Monday, November 26, 2018

Oh Mein Papa...

I may have mentioned this before because these days my memory is about as reliable as a Donald J. Trump promise, but, my father was full of pearls of wisdom, which he would often share with me. Possibly the most celebrated of these would be his, "If you see two crows, it's a rook". 

Another that he would trot out when the occasion warranted it, would be, "Never go back". He was always insistent that you should never revisit the past, but keep moving forward: "It just never works" he would say. However, just as I often did when he was alive, I am going to ignore his advice and do exactly that in this update.

My own thoughts on this subject are that the past is a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.



Before we get all misty-eyed about the past: there is some breaking news I need to share. At least, at the time of writing it is breaking news, it may well be less so by the time this gets published. A clue? Certainly; here you are... 


And here is the news as reported on November 24th 2018


'A wallaby has been spotted hopping across a country road tonight. The animal was seen by a man, driving home from the Tenterden Christmas market.' 

Yes! A wallaby seen in the wild at a spot that can be no more than a few miles from my own house. Although quite how the man could tell the wallaby was on its way home from the market, I have no idea! I mean, do they even get the concept of Christmas? And how did it learn to drive a car? 😏  Here is the actual photo taken by the motorist...


How unusual is that?
Apparently not as unusual as you might think. Here is another reported sighting from last year...



As these two sightings are very close to each other, speculation grows that there is a whole family of them living in my area. One theory is the animal, or animals, have come from the Capralama Farm in Bethersden, but are now living in the wild. Note: You may have seen reports in the national news about this farm, which is also known as the Reindeer Centre. The news reports state that handlers have been filmed mistreating the animals.


Excitement over! Let's do this;



Shall we start by revisiting my birthday in 2009...


Yep, something a little different to begin; December 28th 2009 was when I photographed this lump of ice. It was a Monday and my diary tells me that I wrote the following entry: Although the forecast is for more snow by Thursday, today was reasonable after a very cold start. I even took some pictures in the garden.

Four years earlier, and in March, Kent was covered in a blanket of thick snow...


Thankfully, pretty as it is, it didn't last too long. The photos above were taken on March 15th and by 28th, the wood anemones were already flowering...



Moving on to July 29 of 2011, I photographed a butterfly eye in close-up...


This is a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly that had recently emerged from some pupae I had. I seem to recall that I was trying out a huge, round flash diffuser at the time...

Diffuser test shot from August 2011
This was taken in September of the same year, by which time I had ditched the round diffuser in favour of a rectangular one...


I then went on to fiddle about with this set up, 'cos I wasn't happy with the reflections in this picture, I remember.

I know what I was wanting to share with you: whilst (not while) I have been away from my blog, I have been busy in making (amongst other things) a set of bug-related mosaic panels...

Note: Both while and whilst are ancient, though while is older. There's no difference in meaning between them. For reasons that aren't clear, whilst has survived in British English but has died out in the US. However, in Britain it is considered to be a more formal and literary word than its counterpart.

Here is the first one in progress...


The completed panel
Then a smaller one based loosely on a shieldbug...


And another...


I also have a Western Conifer Shieldbug on the go...


At this point I am not sure where this will eventually take me regarding future additions, but do hope to be adding more shieldbugs, ladybirds, caterpillars maybe, butterflies, dragonflies/damselflies and...who knows what else!

Now was there anything else I was going to share from my inexhaustible supply of bug photos etc? Nope! Don't think so....unless....em, maybe one last compilation of photographs; these were all taken 8 years ago...


That's about it for now...




I shall leave the final words to the great Spike Milligan: "My father had a great influence on me...he was a lunatic."

Monday, October 22, 2018

Round the twist?

I don't know how many years I have been writing my blog now, but it's a lot. In all that time it is quite possible, even probable, that I have duplicated something in an update. However, I am quite certain that not only have I never included my opening gambit for this update, anywhere else, but also that you will have never seen it anywhere on the internet, or I suspect in real life! Neither have I ever typed the following words until this special moment...

"Ever seen a dead aphid standing on its head, with a large hole in its ar*e?"

Today is your lucky day. stand by to be amazed...














Well, how can I possibly follow that? C'mon! May as well cut and run...







Oh alright then, who could resist such a cute kitty?

Shall we stay with the macabre for the next photo? I found this tiny flea beetle on the Gaillardia in the garden recently...

Longitarsus sp?
It seems to be missing a tibia and tarsus (leg) on the right. Perhaps it had a run in with a wasp or some other nasty predator. Maybe it had just been to fill up with fuel and has an 'arm' missing on the other side? I know it usually costs me an arm and a leg!

Meantime, back in the house, I spotted an equally small jumping spider on the living room wall...

These pics were not taken while it was on the wall by the way.

Yeah, I wondered at first whether this could be a fencepost jumping spider spiderling? I have never seen one and so cannot be sure, but somehow the shape and markings seemed to be about right. After some research though, I think that 'Pseudeuophrys lanigera' which is strongly associated with man, and is one of the few spiders that is characteristic of roofs and walls of buildings could be a much more likely choice?



