Darwin Syndrome

There is a website dedicated to people who have done idiotic things and have died in the process... The Darwin Awards...    [this Video is the 2012 winner].  
But today I found a Peacock butterfly caterpillar that deserves it's place in the Darwin Awards record....

Most choose sensible places to hang around for the pupal stage... like these.

Tucked safely away behind a spider's web...

But occasionally the brain-cell must have "gone fishing".... look at this fellow...

This is the start of the process... yesterday.
Look at the top right... it should show where it has hung itself.

Yes... it has attached itself to a petal on a Pelargonium
A down-to-earth move!

He's going to drop off soon!

But all is immaterial... look closer at the above picture of the pupa and you will see that he's got visitors.

Two small parasitic wasps looking for a soft spot!
The old skin is bunched up at the top.

Even the one that was behind the spider's web isn't safe....

The ovipositor is indicated by the red arrow.
This is the caterpillar on the right of the first photo.

Susan of Days on the Claise and Loire Valley Nature will probably be able to furnish the name of the wasp and I'll update the entry from her comment.

This is the email that Susan sent: "Based on some quick internet research, your parasitoid wasp is the Chalcid (Pteromalidae) Pteromalus puparum. They are widely used as a biocontrol for Pierids and are known to go for Vanessids (like Peacocks and Admirals) as well. They only lay in newly formed soft chrysalises."

Why somethings take longer.............. to do!!

July fifth, twenty twelve.
There I was, sitting in a chair on the bridge with a glass of Munster* in hand, listening to Deep Purple's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" and watching the sun go down.
No... one better, I was grabbing the warmth of the last rays whilst watching mayflies dancing in July, when.... suddenly... the view through the "macronoculars" was momentarily obliterated by a huge dark object.
Focus....
You might think that the ant-eating cat had blocked my view.... but you'd've been wrong. A male Blackcap [Sylvia artricapilla] Fauvette à tête noire had snatched a tasty morsel to feed a young-un.
Re-focus...
The next ten minutes were spent watching the Blackcap feeding a chick. Flit, feed, flit, feed.... on and on!

Also, there were a couple of Moorhen [Gallinula chloropus] Poule d'eau chicks chugging around below me... feeding themselves now... there was an adult around, up by the walnut. Probably a last feed before retiring to their "veranda" for the night.
Re-focus....
The "city-boys"... Grand Pressigny's House Martins came through, feeding low.... a sure sign of bad weather. The sun was behind Grandmont now anyway and it was getting quite chilly.... so I decided to head indoors... the Munster was finished anyway!!

As I turned round I saw a 'short' rainbow over the Bois du Favier.

Just a shower... just that cloud!

The day had started badly.... the intention was to carry on with the maintenance of the meadow and potager after returning from the market. [ie... mowing!]

We never made it to the market... it started raining and nothing on the list was too important to hasten for [but we always feel sorry for the traders when it is miserable]... and it put a kybosh on the mowing too... grass, now wet, won't cut properly! Find something 'indoors' to do...

I started to write out a long intended, bird species list.... finished it too! There are about 120 species we could/should see here... we've seen about eighty. There are some.... Tree Sparrow and Coal Tit being a couple... that we should see but haven't. And yet others... Wood Sandpiper in Summer, Cattle Egret and Great Egret in mid-winter... that we shouldn't have.

Then, later, the weather turned for the better, so..... all intended up the spout.... I took a stroll round the meadow to see if there were any major patches of Creeping Thistle [Cirsium arvense]chardon des champs that I'd missed the previous day. I have no intention of trying to eradicate the Creeping Thistle.... it is too important a food plant for the wildlife around here.... I just want to control it enough to stop huge clouds of seed blowing over the neigbouring fields!!

The sun came out and brought with it a host of insects that had been sheltering in the nooks and crannies of tree bark, or under leaves.... dashed back in for the camera.... and managed to grab a few shots before it clouded over again.

One of the first in the frame was this Map butterfly [Araschinia levana] la Carte géographique which obliged by posing with its wings open.... I've got enough shots of the underwing to publish my own atlas.

The 'Summer' wings

And the underwing!

These are the summer brood.... spring [overwintered] specimens are so different on the upper wing as to appear a different species.


