Phases of the moon.

There is a beautiful family of moths called the Silk Moths or the Saturniidae family. This family includes many very large moths from around the world. We are all excited today as we have had some fantastic emergence going on from our cocoon collection in the moth nets. The species in question is the absolutely stunning Indian Moon Moth Actias selene. These have been a real delight to rear from eggs and we have had great fun. The caterpillars fed on cherry leaves and grew enormous. They spun gorgeous golden silk cocoons wrapped in the fresh cherry leaves and although they are silk moths, the silk holds no commercial value. Now having waited patiently, they are emerging, pumping up their wings and fluttering around the house. Unfortunately they soon break those amazing swallow tails and as they can not feed in their adult state, die shortly after mating and within ten days. Such a shame, but tomorrow one lucky school will delight in having them in their classroom for the day as they will be roadshow special extra - such is the luck of the draw!

From the caterpillar to the adult moth, Actias selene, each stage a thing of beauty and perfection.

Spectacular spinning......

Winter is finally just around the corner after such a mild Autumn. The frosts are starting to become spectacular and magically transform the countryside. I love to look at the spiders webs when the frost picks each one out. They are a thing of beauty and a marvel of construction. Each web starts with a single strand thrown to a anchor point then a second thread bought back again. The second thread then sags to make a V-shape across the two points. This is the bought down into a Y-shape from the center and secured, then all the web threads begin. The first set of threads are called frame threads and these lay out the structure. Next are the radius threads and these infill. Finally the spider will lay a single thread called the auxiliary spiral from the center to the outer edge. Using this as its reference point it will then spin a sticky thread in spirals from the center, eating the auxiliary thread as it does. As it reaches the last few laps it switches to non sticky thread. This allows the center to trap insects and the outside clear for quick travel. The spider then waits for the vibrations of struggling prey. As if that is not wonderful enough, these amazing little chaps practice recyling. As the web deteriorates and is no longer useful to catch food, many spider species will eat up all the threads so they can actually recycle the precious raw silk. That's nature at its best!

   The raw beauty of frost as it brings a rather wintry feel to the Chalk Downlands- woolly jumpers advised!

Gorgeous grubs!

Just look at these gorgeous grubs! Really pleased with this little lot, although as I took this photograph I received a couple of well placed bites! Beetle grubs have powerful jaws and can deliver a good pinch but they are not harmful to us. In our beetle tank we have an assortment of African Fruit Beetles;  Pachnoda sp. Eudicella sp. Smagdethnes sp. and Coelorrhina sp. The tank is very large with a 6 inch depth of 'bug bed' substrate and a rather cosy constant temperature of 30C. A selection of fresh fruit and cucumber slices are fed every day and while half of the tank substrate is allowed to be completely dry the other half is kept slightly damp. With assorted logs on the surface and a warm bright light, the beetles are a pleasure to watch. They happily live their own life cycles, blissfully unaware of observation. What I would like to mention here is that all beetles go through complete metamorphosis just like butterflies, moths and flies. The grubs have a head, an upper body (thorax) with six legs and a large abdomen they drag around behind. ( Caterpillars also only have six legs, the other ones you see are clasper adaptations and not true legs ). The grubs will make a cocoon out of the substrate they find around themselves and inside this they will pupate. These African Beetle grubs, like all beetle grubs, dislike light and being disturbed. We know when they are about as they drag the food down and the substrate quite literally heaves with subterranean movement. They are best left alone but I am hoping one will make its cocoon against the glass side of the tank. If it does, I will keep a photographic diary of events - fingers crossed!

Not quite as beautiful as their parents but beauty is only in the eye of the beholder!