ernie f

[Wurzel]

Cheers for more fungi info Ernie - I've got some fungi shots and your PD is finally helping me get them identified One of my retirement plans is to restudy Mycology

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Wow. You’ve certainly got your eye in for fungi lately, ernie. This time of year is usually best for them so next time I’m out I must remain on the alert for them (though I’d have no idea which are the good ones!)

[Goldie M]

Fascinating Fungus ernie, It always amazes me that Butterflies can stand up to the strong winds and rain, lovely Copper's.Goldie

[Andrew555]

Great variety in your reports Ernie, I like the fungi too.

[ernie f]

Thank you all for your very welcome comments. I'm glad you like my fungi reports. Another one is on its way......

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 21st Sep 2018

The butterfly season is certainly closing around here. I only counted 7 Small Coppers here today but one was in a new area where I had never seen any before so can count to my annual record of 188.

The following pic is of one showing a vast range of colours including that oily purple-blue and yellow-green sheen I have been noticing recently.

Only one remaining Brown Argus too but I have never seen one flying as late as this before.

Even the Speckled Woods were absent today and I might have still expected those.

The only other butterfly was on my drive back – a single (probably) Small White. The severe gales of yesterday and the day before have taken their toll it would seem.

There are still some sunny days forecast over the next week so I am not at the end yet but its definitely in sight.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

And so the fungi numbers increase. I saw 7 species today. Here are a couple.

A huge, fresh Birch Polypore growing from a fallen Silver Birch.

And the common but colourful Sulphur Tuft.

[Wurzel]

Lovely Small Copper Ernie I was hoping for an Indian Summer but that looks less likely at the moment

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Maybe not an Indian Summer, Wurzel but there are still a few warmer, sunnier days forecast.

But first we have to get through this weekend.

[Goldie M]

It's amazing ernie, all the different Fungus you can find and the lovely colours, may be we should take more shots of fungus in the Autumn to replace the Butterflies once they've gone Goldie

[ernie f]

Goldie - the fungi do fascinate me (but not as much as butterflies it must be said). There is at least one fungus that crosses the boundary into the world of butterflies. I have found it many times in the past and have pics but it does not appear to have sprung up yet in the places I know about.
Whether I find it this year or not I shall add it into one of my diary entries over the next week as it is amazing.

[ernie f]

Noar Hill 21st Sep 2018 pm

The wind gusted at 40 MPH+ at times. Bracing I think is the best description of this afternoon at Noar Hill.

I saw only one butterfly and that is one more than I expected to see given the conditions. This was a Small Heath. It was hiding in amongst the bramble trying desparately to stay out of the wind - I think successfully.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

But he was not the reason I came here today. I braved the breeze to find the Ivy Bee nesting site. I was told about this earlier in the year and today I found it. Ivy Bees are a relative newcomer to our shores from the continent. They choose to nectar from Ivy blooms and so they emerge around mid September and do their stuff until sometime in November. They seem to like south-facing slopes and this is where I found them at Noar Hill. There was one cluster that had set up shop in and around what appeared to be a rabbit hole and the rest just made holes in the ground of the nearby banks and also the pathway through the centre of the reserve, pushing up little volcanoes of earth.

I stood and watched their antics for ages. A fascinating species. Although termed a “solitary bee”, they make nests close together and so can swarm across a suitable site.

While I watched I saw one or two perform was seemed to me to be a little “dance”. They waggled their abdomen and fluttered their wings first to one side of their body and then the other. Being solitary I do not think this behaviour was a communication telling others where a nectaring site was, as we know Honey Bees do. It may have been a courting dance instead – I don’t know.

They would search for the entrance to a nest hole and then suddenly dive in head-first. If you waited you would see them emerge again head-first. Sometimes they would just stay there with their front-end sticking out. I imagine this was the male guarding the entrance hole of a nest site and presume the female was inside laying eggs. On another occasion one bee (a female?) was in the process of entering a nest hole while another (a male – her mate?) stood beside it, again as if on guard. To be honest I do not know enough about this species of bees to be certain. Nevertheless it was all very interesting to watch.

Ivy Bee in flight

Landing at nest site

"Dancing"

Searching for the nest entrance hole

Ah, found it!

"Diving" down the hole

Coming back out again - guarding entrance?

[Wurzel]

Great shots of the Ivy Bees Ernie, if I remember correctly they're a more recent arrival than the Tree Bees and definitely a more striking addition Great work to find a butterfly in those weather conditions That Small Heath deserves a medal for bravery!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Your wide field of interest in the natural world means you can enjoy a trip out even when butterflies are in short supply, ernie. I enjoy seeing the eclectic mixture you serve up and you have posted many things that I probably see but generally walk past when I'm out.

[ernie f]

Thanks, Guys. I do like just about anything in nature and no matter what the time of year or where I have lived, there has always been something of interest.

I have only just found out about the Ivy Bees at Noar Hill (my closest nature reserve) this year. What will I find on my doorstep next year that I don't yet know about I wonder?

