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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When I first spotted Berberis sawfly larvae in my garden in October 2006, there was some controversy in the sawfly world about whether they represented a breeding population or not. Well, 22 months and several broods later, I think I can categorically state that we do have a breeding population here.

And though I’ve still not spotted the sawflies actually mating, this year, for the first time ever, I saw them laying their eggs on our Berberis bush. And you can see this too – by clicking here.

If you watch the video carefully, you’ll see why these insects are called ‘Sawflies’. They actually saw into the leaf, and deposit their eggs inside it!

Eggs laid by Berberis sawfly on my Berberis bush in York

So, the 2008 Berberis sawfly story began on 4 June, when I looked up from my desk and saw around 7 skittish Berberis sawflies flying around our Berberis bush. ‘Aha!’ I thought. ‘They’re back. And I recognise that behaviour. I think it means they’re going to lay their eggs…’

So, I watched. And I waited. And I videoed.

Videoing Berberis sawfly egg-laying in my garden in York, 6 June 2008

And this is what I saw …

Now, I have only recently got a video camera (thanks to the Merchant Adventurers’ Award I received earlier this year), so the film is not David Attenborough-esque in its quality. But I think it’s fascinating, nevertheless, to see the Sawfly actually sawing into the leaf …

When I was filming, I *thought* I was filming egg-laying, but I couldn’t be absolutely sure. And at first when I went to have a look at the leaf she’d been on, I couldn’t actually see any eggs. I had to look very very carefully.

Of course, once I had ientified the pockets of eggs, I was able to watch them develop day by day, until they actually hatched …

Berberis sawfly larvae hatching in my garden in York, England -28 June 2008

… and then began their familiar routine of gobbling up my Berberis bush, pooing profusely as they went! (As audiences at my National Insect Week, Ledbury Poetry Festival and Festival of the Rivers Buzzing! shows were able to see for themselves, as I took some larvae along to each of these shows.)

Berberis sawfly larvae taken to my Buzzing! shows for the audiences to see, 3 July 2008

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

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Introducing, by popular demand, Buzzing!, the CD. With nearly three times as many poems and photos as I can fit into an hour-long live show!

Listen to a sample track (mp3)

Order your copy from theBigBuzz online store!

So you’ll meet, for the first time, Marcus, the 14-Spot Ladybird, Cora, the Mint Moth, and Tin Pan Ali, a Leaf-cutter Bee, as well as favourites from my live show, such as Dung-fly, and Lucretia, the Ichneumon Wasp.

The CD comes with a 16-page colour booklet I’ve designed which includes over 80 photos! The booklet has been printed in York on recylced paper. Here is a sample page:

Buzzing! the CD is a truly local product. Not only did I write the poems and take most of the photos here in Heslington, on the outskirts of York, but I recorded them at a recording studio about a mile from my house, Cube Media. My sound engineer there, John Greatwood, did a great job adding special effects to various of the tracks, including Charlie, Jack (a Common Field Grasshopper) and Howard (a Hummingbird Hawkmoth). Here is John at work on my CD:

Listen to a sample track (mp3)

Order your copy from theBigBuzz online store!

If you want to sell Buzzing! CDs to raise money for a charity or for your school, then contact me.

If you’re a retailer who wishes to stock Buzzing! CDs, contact me for details.

My performance of Buzzing! tomorrow at St Nick’s Environmental Centre in York got great publicity in the local paper today. As did the (world-first) Berberis sawfly larvae in our garden!

Read the article in full: The Press article, 10.8.07 (pdf)

Find out more about our Berberis sawfly larvae

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I saw the first tell-tale signs on 8 July. Nibbled leaves on our berberis bush. I turned over a leaf or two, and sure enough, there were larvae on their undersides. Tiny little things, much tinier than when I’d first seen them in October of last year.

Yes, the Berberis sawfly larvae (Arge berberidis), recorded in Yorkshire for the first time ever last year in our garden (read all about it), were back! And they’ve been steadily nibbling more and more of our berberis, and growing bigger …

and bigger …

ever since!

