THE show to go to!!

Getting excited – not long now to the AES Annual Exhibition and Trade Fair at Kempton Park Racecourse!!! It is held on the 1^st October (2011) and is the largest invertebrate show in the UK. www.amentsoc.org .Tickets are £4 per adult and £2 per child. Under sevens and AES Bug Club members go free. It is attended by most of the major invertebrate societies in the UK and is quite simply a truly fantastic day out. I can not recommend it enough but you need some pocket money because there are loads of books, equipment, livestock and specimens for sale. We go as a family with friends and my sons are doing two separate displays on their own invertebrate observations as AES Bug Club members. It is great for them educationally as it covers Science,  Art/Design, English and sometimes Mathematics as well as having an informal chat to the judges on the day. They do it all for their own enjoyment (£50 prize money is up for grabs which appears to be quite an incentive too)! It is open to any age within the Bug Club and can cover any invertebrate in any depth with the children's age and capabilities taken into account. First stop for us will be Graham and Janice Smith www.metamorphosis.gb.com , on their stand to see what they have on show and a quick chat. Graham is one of those rare people who can hold a massive amount of information and share it out with gusto. I could listen to him all day! They are both just so enthusiastic and knowledgeable it is very hard to actually keep it to a quick chat but it is a busy day for them and they have loads to get on with. Then its a quick nip upstairs to the live pupae stands to choose a new project to hatch out and hopefully breed. After that is in the bag it is a day of pure blissful fascination and so much to see!

Graham and Janice Smith hard at work.

Some of the many pupae for sale.

Baby boom!

Judging by the amount of nymphs produced by our Leaf, Archimandrita tesselata,, Hissing, Gromphadorhina oblongonota, and Tiger Hissing Cockroaches, Princisia vanwaerebecki, in the last few days I would say they are all very happy indeed! The nymphs are all wingless and will have to go through several moults to enable them to grow into adults. The ones that are winged when adults will only produce their wings when they have their final moult. We call each moult stage an instar and they can not breathe while they do actually moult their old exoskeleton because it passes over their spiracles, which are their breathing holes on their abdomen, and blocks them as it goes. I am always relieved when each moult is over and everyone is okay. 

Beautiful babies!

Moulted skins.

Vader, one of our male Giant Asian Mantis coming out of his old skin.

 

Boys will be boys

Great fun with a local Cubs group last evening who all were massive Deadly 60 fans and on their sleep over in a village hall. Took some Mantis with me and made sure the Giant Asians were slightly hungry. The boys put the flies in and watched them meet their maker. They were so enthralled and wanted to know all about all the 'nasties' like parasitic wasps etc. What is it about boys? We did have a truly fabulous time though and the tucker was not half bad. Got a phone call from the leader today who told me they would not settle down to sleep and were beginning to get on the adults nerves so they hatched a cunning plan to get their own back. They pretended I was on the phone and was worried because I could not find one of my Spiny Devils, Eurycantha coriacea, and had anyone seen it? He said they made out they were not unduly concerned but he did notice they slept closer together than usual!

Molly, one of our New Guinea Spiny Devils Eurycantha coriacea. A gorgeous stick insect that likes nothing better than some fresh Ivy and Bramble leaves.

AES Big Bug Hunt

We hosted a AES www.amentsoc.org ,Big Bug Hunt on the farm here yesterday. We had a couple of experts from the Oxford Natural History Museum www.oum.ox.ac.uk , and the London Natural History Museum www.nhm.ac.uk with us. At 11am we all went with equipment gratefully burrowed from Oxford Natural History Museum like a group of budding explorers setting off into the Great Amazon Basin. It was slightly cloudy and breezy but our first stop was to check pit fall traps in the beech woods and beat the trees and bushes into trays .The beating was extremely popular with the children and they were extremely enthusiastic in their efforts! Specimens collected and noted and it was time for a quick pit stop of sarnies and drinks before heading out to the grassland. Pit fall traps here yielded well too and the local grasshopper and cricket species provided plenty of excitement for young and old alike. Checking sweep nets is a very serious business and sometimes you just have to get right in there! Specimens again collected and logged, it was back into some more woods for pootering with leaf litter trays and checking out decaying logs. Back home for a much deserved BBQ and then starting the process of identification. The children were extremely good at identifying a lot of species but really loved the pinning workshop with the Violet Ground Beetles, Carabus violaceus, surplus from the pit fall traps. We had pins being put in to set the specimens with deep concentration and in deadly silence. Fantastic day with some specimens being taken back to the museums for further identification. It is exciting because we are still making new discoveries in our own back gardens and there is so much still to learn. By the way, it is often children who spot something special and many new species have been discovered by them. 

