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Tag Archives: spider that makes web tents in grass

Beetles, bugs and spiders

03 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Beetles, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Insects, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, North Wales, plants important to wilflife, spiders, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

crab spider, flowering in July, froghopper, green shield bug, harebell, hogweed, mating red beetles on flowers, Nursery Web spider, red soldier beetle, red-legged shield bug, spider that makes web tents in grass, strangalia maculata, sulphur beetle, wild thyme, yellow and black beetle

July 15th

In the woods I spotted this extremely tiny froghopper, but only because he was struggling to extricate himself from a spider’s web built in ivy climbing up a tree trunk.

Tiny froghopper
Tiny froghopper
Tiny froghopper enlarged
Tiny froghopper enlarged

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (10)-Nursery-web spider 1In the meadow, the Nursery-web spider would probably have escaped my notice too if I hadn’t been trying to get closer to a butterfly in the brambles. More used to seeing this species web ‘tents’ on the ground in the grass, I wouldn’t have realised who had built this one if I hadn’t seen her guarding it.

Nursery web spider on brambles

There are some lovely wildflowers in bloom in the meadow amongst the grass, my current favourite are the delicate-looking harebells,

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Harebells 1

although I have always been fond of the sunshine yellow Lady’s Bedstraw

150712-46-Bryn Euryn-lady's bedstraw patch

but then there’s the Wild Thyme that is looking spectacular this year where a large patch of it cascades down the limestone rocks.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Wild Thyme 1

There’s a Cat’s Ear plant near that spot too, which nicely demonstrates both the flowers and the seedhead ‘clocks’ simultaneously.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Cat's Ear 1

Hogweed works at another level and is an invaluable food source for a whole host of insects from beetles to butterflies.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr&vw-hogweed in long grass

Some of the insects feasting on the flowers today were Sulphur beetles, including dozens of tiny ‘baby’ ones

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (15)-Small Sulphur beetles on hogweed 1
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (19)-Sulphur beetle cloe-up
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (21)-Sulphur beetle on hogweed

A 7-spot ladybird, a so-far un-named brown beetle

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-7-spot ladybird-Coccinella 7-punctata (3a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (22)-no ID beetle

There were dozens of Red Soldier Beetles, many in the act of procreation as these beetles always seem to be. There was a little moth there with them, but again I haven’t discovered what it is yet.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (24)-Red soldier beetle
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva (7a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva (3a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva mating

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Crab spider victim trussed up

Whilst photographing a pair of mating Red soldier beetles, I noticed another beetle caught up in spider’s webbing. As I looked closer I spotted the head and front legs of a spider creeping up over the edge of the flower, then she darted out and begin to drag her victim backwards to where she had appeared from. This was a Crab spider, mistress of camouflage and deadly to insects that stray into her path regardless of their size. Cruel, but fascinating and quite a feat as the beetle was as least equal in size to her.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (26)-Crab spider dragging victim to edge of flower
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (27)-Crab spider with victim 1

Crab spiders are able to change their body colour to match their background. The process can take a few days, but they can appear white, yellow or green. The  irony of this scene struck me; a beetle life ended in full view of a pair of his kind in the act of procreating the species….

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (29)-Crab Spider rear view
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (28)-Spider crab securing victim

The Crab spider show would take some beating, but my ‘discovery of the day’ was quite definitely a splendid large yellow and black beetle, Strangalia maculata, that surprisingly doesn’t appear to have a common name.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (1a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (10a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (7a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Yellow & black beetles 1

On another flowerhead another spider lurked, this time a small brown one, much enlarged in the photograph.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-bug-Shield bug 1In the long grass I spotted an insect flying and managed to keep an eye on where it landed, otherwise I would never have found it; a Gorse Shieldbug.

A bright fresh bronzy-coloured forest bug was more easily spotted.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn -bug-Forest bug-Red-legged ShieldbugPentatoma rufipes (1a)

Red-legged shield bug-Pentatoma rufipes

A peek at the oak trees revealed tiny acorns. The ones I photographed belonges to a  Sessile Oak – the acorns sit flat rather than hanging on stems as those of the Pedunculate Oak. Hopefully this will be a better year for them than last year was.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-tree- Sessile Oak-baby acorns

Rain clouds were gathering – is it really summer?

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-view (3)

Highlighted text for Shieldbugs are links to more details about these insects in my ‘Species Collections’.

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Life in the long grass

10 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, bumblebees, Butterflies of Wales, day-flying moths, hoverflies, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, spiders, wildflowers, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Aricia agestis, Brown Argus, butterflies in long grass, common blue, common knapweed, insects in long grass, keeled garlic, moths in the grass, Nursery Web spider, pisaura mirabilis, Polyammatus icarus, small hoverfly with snout, spider that makes web tents in grass

First week

The weather up here in our part of North Wales has been variable this week. We have had a good bit of rain which has freshened everywhere up and just  about enough warm sunshine to allow us to keep the faith that this is indeed high summer. It may not be the perfect weather for people here on holiday, but the local wildflowers and insects seem to be appreciating it.

