February 2011

[David M]

Hurrah! My first sighting of 2011 (and my earliest ever to boot!)

I was having a cigarette in my south facing garden at around 1330 when a Small Tortoiseshell fluttered in and briefly landed on a wall before flying off to investigate the dead grass next door but one.

Although the temperature was only 8-9C, the area is well sheltered and it was certainly comfortable enough to stand out there in just a T-shirt.

The earliest date I had seen a butterfly prior to this year was 5th March, so that's the season off to a promising start!

[A_T]

Monday on the North Wales coast briefly saw a dark butterfly fly off from basking in a sunny spot. Not near enough to identify it but I suppose it was a Small T.

[NickB]

..isn't that feeling, when you finally see your first butterfly, great?

[David M]

..isn't that feeling, when you finally see your first butterfly, great?

It sure is, Nick. I also saw my first bumble bee of the year today which gave me almost as much pleasure.

[Gibster]

Here's a useful link to British Bumblebees...it seems dead easy, but I've heard that bumbles can be tricky due to the variability of markings between species and castes. Now all we need is the weather to warm up a little more so we can test it out!

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... olour.html

Gibster

[A_T]

Bumble Bees

[NickB]

Here's a useful link to British Bumblebees...it seems dead easy, but I've heard that bumbles can be tricky due to the variability of markings between species and castes.
Gibster

I tried that with this one

and I think it proves Gibster is right!
Rooting around some other images on the web, I came up with Bombus pascuorum? as the nearest...
but my level of confidence in this ID is Zero

[Susie]

Look at the feet, I'm confident it's a male Anthophora plumipes, Nick. (hairy footed flower bee)

I absolutely adore bees, quite possibly more that butterflies

[Matsukaze]

Bumblebees are seriously difficult. It took me over a year of sustained looking to sort out the common six species, and a couple of years longer to work out the cuckoo species. The rare ones are even harder! They are Mullerian mimics - they have evolved to look very similar so predators have only a handful of colour patterns to learn (20-odd species covered by 3-4 colour combinations).

It is rewarding though becuase the behaviour is endlessly fascinating and often very amusing, particularly when foraging when they crawl into foxgloves and bumble about, making the plant vibrate, or press themselves flat to go into a yellow flag flower.

[Gibster]

Quite a few years ago I got into botanising. One fact I was keen to check out was that Common Gorse smells like coconut (try it!). My sense of smell is notoriously naff, so I leaned in REALLY close...took a great big sniff...and nearly died as a bumblebee shot out of the bloom and almost disappeared up a nostril!!! No harm done, but I really can't say who was most shocked I've sniffed quite a lot of Gorse since, but I always check first nowadays.

I've found an earthworm key too at http://www.opalexplorenature.org/Earthwormguide Tried it out today. Not as simple as it seems. Green Earthworm is easy (I found a stunner last week, looks to have bioluminescence along the edges of the first 15 or so segments, which is the reason I Googled an online key in the first place) but the rest are a bit less, er...exciting? But it's a learning curve which can't be a bad thing. Blimey, next I'll be getting into fungi, how lame is THAT...Zonda???

Gibster.

[Piers]

Look at the feet, I'm confident it's a male Anthophora plumipes, Nick.

I think you're right Sooz, but to be honest that means little from me when it comes to aculeate Hymenoptera...

Felix.

[Susie]

Mate, I know I'm right on this one. I'm better at IDing bees than butterflies and this is an easy one. The hairy legs, yellow face and time of year is a dead give away. The females are completely black. I've been looking for these since my lungwort started flowering. I say looking out, but really I've been listening out, these chaps have a very noisy buzz

[Gibster]

Hey Susie,

is there a UKBumblebees type site that you can recommend?

Also, is there such a thing as an Ashen Bee? Spring flying on Portland a few years ago. I think it had wings (OK, my bee ID is rough - but not quite THAT rough, lol. Yep it definitely had wings. And legs.)

Gibster.

[Matsukaze]

Sounds like it might have been Andrena cineraria.

[Gibster]

Just Googled some images...looks good! The BWARS site has distribution maps, again - looks good! Thanks Matsukaze

[NickB]

Look at the feet, I'm confident it's a male Anthophora plumipes, Nick. (hairy footed flower bee)

I absolutely adore bees, quite possibly more that butterflies

Thanks, Susie. Lovely name!
My prediction was 100% correct if not the ID
Having seen a few ID charts and how difficult they are to follow unless you've seen one before...
I can see this may become another addition to the "things that fly and grow" list....
I recently started photographing some mosses and lichens in the cemetery
... Since then I find the local BC sec is also an expert on lichens.
Keeps me practising with the macro whilst no butterflies I guess...oh, for some sun....
N

[A_T]

It always amazes me that so many common species of insect don't seem to have colloquial names.

[Zonda]

Quite a few years ago I got into botanising. One fact I was keen to check out was that Common Gorse smells like coconut (try it!).

i found this out several years ago, nobody believed me. It's the flower that holds the aroma.

[NickB]

Another butterfly this afternoon; the first I've seen in the Cemetery this year.
A fly-by - most likely an ST, but definitely a Nymphalidae

[Susie]

Hi Gibster, I am afraid I dont know of a site equal to this but for bees. BWARS is the best I know of.

I saw my first bumble bee today, a bombus terristris in my garden. She had been caught out by the weather and is currently enjoying a bit of R&R in my kitchen with a drop of dilute honey to perk her up before being released tmrw. She is covered in mites, which are fascinating in their own right.