www.amentsoc.org/bug-club/

Mating Mantis

Ventress our Giant Asian Mantis female, Hierodula membranacea, is ready to mate. Vader is the chosen one. (Sorry but living with a Star Wars obsessed family who keep naming the insects after the characters, I simply could not resist that one). Mating Mantis can be a rather touch and go affair for the males in particular. We fed Ventress to almost bursting point – and be careful here because sometimes they actually will – and introduced Vader. They have a large tank with plenty of escape space. Vader approached tentatively as you would expect from someone who knows it could be a very costly experience. He did a lot of antenna waving, and I am sorry to say, but after nearly an hour of this we left them to it. When I returned after a couple of hours Vader was clasped on top of Ventress with all his body parts in tact. He stayed on her back for the entire of the next day but was no longer mating so I decided to move him back into his own tank. I think I could almost sense his relief as he scrambled onto my hand. Now we wait and Ventress is absolutely massive. I must also mention my sister-in-law sent me a card with a cartoon of two Mantis on it. The female is talking to a rather bemused looking male and is saying,' after we mate and before I eat you, I would like you to put up some shelves...' It is one of those things you have to see to appreciate but I thought it and the timing absolutely wonderful!

                                                                      *UPDATE*

 

Extremely early this morning I awoke to footsteps hammering up our stairs. It has happened, our very first Giant Asian Mantis fertile ootheca, (which is what we call the egg case), and it was still being laid so I better get up quick and come and see. Ventress was most certainly in the process of creating her ootheca attached to some wiggly Hazel sticks in her tank. Mantis ootheca are a foamy mass that surround and protect the eggs inside. It hardens in the air once made. Alot of nymphs will hopefully hatch form this ootheca and then we will be busy feeding fruit flies and separating the nymphs as they grow. Asian Mantis are avid insect feeders and do not turn down a meal of each other should the opportunity arise.

The original expanding foam!

Digging around in Dung

Fabulous news! Found several species of Dung Beetle in our paddocks today with Steven Williams, a very knowledgeable young man from the Oxford Natural History Museum, www.oum.ox.ac.uk . Geotrupes spiniger a great little Dor Beetle, Aphodius fimetarius, Aphodius foetens, Aphodius fossor, Aphodius haemorrhoidalis and Aphodius rufipes. I always think A. haemorrhoidalis is a rather unfortunate name for such a gorgeous invertebrate and my personal favourite has to be the Dor Beetle Geotrupes spiniger who is a cracking 25mm long. Now while I accept some of you will not find it that thrilling, I am personally chuffed to bits. Dung Beetles are hugely important little fellows and must not get muddled with a group of water beetles who also find a large steaming lump of you know what irresistible. Without Dung Beetles beetling away under those you know what's, we would live in a very smelly and unhealthy world. They are the sewage workers on a 24/7 shift breaking down literally tonnes of dung every day. Another thing to remember is that less dung lying around equals less flies. They also indicate a healthy ecosystem. The ancient Egyptians, ( the Awful Egyptians I am told by a couple of Horrible Histories fans) believed it was a Scarab Beetle, who is in fact a Dung Beetle, that rolled the Sun across the sky and therefore was sacred. Dung Beetles can be split into three groups; those that live in it, those that tunnel under it and those that roll it. They all have big powerful front legs and really are fabulous little chaps.

For those that are truly interested we were examining horse, sheep and cow dung.

PS washed hands really well.... 

                                          Aphodius rufipes. I call him Rufus and isn't he gorgeous?

         This is Carmen, my youngest sons pedigree show cow and the supplier of some very posh dung.

