A night in the cemetery

York Cemetery is a great place to be after dark. If, that is, you’re looking for moths. Which is precisely what we were doing on Wednesday night.

The night began with me performing a special Buzzing! Moth Show in the beautiful chapel at the Cemetery.

Performing my Buzzing! Moth Show, 24 June 09 (Photo: Paul Rhodes)

After this, moth expert Dr Dave Chesmore took us outside, where he’d rigged up his moth trapping equipment. We clustered round and, over the course of the next couple of hours, we saw a  total of 25 different species, all identified for us by Dave.

Moth Trapping at York Cemetery with Dr Dave Chesmore, 24 June 2009

Our finds included several Straw Dots, a Large Yellow Underwing and a beautiful Swallowtail.

Thank you to everyone at the Cemetery for making us so welcome, especially to Paul Rhodes for the photo of me performing above. Thank you too to everyone who came along. I hope you enjoyed the event.

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Guess who’s coming to dinner …

Walking round my garden here in York yesterday, what did I come across but my old friends (and world-first insect discovery), Berberis sawfly larvae (Arge berberidis)! Munching away at my berberis. For the fourth consecutive year.

Recently hatched Berberis sawfly larvae, York, 23 June 09

They looked like they’d hatched only recently – as you can see here. Which is just about the same time as they hatched last year. (Read all about it)

I looked around carefully, and found some leaves with Berberis sawfly eggs laid in ‘pockets’ inside them. (Click here to watch my video of how they do this.) As in previous years, the adult sawflies seem to favour laying more than one set of eggs on the same leaf.

Berberis leaf with Berberis sawfly eggs, York, 23 June 2009

And talking of adult sawflies, I looked around some more, and saw two skittish adults. Who seemed to be casing the berberis bush, trying out different leaves to find one that took their fancy for egg laying.

Adult berberis sawfly (Arge berberidis), York, 23 June 2009

Interestingly though, when I checked up on the larvae this lunch-time, they were gone!

Nibbled berberis leaf with no Berberis sawfly larvae left, York, 24 June 2009

So, looks like they have a predator.

I asked Andrew Halstead of the Royal Horticultural Society what he thought had happened to the larvae, and he replied:

‘I don’t know what happened to the missing larvae.  Sawfly larvae that feed in exposed positions on the foliage, such as those of berberis sawfly, ought to be easy targets for birds. However, they evidently survive in large numbers, which indicates that there are no effective predators.  Some other caterpillars, such as those of the mullein moth and large cabbage white butterfly also feed in exposed positions on their host plants with apparent impunity. All of these larvae have prominent yellow blotches on their bodies, which may be a warning sign that they don’t taste good.’

So, I’ll have to keep a very beady eye out and see if I can spot any birds eating the next larvae that hatch.

Meanwhile, if you see Berberis sawflies – adults or larvae – in your garden, the Royal Horticultural Society would like to know about it. You can record your sighting with them here.

Find out more about Berberis sawflies (including photos of eggs, larvae and adults) here.

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Check out compost! The (mini-)Musical – ‘A superb learning experience’ – Teaching Pack with Resource CD now available

Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack

Beautiful Lealholm!

The children of Lealholm Primary School in the North York Moors National Park are extraordinarily lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country.

The view from Lealholm Primary School

And I was extraordinarily lucky to be invited to spend a day with them yesterday.

Anneliese at Lealholm Primary School, North Yorkshire

After a Buzzing! performance for the whole school in the morning, the infants and I went on a Rhyme Time Ramble round their playground and field. The beady-eyed children spotted bees and a 7-spot ladybird and a painted lady butterfly, amongst other wildlife wonders.

Then in the afternoon, I revealed my Top-Secret Photography Technique to the juniors, and we all went outside to take photos. And what amazing photos these children did take! Photos of bees and flies and beetles and flowers and snails …

Here are a few of the photos that Mattie, Charlotte and Emma took. Aren’t they great?

All the children were very observant, and found a fascinating variety of creatures to photograph. Charles Darwin would have been proud of them!