After a cool spring that was not good for butterflies, we have quite a butterfly bonanza going on at the moment. Red Admirals and Whites (Small and Large) are the predominant species, but in the last week we also had Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Holly Blue, Speckled Wood and a Hummingbird Hawk-moth around the garden, with our lavender and neighbour’s buddleia being the centres of activity.
A new plant growing on the gravel alley to the house - Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola). This is the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce, but it comes with prickles on the stem and the underside rib of the leaves. It is supposed to be edible, if with a bitter taste.
Here’s a couple of beetles that turned up recently. The ground beetle Dromius meridionalis was found in my moth trap the other morning. It’s a woodland species, often found under tree bark.
Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva) is common around the area, especially on the flowers of Hogweed and other umbelliferous plants. I don’t get many in the garden though - this one was on Welsh Poppies.
I posted some of the “macro” moths earlier - here are some of the smaller moths, including a few new species.
Caught a really great selection of beautiful moths during the week, when we got our first dry and wind-free night for a while. There are a lots of different species flying at the moment, so here’s a selection of the 40 different species caught.(Second post with some micros to follow).
Marbled Green and Marbled Beauty are both moths whose larvae eat lichens. I catch the former quite frequently during their flight period in the summer, as they are common on house walls. Marbled Green is a new species for the garden, but it also can be found on limestone dry-stone and house walls with lichens. This one took me a while to identify as is it not the typical green colour usually seen.
It seems unfair to have christened this the “Plain” Golden Y, just because it has a prettier close relative in the Beautiful Golden Y. A first for my moth trap, with its pinkish colouration and golden spots I think it’s quite a fine-looking moth, even if this one is a bit worn. Flying in June-August, its caterpillars eat nettles.
#953 Plain Golden Y (Autographa jota)
Despite the wind and frequent rain showers we finally have a few more butterflies around, mostly Large & Small White, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Holly Blue and Red Admirals. Relatively few Red Admirals over-winter in UK, most Spring arrivals coming from the continent, with the first generation of UK hatched butterflies appearing about now. This species will be around until late autumn. The caterpillars are found on nettles mostly, and the adults love buddleia.
These black ants were emerging for their nuptial flight last week when the weather was hotter, drier and less windy. Winged males and females (queens) fly in order to mate, the queens going on to form new colonies and can live several years,while the males die off in a few days. These were all males, as the queens are larger. Usually they fly a bit later in the summer, but these were in the entrance to the greenhouse, so got an early start thanks to being in a warmer environment.
These stripey Cinnabar Moth caterpillars were on a Ragwort by the roadside just near my house. The moths are a bold red & black colour, but the caterpillars, which are often found like here in large groups, come in yellow & black stripes.
Ragwort contains toxic alkaloids which are unappetising (and in high doses even potentially dangerous) to grazing animals, however the moth caterpillars are able to sequester these toxins which affords them protection from insectivores. Black ants were also present, which are often associated with aphids, a few of which were also present. The ants can attack the caterpillars, presumably when they are small, to protect the plant for the aphids, which they then farm.
Ermine moths are common summer moths, so I thought it would be nice to look at three of them I caught at the weekend.
Often a pest on fruit trees their caterpillars are protected by a cocoon like a silken web around the leaves of the tree - in this case apple or bird-cherry. The Apple Ermine is pretty much identical in appearance to the Orchard Ermine (found on blackthorn, hawthorn or cherry) and the Spindle Ermine (Spindle tree). I put them down as Apple Ermines as I definitely have this species caterpillars on my apple tree. Bird-cherry Ermine does look a little different with neat lines of black spots. The third species is a Thistle Ermine, which is a bit bigger and actually though it looks similar, not from the same family - as the name suggests its caterpillars are found on thistles, but not in the same kind of silk web.
This boldly patterned black & grey fly is a from a family known as root maggot flies. Some species do have larvae that eat vegetable roots, but this one is believed to be a klepto-parasite laying its eggs in the nests of mason wasps, where they feed upon the larder the wasp leaves for its own young.
