Obviously an early garden visitor, I was about to dismiss this butterfly as one of the ‘whites’ I spotted last summer, when I noticed a flash of orange! It flew into our neighbour’s garden, and I got a blurred and distant snap, but promised myself I’d go back down to the watermeadow later on. Luckily for me, the sun was still out at 5pm and Orange-tip came back to feast on this herb Robert.
I love the camouflage effect on the undersides of its wings – a bit like the green-veined white but a much bolder pattern. This is a male, as the females do not have the orange tip. However, both have the striking green patterning on their flip-side. They like cuckoo-flowers, and bittercresses. I spotted them on herb Robert, red campion, and three-cornered garlic.
The other day, I went out to try and get some pictures and to have a look at the flooding in the watermeadow. It was sunny and I was surprised at the number of bugs on the ramp at this time of year. I saw a seven-spotted ladybird, a bronze beetle, a drinker moth caterpillar, lots of flies and small wolf spiders. Not bad for November! I even saw a capture. It was this little fruit fly. Shortly after taking the photo, this happened…
… the wolf spider sprang out onto the leaf and attacked the fruit fly.
Wolf spiders pounce on their prey and inject it with venom/digestive juices, so the digestion starts outside the spider and all they have to do is enjoy a liquid lunch. (Sometimes, they squash their prey up into a ball instead to pulverise it.)
The fly is different to both the burdock gall fly and the frit fly (or grass fly) that I have spotted before. This one is a golden colour with transparent wings patterned with black. It may be a Tephritis bardanae, which is another that makes galls on burdock. Tephritidae flies are fruit flies which have black patterning on their wings. Some of the patterns are very intricate. There is a good collection of wing patterns in these pictures Tephritidae – Fruit flies | NatureSpot. It is possible to identify these fruit flies according to their wing pattern, though there is some variation. The larvae make galls on the burdock leaves, and the pupae hide out the winter in dead flower heads.
My best drinker moth caterpillar photo so far. I love the golden specks that look like pollen on its coat.A sunny afternoon in November
Mr C was clearing the pathways, making them a little bit wider to let the sunshine in over the winter. I spotted a dragonfly and was chasing it round the garden. It kept flying upstream but returning and doing laps of our garden and next door. It was really difficult – as it is with all flying things – until they settle. The dragonfly wasn’t settling. There is a dragonfly in the picture somewhere – out of focus – but I liked this picture, so I decided to post it anyway.
Mr C first spotted this caterpillar in the grass where he was clearing the pathways. When his back was turned the caterpillar made its way onto his stool. With a buff stripe down its back, and its sides studded with black tufts and buttons, it has to be the caterpillar of the white ermine moth. Unfortunately, I can’t count this one, as I have already seen the moth.
Mr C kept seeing a small blue butterfly in the watermeadow. I hadn’t seen it, but I saw this one the other day, which turned out to be the female common blue. There are lots of blue butterfly species. I was able to identify this one by the pattern of dots on the underside of the wings. The female common blue is a brownish colour with a dusky blue body. Mr C probably saw the male, which is forget-me-knot blue with a white trim.
Yesterday, when I went for a walk round the garden, I didn’t find much that was new. It was hot and sunny with a stiff breeze to keep it a comfortable temperature. There are still some butterflies around – I saw Red Admirals, Small Heath, whites, a Meadow Brown, and a Speckled Wood. There are grasshoppers, flies, and spiders. Then I spotted a fat black caterpillar on the path in Little Venice. What looked like a tiny plush draught excluder was, in fact, an Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar. It has four false eyes to make predators think it is a lot bigger and fiercer than it actually is. Elephant Hawk Moths are a stunning pink and green combo. They are seen from May to July and the caterpillars from July to September. They eat nectar from bedstraws and willowherbs, both of which are still flowering in the watermeadow. The fact that the caterpillar was on the ground means it might be getting ready to pupate. I’m hoping that it withdraws back into the long grass to do that.
I really love how collecting photos of the wildlife in our watermeadow has made me look at the detail and appreciate the beauty in some of the little creatures. Take this rush marble – I was searching for ‘wood grain moths with stripey legs’ and of course I got nowhere. But just look at the wing borders with the wood grain patterning. It’s so delicate, and yet, so easy to overlook.
I had already identified the common marble moth below and noticed that the fringing on the wings and the general shape were similar, so I looked up ‘marble moths’ and discovered the whole range. I was able to pick out the lovely tan colour, ‘wood grain’ stripes and the dark ‘kidney’ markings.
As previously mentioned there are a number of tweedy looking black and white moths, which are in the Tortrix family. I identified this one as a dark strawberry tortrix, or common marble, by looking at the pattern and the striped legs. The pattern has a white fringe with a slim black border stripes running in diagonal swathes across the wings with a broad dark band between two paler bands and narrower stripes in the wing margins. Apparently these black and white marbled moths are supposed to resemble bird droppings!
