The Natural Stuff

There are lots of different moth and butterfly larvae to be seen now.Tents of silk can now be seen in bushes and trees. In a local nature reserve several good species of caterpillars were found in one morning.

The Garden tiger moth(Arctia caja) is not as common as it used to be. Here a larvae eats gorse, one plant among many that the species targets.

The Lackey moth(Malacosoma neustria)is a communal tent making moth. Many species do it to reduce predation, and to keep warm. Most moth larvae and some butterfly larvae can produce silk and moths are renown for it, especially the silk moths. Here a group of lackey moths are living in a tent.

The Brown tailed (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)moth is very common and many tents adorn brambles, oak trees or other low growing plants particularly by the coast. The hairs sometimes can be an irritant to some people. The larvae are very beneficial to many birds and animals.

Another tent making moth larvae is the small Eggar moth, (Eriogaster lanestris) a red data book species; that means that it is rare and threatened. Hawthorn (crataegus laevigarta)plays host to many a moth species.

A species that is becoming renown lately is the Ermine spindle moth (Yponomeuta cagnagella ) because it covers hedgerows with silk and often huge swaves of roadside spindle, (Euonymus europaeus)looks amazing as it is white, baffling many people and the larvae strip the bushes of leaves. At the moment the larvae are small and in tiny tents.

Spiderlings of many spider species especially the orb web weavers are now hatching and dispersing. Here young Araneus species leave the shelter of the nest and balloon, that is shoot out a long line of gossamer thread to be picked up by a breeze.They fly high and can travel for many miles.

They will take a while to grow and will be more noticeable in late summer.

I found an odd leaf beetle at a reserve this week . I am at a loss at to what species it is.

It could be a colour variation of an uncommon species.I will update this post when I suss it out.

Quercus is the genus name given to the oak trees, and oaks, especially the English oak (Quercus robur) is host to many an interesting fungi, in this case the oak maizegill (Daedalea quercina). It is not a common fungi but can be frequently found in the New forest.

It is called maizegill because the spore baring apparatus on the underside looks like a maize.

Another fungi that I found is the chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) also called the sulphur bracket . It  usually grows on oak and is one of the best edible fungi of the summertime. when young the texture, smell and flavour of it is excellent. I collected the bottom tier of this specimen.

I visited a site where I had previously seen a huge black female adder (vipera berus)two years ago. I only saw her once but did not manage to get a photo. It was not the first black specimen that I have seen but she was the largest adder that I had ever seen. I had returned many times but had not seen her.Today I saw another smaller black female, half the size but with a blue tint to her.I had once seen blue common lizards in a small colony in mid Dorset but had not seen melanistic snakes with blue in them before. She had not shed her skin recently as she would have been brighter, but the colour was lovely. Black adders are common and the further north one goes, the greater the chance, as they can absorb more heat thus survive better in cooler climates. Melanism occurs rarely in grass snakes and even rarer in smooth snakes.

A typical male adder has bold zigzag markings on a light background, often white but occasionally brown. Black adders are usually females; this helps when she is thermo regulating and incubating her embryos, and adders as with most viper species do not lay eggs but are viviparous.In northern latitudes, depositing eggs is risky as guaranteed warmth is  patchy;it makes better sense to go to the warmth oneself and then development of young is much faster. Here is a male for comparison.

The grass snake(Natrix narix) are so different from adders.Here is a young male on the scent of a female. He is late mating or maybe did not get a chance to do so. sometimes grass snakes mate late resulting in a late clutch of eggs being layed. They often fail to hatch. They are deposited in warm vegetation such as decomposing matter such as compost heaps and manure.The third native British snake species the smooth snake (coronella austrica) also give live birth.

Here is another smaller specimen playing dead;a survival tactic.