Do you pick up the autumn leaves and turn them over to see what might be hiding beneath? No, thought not! You should you know: there are surprises unbounded awaiting you if you care to take a moment to study.

I once had a contact on my Flickr photostream who lived in Brazil and she had some amazing finds and photos. She told me that 90% of her finds were from the underneath of leaves. She's gone now, I probably got too weird for her! Anyhow, this next photo is of something that I found by doing just that... 



It's a tiny barkfly nymph.


Something else that I regularly find under fallen leaves is Collembola....


A juvenile Dicyrtomina saundersi Springtail (Collembola)


An adult  Sminthurinus quadrimaculatus


A tiny juvenile Sminthurinus quadrimaculatus
Some of these creatures are so small that they are barely visible to the naked eye...






If you have been reading my monthly articles for the Wealden magazine: it's okay, I know you haven't, so please don't be embarrassed. If you do feel the urge though, they are all on their own page, which you can access from the button at the top of the blog homepage. Maybe, just maybe, there was nothing worth watching on the telly one night, or you had to stay in to wash your hair, or do some grouting, and bored with all that you decided to brighten your evening by catching up with my published articles, then you would know that my latest one was all about craneflies. Phew! Was it worth that just to link into my next picture?


This cranefly was sitting on the patio window one day and so I took the opportunity to photograph it. Two full days later, it was still there, in exactly the same place; so why did I rush getting the photo?

Finally (yes, at last he says the word 'finally') as this has been an update of oddities, I thought I may as well see it through to the bitter end in the same vein. I'll leave you with a photo of something that I have seen before, even featured on my blog before with the hope of getting help with an identity, but it remains a mystery for now...


Is it a pupa? An egg sac? A seed pod? 

Oh yes, before I get my coat: the answer to the mystery object in my previous update is that it is a moth egg. In fact an egg of the Puss moth.




Friday, October 12, 2018

I couldn't find a wrinkled peach...

As we are now entering the transition from summer to winter, and the chlorophyll is fast ebbing away from the leaves; bugs are becoming progressively harder to locate.  Therefore, this update will consist of a few creatures that I have managed to find and photograph, along with a smattering of incidental (mostly phone) photos that I took whilst I was out and about.

Before we dive in though: did you  think that we always used the word 'Autumn' against the North American version of 'Fall'? Apparently not! 

The word autumn entered English from the French 'automne' and didn't become common usage until the 18th century. Originally 'Fall', a contraction of the phrase 'Fall of the leaf', was common in England. This I read on the internet, therefore ipso facto it must be true; so let's have none of your silly questioning thank-you!

A little look at how parts of my corner of Kent are looking right now...






The first critter I have to share photos of is this rather splendid Knot grass caterpillar...




This will mature to pupa stage and then remain that way through our winter. By comparison to the larvae, the adult moths are a rather drab mix of grey and black. Close to where I spotted this caterpillar was one of the largest wood ant nests I think I have ever seen...



The ants were busy too...
(Customary reminder that videos may not show in email version of blog)




There were also a few fungi dotted around...

Fly agaric: Amanita muscaria
Fly agaric: Amanita muscaria


Birch polypore?

I think this is the Cauliflower fungi: Sparassis crispa




Now when I saw this next 'thing', I thought I knew exactly what it was...




A rather large spider egg sac was my initial thought. Probably belonging to a garden-cross spider? Why did I think that, because close-by, I found this...


But...having looked at lots of garden spider egg sacs, this doesn't seem right at all. However, I have not dismissed it completely. Take a look at this next photo...


Not my photo
This is an egg sac belonging to a species of orb weaver spider that we don't get here in the UK; but you can see the similarity. Maybe then it is a garden spider after all. If not, then possibly one of the other orb weavers?


Another fungi; again, this is just a phone shot...


Possibly Boletus?
There are some great names for British fungi aren't there:

VELVET SHANK
DOG STINKHORN
BEEFSTEAK
SULPHUR SURPRISE
WRINKLED PEACH
TURKEYTAIL
THE MILLER
EARTHBALL


What about this next photo though: I know what it is, but do you?




On another day I was out walking in this area...


...when I found this beauty!



I assume this will belong in the Zygina family of leaf hoppers, but I could be assuming wrong. What I do know is that the Zygina family are quite variable and can be hard to separate (unless you have a jemmy that is).



Not great shots I know. But it was a dull old day and I had no flash with me so used only natural light and they are really small, and......well, I have run out of excuses. 

Until now, I had never seen this type of gall. This is the wonderfully named Sputnik gall.  The Sputnik Gall is nearly always caused by the cynipid wasp Diplolepis nervosa. It is usually found on the undersides of the leaves of the Dog-rose, but occasionally on the upper surface. The gall is more likely to be seen than the adult wasp. I guess the shape these galls have evolved into offers some kind of protection to the inhabitants.


Wonderin' what the adult wasp that emerges looks like? Thought so...

Like this!