Light up the night

Glow-worms, Lampyris noctiluca. They are a very special part of the summer for me. I had never seen them in the wild until I moved down here. They are a magical little beetle and I always get over excited when I see the first light in the grass. We are so lucky here and have three colonies on our farm. They are amazing with an incredible life cycle. Eggs are laid under stones or in burrows as they must not dry out. The larvae feed on snails. They crawl onto the snail and inject digestive enzymes then literally suck the snail up. The larvae then pupate when fully grown and emerge as either a winged male or a flightless female both unable to eat. The female then crawls up a stem where she mixes luciferin and oxygen, with luciferase as a catalyst, to get a glowing chemical reaction in her abdomen. She can turn her light on or off at will. The male flying above has large eyes and hopefully spots her, flies down to mate and may then die. She has turned her light off for mating and now goes back down to lay her eggs before she also dies. They need recording too as their numbers are yet again down www.glowworms.org.uk . You need a warm, still night to really be able to see them and the darker the night time sky the better. We go out between 10pm and midnight. Everyone gets caught up in the magic of it and we will go out for several nights to try to gage the populations number. They are a sensitive species. Always leave them where you see them. Note the site and never, ever move them. The light is like a tiny LED fairy light. Go on wrap up and explore, we have also seen badgers, deer and heard owls calling and Muntjac barking. Great family outing with a hint of the unusual. 

Plenty of food here!

Glowing for attention.

Talking about Tortoiseshells

I had my kitchen window wide open today and just LOOK AT THIS!!! This is a Large Tortoiseshell Butterfly Nymphalis polychloros!! The reason I am so excited by this guy is that it is recorded as extinct in the UK and here is one resting on my kitchen curtains! We have the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly Aglais urticae here and I have seen many but never, ever one of these! To put a dampener on all this fuss though, it is most likely he could have been reared by someone and escaped or released. Either way I am extremely chuffed and with this photograph I am noting him in my log book and reporting him to the Butterfly Count. Really made my day that has!!

It is a SNAIL!!!

Another long day at a show with a four o'clock start this morning. Luke Snail Walker was on form as usual sliding around his tank all day. I believe its the vibrations of the journey along with the change in surroundings, temperature etc. that make him so active at shows. The funny thing is he always rests the next day and hardly moves. We call it his hangover day. I do refer to Luke as a male but in fact he is a hermaphrodite which means he can produce eggs and sperm so really he is neither wholly male or female. One thing that always amazes me is yet again how many people think he is a slug! How can you mistake a giant, nearly foot long snail with a huge shell on his back for a slug? What happened to that adult since they were a child drawing the classic swirl of a snails shell? I will admit snails and slugs both belong to the same class when we classify them. It is called Gastropoda and some slugs do have tiny residue shells inside them. We even have a clever little chap called a Shelled Slug in this country who is busy munching on earthworms and has a small shell on his back at the tail end, but you just can not get away from the plain fact that Luke is most definitely a snail. Its in his name anyway...

Luke Snail Walker, our African Land SNAIL.

Silence is golden

Whenever I over hear one of my young sons explaining at a show that we “love insects and have them everywhere, in fact there are cockroaches all over our house..” I wonder whether I should in fact point out to people they are all contained and not quite what they are undoubtedly imagining judging by the horror on their faces. Then I remember watching my husband patiently removing locust hoppers as they bounced all over his Farmers Weekly magazine that he was trying to read on our kitchen table this morning. Their lid had failed to get closed properly during a clean out earlier. I realize that just sometimes, silence really is golden.

Owls do not deliver letters!