So much rain poured through small stream systems and marshlands as the water from the surrounding hills gushed down enlarging small shallow warm pools where many species of heathland animals thrive. The ten spined stickleback(Pungitius pungitius) can live in brackish waters and although this specimen lived in fresh water.Many were flushed out and were trapped in puddles on a footpath along with three spines sticklebacks (gasterosteus aculeatus) .One specimen leaped out of the puddle in a desperate bid to escape a heron that was waiting but I found it and returned it to the main water which was just two meters away.

Also in the same puddle were several water spiders (Argyroneta aquatica). They were all females swept from their air filled bells underwater.This is the only known species of spider that lives its entire life under water.They collect surface air under their bodies and relocate it in their diving bell and stay there. they lash out at small passing animals.they also show parental care with their spiderlings.

These spiders are not to be confused with the raft spiders Dolomedes fimbriatus)Which can submerge themselves to hide from danger and partially submerge to catch other animals. They are good at running across the surface.This specimen was in the same puddle.

A  Male sand lizard basks nearby in a dryer mossy area of heath,

and a sika deer hind is concerned for the safety of her new born calf hidden amongst the gorse.

On the beach the high tide had shifted up lots of interesting shells and bits of small animals and weeds including many small hermit crabs (Pagurus bernhardus)in whelk shells.

The pretty shell of the Thin Tellin , (Tellina tenuis) lies amongst many tube worms cases.(Lanicea)or (Polymnia)

There are a number of conspicuous beetles that appear during April and May. In natural grassland ,especially short grazed chalk or neutral grassland ,beetles such as the bloody nosed beetle (Tamarcha tenebricosa) trundle around. They eat bedstraws especially goose grass. The larvae are squat and dark green with a slight metallic lustre.They are becoming increasinly scarce in many areas as natural grasslands disappear.

Below it and to the left are a pair of lesser bloody nosed beetle(Timarcha goettingensis), which live in similar habitats but prefer shorter sward and they are far less common.Their is an obvious size difference between the species and the smaller type has pitted shell rather than smooth, and the male is often more shiny than the female.

Another rare species is Chrysolina oricalcia) is also found in the same habitats and may be confused with the later species but on close observation one can see the difference. Here is a specimen with a small bloody nosed beetle on the right.

Oil beetles (Meloe brevicollis) can also be seen in the same habitats but prefer areas of longer grass with flowers, especially yellow composites. the large egg laden female lays under a plant and the larva on hatching climbs the flower stem, into the flower and waits for a female solitary bee, to hitch a lift with back to its nest and then eat its offspring and  pollen store.

There are many emperor moths(Pavonia pavonia) emerging from their overwintering cocoons of silk on our heathlands.They  are one of the silk moth species, of the saturnid group. Male and females look slightly different. Here they feed on  heathers. The female is the larger greyer looking individual.

They are rather small in comparison to many of their larger relatives throughout the rest of the world,but certainly add to the amazing variety to be found on southern heathlands.

Here are a few close ups of two lizard species to be found on the Bournemouth cliffs, the green lizard(Lacerta bilieata) and the wall lizard(Podarcis muralis). Both species will bite when handled and in the case of the green, may hold on for several minutes before releasing its vice like grip. Does it hurt ?ask Darren Naish ..it is his hand !With open mouth displaying pink, the green and yellow is contrastingly great. it’s a pity this male  did not have a blue head.Many males do have varying amounts of blue on the head sometimes the whole head is blue.Sometimes the females also have blue on them. (See another category in pictures)

The wall lizard for comparison

This male is dull as he is about to shed his skin.