I managed to unpack the moth trap before the rain started this morning and picked up a couple of new moths. The V-Pug is a fairly common species, with two generations in spring and then summer. It gets its name from the black “v”s on the wings. Dusky Pearl is a one-generation June/July micro with a preference for blackthorns
Tidying out the my rather run-down shed, I found a pile of leaves & twigs in the corner under a cupboard. After starting to rake them out an unhappy hedgehog emerged, so I put the nest back and hoped I hadn’t driven it away. And yes, photos on the trailcam show it is still there. We’ll put out some cat food for it periodically, so hopefully it sticks around.
This Leopard Moth was hiding somewhere in a bunch of stuff I’d put outside to take to the tip. Leopard Moths are a one-generation summer moth, its caterpillars feed on leaves of a variety of different trees & bushes. I’m not sure if this one got a bit squashed when I was moving the rubbish around, or if was just playing dead.
#949 Leopard Moth (Zeuzera pyrina)
This sturdy-looking hoverfly lays its eggs near the a wasps nest, where its larvae enter the nest ultimately eating a wasp larva before re-emerging as an adult. It looks a bit hornet like. This one was on a wall where we have a few mason bees and wasps, but it is a male (eyes join on the forehead) so probably was getting some sun rather than being on the look-out for somewhere to lay its eggs.
Pushing up in a neglected corner, this Wild Pansy has definitely self-seeded itself from somewhere. It’s not a species I’d recorded previously in the garden,
#946 Wild Pansy (Viola Tricolor)
Less moths this weekend, probably as there was a bit of a breeze, but there were a couple of smart new June/July flying species, as well as the Privet Hawk-moth posted previously.
The first of these, is a Varied Coronet (Hadena compta, #947). This is a relatively new species to the UK, unknown here until the 1940’s since when it has expanded its range across Southern England, but it is still not very common in Gloucestershire. Its caterpillars eat the seeds of Sweet William and Bladder Campion flowers.
The second new species is the Short-cloaked Moth (Nola cucullatella,948), which is a more frequently trapped species. Its larval food-plants include blackthorn, hawthorn and apple.
Chinese Character (Cilix glaucata) and Marbled Orchard Tortrix (Hedya nubiferana) are both species which hide in plain sight during the day looking a bit like a bird dropping, to hopefully avoid being eaten.
This weekend’s spectacular hawkmoth is this very fine Privet Hawkmoth. The UK’s largest resident hawkmoth, it flies in June/July. It’s caterpillars feed on Privet, Lilac, Holly or Ash.
#872 Privet Hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri)
Especially in the summer moths, there are often a lot of small insects in the light trap along with the moths. Sadly these are mostly quite short-lived insects and are often dead or dying when you check the trap in the morning.
Water Veneer moths live only a couple of days. In June/July the winged males gather in large swarms to mate and are drawn to light. Females come in winged and flightless forms. These moths are aquatic, the males and flightless females mate at thew water’s surface, while the larvae live in slow-moving water where they feed on pond weed. the moths do fly quite far from water, so despite being quite far from any large pond or river I still caught 35 individuals at the weekend. The waterboatmen and long-horned caddisflies are also aquatic species that venture quite far from water and are attracted to light. The two caddisflies are both long-horned, which has a morph with patterned wings and a rarer one with plain ones.
The leaf-hoppers, close relatives of grasshoppers, are from closer afield in the nearby trees. There are a lot of similar looking leaf-hopper species and I was unable to find a good match in order to identify them. As well as these there were a few aphids and midges found their way into the trap.
Passionate about nature, based in Gloucestershire UK; this site is about creating a wildlife friendly family garden and exploring the diversity of animal & plant species that share it with us.
As a nature lover and wildlife gardener I started wondering about the biodiversity in my backyard and just how many species from plants to insects to birds to mammals might live in or visit it.
Much of the wildlife in my small, village garden has been present right under my nose for years without my really appreciating it, so on the way I am learning a lot about different species and how to make a wildlife-friendly environment for them; also getting engaged more in conservation activities around Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the Cotswolds.
My garden species tally started from zero on June 1st 2018, the target was 1000 species, which I eventually hit in June 2024. But there’s still plenty to see and learn about.
I'm very interested in your comments & advice: whether it's about the blog, some help with identification or just how to make my own little Eden better for wildlife. So please leave a comment or drop me a line if you feel like it!
Graham Tompsett
microedenproject@gmail.com
Powered by Squarespace.