Time to get ready for the show season. I love shows but it really is a very long day. I often get carried away talking to people and have lost my voice by the end of the day before now. (That, I am reliably informed by the rest of my family, is not an unfortunate circumstance.) Spook, our Barn Owl, positively savours the quiet times in our home when it is just the two of us and takes an avid interest in whatever I am doing. Today it is making and printing information labels for the insect display tanks. Owl talons are not recommended for computer screens no matter how special the owl in question is! Spook was re homed with us when he was still quite young and has imprinted himself on me. We have had owls before and unfortunately its often through films getting the better of people. Owls DO NOT deliver letters and do not make ideal pets. Easily bred in captivity and equally easily bought over the internet these owls are often neglected through lack of knowledge and it quickly sinks in that they are totally unsuitable. Some are released which has all sorts of complications, others die and the lucky few get handed in to rescue centres who are often over run and under funded. We have an incredible local lady who absolutely devotes her entire life to these owls. Her name is Chrissie and she is working tremendously hard for owl conservation through education, visit www.chrissiesowls.com for more information. Spook can never go into the wild but has his 'freedom' with us for life. The big link here though is a food chain. In the wild it is the invertebrates pollinating the plants for seeds as well as being food themselves for rodents who in turn feed that graceful, ghostly Barn Owl as he silently swoops and dives over the grass margins to catch food for his owlets waiting in our old Dairy Buildings with his mate. I never tire of watching that.... Enough day dreaming for me and back to invertebrate labelling while Spook snores. 

 

The Butterfly Gardener

On the subject of butterflies yet again, we have been spending some quality time in the Butterfly Pavilion at the London Natural History Museum www.nhm.ac.uk today with its amazing creator Luke Brown, www.thebutterflygardener.co.uk . This man really knows his stuff and is passionate about his subjects. Superb display too with quite literally hundreds of butterflies flying at any given time, plenty of species, great layout and fabulous planting. Take your time in there to watch them and try to find some caterpillars. Friendly staff are there and will happily chat to you answering any questions you have. Wear clothes so that you can take some layers off, take a bottle of water with you and pass some time sat on the benches – it is a truly beautiful experience.............

 

Owl Butterfly Caligo memnon caterpillar from South America and a Indian Leaf Butterfly at rest  Kallima inachus, just look at that for camouflage - spectacular!

Beetling around!

Went down our back hall way last night and past a big black beetle walking the other way! He is a 18mm long Cellar or Churchyard Beetle Blaps mucronata. A truly wonderful fellow with a distinct gait and who has a trick up his sleeve. When threatened he will emit a nasty smell but left alone he is really quite pleasant. Our back hall has a well under it and a stone floor laid straight on the ground. A damp place ideal for him and he potters around there all night doing his thing. We are all careful getting our wellingtons in the mornings on as he often hides under them in the daytime. The whole family is trained to beetle check first. Does not say much for the state of our house though!! 

 

 

Brilliant Butterflies!

Butterflies, (and Bumble Bees), everywhere on our Buddleia today. Have a go at counting and identifying butterflies this year and something else you can take part in is the Big Butterfly Count www.bigbutterflycount.org. We are noting a sharp decline in species and need your observations to help us get a better overall picture of the environment we all live in. Lets face it, we can only live on this one planet and we need to preserve it with all its delicate ecosystems so we can actually carry on living on it. So get out there in this beautiful weather and get counting. If your garden has nothing to attract them then plant something to do so, even if it just a pot plant. If you have no garden why not pop down to the local park and survey there? Your results really do help. Ask at your local garden centre for nectar rich flowers, not all the bright colours pull the punters!

Summer holidays are here!!

Summer holidays are here ! Hooray !! We have so much to do and I am incredibly excited about discovering things with my boys this summer. Loads of surveys out there you can do as an individual or as a family. Check out the OPAL Bug Survey and have a go. There are so many awesome little invertebrates out there! Your research is vital to build up a picture of our environment and it is fun. www.opalexplorenature.org . They do other great surveys too but I am only going to plug the bug one here. You can have a look yourselves at the others! 

No excuses, get out there!

                                                                              

The Mighty Minotaur!

Must mention this. Took a class on a bug hunt in their school grounds today in the middle of Swindon in a really seriously built up area and guess what we found......a male Minotaur Beetle, Typhaeus typhoeus. So chuffed for the children! This little chap just happened to fly down onto the playground and was scooped up by a pair of seriously pleased with themselves little girls. We all crowded round and had a great time looking at him. None of the children could believe a beetle as cool as this even lived in the UK! He is a Dor Beetle with three horns on his thorax and big strong front legs for digging. They bury rabbit droppings in little burrows that they dig and then lay an egg, and the dropping is food for their larvae while they develop. We let him get on his way and the two girls were hailed as the heroines of the day. Great result!!