Wurzel

[Wurzel]

This is the final chapter of my "book" but due to the file size restriction and my hopeless ICT skills I can't get the powerpoints which I was using to represent the final pages to upload. So just imagine and piece them together like a jigsaw to make the three pages which showed all the species that I managed to photograph during 2011...

Parting Shots

Here are the species from this year. I managed to photograph most of my target species but the Purple Emperor still played hard to get, seen but not photographed! Next "His Nibbs" (Purple Emperor) is top of the list but also Wood White, Lulworth Skipper and hopefully one of the two remaining Fritillaries, maybe even Black Hairstreak - who knows?

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Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

With the lovely weather I was hoping to actually get my new lens onto some butterflies this weekend but work and household jobs took their toll...
On Friday in between sorting exam results and updating policies etc I managed to get a few snaps of a hapless Robin that had got stuck in my lab. Once it had calmed a bit and posed a bit I opened the doors and 30 minutes later it was still there perched on the door step?

I did manage to get out into the garden a couple of times and due to a lack of butterflies focused mainly on bees because I reasoned that if I could get shots of them then butterflies should be easy as they're generally less active and settle for longer. I managed to find a couple of new species for me. One was very small...

...and the other one some sort of solitary bee, guessing from the behaviour. One would be nectaring and another would fly in and buzz, a short dogfight later the "victor" would fly circuits around their "territory"?

I then thought I should put something in for Spider man as the area around the "old basin" was crawling in spiders

Happy with my haul I was then delighted by a fly by Brimstone and my second Comma of the year which decided to stop on top of the fence - yay I'd broken my butterfly duck with the new lens (hence from now on I can stop banging on about it being new )

Today there was a Brimstone and 2 Small Tortosieshell but both were very flighty...lets hope that this is it and finally the season is upon us!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

It seems to have cooled slighty over the last couple of days and butterfly sightings in my garden have dwindled - since Sunday I have only seen one butterfly - a darkish blur on the way home (presumbaly a Comma) so to keep my hand and eye in I've been looking out for Bees. The last couple of evenings have provided what I presume are two species of Bumble Bee. I've had a look on BWARS but to be honest I'm not really sure what the defining features are so purely by visual comparison I'm guessing that the first is Bombus lucorum and the later is Bombus terestris - after my recent guess work I don't really trust my eyes so if I'm wrong be gentle

B lucorum?

B terristris?

I include another shot of the second bee just becuase I couldn't beleive how "plush" it looked - like a very high quality Teddy...

And from the weekend a fairly typical view of Brimstone for me at the this time of year - they're either bombing up the garden and over the hedge or if they are nectaring I can't get close enough as they are very, very flighty. Will the season ever really start?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Gibster]

Hiya Wurzel,

regards the bees, your "plush teddy bear" is definitely Bombus terrestris and the one hovering at Lungwort is most likely Anthophora plumipes...but that's as far as I dare!!!

Have you checked these sites yet?

http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk ... ees_id.htm
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... beeid.html
http://www.brisc.org.uk/BByb.php

Some make bumble/cuckoo bee ID seem really quite simple. Me? I'm not so sure!!!

Cheers mate,

Gibster.

[Wurzel]

Cheers for the websites Gibster they're great and the downloadable I.D. chart is brill I've got it on my phone now. I was using BWARS but these are easier to use.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Things have cooled down and got wet so even the bees aren't out and about for me to photograph . Still it gives me the opportunity to sort through the specimens that I use at work and try to sort out their identification. It's a job that I've been meaning to do since I discovered and started using them a couple of years ago, before I got into photography and butterflies.
There have been debates about pinned specimens on UK Butterflies before so just to clear up one or two things before the pitchforks are sharpened...

First up they are "historical" probably at least 20 years old (even more likely - much older as the building is over 50 years old now) which is why they look so battered and broken. Secondly they were collected by someone else who left my place of work many, many years before. Thirdly I have never "netted" butterflies ever and don't condone the habit for "pinning" of wild fauna. Finally I only use them for educational purposes (making keys, highlighting variation, speciation etc) and if I didn't use them then their deaths would have been even more pointless. I need to get them identified so that when my charges ask me what they are I can have an answer for them rather than just saying "the massive one" or the "funny looking one".

I also need to point out that all of my identifications are based on a Flickr site (African butterflies) and then cross checking on Wikipedia as don't know where else to look and the boxes have "Botswana and other African countries" written on them. So if I've made mistakes then all help is greatly appreciated.

Acraea sp - serena?

Eurema sp?

Catospilla florella - African Emigrant?

Belenois aurota - dry season

I think this is the "dry season form", a bit like the polymorphic forms of Map, or Comma and Hutchinson's Comma.

Belenois aurota - underwing

Junonia hierta possibly "cebrene" - Yellow Pansy?