Susan of "Days on the Claise" blogged about them here and there seem to be an awful lot more around here than last year.

Also around were Red Admiral, Peacock, Marbled White, Silver-Washed Fritillary, Meadow Brown and a White Admiral.

However, around in even greater numbers were the Damselflies. Plenty of male Banded Demoiselles and some brilliant emerald green females...

The strange 'nostril' is the wing of a rapidly vanishing fly!

... and a few Beautiful Demoiselle males up near the wier.


One damsel that caught my eye was this male Blue Featherleg [Platycnemis penepipes] l'Agrion à larges pattes which was posing nicely at the edge of one of the new "Paths"#, but there were also Bluets and Bluetails around, males definitely, females probably, but I need to go out deliberately to photograph as many as possible and then sit down in fron of this screen with the "bible" - Dijkstra & Lewington, to identify what we do have. I wonder how long before I acheive that?

The 'feathering' on the hind leg is very clear in this picture.

Also around were Gomphidae, possibly a Western Clubtail as Susan has seen them here, but when it got close enough to see more clearly, the tail seemed to be very markedly "clubbed" and it could have been a Pincertail [Also seen here by Susan and mentioned in the "Days on the Claise" entry.]

So, no mowing.... but a provisional Bird List under the belt... after about six years of deliberating!!


*The Alsace beer... not the cheese!
# One advantage of cutting through beds of chest-high nettle is that it falls cleanly, leaving a high, sharp-cut edge that all sorts of insects like to perch upon!!

Orioles

We had a couple of Orioles in the dead willow on the bank opposite the bedroom the other morning. A juvenile [all greeny with a black eye-mask] which stayed in the top of the willow for a while, and an adult in black and yellow that sat there in full view for about five minutes before going and skulking around in the ash that was next door. It thought it was under cover, but we could both see it quite clearly. Sorry, no photographs. It was just too far away to catch!

Proud parents

For the second time this year Pinknose the moorhen and her compagne have made it through a successful hatching and are now leading a little convoy of tiny bald black scribbles up and down the millstream.

On the nest.

Peep?

Peep-peep!!

With the first brood we saw four chicks. Two were slightly larger than the others, and it was most unlikely that all four would survive, due to a combination of predators such as pike, inclement weather and their own general gormlessness. The millstream flows quite fast under the bridge next door to the nest, but given a normal rate of flow even the smallest chick seems capable of paddling itself back upstream. In the end we only seemed to see two fully mature juveniles around.

Moorhens are very attentive parents, and they share all child care duties. When the chicks are away from the nest, there is always at least one parent with them, while the other forages for tasty snacks. The parent-in-charge makes a regular beep-beep which reminds me of the rather unimpressive horn on the tricycle I had at the age of five. It is quite a soothing call and seems to make the chicks follow the parent and not go wandering off. Whereas the growling noise from Pinknose on her nest when Tim went too close with the camera warned the chicks to dive under her feathers and hide from the perceived threat. She made the same noise when Baron the tom cat went to sit on the parapet. He doesn't much mind getting wet when it comes to rain, but he hasn't tried swimming - yet.

Declaration de Travaux:-  Patio and Apero area

Dad built a 'patio' to make room for the growing chicks, but that was the cue for the rains to start and we don't think they ever got the barbecue lit! As a result of the much greater growth of vegetation, we are not sure whether or not the old nest was used for the second clutch, or if it was the patio that seemed more suited. We only saw the little balls of fluff today and haven't yet managed to count them.

Dad! Can we have a barbecue, Dad? Can we? Can we?
Shurrup! I've told you... it's raining! Again!!

All these photos are from the first brood.

Influences....

What stimulates an interest in Nature?

My first memorable moment was when I was four or five and my parents caught someones pet Jackdaw and shut it in the coal shed so that the owner could collect it.

I was fascinated by this bird and, when the man came to retrieve his bird, he placed it on my shoulder... so for a few minutes I was eye to steely blue eye with a tame Jackdaw. I've had a very soft spot for these smart and intelligent beasts ever since. That was '54 or '55.

Then there were the books that I was allowed to look at once I could read properly. Among these were my father's old schoolday "Rambler" books...

Yes... I've still got them!!