something that has intrigued me for a long time is the ability of animals and plants to mimic other species, and how they manage to do so. Most scientists would say that it is just an accidental morph of evolution, that is to say and accident such as a spot appears on say a butterflies wing, and it then does not get eaten as other predators see it as an eye, then off course many of its offspring will not be eaten either and so the trait is there to stay, and then evolves better over a period of time. OK!  but, and there are many buts.Visual appearance is one thing, but mimicking smells is another and besides some insects mimic frogs and snakes and birds, as if there is some other unknown intelligence within the evolution at work. One caterpillar rears up when threatened, displaying a snakes head with a forked tongue and snakes eyes!how many accidents did that species go through to develop that ?The accidents had to be symmetrical in the first accident, which is often so in insects, but multi disciplined tactics are amazing. I am not sure that science really knows the answer to this !Orchids are an amazing group of plants that mimic their pollinating insects. They mimic the colour and supposedly even the pheromones of a particular bee;they do this to ensure pollination, and if that fails many species just self pollinate. It was always thought that the Ophris species in Britain are mainly self pollinating as certain species of bee do not live here as they do on the European continent.With the early spider orchid(Ophrys sphegodes), There are many variants within a small colony thus suggesting that they are more likely to self pollinate otherwise most would look the same as is often the case in the bee orchid.yesterday I visited a local site and counted a dozen very different looking flowers.Here are just a few.

The pollinia of many of the flowers have gone, one would suggest that they have been pollinated by bees, but we have had severe stormy weather and many flowers were crushed by the wind. some pollinia may have been blown off. I adore orchids, they are special among plants,especially the Ophrys genus. the early spider orchid is our earliest flowering species in the UK, closely followed by early purple and green winged. The many other species appear mainly in June, then July to September. I hope to show many other species as the summer goes on.

The Puss moth(Cerura vinula) is a pretty whitish grey moth, very furry looking but its larvae must be one of the most bazaar and well known of moth larvae. As it grows it has an amazing defense mechanism. It pulls its head in to reveal little eye like spots and raises its hind end, revealing whip like tendrils that shoot our purple threads like a snakes tongue. the pic below shows the eggs layed by the adult moth.

And here are several hatched larvae. Some are several days old and some hatched yesterday hence the size difference.They eat sallow(Salix caprea) pussy willow.

In a week or two they will moult for the second time and become green with a purple saddle.I will then show another picture of them.

The slime mould Reticularia lycoperdon seems to be everywhere all of a sudden .All it needs is damp and mild air to fruit.

As it oosed out of the wood, it brought along with it a shed spiders skin.

The jay looks for insects and spiders on the greenhouse roof. The jay is a charismatic bird, a member of the crow family. It rarely spends more than a few seconds in any one place before sailing off to another.The bird sits making strange noises , piping, meowing and whistling little notes as well as the renown squawking.

Birds breed at different times and although birds within the northern climates tend to breed within the summer time, they vary and birds that grow slowly often breed early.Early breeders are Grey herons, Ravens, Mistle thrushes and Mallards.Many smaller birds tend to time the hatching of the eggs with the emergence of food items such as caterpillars which appear when certain tree leaves spring to life. Ravens build their nests or add to existing nests in late winter and are incubating eggs by early march. When they finish feeding the nestlings, hobbies take over the nest at the end of April,or May.Hobbies arrived very early this year with an individual seen during the first week of March and another was seen during the third week. more are on their way. Today I saw my first Red footed falcon , whizzing along Bournemouth sea cliffs as they do every spring. I saw a marsh harrier two days ago, and a red kite two weeks ago. Other migrant raptors will be following behind with black kites and ospreys . The best way to observe raptors is to listen out for the exited cries of Herring gulls. Below, a raven does a display flight at dusk.

A Great crested grebe awaits its mate on its nest.They seem to spend hours doing nothing but drifting about on the water keeping guard.

Sparrows chirp and chatter and are busy . As they are communal nesters they tend to have a hierarchy and are always fighting.here a cock and a hen check each other out.

Dunnocks are often called hedge sparrows but are not related. The cock sings from a prominent perch while his hen has just started to incubate the eggs

A dog fox hunts during the day, for voles and insects and also ground nesting birds.

The pine pollen is erupting ! watch out hay fever sufferers. The  Scots and maritime pines have copious amounts of it, and the flowers are opening.

Solitary wasps are also busy and Ammophila sabulosa has just dug a tunnel to put a paralyzed caterpillar in; she will lay one egg on it then block the hole entrance with little stones.There was a colony with hundreds of females nest building.They nest in warm sand banks.