December 2019 - Moths

We’ve had a couple of moths in the garden recently.  Actually, we have probably had hundreds, we just haven’t seen most of them.  The two that I’m talking about weren’t attracted by the moth trap, which we haven’t actually used recently, but were discovered in full daylight.   The first was a moth found early in the morning apparently lifeless, balanced on the door mirror of the car.  A gentle prod made it slide off the mirror, but some instinct made it put out a leg and cling to a tiny ledge at the base of the mirror.  Thus suspended it was easy to lift from the mirror and once on the warmth of the hand it spread the rest of its legs with just the sort of grumpy shrug you may expect from disturbing a teenager before midday.  Once photographed it was transferred to a more natural and secure location to continue its sleep.  The moth in question was a ‘Merveille du Jour’ which even with my limited French vocabulary I could translate as ‘Wonder of the Day’.It is a very pretty and bright green moth that helps give the lie to the idea that most moths are dull because they only fly at night.  The Merveille du Jour does fly at night especially in September and October and we have seen several in the moth trap.  This makes me wonder then, why is the moth so called when there are plenty of moths that do fly during the day with nothing in their name to suggest a daytime habit?

Merveille du Jour - Dichonia aprilina

The second moth that we saw does have a daytime habit and is marveled at by many when it is seen – the humming-bird hawkmoth.  Both moths were seen in the first week of November – the humming-bird hawk-moth on one of the rare sunny days.  It flew up onto the wall of the house in full sunshine and basked there for an hour or more.  When the heat from the sun faded it flew onto the last few flowers of the verbena for a quick snack before flying off.  Humming-bird hawkmoths have been hibernating and breeding in the south-west of the country for a number of years now and we found one a couple of years ago hibernating in our carport which suggests that their breeding range is spreading northwards and eastwards.  The behaviour of this most recent one suggests that it may be doing the same.  The one essential component for breeding is the food plant of the caterpillars which is lady’s or heath bedstraw which we don’t yet have in the garden.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth on Blackcurrant Sage

The adult moths with their long proboscis feed only on nectar and they favour plants that have a deep nectary such as lavender, verbena, and in our garden at least, blackcurrant sage (Salvia microphylla var. microphylla) that has a long flowering period and plenty of nectar.  I found an interesting article recently about humming-bird hawk-moths dying in Bulgaria.  They were feeding on an introduced plant (from America) called white evening-primrose.  This is also known as pink ladies, or pink evening-primrose – Oenothera speciosa.  Apparently glandular hairs inside the nectar tube corresponded with grooves in the proboscis in such a way that the insect is not able to withdraw its tongue.  The insect then exhausts itself trying to escape and eventually dies.  So if you are thinking of planting any white evening-primroses, then please don’t – insects are having a hard enough time as it is.  (I have just discovered that blackcurrant sage is also an import from Central and South America.  Luckily, the moth has no trouble taking nectar from it.)

We are on holiday in the Canary Islands at the moment getting used to a different set of wildlife.  There are plenty of familiar species though – the crow family is well represented with choughs and ravens and we have seen a lot of painted lady butterflies – they really do get everywhere.

The Hummingbird Hawkmoth at rest could easily be overlooked

November 2019 (Crane flies Julia Bardbury Red admiral)

As I write this in mid-October at the end of a couple of very wet weeks, I’ve noticed how quickly things are changing at this time of year.  In the gaps between showers a few of the last house martins can be seen flying high up and presumably feeding themselves up before their long migration.  We have seen a few warblers in the garden as well.  We generally only see them in spring or autumn as they too pass through on their annual migration.  It would be nice to be able to identify which warblers they are, but my bird identification skills allow me to tell the difference between a chiff chaff and a willow warbler only if they are singing, which in autumn they don’t .  I could always fall back on the not very reliable difference that one has darker legs than the other – if I could only remember which one had the darker legs.  There are also a number of other warblers that look very similar, so I’ll just have to be content with the fact that they are warblers and be happy that they’ve chosen our garden for a pre-flight meal.

At this time of year there is also a marked reduction in the number of insects around.  There was a brief flurry of activity at the start of the month when all the crane flies emerged and flew around bumping into things. 

Unidentified Crane Fly - possibly Tipula vernalis

Spotted Crane Fly - Nephrotoma appendiculata possibly

The adult crane flies only live for 10 to 15 days and most do not eat.  Their only purpose is to mate and lay eggs to ensure the next generation of their larvae which are well known to gardeners as leather-jackets.  Whilst they do eat the roots of plants, and in large infestations may kill plants, they are generally beneficial by eating decaying plant matter and increasing soil bacteria.  They also provide food for creatures higher up the food chain such as blackbirds, starlings and the increasingly rare hedgehog.

We went to a very interesting talk by Julia Bradbury as part of the Rye Arts Festival, who talked about creating a wildlife garden.  She believes that letting nature take its course is a way of dealing with many problems in the garden.  She cited an example where some of her plants had a greenfly infestation.  Next to them was a patch of umbellifers that attracted hover flies.  The hover flies laid eggs on the greenfly infested plant and within days the greenflies had been eaten by hover fly larvae.  I read recently about an eminent scientist who specialized in fungus infestations on barley.  He quickly realized that fighting nature was pointless since whatever the problem, nature had the resources to deal with it.  He developed a strain of wheat by sowing a high yielding variety with a disease resistant variety.  He collected the crop and then sowed it again without separating the varieties, and repeated it year after year.  The resulting mongrel crop always produced a good yield and never had any serious diseases.  He contrasted this with the poor nutrition, high yield monoculture crops that are regularly wiped out by various infestations and over the years produced no better yield than his mongrel crop.  His strain(s) of wheat are now much sought after by bakers because of their better taste and higher nutrition.

But going back to my time of change theme, at this time of year there are many fewer insects around.  This is not the decline that Extinction Rebellion are trying to draw attention to – I say trying because it appears that the powers that be are still not listening – but rather the natural disappearance of insects as they hibernate or continue their generations as eggs that will hatch in the spring.  One exception seems to be the red admiral butterfly which I have seen several of in recent days. 

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

The red admiral hibernation is not as complete as the brimstone or peacock butterflies so if the weather is mild enough they will emerge for a quick snack on whatever flowers are still around.  (I have been pleased with a new wildflower meadow that I sowed late in the year – about mid-July! – which has also flowered late and is now providing cornflowers and mallows for late-flying pollinators.)