"cebrene" underwing

Papilio dardanus

Papilio demodocus Citrus Swallowtail

Papilio nireus

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel,

I think all your IDs are almost certainly correct. If I feel brave, I might try to identify the Eurema more closely but this is a very common genus throughout the tropical regions, from Africa to Australia, and without closer knowledge of where it came from or a photograph of the underside (it would help if you provided this) I wouldn't feel at all confident. When I was in India I photographed two species of Eurema and needed to see the undersides to be sure of the ID.

I have various general books covering African species but my comprehensive volumes are Larson, Butterflies of West Africa, which deals wonderfully with every species in West Africa, Kielland, Butterflies of Tanzania for the East of the continent and Woodhall, Butterflies of South Africa for the South. That leaves a few gaps and it is a huge continent!

Guy

EDIT: I'm feeling brave. I think that is a female Eurema brigitta.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Guy, I did start with the easy ones hence why my i.d's were on the ball! I'll try an get an underside shot of the Eurema but I thought it was a Brigitte as well but wasn't feeling that brave

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Being stuck at work during the day is starting to wear a bit thin now, so I'm relying on weekends to get out and see what I can find.

This is B. Terrestris I think.

Not brill but just a record shot for this fiesty little bugger.

I never realised how "hairy" they are...

As I drive to work in the mornings now I have the glorious tones of Skylarks and Corn Buntings instead of the radio or 70's rock music. There's one bush in particular that has had a male singing from it every morning for the past two weeks. Perhaps I might get there just after dawn and stand in the bush until I can get some shots of it? Due to it's proximity to Stonehenge it's probably seen a lot worse!

As an aside - what is the name of the diamond shaped patch that appears on the thorax of some butterflies, is it caused when they nectar?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Lee Hurrell]

what is the name of the diamond shaped patch that appears on the thorax of some butterflies, is it caused when they nectar?

Most noticable on the Red Admiral....I have no idea what it is though.

Cheers

Lee

[Wurzel]

Cheers Lee for your honest response - I was expecting someone to reply with "tch, you don't know what that is? " so it's good to know that I'm not the only one that hasn't got a clue what is is

Cheers

Wurzel

[David M]

Cheers Lee for your honest response - I was expecting someone to reply with "tch, you don't know what that is? " so it's good to know that I'm not the only one that hasn't got a clue what is is

Nor have I, Wurzel, and I have been aware of it ever since my interest in butterflies began when I was a kid.

Red Admirals do appear to possess a particularly noticeable diamond shape in the middle of the thorax. Perhaps someone can come along and tell us what purpose it serves?

[Wurzel]

Cheers David for helping me convince myself that I'm not seeing things. Philzoid pointed it out on one of my Peacock shots the other day and asked me if I knew what it was and I still don't

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Somehow I actually managed to have a lunch break today for the first time in what feels like 4 months - so I made the most of it and headed out to the nearest wild patch and sure enough there were a few butterflies - a Peacock and 2 Small Tortoiseshells. Everything is very flighty still and I need to get back into the swing of stalking so the only shots I maanged to get were pretty distant...

Once at home I headed out to the garden and as the girls were in full play mode I knew that there wouldn't be any butterflies around so I settled for some bees. The fiesty territorial ones from a few days ago seem to have chilled out slightly now and are much more approachable showing off their great white faces.

I also managed to get another first - Bombus lapidarius, with it's lovely red bum

When I was getting the photos ready for this post I noticed that it was carrying some sort of mite(?) - also a first...hopefully the nice weather will hold til the weekend and I might be able to get out properly.

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Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

As the temperatures have been rising I have been finding myself increasingly frustrated with being stuck indoors and working so I have been taking my lunch break al fresco and checking out the small area by the ground keepers sheds. The other day the grounds offered a couple of butterflies but since then nowt so I have been getting into Bees. Over the last couple of days I suddenly noticed mining bees and they are brill!
These were excavating and tending a burrow in the dry earth around the roots of an upturned tree - I think they are yellow legged miners?

Yellow Legged Mining Bee - Andrena flavipes

Andrena flavipes

Also there were these slightly smaller and darker bees - they are also a lot less "hairy" around the leg regions and much narrower in the abdomen so I'm thinking they are a different species?

Not sure?

Not sure?

There have also been a couple of bees outside the window of my lab which I've had to watch and wait for the bell to go so I can nip out at change of lessons and reel off a few shots. Again there have been the puzzlers like this one...

Not sure?

And then there was this little beauty, a Tawny Mining Bee, which surprisingly really caught my eye . It looks like it's been submerged in Iron Bru...

Tawny Mining Bee - Andrena fulva

Andrena fulva

Then when I get home I can head up the garden - no butterflies still but when they do come I'll be sharp and ready! I got a few more shots of the fiesty, little black bee from the other day - I think that it is a female "Flower Bee"? Whatever it is it has a whacking gurt proboscis!

