths wingbeats, helping it escape from any bat that hunts by sound alone.

Ringlet

Ringlet butterfly, Aphantopos hyperantusRinglet, Aphantopus hyperantus

Ringlet butterfly, Aphantopus hyperantusThis Ringlet butterfly was a roadside casualty that Barbara spotted when we were in Dalby Forest, North Yorks Moors, last month.

Wing scales taken at 200x.
Wing scales photographed at 200x.

Eye-spots, Ringlet butterflyEye-spot, Ringlet butterflyI put it under the microscope to focus on the eye-spots. Each has a bright fleck in the middle, even the smallest of them, which must help give the impression of a gleaming snakelike eye, distracting any attacker either by surprising it or fooling it into pecking the butterfly’s wing instead of its body.

Yellow-tail Moth

yellow-tail moth, Euproctis similis
Featherlike antennae help the male track down the larger female.

When disturbed the Yellow-tail Moth, Euproctis similis,  sticks the end of its abdomen up between its wings. Both male and female have the yellow tip although it is larger in the female.

yellow-tail sketches

Some female moths spread pheromones by raising their tails and the males use their feathery antennae to home in on them.

So why does this male raise his ‘tail’ when disturbed? Is it a way to surprise a predator?

Male yellow-tail moth, Euproctis similis
The male has dark spots on his wings.

It’s the first time that this species has turned up in the moth trap.

The male seen from below.
The male seen from below.

Yellow-tail moth caterpillars have been found on Japanese Knotweed, an invasive garden escape which very few native insects feed on, but they’re more likely to feed on sallow, blackthorn and hawthorn.

Broad-Bordered Underwing

broad-bordered yellow underwingTHERE WERE at least half a dozen Large Yellow Underwings in the moth trap this morning plus some of their smaller relatives but this is the first time that I’ve seen the Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Notcua  fimbriata. This is a male; the female is paler.

broad-bordered yellow underwingIt’s more typical of wooded areas than gardens but as the foodplants of its larvae include docks, nettles, brambles, sallows and willows it’s not surprising that it has turned up here.

Fan-foot, Dun-bar and the Silver Y

Silver Y Moth, Autographa gammasilver yAlthough it’s years since I last saw a Silver Y moth, Autographa gamma, I didn’t have any difficulty in putting a name to it, thanks to the conspicuous calligraphic Y on its wing. This is the first time that it has turned up inSilver Y sketch the moth trap and that could be because, as an immigrant each year to Britain, it has taken until now to reach Yorkshire.

Dun-bar

dun-barThere are so many brownish, streaked little moths, both micro and macro, that I find drawing them gives me my best chance of picking out the pattern as I look through the field guide. Taking a close look at this, I noticed that the two bands and the inconspicuous dot made a pattern like a carnival mask, enabling me to identify it as the Dun-bar, Cosmia trapezina, a common moth from lowland Scotland southwards, wherever there are trees.

Fan-foot

fan-foot

While I sketched these moths Barbara went through the book and came up with a name for this obscure-looking delta-winged little moth. It’s the Fan-foot, Zanclognatha tarsipennalis, a common moth of woods, hedges and gardens.

The the three lines on its wing are;

  1. curved/wavy
  2. like a question mark
  3. almost straight

with a row of fine dashes along the edge of the wing.

Orange Swift

orange swift

Lets have an easier moth; the male of the Orange Swift, Hepialus sylvina, has a bright orange-brown forewing. It’s larvae feed on herbceous plants including dock, dandelion and bracken.

Underwings

small yellow underwinglarge yellow underwingThese two underwings are so regular in the moth trap that I tend to ignore them so that I thought it was about time that I made a quick sketch of them.

The Common-Clay

obscure moth

As you can see from this photograph taken in the bug box, this is a small moth, just 16 or 17 millimetres long.
As you can see from this photograph taken in the bug box, this is a small moth, just 16 or 17 millimetres long.

I’VE FOUND some striking looking moths in the light trap in recent weeks but I thought that it was time to turn my attention to the commoner but obscure species that I generally ignore.

obscure mothI’ve been thinking of this moth as a ‘clay’, as it resembles a variable little moth called the ingrailed clay but there are probably a dozen other noctuid moths in the field guide that are possibilities.

Drawing it from one of the photographs I took is my attempt to take in its markings; most prominent of which, or should I say the least obscure, are the kidney-shaped marking and the adjacent oval on each of its forewings but most noctuid moths have these.

As usual, any suggestions as to its identity would be very welcome.

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Gothic

gothicgothicTHE FIRST THING that struck me when I saw this moth in the light trap was the tracery on its wings. Now that I know it is the gothic, Naenia typica, I can see that it resembles the patterns found in the stained glass windows of gothic cathedrals. Its relative the Bordered Gothic dispenses with the pointed tops to the arches and has more of an Art Nouveau look, as if it had been designed by Aubrey Beardsley rather than Hugh of Lincoln or Bram Stoker.

The larvae feed on a range of wild and cultivated plants including willowherb, cleavers, comfrey and sallow.

Mother of Pearl

mother of pearl

The photograph that I made my pencil and watercolour sketch from. This was easier than squinting into the bug box, which is how I drew the pen and watercolour sketches.
The photograph that I made my pencil and watercolour sketch from. This was easier than squinting into the bug box, which is how I drew the smaller sketches.

I KEPT THINKING of the patterns on sea-shells as I drew this moth, the mother of pearl, Pleuroptya ruralis. At 15-17 mm, three-quarters of an inch, it’s no midget but it’s classified as a micro-moth, one of the Crambidae, a group which also includes grass-moths, china-marks and the small magpie.

mother of pearl

You might disturb the mother of pearl in daylight in a nettle patch. Its green larva rolls a nettle leaf for protection. Its larvae will also feed on elms.

Caught in the moth trap 21-22 July.