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Yes, David, I'm pining for my Swiss meadows ...

Tangerine continues to thrive:



Getting good close-ups is difficult as she lives in the shade most of the day (in the shadow of our holly tree).

A very happy velvet mite was tucking into my shield bug eggs today:







He left a few empty barrels behind him but also quite a number of full ones. Too much to eat in one go. I hope he doesn't come back tomorrow, as I was looking forward to seeing those hatch!

A red admiral spent much of today laying eggs on nettles in our garden:









Here is one of her future offspring:



Guy

Some fascinating goings-on in that last post, Guy. Just shows how much of what is very small we miss.

David M wrote:Some fascinating goings-on in that last post, Guy. Just shows how much of what is very small we miss.

Indeed. I enjoy taking a drop of water from our pond and just watching all the goings on under the microscope. So many creatures, invisible to the naked eye, zooming around, spinning, propelling themselves with flagellae, budding &c. &c. When I've finished, I rinse the microslide back into the glass of pondwater and return them all to the pond.

I'm not very good with orange tip instars, having been brought up on purple emperors. I think Tangerine is currently 3rd instar, not 2nd, as in the right light she shows quite a marked pale side:





She is 11 mm long.

Satsuma, I believe, really is 2nd instar:



This little person, one of many similar around the garden, is 1st instar:



Guy

Lovely detailed images of the OT's Guy

I've always been fascinated by the droplets of moisture on the tips of all the hairs on OT caterpillars - at least I assume it's moisture. Do you know if it serves a function of any kind?

Cheers,

Dave

Thank you, Pauline. Not a patch on your piccies though!

Hi Dave. I've read that the droplets are a deterrent to predators - perhaps distasteful or foul smelling. They certainly don't seem to be any kind of honeydew, like that secreted by blues to attract ants. The many ants on the same plants are entirely indifferent to the caterpillars.

I'm expecting the definitive answer to be revealed later in the year, when Pete's book comes out!

Guy

Great sequence of shots showing the Red Admiral ovipositing Guy - I'm always surprised at how tiny the eggs are in relation to the butterfly (although I shouldn't be really) There are plenty of mysteries that are going to be solved for me come October

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Padfield wrote:..I'm not very good with orange tip instars, having been brought up on purple emperors...

I've a feeling you're going to be VERY good by the time these larvae pupate, Guy.

Interesting to note your comments on the droplets carried by the caterpillars. Could it contain mustard oil from the foodplant which could be responsible for the malodorous smell?

Thanks, Wurzel and David. Good idea about the mustard oils, David. Garlic mustard is particularly pungent - the crushed leaves smell strongly of garlic.

Tangerine is looking very green now. Assuming she really is the same cat I originally named Tangerine (but lost for two or three days), she hatched on 4th May and thus is 27 days old. Early growth was very slow, as the weather was cold and she is in the shade.





There are plenty of other cats around the garden - one on almost every garlic mustard.

In the late afternoon I spotted Minnie watching something on our lawn and rushed over to find a magnificent female stag beetle:





Fortunately, Minnie hadn't touched it so I moved it to safety and led her inside.

Guy

That's quite a transformation, Guy. Maybe you need a set of 'green' epithets to continue this life and death saga?

You think Tangerine might turn out to be a lime, David? Let's just hope she doesn't get eaten while she's still green!

I think she had been eating garlic mustard leaf today, as I found her on a leaf stem and the leaf looked well nibbled:


(her head is towards the plant stem, so she is coming back from eating, if indeed she was responsible for the nibbling)

In the morning Minnie and I cycled out to Shingle Street, on the coast, to see if any walls were flying there. They weren't. We saw plenty of common blues, small whites and small heaths, a single peacock and a single small copper. A beautiful day, but windy. There were also good numbers of hairy dragonflies hawking along the sea wall.


(malel common blue)


(female common blue)


(small heath)


(peacock)


(hairy dragonfly, Brachytron pratense)


(it is the hairy thorax that gives this dragonfly its vernacular name)

Guy

Love the shot of the female Common Blue Guy - although there's nothing 'Common' about them really each female Common Blue is a bit special

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Padfield wrote:You think Tangerine might turn out to be a lime, David? Let's just hope she doesn't get eaten while she's still green!

Agreed. I've grown rather fond of her.

I'm impressed too by your June Peacock (that's not someone's name by the way)

Mind you, I saw a male Brimstone today, so there are still a few elderly adult overwinterers hanging on.

The hairy hawker has undergone a big increase and range expansion in Essex in recent years, Guy. From being a scarce and local species. Perhaps it’s the same in Suffolk?

Thanks Wurzel. I agree, female common blues seem infinitely variable.

I saw a brimstone not long ago, David, but forgot to note it in my diary. The hibernators are very long-lived butterflies. Camberwell beauties in Switzerland regularly live almost long enough to meet their own offspring.

Fascinating how some formerly scarce dragonflies are expanding, Buzzard - in some cases into the UK from the continent. When I began doing dragonflies, back in the 1980s, Coenagrion puella and Sympetrum sanguineum were both exciting things to find. Now they are common Suffolk insects. And as for all the new emerald damselflies immigrating ...

Today's featured creature is again the hairy shield bug. Some of the eggs have now begun hatching:



These are the first of four nymph instars, the adults emerging in August.

The now statutory picture of Tangerine:



The leaf she was on yesterday was completely eaten by today, bar the central vein, and I'm sure it was her doing.

Satsuma is still sticking exclusively to developing seed pods:



I forgot to mention I saw a painted lady near the house yesterday and another today.

Guy

I’ve had two Painted Lady this weekend as well. A few were seen in late winter early spring, so could they be their offspring or are they migrants, I wonder...

Interesting, Buzzard. I had another painted lady in my garden today and one in the local forest:



I assumed they were migrants. In Switzerland, overwintering painted ladies are pretty much unheard of and this was certainly true in my youth here in Suffolk.

Also in the woods I found this entire sloughed snakeskin:




(detail of upperside)


(detail of underside)

I imagine it's an adder, as there are plenty of these in the Sandlings. It was a long way from water (so probably not grass snake) and my instinct was that it wasn't a slow worm but I could be wrong.

Back in the garden the orange tip cats are thriving and growing and more hairy shield bugs are hatching out on the nettles:



Guy

Great shot of the Painted Lady - could this be the start of a Painted Lady summer as I too saw one down at Lulworth this weekend? Fingers crossed that it is - we're about due as the last one was 10 years ago...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Seems to be more Painted Ladies in the UK right now than there were in the Pyrenees last week. I think we only recorded three, which is dismal going.

I see that you are concentrating on anything that lacks a backbone now that you are living amongst a more limited variety of butterflies! I have been concentrating on eggs and caterpillars, too, as I haven't seen many butterflies this year with the lousy weather we have been having up here. Hopefully things will change soon.