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June - An Explosion of Insects

22/6/2017

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By Lesley McLaren
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While we usually experience odd days of very high temperatures in June, I don't remember quite so many consecutive days over 30 degrees in previous years. It's been like this now for a good two weeks. Even the super noisy cicadas have started up, thinking it's July. Along with the normal abundance of flowers that I would expect, the heat seems to have sparked an explosion of insects. And one of the best places to see them is my garden.

It's stocked with plumbago, agapanthus, marjoram, French and English lavender, and several types of salvia - all beloved of butterflies and bees in summertime. However, the plant that wins the prize for attracting the greatest variety and number of insects is a euonymus. I wonder if it exudes a scent of death undetectable by the human nose, because most of its visitors are flies, hoverflies, wasps and beetles - none of the usual bees and only one butterfly.

Just as well, perhaps, that it's in the front garden and not near where we sit, out at the back. Having said that, the insects seem totally fixated on the flowers and pay not the slightest attention to me standing less than two feet away. There are so many - all sizes, from minute to relatively giant - in a continual dancing display over the whole shrub, that it's hard for me to know which to focus on. The best way to give you an impression of this is with a short clip.

Summer Insects on Euonymus from Lesley McLaren on Vimeo.

They deserve a closer look but often don't settle for long or stay still enough to be photographed. I managed to capture some of the more obliging subjects; they are but a fraction of the total number (click on pics for larger image and some tentative IDs):
Few flies are as appealing as bees, but there is one I'm rather fond of. It's very small, innocuous, and masquerades as a bumblebee in both appearance and behaviour (spurning the euonymus), but those super long legs and lack of pollen 'baskets' give its species away. I usually hear the rather whiny, high-pitched buzz before I spot it darting about. Photos, revealing what the naked eye can't pick up, make me laugh.
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The way those back legs are flung out makes it look as though it's skipping through the air!
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Insects insects everywhere. Even in the swimming pool - though not intentionally! One morning I rescued a rhinoceros beetle, which would otherwise have drowned.
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It's as big as it looks, but harmless. A shield bug and flying ant must have mistaken it for an island when they also got stuck in the water.
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Another type of shield bug
Red and blue-flowered salvia are favourites of hummingbird hawkmoths, bees and butterflies. But they have other visitors too, like the shield bug above. Yesterday I spied a tiny cricket, only a few leaves away from the crab spider of my last blog.
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The whole leaf is only 6cm long
Since I've mentioned crab spiders again... Earlier today I was trying to get a better shot of a little Geranium Bronze butterfly on a late flowering osteospermum, when the butterfly flew off. At the time, I huffed, but as soon as I checked photos already taken, I was relieved, because now I could see something nasty lurking behind a petal. (Click pics for larger image.)
There are arachnids that destroy insects, insects such as spider-hunting wasps that destroy arachnids, and plant-destroying insects like palm moths, whose grubs are steadily wiping out palms trees. The moths themselves are pretty, albeit noisy and rather clumsy fliers - doubtless on account of their size. This one was on our eleagnus hedge.
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Crab spiders notwithstanding, there are still a lot of lovely bees in my garden; I'm keeping a separate photographic record of the different species visiting this year (see my gallery).

Arguably most beautiful of all are the butterflies. In the last few days alone, in addition to Geranium Bronzes, I've seen a Lang's Short-tailed Blue, possibly two different Hairstreaks, a Marbled White, Swallowtail, Small Heath, Speckled Wood, and ever so many Cleopatras. The latter particularly adore the lavender - as many as eight at a time have been on one plant. In flight, males are orange-blushed sunshine, females elegantly understated. As you can see, I struggle to stop photographing them! (Click on pics for larger image)

It's wonderful to witness this eruption of insect life. Spiders, some reptiles and amphibians, many birds and plants, bats and a few other mammals must be appreciating it even more than I am.
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Crab Spider - An Efficient Predator

21/6/2017

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By Lesley McLaren

Recently, I noticed two bees dangling motionless from flowers in our garden, and thought they might have got stuck. This occasionally happens to hummingbird hawkmoths, whose long tongues somehow seem to get trapped; unable to free themselves, the moths eventually die from exhaustion if not rescued. On peering more closely at the dead bees, however, I discovered they were being held in place by a small white spider.
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It's a type of crab spider (Thomisus onustus).

What immediately fascinated me was that the bees didn't appear to have been caught in a web. Two days ago, as the spider seemed to have set up ambush in a salvia (bog sage), I decided to set up tripod and camera to catch it on film over a period of time.

Its colouring was such great camouflage against the blue and white flower as it lay in wait, often just underneath the bigger, bottom petal, to grab from below any bee that landed there. The petal doubled up as a handy sunshade. Whenever bees buzzed nearby, the spider would sense them (by sight and/or sound?), and stretch out each pair of extra long front legs in readiness for a welcoming embrace.

I witnessed several near misses and lucky escapes.

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Over the last three days it has been successful early each morning, and today I managed to record a kill.

Crab Spider Ambush from Lesley McLaren on Vimeo.

I think it must first paralyze its prey, as the bee in this video stops moving quite quickly (although in bee terms a few minutes might count as a long time, I suppose). Once it has manoeuvred the bee so it can bite into the back of its neck, the spider stays in that position for several hours. Presumably it extracts nutritious juices this way? After this it turns the bee around and seems to do something similar to the back end. Finally it releases its catch. A small collection of bodies is building at the foot of this plant now. Contrary to what I expected, the ants don't seem interested in the remains and haven't carried them away. Could this be because the bees were poisoned and remain toxic?

Talking of ants, It's interesting that the spider doesn't attack them when they run over the flower - and it! Perhaps they are too small to bother with, or their exoskeleton is too hard to break through?

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I examined the bumblebee once dropped, but with the naked eye couldn't see where the torso had been pierced. There did appear to be a hole in the neck, and possibly an empty cavity in the head, however. Perhaps these spiders can't manage whole bees and just feed on their brains?

They can't need much to sustain them. Male crab spiders are only about 2-4mm long, females 7-10mm. (I think the one in my garden must therefore be a female.) But their prey is often bigger than they are, and apparently they catch all sorts of pollinators - including butterflies. It's a pity they don't seem to go for less attractive insects, like mosquitoes.

The bee in the video was caught at around 7am; by midday it had already been released. I hoped the spider was sated and wouldn't catch another of my favourite garden visitors before tomorrow at least, but only an hour later, a honey bee was in her jaws. At 6.30pm she snared another bumblebee - a big one that had had a narrow escape only moments earlier. This time she attacked from above. Examination of this one after the spider had finished with it, revealed no head at all, and a small cavity in its rear end.

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Five kills in three days and three in one day - that's what I call efficient.


For part 2 of this story, go here.

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