rainy ringlet

 

21-06-24

It's 4pm Friday afternoon in June: what could be better than a walk round the park taking photos of all the butterflies. Only it's Scotland, so it is raining. And there are very few butterflies. Well, we had some fun but it wasn't the best conditions you could wish for. Another Summer day in Scotland. Does that ringlet actually look really depressed or am I just projecting

first meadow brown of the year avoiding the paparazzi

common spotted orchid

Mary suggested we go through Hunter's Bog. I was more for going round the stone trap below the crags but then the sun wasn't shining and the NBAs would not be there, so Hunter's Bog it was. No sign of dragonflies, but there were pond flies and damselflies. 

might be Hydrophorus
 prob more acurate to say non-specific member of Dolichopodidae

backswimmer

damselfly

Criorhina Cheilosia illustrata

I decided to get more practice with the 90mm macro lens and opted to just use that today, no long lens. The worry is something spectacular happens at a distance, a hovering kestrel or owl flying past, and I miss the whole thing or just get something tiny happening a long way away. However there was nothing spectacular at any point during this walk. Although I did find looking at flies and small things through the macro lens to be very immersive. I was in quite a grump about the weather until I lost myself pointing the camera at anything small and often quite grotty looking which turned up a few gems. Or near-gems which is the most you can hope for as the fucking rain continues to fall.

This for instance is one I haven't seen before. Google lens suggests it is Criorhina, a hoverfly that mimics a bee. Not sure why that would be advantageous. Maybe they anticipated how fashionably popular bees are with people. However a bit more googling and it looks much more like a Bumblebee Blacklet, Cheilosia illustrata. A different hoverfly bumblebee mimic. So many different species.

Dioctria rufipes. Common red-legged robber fly eating a smaller fly

This one seems a nasty piece of work - nearly every time I came across it, it had a smaller fly in its mouth. They have hard piercing mouthparts to dispatch prey and often eat parasitic wasps. Do two wrongs make a right?  It's a dog-eat-dog world.

click beetle maybe Ctenicera cuprea

nymph of Meadow Plant Bug Leptopterna

cheeky face

yellow dung fly

So I was crouched or lying on wet grass, a light drizzle falling, taking portraits of those yellow flies that you see settled on a cowflop or worse. Thinking: I am living the dream! Can things get any better?! 

depressed ringlet - no wonder

on the upside it was so miserable it didn't mind my proximity

I then noticed a thistle with a really black stem. At first I thought it was peacock caterpillars (as further below) but it was something I'm not sure I've seen before. It seemed to be ants attending to, or farming, black aphids. The latter were jammed in tight to the thistle stem and seemed to be extracting the sap, which they extruded out through their back ends. This was being collected by the ants (yeah that's not right!) who seemed to be coaxing and encouraging the aphid workforce. None of this translates well when anthropomorphised. That is, when thought of in a human perspective of exploitation and individual rights. But they are not humans they are ants and aphids. And who are we to say it doesn't all work remakably well. Like a well-oiled machine. 

After a bit of googling it seems that they have a symbiotic relationship where the ants, in exchange for the sugary honeydew the aphids produce, will protect them from predators and parasites. (Ladybirds for instance.) And who are we to question this? It was certainly fascinating to see the ants go round with great enthusiasm, coaxing and encouraging the aphids which were almost impossible to discern as anything other than a black seething mass. If the aphids have any kind of thoughts you might wonder whether they think of the ants as god-like parent figures or tyrants. I doubt they think very much. Or chat to co-workers about conditions. But it is an eye opener when you get down on your knees and poke your nose into the undergrowth what you see!

video of ants farming aphids

cluster fly - Pollenia

common froghopper Philaenus spumarius

these come in a huge variety of colourways

plume moth

There are loads of plume moths many of which look really similar to this. However I can't find one identical to help ID this further. Probably common. 

Next up: peacock caterpillars on nettles. Big clusters of black caterpillars with occasional green jobs inbetween presumably earlier instars. Again seething black masses on the stem of a plant. 

Nettle leaf glued together to form a
tortilla shelter for growing caterpillars. Esp useful in rainstorms.

While we were looking closely at small things in the long grass next to Salisbury Hill - the grassy slope we often do timed reps on, just below the Commie Pool roundabout, we saw a woman walking and running down the hill several times. We presume she was also running up it but never actually witnessed that part. As we left she was sat atop the large boulder at the bottom of the hill. Her actions - very much like a runner's - were contrary to her outfit. We suspected her of being the spirit of the solstice and this was confirmed when A/ she was wearing a handsome butterfly shawl and B/ she never once let us catch a glimpse of her face. Which just goes to show what can happen if you spend a while on the ground and then stand up too quickly.
A remarkably fun Friday evening 2 hrs even though it was also pretty rubbish.

the spirit of the summer solstice

a suggestion how this sign could be improved for royal garden parties