... with easy script and attractive pictures.... but informative. Then I was bought volumes 2 & 3 of the Nature Field Series by H. Trevor Jones, a Warnes series published in 1952, and full of reasonably accurate but heavily precised information.... with pictures of some of the creatures, but not all.... and missing, amongst others, the Kestrel in volume 2 "Birds and Wild Animals".
Volume 3, my other copy was "Insects and Spiders".

The Field Series and page 55 in detail

There followed copies from, perhaps, the most famous Warnes series of books... The Observer's Series...I had the Book of Insects, [also as a set of cards in a folder.... which might actually be in a box in the barn, somewhere], then the Book of Wild Flowers and the Book of Birds.... and then there was the I-Spy Series.... all stimulating....especially the latter with challenges to go and find, rather than being solely an identification aid.

When I visited my Grandfather's house, he had a series of six nature books from the turn of the 20th Century.... these are now mine. The have informative articles on different aspects of Natural History.... and a 'fold-out' dissection in the front of each book!! These were opened carefully for me to look at.... NOT TOUCH! Which is why they are in such good condition now. My father's "Spring" Rambler book has had the black & white line drawings "coloured" by someone using wax crayons.... most probably me!! [Not too badly most of them... but the Larch is a right mess!!]

The spine of Vol 6 and the fold out Swallowtail

And now folded out.... but there is more!

Now the "dissections" are folded open.

Perhaps though the nail in the coffin.... or should that be the icing on the cake, was the boxed copy of Fabre's Book of Insects.
Fabre's writing and observation, carefully translated into English along with some beautiful illustrations, has kept my interest alive throughout the intervening years.... I dip in and out as the mood takes me.

Two of the illustrations are shown here as is the little biography mentioned below.

I was fortunate enough to spot a small biography of Fabre on a stall at the Fête de la Confiture at Abilly in 2011.... this now lives in the box as well!


Then I was bought a membership of the RSPB.... the badge that came with it I still possess and wear.... and my first equipment.... an old pair of opera glasses [magnification x3] and a large lens of around x4 that folded inside a leather case; these in a shoulder bag that had room for a book. No pencil, no notepad.... no one encouraged me to take notes or make sketches.... rather, I was encouraged to remember and describe. But describe "without using the hands".... perhaps paper was expensive in the late 50's... perhaps it was just Dad's way?

But, hey! The sun is shining at last and there is a Kestrel hovering over our potager.... now, where are my "macronoculars"?

Proserpina in the underworld

Yesterday I was harvesting shallots in the potager when a creature surged out of the freshly-broken ground in front of me. My first thought was that I had disturbed some kind of snake, with a pointed snout and a grey, apparently scaly, back. Any small predator such as a weasel would back off immediately when confronted by this display. Then the tail emerged revealing the animal to be a chubby critter just over two inches long, rather short for a snake, although at full stretch in "attack" mode it was a good three inches! Tim came over hastily from mowing and pronounced it to be a hawkmoth caterpillar, but not one he recognised. It has a single eye spot in the middle of its tail, tiny spots of blue and red in black rings on its sides, and lacks a tail spike.

Actually it's rather cute!

Shown against Tim's finger gives a scale to the beasty!

Consultation of the "oracle" (Michael Chinery) identified it as proserpinus proserpina, a species lacking an English common name but whose French name, Sphinx de l'épilobe, translates as the willowherb hawk moth. It also feeds on evening primrose and purple loosestrife, and has been identified as a pollinator of the greater butterfly orchid, platanthera chlorantha. The INPN web site informs us that this is a regulated species on the Red List of insect species for France. The Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel only has three records for Indre-et-Loire. Since its home had already been destroyed by accident, we placed it on a molehill in the meadow by some willowherb plants in the hope that it will be able to bury itself again if it so prefers, with its food species nearby but out of reach of large bipeds with gardening forks.

Back on the ground, "scales" showing up nicely.

The scientific name, considering that the caterpillar came out from under the ground, is interesting in itself. Proserpina (Persephone in Greek myth) was the daughter of the Roman goddess Ceres (the Greek Demeter), who was the Earth Mother and "the protectrice of agriculture, and of all the fruits of the earth". Proserpina was sleeping in a flowery meadow when Hades, the god of the underworld, saw her, fell madly in love and carried her off. Ceres pined for her and winter came into the world. Proserpina pined for her mother and her flowers, and generally made life hell for Hades. Eventually husband and mother came to an agreement: Proserpina would spend six months of the year with Hades and six months with Ceres. Winter ended, spring came and the cycle of the seasons began.