The moth likes grasslands, hedges, and woodland fringe and flies May to August. There are a great many moths in the Tortrix family, and most seem to be viewed as pests. The word tortrix is Latin for ‘twister’ and refers to the way in which the caterpillars roll up leaves to make their cocoons.
I lost some photos. I must have deleted them by mistake. A painted lady and a comma, which we saw last week. Too late for the Big Butterfly Count worse luck, but lovely to see anyway. I’m amazed by the number of butterflies we are seeing in the garden, but I was upset to lose the photos as the butterflies are starting to look the worse for wear and although we still have many Red Admirals, Whites and Small Heath butterflies, I wasn’t holding out much hope of seeing another painted lady or comma. Plus, we’d been for a walk and a massive grey cloudbank had obscured the sun and wasn’t showing signs of moving.
I waited, patiently, for the sun to come out again. I took a lot of photos of bugs and bees, but there weren’t many butterflies around. After nearly an hour, the cloud shifted, and the sun came out. Suddenly the garden was alive with butterflies! Yes, the ‘usual’ ones, but at last I noticed the ragged wings of the comma – and then a tortoiseshell, which is always an uplifting sight! No painted lady, but I’ll keep looking.
I found out why the comma is so-called. It’s because it has a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its hind wings. You can see it quite clearly in the picture below where I was looking up at it. (Also in the main picture).
The next exciting find was a caterpillar! At this time of year! I thought we were finished with caterpillars, but no! Mr C. spotted this.
It’s the caterpillar of the knot grass moth, which is a black and white marbled moth with stripey legs. I have seen something similar, but haven’t identified it properly yet, as there are a great many black and white moths.
The knot grass moth itself is seen from May to July, but there is a second brood August to September. Caterpillars overwinter in a cocoon. The caterpillars feed on knot grass, docks and bramble and they prefer a damp environment.
I was getting in a muddle with brown butterflies and thinking that this was a gatekeeper or meadow brown. Then I found a really useful article describing the meadow brown, gatekeeper, ringlet (which I haven’t seen yet), wall brown,speckled wood, grayling, and small heath. It was very useful, and I realised that this little butterfly is a small heath.
The most obvious factor for identification is the size, which is smaller than the gatekeeper and meadow brown. That’s all very well if you can compare them in real life, but at the moment our watermeadow is full of brown butterflies and they are all the same size and look like this one!
There are other clues. You will notice that the butterfly has its wings closed. The small heath never settles with its wings open and rarely ‘basks’ in the sunshine. Its obvious eye spot shows through onto the back of its forewings and is a visible deterrent to predators. (link) The eye spot is a white dot on a black spot which is ringed with buff. Other clues are the grey margin before the brown edge of the forewings and the jagged brown line on the hindwings.
When it tucks its forewings behind its hindwings, it is camouflaged and as inconspicuous as an old leaf.
This moth was just resting in the grass looking like a dead leaf. I took a photo, and it was only when I looked at the picture I noticed the lovely markings that look as though someone has been drawing hearts and symbols on its wings with felt-tip pens. The Turnip Moth is in the same family as the Heart and Dart, and the Heart and Club, which all have similar markings, but both the others have solid black darts, rather than outlined ones.
I also learned another new word, pectinate, which means toothed, like the teeth of a comb. The antennae are pectinate in order to detect the pheromones of suitable mates more effectively.
This moth eats the roots of vegetables and herbaceous plants and is mainly found on managed land like gardens, parks, and farms. It isn’t really far off its course to be in the valley, surrounded by farmland and gardens.
This is a White Ermine Moth. It is in the watermeadow because the caterpillars like eating nettles and docks. The white wings range in appearance from a few black dots to many conjoined black spots. This one has a few specks of black. You will also notice the white ‘fur coat’ like a stole over its ‘shoulders’ and smart black and white legs. This moth has style!
UPDATE – we saw the caterpillar of this moth on 3 October.
Yesterday, there was enough sunshine to bring the butterflies out, so we decided to do the Big Butterfly Count 2023 run by Butterfly Conservation. We had to sit in the garden for 15 minutes and count how many butterflies we saw. We guessed it would be like the Big Garden Birdwatch where you count how many of each species you see at any one time, otherwise how would you know you hadn’t counted the same one twice. We were pleased with the results –
The Speckled Wood (above picture) was just resting on a blade of grass. It is so striking with its pale spots. The spots change in colour according to the location. They are white in more northerly locations becoming orange to the south. This one was cream with a hint of orange. The Speckled Wood obviously prefers woodland, but there is woodland further up the valley and willows, alders, and sea buckthorn in our patch, so it’s not far out of place.
I was pleased to see a Gatekeeper (also known as the Hedge Brown or Small Meadow Brown). I found out about it when I was identifying the Meadow Brown and then I was lucky enough to see one on a walk from Par to Polkerris. It is quite common and is distinctive from the Meadow Brown as it has two white dots in the black spots on its forewings, and more orange generally. It is found where long grasses are near trees and bushes, as is the case here.