Have a look in your gardens too. If you find the same larvae on your berberis or mahonia bushes (or on anything else, for that matter!), Andrew Halstead from the Royal Horticultural Society would like to know about it. (Find out more.)

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

Do you remember my world-first insect discovery last October? The first Berberis sawfly larvae ever to be spotted in Yorkshire! Well, it could be that they are now back, in their adult form!

Since Saturday 16 June, I have been noticing up to 7 of these black sawflies on and around the berberis bush that the larvae were eating last autumn.

I sent some photos to insect expert Andrew Halstead at the Royal Horticultural Society, to see if he could identify them for me. (You’ll remember he wrote an article about Berberis sawfly in the UK – including a mention of my sighting – for the Sawfly Study Group Newsletter in January of this year.)

He replied:
“These pictures are all of Arge sp sawflies and could be Arge berberidis, particularly if they are seen in the vicinity of its host plants (Berberis and Mahonia).”

So, these could well be the first adult Berberis sawflies (Arge berberidis) ever recorded in Yorkshire!  I’m going to send some samples to the Natural History Museum in London to have them identified for certain!

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

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‘A superb learning experience’

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The Berberis sawfly larvae I spotted in our garden last October (find out more ) have entered the annals of science! Andrew Halstead, principal entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, and co-author (with Pippa Greenwood) of RHS Pests and Diseases, has written a scientific article for the Sawfly Study Group’s January 2007 Newsletter about Berberis sawfly in Britain. And my Berberis sawfly larvae sighting is mentioned! It is also plotted on a map showing Berberis sawfly distribution across England. The map shows just how remarkable my sighting was – it’s miles and miles and miles away from any other sightings!

The article also includes one of my photos of Berberis sawfly larvae. And a photo (not taken by me) of the adult sawfly. So, now I know what I’m looking out for when the pupae hatch!

To read the article, click on the following link:

Sawfly Study Group, Jan. 2007, Berberis sawfly article by Andrew Halstead

Andrew Halstead would be interested to hear from anyone else who sees Berberis sawflies. He tells me:

“The sort of information that is useful regarding Berberis sawfly sightings is the location where the insect was seen (town/village and county), with the post code and/or map reference, the date it was seen, the host plant and the stage(eggs/larvae/adults/
defoliated plant without larvae or adults).”

Andrew Halstead can be contacted on andrewhalstead@rhs.org.uk

Meanwhile, the editor of The Sawfly Study Group Newsletter, Guy Knight, zoology curator (entomology) at the National Museums Liverpool, is actively looking for sightings of any species of  sawfly spotted in Wales. So keep a good lookout there too!

Email him your sightings to Guy.Knight@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

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

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On the day that the Natural History Museum in London has asked to keep my Berberis sawfly larva specimen (see 8 November post) for its collection, and The Sawfly Study Group Newsletter has asked to publish some of my Berberis sawfly larvae photos, I think it only right that I at last tell the tale, as promised in my first post on this blog, of how I came to find and, more importantly, to identify these history-making creatures. Let me tell you, dear reader, it was not easy …

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin …

It was just after lunch on Sunday 15 October 2006. I was mooching round our small garden in Heslington, as is my wont, having a look at what was going on. When I got to the berberis bush in the corner I noticed that some of its leaves were rather well nibbled. I turned over a partly nibbled leaf to see if I could see what was doing the nibbling, and was surprised to see something I’d never seen before. It was (I thought) a caterpillar, with a black head, a white body with yellow and black spots, and six black legs. Very striking!

I looked more carefully at the bush as a whole (which is only about 4’ tall by 3’6 wide), and found 15 of these creatures – seven of them grouped together on one stem. None of them was moving.

Not only did I find a lot of caterpillars, I had the privilege of finding lots of poo too, both on the leaves of the berberis itself, and on the leaves of the geraniums growing underneath, which were carpeted with poos! To my untutored eye, these poos were disproportionately large in comparison with the creatures’ girth.

