Bugs Show 'Insect'

Bumble Bees at Foxglove

A busy day today, a Great Crested Grebe survey, a butterfly transect and still managed a few photographs in calm conditions.

I set myself up at some Foxgloves, prefocused and waited for the bees to come to me, there are certainly 2 and possibly 3 species here (need to get my Bumble Bee ID up to scratch).

All with a Panasonic G1 and 105mm, f/2.8 Sigma DG Macro, not cropped and post processed in Bibble Pro 5.

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see, despite the theory they can fly!

Barrie
 
something a little different

This is almost certainly the nymph of a Great Green Bush-cricket. The wings are still very short, when fully adult they will extend some way beyond the tip of the abdomen. Pick one of these guys up and you're very likely to get bitten.

Panasonic G1 with 105mm, f/2.8 Sigma DG Macro, not cropped and post processed in Bibble Pro 5.

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Barrie
 
and the bees were sharing in the pickings ... I don't know what it is about thistles, but nearly all had both bee and burnet ... the bees were remarkably "intent" on what they were doing, completely unfazed by having a lens stuck near them and rarely flew from flower they were working over ...

View attachment 38018
bzz by _loupe, on Flickr
 
moth eggs

When examining my moth trap after running it overnight on the 14th/15th June I noticed this cluster off eggs had been laid. This general photograph was taken with a G1 fitted with a 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens.

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They are on an egg box (meant to hold 6 eggs). At that time they were a milky white colour. Since then they have become darker which suggests that there are developing caterpillars inside which should hatch in the next few days. Each egg is about 0.80 mm (0.030") in diameter.

This is a close up taken with the 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor mounted on extension tubes.

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I think they might be the eggs of White Ermine moth, but I can't be certain since I had 19 species of moth in the trap, about 6 of those could be responsible, but I think White Ermine tops the list.. I'm going to have to offer a variety of possible food sources if and when they hatch and see which they opt for.


Barrie
 
They,ve started to hatch

Literally a few minutes ago I noticed that the first of the eggs had started to hatch. This shot was taken with available window light, and that is fading fast. You can see some opened and empty eggs and others with openings being made in them.

Now I have to find some food for these guys.

Panasonic G1 with 55 mm, f/2.8 micro-Nikkor on extension tubes.

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Barrie
 
This is so cool! The eggs look like little pearls of some sort...but now, with those little creatures coming out - we're definitely in alien territory for me! Can you tell yet which species they are, Barrie?
 
This is so cool! The eggs look like little pearls of some sort...but now, with those little creatures coming out - we're definitely in alien territory for me! Can you tell yet which species they are, Barrie?

Hi BB,

I'm going for White Ermine, they're obviously going to be hairy so that's a good start They will change colour as they age and shed their skins in order to grow bigger, most guide illustrate the fully grown caterpillars, but one web site I've visited shows eggs, very small larva, etc and they are white with some dark streaks when small, so I'm hopeful. When fully grown these will be sort of brownish.
They have a wide ranging diet of plants, so nettle and dock offered at the moment. I've left them on the egg shells since some caterpillars eat their egg shells, and it is very important for them to do that.
Just my luck that I've got a long day both tomorrow and Friday working with a BBC cameraman to get some wildlife footage for a short slot on a regional television program. I'll have to get them some fresh leaves for breakfast in the morning, then shoot off out.

Barrie
 
I don't know Barrie but it seems to me that your activities tomorrow could be fun and interesting! I'd love to hear more - and of course want to keep up with your little moths as they mature, too.:D
 
BBC West? I expect we're in different areas so I won;t get to see it ...

Hi Paul,

It's for the Inside Out programme, which is different across each of the BBC regions, this will be for the South West region out of Plymouth. I've just completed a shattering 12 hour day of almost non stop filming, although a lot of standing around for me. I don't know how the guy picks up his tripod, let alone everything else he carries. I'll put together a full piece after tomorrow, only about 9 hours planned I think, so an easy day.

Barrie
 
and of course want to keep up with your little moths as they mature, too.:D

Despite not being able to give them much time except to keep their container clean and provide possible suitable food since I was involved with helping to film wildlife, see https://www.photographerslounge.org/f21/two-days-wildlife-cameraman-long-post-3119/ most if not all the hatched White Ermine moth caterpillars have survived.

They ate the egg cases such that no trace remained, now most have settled to eat Nettle, although some have chosen Dandelion and one or two possibly Plantain. There are about 30 in number and they are currently about 4 mm long (0.18"), so very fiddly to transfer to fresh food, I use a small artists brush, also easy to throw the baby out with the bath water as it were.

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Panasonic G1 with 55 mm, f/2.8 micro-Nikkor on extension tubes, this one is on Dandelion.

Barrie
 
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