Another side view... showing the tail end.

The catterpillar getting an advanced look at what it will become.

Who's lookin' at you?

Who does this pair of eyes belong to.... a blog follows tomorrow.

And Susan or Elizabeth, if either of you know , please answer cryptically....

Things that go "BONK" in the night!

We've been amazed recently by things hitting the windows of an evening.... in this first post I'll concentrate on the moths [Papillons du Nuit].
The most exciting was a Giant Peacock Moth [Saturnia pyri] Grand-Paon-de-nuit which visited on the 11th... absolutely huge, it was at least 15cm [3"] across....

Now that's more my size of prey!

They don't normally have this sparkle, do they?

Hey, Mum... have you seen this!
The cat's heads and the Fox Moth give scale to this magnificent moth.

...it had the full attention of the cats... but was very difficult to photograph... it wouldn't stop flying around.
Most of the other moths have been far more sedentary... settling for long periods.
But it did eventually settle for a moment.... and I got a lovely shot of it on our step.

The step is 27cms left to right.

This male is at the North of its range... it is, like most of the Saturniidae born without mouthparts, so is on the way out the moment it emerges from the pupal case. The young feed on Blackthorn [Prunus spinosa] Epine Noire or Prunelle of which we have plenty, as well as Ash and various other trees.
I found the remains of another that had probably fed a bat, by the Mairie in Grand Pressigny - a full hindwing and a few shreds of the others. [27/05/12 - Also a front wing by our back door... the front rib of which is constructional strength steel.... by the feel of it. The colours of the two wings are much faded when compared with these pix, too.]

A second member of the Saturniidae that has been around is the Fox Moth [Macrothylacia rubi] Bombyx de la ronce... we get loads of these. They really are daft creatures... laying eggs on our doors like the Emperor Moth on our window [blogged about here  and one that Susan wrote about here]... the titchy caterpillars have to cross three metres of bare calcaire! An adult female can be seen in [above pic] which then went on to start laying much to the amazement of our RonRon as she had noticed a male that was still trying to mate... so she tried to separate them...

What's going on here?

That can't be right!
[the female is the lower one and the eggs are
the pale dots on the door frame beneath her.]

Better separate them then...?

fortunately there was glass in the way, as I think what she had on her mind was a bit more permanant than "Go away!" A mouth full of moth wing scales... yuck!

Another visitor was an Eyed Hawkmoth [Smerinthus ocellata] Sphinx Demi-Paon...

...we usually have our attention drawn to where the 'bonking' is coming from by the cats!!
This was no exception... RonRon the 'scientist' made a mad dash across the tops of the work surfaces to the kitchen window... before being told off... but by the time I'd managed to get the camera and get outside, it had moved to the lounge window... lower and more convenient for photography.

You can see here the eye is just visible...

Eyed Hawkmoth female.

This and the Poplar Hawkmoth have a strange wing profile.

and after taking a picture to show the upper wings better...
I risked holding the wings open to show the eyes more clearly....

Still not perfect, but I didn't want to damage her!

Surprisingly, she didn't object!!

As mentioned before, we get lots of 'night visitors' and here are a few more in no particular order!

Lunar Thorn or Purple Thorn moth [Selinia spp]

The same Lunar Thorn or Purple Thorn moth [Selinia spp],
a couple of ichneumon flies [Ophion luteus & Lissonota setosa] and a micromoth.

Ichneumon fly [Ophion luteus /Ophion sp.]

An Art Deco micromoth and some more night visitors including an ichneumon.

Moth in a smoking jacket!
Peach Blossom Moth [Thyatira batis] La Batis

The next night visitors post will be on beetles.... things that really go BONK on the glass, floor, lampshade, etc...etc...etc!

Water chickens - their struggle

Our resident pair of moorhens [gallinula chloropus] gallinules poules d'eau , Pinknose and her mate, have been industriously nest-building for their second year. Last year they raised two offspring, and in winter all four regularly visited the base of our cherry tree to clear up under the feeders. We blogged about them here in December last year.