Habitat: Long meadow grass

There is a whole other world existing in areas where grass is allowed to grow long and during the past couple of weeks I’ve begun to appreciate its importance as a home and a refuge for wildlife, particularly insects and spiders.

All journeys need a starting point and the following journey of discovery into the dimension of long grass began when I went to Bryn Euryn to see if a particular plant was in flower.

I’ve mentioned before that we have a few less-usual species of wildflowers growing in our locality and on Bryn Euryn this is the time to find one of them; the pink/purple flowered Keeled Garlic. I headed for the spot I had seen it in previous years and there it was, buzzing with bumblebees and more surprisingly attracting several beautiful little Common Blue butterflies.

Keeled Garlic

Keeled Garlic

I wondered at the attraction of this particular flower to the butterflies and thought perhaps they were just resting on the tiny flowers to sunbathe. A little later though I came upon another patch of the flowers with more Common Blues fluttering over and settling upon it, so maybe they were taking nectar from them. I was more than happy to see this many of the butterflies in the same place at the same time; I haven’t seen that for a long time.

Male Common Blue butterfly on Keeled Garlic flower

Male Common Blue butterfly on Keeled Garlic flower

Female Common Blue butterfly, looking a bit more worn

Female Common Blue butterfly, looking a bit more worn

I was not the only one to recognise the attraction of insects to the garlic flowers. Lurking on top of her tent-like web, built to protect her eggs and then babies, sat a long-legged Nursery Web spider.

Nursery-web spider-

Nursery Web spider-

Nursery Web spiders are the spinners of the many web ‘tents’ seen in grassy places at this time of year. They take their common name from the way in which they care for their offspring. The female carries her large egg sac beneath her body, held in her jaws. Before the eggs hatch she spins the silken tent around the egg sac and stands guard over them. She remains on duty until the spiderlings are big enough to live independently. The spiders are active hunters and search for prey amongst grasses and low vegetation.

A neighbouring Nursery-web Spider

A neighbour

Walking carefully through the long grass, every step seems to disturb a dry-grass coloured moth. They are so well camouflaged that should you manage to keep track of where they land, it’s not easy to find them again; then if you manage a picture of sorts identifying them afterwards is even harder. The one below, which landed on the pupa of a 6-Spot Burnet moth which I would otherwise not have spotted, maybe Crambus pascuella (?) As always, I’m more than happy to be corrected.

This one landed on the pupa of a 6-spot Burnet Moth

This one landed on the pupa of a 6-spot Burnet Moth

In places amongst the grass knapweed is beginning to open up it tight dark knots of buds to allow the purple brush-head of petals to escape. Knapweed is a hugely important source of nectar for a wide variety of insects, but more about the plant and its visitors later.

Knapweed

Knapweed in long grass

Long grass on dry slope of ‘downland’

The area of long grass at the bottom of the summit slope on the drier, chalkier downland side of the Bryn has a different character to the flatter, damper meadow area. Some species of butterfly you may see here, although found in other parts of the Reserve, show a definite preference for the conditions it offers and may be more numerous. It is especially good for seeing the smaller species that gain protection from predators amongst the grass stems and include Small Heath, Small Skipper, Common Blue and the less-common Brown Argus.

The larval host plant of the Brown Argus is Rock Rose, which has been prolific in its flowering here this year and the leaves of the plants are still evident in the ‘under-story’ of this grassy forest. I was once again lucky with the timing of my visit this week; after a few minutes of pursuing little butterflies through the tangle of dry grass laced across with long outreaching bramble runners, I spotted a newly emerged Brown Argus balanced on top of a dry stem.

Brown Argus-

5/8/14 – Brown Argus- Aricia agestis

It stayed perfectly still, wings outstretched for quite a long time and made no attempt to fly off although I was very close and holding the camera lens just a few inches from it. I was almost certain this was in fact a Brown Argus and not a female Common Blue, but was compelled to wait and hope it would close its wings for me to see its underside. It eventually obliged and although the angle it presented wasn’t the best, thankfully it did confirm its identity with its diagnostic pattern of spots.

Brown Argus underside with 'figure of 8' spots on forewing

My Brown Argus underside with ‘figure of 8’ spots on hind wing

Common Blue male underside

4/8/14-Common Blue male underside

Spot the difference:

Text & diagram from the UK Butterflies web site demonstrates the differences:

Of the two sexes, it is the female Common Blue that causes most confusion with the Brown Argus. The blue present in a female Common Blue is highly variable, with individuals ranging from almost completely blue through to completely brown. It is this latter colouring that causes the most confusion. Even so, the Brown Argus has no blue scales, but may give off a blue sheen from the wings and the hairs found on the thorax and abdomen. Another diagnostic is that the Brown Argus normally has a prominent dark spot in the centre of the forewings.

Brown Argus - Common Blue undersides

Brown Argus on left & Common Blue on right of image

 

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