Drinker Moth Archives - A Year in the Valley

Oak Eggar

At first I assumed that it was another drinker moth caterpillar, but I took a photo anyway. I’m glad I did as it turned out to be the caterpillar of an Oak Eggar moth. Instead of brown hairs, golden speckles, and horn-effect at each end, the oak eggar is dark orange with a pale stripe down its back, black bands, and white dashes down each side.

It can be found in variety of habitats – grassland, heathland, fens, hedgerows, and footpaths. It feeds on sea buckthorn, bramble, sallows, blackthorn, and hawthorn.

Daisy D

14 April 2024

Insects

Drinker Moth, Oak Eggar

Fruit fly (Tephritis bardanae) on a sunny afternoon

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.

Daisy D

13 November 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars, Insects

Bronze Beetle, Drinker Moth, Fruit Fly, Seven-spot Ladybird, Wolf Spider

The Watermeadow in July

We went for a walk round the watermeadow and pushed our way through the overhanging grass down the paths. We saw baby frogs, but they hopped out of the way before I could focus the camera on them. We saw a Drinker Moth caterpillar again. It was huge, around 6cm and quite chubby. We also saw a dead animal, very dead, very smelly. I thought it was a rat, but it had a short furry tail, so I’m wondering whether it was a water vole, as even though it was flat, it still looked too large, wet, and dark to be a field vole. It would be very exciting if we had live water voles in the stream – I’ve never seen them in our garden before. Signs to look for are a) a burrow with nibbled grass ‘driveway’ b) a pile of grass stems nibbled at a 45° angle, like a quill, as they tend to eat in a regular place, and c) tiny oval droppings.

Again, compared to last month the watermeadow looks ravaged and untidy. The grass is longer and brushed with its pink-ish blooms.

Daisy D

06 July 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Drinker Moth, Frog, Reed Canary Grass, View, Water Vole

Drinker Moth Caterpillar

We noticed this caterpillar on a dead stick that was marking where we had planted an Alder sapling. Identified on the Wildlife Trusts website the Drinker Moth Caterpillar is distinguishable by the row of white hairs running down either side of its body, a ridge of tufts along its back and ‘horns’ at each end. It feeds on grasses and reeds and therefore lives in “damp grassland, marshes and boggy areas”. This little chap hibernated over the winter as a partially-grown caterpillar, woke up in the Spring and carried on growing. It will be fully-grown this month – up to 7cm in length and will turn into a large moth the colour of an old cork. That’s not why it’s called the Drinker Moth, though. It’s because the caterpillar drinks drops of dew from grass stems.

Blog note: I am disappointed that the first three scheduled posts have appeared on the blog with identical pictures. I’m either doing something wrong or there is a glitch on the site or with the software. We’re going away for a week and after a photography bonanza in the meadow, I have scheduled a week of posts, none of which are going to feature a striking picture of the subject matter. I don’t have time to sort this out now.

Daisy D

07 June 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Drinker Moth