The youngsters have now been driven off, in the same way that Pinknose was driven away by her parents from their territory further up the millstream two years ago. In the millstream immediately outside our kitchen window is a patch of yellow Flag Iris [iris pseudacorus] l'iris faux-acore. The patch has been expanding slowly over the years. In winter it is nothing but a patch of blackened stumps, then at the end of February shoots began to appear. Now the green spears are tall enough to provide cover for a moorhen nest, which is built from twigs and scraps of vegetation.


According to the books (and as we observed) the male does most of the fetching and carrying, passing pieces to the female who does most of the building.

Male with a branch

 He is readily distinguished from her by the white tail coverts (the feathers under and to either side of the black tail) which are fanned out for display, both aggressively and in courtship. In the case of the male, the tail coverts are permanently spread partially, in preparation to confront any of the other moorhens along our stretch. There is a visible white strip of at least a centimetre on either side of his tail, whereas the female shows only a white line or nothing at all. His bright red frontal plate is also broader, squarer and lumpier than his mate's.

Male on left: Female on right.

They communicate in gentle chucks and clucks late into the night. One morning he brought in a particularly large piece of vegetation. She clucked at him and swam away. "OK, you brought it, you fit it"!

On the morning of 29th April a single brown-splashed white egg, almost round, appeared in the nest. They both brooded it intermittently, the male being somewhat clumsy with it and nearly kicking it into the water. They continued to visit the feeder area together. Until...

During the afternoon and evening of 29th April, 2.1 centimetres (almost an inch) of rain fell. By the morning of 1st May, the stream had risen by over a foot and the nest was awash. The egg was gone.

The waterlogged nest site.

The couple stoically built higher. The following day, the water level had fallen again, the nest platform was well clear of the water, and there was another egg! A couple of days later there were two eggs, the parents still brooding intermittently.

The last time we got the opportunity to see the eggs, there were four of them. Both Pinknose and her mate are now brooding solidly, meanwhile keeping a wary red-rimmed eye on us as we look down from the bedroom. They have bent over the iris leaves around the nest and interlaced them, creating a neat bower which keeps a little of the rain off. The water level remains high, though when it drops the birds have a bit of a scramble to reach their nest platform. The iris started to flower today, immediately above the nest. Let's hope it brings them luck!

The 'second' egg

Pinknose in the bower....

And Mr. Pinknose taking his turn.

A new species discovered in the Aigronne Valley.

I was busy working outside the other day and noticed strange activity in some short grass next to the bief.

The main sound was a sort of snuffling sound, so I walked over to investigate....

We had an anteater come to visit... and I don't mean the Green Woodpecker either.
It was a Black Anteater [Timandmea tetradcattongyla].

On a side note, I saw the female Green Woodpecker having difficulty in these claggy conditions.
I was watching her feeding and when she stopped, she had gained the biggest Roman nose I'd ever seen.
It would have suited a Raven.... she spent the next ten minutes hammering, then wiping, her beak clean on a post.
But, I digress....

Yes, there was an anteater at work at the side of the bief...
Its long sticky tongue was clearing the disturbed ants from the grass stems around the snuffled hole.

These are the ants.

It was an amazing sight... as the supply of ants ran out the beast either dug or snuffled to disturb more.
It was so busy feeding, that it wasn't at all worried by my attempts to get these pictures.

There's a lucky [for now] ant on the left...

It was probably an escape from a zoo somewhere....
or possibly an escaped pet...
I suppose I should have reported it....
but it seemed so happy in its work....
and we do have too many ants here.

The ants were climbing all over the animal, but it didn't seem to worry...

Ants on the animal's fur.

It could be very useful having one around.... the ants here are just too numerous to control...
and yet...



I don't know...

should I report it?


 No... I'll leave it be... let it do its own thing!

 

If you haven't guessed it yet, our big tomcat has developed a new addiction... ANTS!

Nose down hole, huff and puff a bit and the ants come running to defend their nest...

I've never seen a cat do this before... but it isn't a one off thing, he's doing it all the time...
"Cats on Acid"... now there's a thing!

.... and a few licks and down they go!!

Wierd habit or what?