Anthophora plumipes ?- check out the "trunk"

Anthophora plumipes?

It's my little ones 4th Birthday this weekend so we're off to a Farm park - and with the lush weather perhaps there'll be an Orange-tip or a Holly Blue along hte hedges, here's hoping...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Tomorrow my younger daughter will be 4 (where does the time go? - she'll soon be grown up and I'll have nothing to do at weekends and during the holidays but head out for some birds/butterflies ) so today we took both of them to Longdown Activity Farm. They had a whale of a time; collecting eggs, feeding goats, milking cows, pedalling tiny tractors and going completely loony in the ball pool and on the trampolines. They've got to the age now where we can let them go a bit more free range so I sloped off for the odd 5 or 10 minutes here and there to see what I could find. There were plenty of Sparrow around as to be expected and it gave me a chance to have a sort through and place them in seniority. From my brief 5 minute observations I think the chappy below was the fully pipped General, and very dashing he looked too!

The general

On taking the lunch back to the car park I dwadled my way back and spotted my first Bee Fy of the year. I think it was this species that first drew my attention to Macro photography as my best mate brought me an image of one to help him identify. I'd not seen one with the heavily marked wings like this before...

Bee Fly

There were also butterflies around - in fact the first of the day was a fly-by Comma while we were paying at the entrance and while queing at the animal handling, the goat feeding and walking past the shire horses to the pigs a male Brimstone bombed by like a wind tossed piece of Sulphur. Whether it was the same male doing circuits or three individuals I'm not really sure - probably the former. Later while my older daughter "chilled dad okay?" and my younger daughter wore herself out on the slide (we've nick-named her the "play machine") I checked out the only accessable bit of hedge in the whole place. I was rewarded with my first proper opportunity to get some really close shots of a Red Admiral.

Finally as the girls ate their ice creams to recharge their batteries before more goat feeding and small animal handling my first female Brimstone flitted by just out of reach. I didn't get the hoped for Orange-tip but something equally as nice, a peaceful car journey home with both girls crashed out and snoring quietly in the back

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

As we entered into day two of the Birthday weekend I didn't think that I would be able to get out so everynow and again between recycling the wrapping paper and cleaning through the house, or hanging garlands and decorating the table I'd pop outside . I did manage to see both male and female Brimstone but I didn't hope for much else. However just after lunch I did manage to pop over to Five Rivers for the first time this year. After leaving the car a male Brimstone fluttered by but when I reached the top of the bank there didn't seem to be much else about. While I watched a close Stock Dove another male Brimstone hove into view and alike so may that I've seen actually settled long enough for me to get close and take a few shots.

I then explored the woodland area which will be quite good in about a months time - when the Garden Warblers that seem to frequent this area will be back but it didn't hold any butterflies. Then I reached the long bank and suddenly along it's gentle slopes there were butterflies everywhere, or so it felt after the winter blues and snatches of views here and there. Two Small Tortoiseshells had a little battle and the victor settled down to defend it's patch, seeing off Small Whites and a Comma which settled further along the bank.

The Whites, 3 in all, were their usual flighty selves, and o matter how long I waited they didn't stop. Still there's always next time...and having seen more than 2 species in a day it's starting to feel like the season is upon us

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

You are certainly making good use of your new macro, Wurzel. That mite on Bombus lapidarius was a pretty stringent test! My wife sometimes complains that my photos show tiny whitefly etc on her plants, which she hadn't noticed.

"So nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum."
[Jonathan Swift]

Mike

[MikeOxon]

As an aside - what is the name of the diamond shaped patch that appears on the thorax of some butterflies

As far as I can see, you never got an answer to this question and, as it interested me too, I did a bit of reading!

Butterfly texts give loads of detail on wing venation, etc. but tend just to report "thorax black with brown hairs" or whatever.

I then went to one of my wife's entomology textbooks (Gullan & Cranston), where I learned that the thorax is composed of three segments (prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax). In lepidoptera, the first and last are small, whereas the mesothorax is large and bears a scutum and scutellum. There are strengthening ridges, inside the thorax, to help support the flight muscles and the external structures arise from these. The scutum is well shown on this Peacock, which I photographed today at Dry Sandford Pit, Cothill, Oxon.

Dry Sandford Pit, Cothill, Oxon - 26 March 2011
Nikon D300s with 300f4 lens + 1.4xTC - 1/350s@f/6.7 ISO400

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Wurzel]

Cheers Mike I owe you two thank you's now. One for the advice on my lens which as you noted, I am absolutely loving! The second for helping out with the "funny diamond shaped thingy". I can now refer to it as the scutum, brill
The poem was very apt as well as I was revising Particles with my year 9 class today and they were continuing ad infinitum about "what makes an atom?" and then "what makes a proton?" etc etc
Have a goodun

Wurzel