Paul's Back Garden Safari

Just outside the patio doors leading to the back garden we have a small Bay tree in a pot. It’s being doing well there in its south east aspect, and receives full sun for half the day. Although the flowers are inconspicuous and only appear earlier in the year at this time in late summer it still attracts its fair share of visitors. Wasps and overflies seem to like it, searching for something that I can’t see. But the past two weeks I’ve noticed another visitor I’ve only seen occasionally, and then not in the garden. This is a solitary wasp and despite it’s diminutive size, only about 10mm, it ia a beauty. Being small and pretty active it was a challenge to get a decent photo, but I eventually managed to get a couple I’m happy with. Now I’m going to disappoint you here and tell you straight away that I can’t give you an exact name other than it is a Ruby-Tailed Wasp, a member of the Chrysis genus. Why am I being difficult? The reason is easy, and one I come up against often when tryin...

25 June 2019 I’ve made a surprising and interesting discovery this year in the garden. Perhaps that statement may be a little hyperbole. It’s not a new discovery to science, just to me. When bimbling around the garden this late spring and early summer I’ve noticed a number of very small flying insects zipping around and occasionally landing on the yellow leaves of a Choisia. Up until a couple of weeks ago I dismissed them as some sort on midge, and way beyond my poor identification skills to even consider for a nanosecond to try and ID. One morning when there was nothing much around I attempted a photograph anyway. Why you may ask. Well, because I could! When I looked at the image on the iPad later that day I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a miniature bee. One which had very distinctive facial markings. “Ohhh.....I wonder what that is?” I mumbled to myself. I have to mumble to myself, everyone else in the house tolerates my fumbling forays into the the world of ent...

It is always exciting to find a new moth I’ve never seen before whenever I open the moth trap in the morning. And this time was no exception. However, I was only able to take a record shot as it was clinging to the egg carton. It wasn’t interested in being manoeuvred onto my lichen covered twig for a more aesthetic shot and it escaped. So for now I’ll have to content myself with just the one photo. The Early Tooth-Striped,  Trichopteryx carpinata,  is a small moth with a wingspan of only 30-34mm (1,2). The base colour is grey, but can be variable taking on a browny grey colouration (1). The broad and rounded forewing have a series of cross bands which can be faint (1,2) but there is a sub-species f.fasciata in which the cross bands are bolder and darker (1,2). It’s not difficult to see where the English name came from. Distribution Map from NBN There is only one generation, with the adults on the wing April and May (1,2). The larvae can be found on the food plants...

I've been a little quiet lately on this blog to say the least. But perhaps I'll start again. After a great weekend walking along the South Wales Coast last month I put a moth trap out in the garden hoping for a better catch than I had last time. This was a reasonable hope, there was no rain, it was warmer than it has been and the north-easterly wind settled little bit. So out it went, lighting up the back garden like a signal to any aliens that might be cruising overhead. Next morning however was a bit of a disappointment. I only found a solitary moth. And not the most exciting looking moth at that. I've been looking at the Facebook entries of the members catches over the last few weeks, and all I can say is that I now have moth trap envy. However, I shouldn't be too disappointed as this turned out to be a new moth for the garden. Pictures slightly fuzzy, but it was an iPhone photo early morning before rushing off to work. Might you the whole moth is slightly fuzzy, ...

One of the most common visitors to the light trap I have put out in the garden over the past month has been the Large Yellow Under-wing. One morning I counted 25 hiding among the egg boxes, all clinging on determedly, and difficult to displace.  According to the UK Butterfly Conservation in the report "The State of Britains Larger Moths 2013" the incidence of N. pronuba has increased by 186% during the period of 1968-2007 (1). The distribution map from the NBN gateway shows how widely distributed it is. This is a fairly large moth with a wing span up to 60mm. At rest it's not the most spectacular of moths, with a base colour of brown, and few distinguishing markings besides the kidney spots on its wings. However when it flies there's a flash of colour as the forewings spread out and expose the bright orange/yellow colours of the rear wings. As soon as it comes to rest the rear wings are folded away and hidden once more. They rest during the day, but will flash their b...

Before owning a moth light trap I had not really considered caddis flies as being a frequent visitor to the garden. But over the last few months I found a number skulking among the egg boxes as I empty the light trap in the mornings. Now I struggle enough trying to identify the moths that I catch and release, but caddis flies are even more of a challenge, as they do not seem to attract the attention of the publishing world resulting in a dearth of accessible field guides. There are over 6000 species that have been described worldwide. Of which 199 have been recorded in Britain, but only 3 in Ireland (1). I think that this chap who I found in the light trap a couple of weekends ago is Halesus radiatus, but I'm open to corrections. Caddis Flies are superficially like a moth, and are a distant relative in the evolutionary sense,  but instead of scales on the wings, Caddisflies have a fine coating of hairs. It is this coating of hairs that gives this group of invertebrates it's nam...

I was able to put the moth trap out again on Sunday evening, hampered previously by the awful weather and being away. Sunday evening was mild and dry, but there was a very light drizzle on Monday morning. So I wasn't setting much hope for a large or varied haul. But as. I started taking out the egg boxes I kept on turning up 21 Large Yellow Underwings, 4 Lesser Yeollow Underwings, a single Double Striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata , a Setaceous Hebrew Charcter ( Xestia c-nigrum ), and a rather non-descript, well at least to me, Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea). More about the others another time, but I have to admit to being intrigued by the name of the Rosy Rustic. As you can see it's not the most colourful of moths with a uniform brown base colour. Even the kidney marks on there wings don't stand out very much. This fairly bland marking and colouration meant it took me a while to identify it. It has a single generation and flies from August through to October. The eggs ...