All creatures great and small...
Toads are mysterious creatures. There is not any standing water in our wood or nearby, as far as I know, yet finding a toad hiding under a log pile is not an uncommon event. I even find really tiny ones wandering from time to time. They must travel long distances from their original watery birth places to get to our wood and then presumably wander back again to breed when the season is right. All very curious. So, finding two young toads together under a tarpaulin yesterday was a delight but not that surprising, such lovely creatures to handle. Elsewhere in the wood the first SlowWorms and lizards were about too, taking advantage of the hot sun; the lizards were particularly wary of me and try as I might I could not get a good photograph.
Easier to photograph were some of the insects. A tiny day flying moth with a long latin name, Adela reaumurella, and even longer antennae was on the wing in hundreds. The males swarm at the tops of trees in hot conditions at this time of the year, hoping to impress passing females with the glory of their silvery antennae. This is their time! For the rest of their life cycle they spend their days hidden in leaf litter....then bingo !
It's always good to be able to name a new species. I am far from an insect expert but I do enjoy watching them as part of the bigger ecological systems in operation in the wood. Our few Rowan trees have just come into flower and their clumps of blossom are irresistible for some insects. There were several longhorn beetles taking nectar, not a kind I had seen before and a little research when home gave me the species ......Rhagium mordax, or the Black-spotted Longhorn Beetle. There are many hundreds of beetles in the longhorn family but it is always satisfying to be able to name and know a new one.
Elsewhere in the wood our Bluebells are very nearly at their best, Brimstones and Orange-tip butterflies are on the wing and the first Hornet of the year dropped by. Magic.
Easier to photograph were some of the insects. A tiny day flying moth with a long latin name, Adela reaumurella, and even longer antennae was on the wing in hundreds. The males swarm at the tops of trees in hot conditions at this time of the year, hoping to impress passing females with the glory of their silvery antennae. This is their time! For the rest of their life cycle they spend their days hidden in leaf litter....then bingo !
It's always good to be able to name a new species. I am far from an insect expert but I do enjoy watching them as part of the bigger ecological systems in operation in the wood. Our few Rowan trees have just come into flower and their clumps of blossom are irresistible for some insects. There were several longhorn beetles taking nectar, not a kind I had seen before and a little research when home gave me the species ......Rhagium mordax, or the Black-spotted Longhorn Beetle. There are many hundreds of beetles in the longhorn family but it is always satisfying to be able to name and know a new one.
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| Rhagium mordax....such a fine name in Latin |
Elsewhere in the wood our Bluebells are very nearly at their best, Brimstones and Orange-tip butterflies are on the wing and the first Hornet of the year dropped by. Magic.
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| A shy Hornet |
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