National Insect Week

Last week was National Insect Week, held every two years to encourage people to be more aware of them and their importance to the world around us. There are 24,000 species of insect in the UK alone so it seems appropriate to post a few pictures of a variety of insects that I have seen recently in my garden or around the local lanes.Often dismissed by people as a nuisance or uninteresting, they are vital to the ecology of our world.

I disturbed this delicate looking White plumed moth as I did some weeding in the garden. It would normally be flying at dusk but soon resettled on some teasels which are coincidentally providing some bindweed with a climbing structure. Interestingly the food source for the caterpillar of  this moth is bindweed!.

 

There are plenty of hoverflies about at the moment and this one, a Marmalade hoverfly I believe, is quite well camouflaged on this marigold as it feeds.

Bees are working hard at the moment pollinating our crops by gathering nectar and pollen and they home in on any flower that can offer both. We may curse the brambles that invade our gardens and seem to grow very quickly overnight but the flowers are a welcome sight for bees and other insects. Also, come August / September, we get the benefit of foraging for the blackberries for autumn fruit pies!

Grasshoppers and crickets are more often heard rather than seen, but it is worth looking out for them in long grasses if only to see how impressively high they can jump! This is a cricket, identified by its long antennae, the grasshoppers usually having short antennae. Unfortunately it didn't stay still long enough to get a side view to see if it had any markings to work out what type of cricket it was. In researching some information about grasshoppers and crickets I have discovered that it is possible to use a bat detector to determine particular species that make sounds at different frequencies just like bats do. Next time I go looking for them I will take my detector with me!

An unexpected encounter

During a walk one warm evening this week along the lane towards Slade Cross something shot across the road. Was it a mouse or a vole? Unusually, instead of disappearing into the undergrowth as we approached like most small mammals, it lingered on the edge of the tarmac allowing a close up view.

It was a vole, but was it a Field Vole or a Bank Vole? They are quite difficult to tell apart but

the reddish brown fur and length of the tail, at least 50% of the body length, makes me believe it to be a Bank vole as the Field vole is a grey brown colour and its tail is only 30% of its body length.(But I am happy to be corrected!).

It was quite bedraggled and on closer inspection its rear left foot appeared to be being dragged behind it, so perhaps it had escaped from the clutches of a cat or even an owl. This didn't seem to hamper the speed at which it moved though and it continued to dash from one side of the lane to the other for quite some time, seemingly oblivious to us and our dogs presence as you can see from this short video clip.

People living nearby said they had seen a vole earlier that day feeding under their bird table and it to had a damaged foot so despite that it seemed to be able to fend for itself quite successfully! We felt privileged to have been able to get such good views of it, it's amazing what you can see just walking locally.