[ernie f]

Its a rotten rainy day in the south of England so my post today is historic and not strictly about butterflies although it is related (rather it does affect some of them in an awful and somewhat macabre way).

The Scarlet Caterpillarclub

I mentioned in a previous post that there is a fungus that bridges the world of fungi and butterflies and this is it. I have not seen it yet this year but there is plenty of time. I have seen it previously on Nov 2nd at Alice Holt Woods for example.

This bright red fungus is parasitic on the buried larvae of butterflies and moths. Its spores may end up on a caterpillar. Those species of caterpillars that enter the ground to pupate suffer the fate of having their insides consumed by the growing, feeding fungus. If dug from the ground the fungus is often to be found still attached to the carcass of the larva. I have never dug one up and don’t intend to but I have seen pictures of them attached to their unwitting hosts in both their larva and pupa forms.

They are not easy to find because they only grow to be about 2 cm tall and when they grow in grass it is usually higher than the fungus. You really have to get your eye-in as they say. I have read they grow in woodland and other habitats too but have never seen them other than in cropped grass. I guess they occur wherever their hosts thrive.

They are vibrantly orangey-red (well scarlet I suppose) so once you know what to look for, the more likely you are to see more of them.

The best location near me is the regularly mown grass of the graveyard in front of the main entrance to Kingsley’s Victorian Church (which is on the shadier, northern side). I have no idea what their host larva is here, it could be moth or butterfly but I suspect a moth of some kind as the most common butterflies (and thus butterfly larva) around here are the Holly Blue and Small Copper, neither of which I think I am right in saying ever go “subterranean”. Although the fungus only really needs a cover of leaf-litter to start it off.

My record count for them in one location on one day is seven individual and widely-separated club spikes at Kingsley Churchyard on 22nd Nov 2016. So that was seven moths that never made it to adulthood at Kingsley that year.

Cordyceps militaris - Scarlet Caterpillarclub

Three growing from the same larva?

[Wurzel]

Wow that is fantastically sinister yet intriguing I seem to recall seeing something similar on a Simon Reeves show where there are fungi that feed/grow/parasitize caterpillars in a similar fashion in Mongolia(?) and they are highly prized and exceedingly valuable

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Thanks for enlightening us with those miniature fungi, ernie. Again, I’d personally not heard of them before but I’ll be sure to keep my eyes out when next in the field.

Rather gruesome way to reach maturity though!

[ernie f]

Thanks, Guys - It sure is an amazing fungus. There is a distribution map on the internet which shows this family of parasitic fungi popping up all over the world.

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 24th Sep 2018

I was last here three days ago. On that occasion I found 7 Small Copper, 1 Brown Argus and no Speckled Wood. Between then and now we have had 40 mph winds, persistent rain and last night the temperature plummeted to 2 degrees. You would I hope forgive me for thinking all this had decimated the remaining butterflies but I am an optimist and my final mission of the year was to see if I could find a Brown Argus in flight in the last week of September. I had never seen one that late in the year before you see.

And what did I find?

I found 20 Small Coppers, 3 Brown Argus and 3 Speckled Wood!

What on earth is going on?

At one point 2 Brown Argus and a Small Copper were in a sparring circle together. At another point there were two male Small Coppers battling it out. Then a male pursuing a female who proceeded to do a Turkey Trot. It was as though the bad weather had never happened and they just continued where they left off.

I can understand that I may have missed 2 Brown Argus on the 21st Sep but in no way could I have missed 13 Small Coppers. Whilst the Speckled Woods, Brown Argus and some of the Small Coppers were faded and jaded, some others of the Small Coppers were quite fresh. Now the third brood of Small Coppers was early here this year so I am wondering now if the increase in their numbers is due to the fourth brood emerging early too and overlapping the remaining tatty third-brooders?

One old geezer was trying his luck with a young lass but of course he was getting the brush-off.

More Turkey Trotting

Brown Argus still in pretty good nick for 24th Sep

One of the Speckled Woods had a blue-ish hue to its wings.

Fading to blue?

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

I have already posted about the Fly Agaric but this example at Broxhead today was very unusual. It had a crazy-paving design to its cap where usually its a solid colour either red or orange.

And I have also posted the Peziza michelii cup mushroom before, but that was more like an advance warning as it wasn’t actually out then. Today it was out and about and in exactly the same spot as before, growing straight out of the impacted sand beside the path.

And I came across this nice (Garden) Spider making a web between the fronds of heather. Not good news for those two Small Coppers I saw flying dangerously close-by! There is not a lot of heather still in bloom and so nectaring possibilities for the butterflies are diminishing. Notice how this crafty spider has set up shop right beside a remaining blooming heather.

[Wurzel]

It's good that the recent low pressure and storms didn't have a negative impact Ernie, though I suspect that you didn't get hit too badly over your way Looks like the Small Coppers are warming up ready for the Indian Summer Could the crazy paving on the Fly Agaric have something to do with it's development as it looks a little deformed?

Have a goodun

Wurzel