I took photos with a view to identifying the creatures later in the day.

Later in the day, I still hadn’t managed to identify them. I’d looked through all my butterfly books and my Field Studies Council Guide to the Caterpillars of the Butterflies of Britain and Ireland, and couldn’t find a caterpillar that looked like these ones.

So I decided they must be moth caterpillars. And who better to tell me which moth than moth expert Dr Dave Chesmore, who works just round the corner from me, at the University of York.

I sent Dave a photo of my caterpillars. The email bounced. Only it wasn’t until several days later that I realised that the email that had been returned to me was the one that I’d sent to him. So, on Friday 20 October I resent the email. Which was when the fun really began.

Dave Chesmore got straight back to me and said he thought it likely they weren’t moth caterpillars at all, but sawfly larvae. He said a good way of telling was to examine the number and distribution of their pseudopods (also called pseudolegs). Butterfly and moth caterpillars have a gap before the final pair of pseudopods; sawfly larvae don’t.

Sawflies? Pseudopods? My education was proceeding at a rapid pace. Having  only seen three pairs of legs at the front of these creatures’ bodies, I had no idea they had any ‘pseudopods’. Off I went to have a closer look.

I found a berberis leaf with a ‘mystery creature’ on, and tore the leaf off the bush. I set the leaf against a contrastive a piece of white card, and set about trying to resolve The Pseudopod Question.

This turned out to be slightly more tricky than I had anticipated, as getting the creature to lie straight and upside down was, well, impossible. Its natural inclination, if disturbed, was to curl up. Hmm …

So, I got a twig, coaxed the creature onto it, and held both up against the white card background. Sure enough, on serious peeking, I managed to discern tiny pseudopods in line after the big black legs. Well I never! The key question was: was there a gap before the last pair of pseudopods or not?

Answer: I couldn’t tell. Try as I might to see what was going on at the rear end of the creature, I couldn’t, as it insisted on curling its ‘tail-end’ around the twig.

I took as many pseudo-pseudopod photos as I could, then admitted defeat and returned the creature to the berberis bush, whence it had come. I then went to have a look at the photos on my computer. Blown up on my monitor, the pseudopods were fascinating (they were really too small to see clearly with the naked eye). But as far as I could see, the photos I had managed to get still didn’t answer definitively the caterpillar/sawfly larva question. I sent the best photo I had to Dave.

He got straight back to me with an answer: sawfly larva. Apparently, all this tail curling was typical of sawfly larvae!

At last, five days after first spotting these creatures, five days during which I had visited them regularly and got to know them quite well (intimately, in fact, as on Tuesday I had had the dubious privilege of watching one of them do one of its majestic poos), I at last knew what they were. Sawfly larvae. Mystery solved.

Or was it? As it turned out, far from being the end of this story, this turned out to be just the beginning …

So, sawfly larvae they were. The next question of course was: what sort of sawfly? I opened my trusty Collins Complete British Insects and started looking. Aha – easy. There was a picture a gang of larvae identical to mine: Croesus septentrionalis. So, that was that.

Except of course that it wasn’t. When I went to bed that night thre was something niggling at the back of my mind. According to the Collins, Croesus septentrionalis, if disturbed, ‘raise their rear ends in unison’. Our larvae didn’t do this. Well, not that I had seen. In fact, they seemed to do precisely the opposite, as my vain attempt to view their rear pseudopods had demonstrated. Hey ho, there must be some explanation …

Next morning, Saturday 21 October, I got up and turned the computer on to type up the next two verses of the sawfly larvae poem I had come up with overnight. Whilst waiting for the computer to start up, I was leafing idly through my Collins when I stumbled on another, larger, photo of Croesus septentrionalis. And immediately something struck me: this photo showed larvae with three pairs of yellow legs. Our sawfly larvae very definitely had three pairs of black legs! Either our larvae were at a different, black-legged, stage of development. Or … ours were a completely different species altogether … How to find out?

I went online and, for want of anything better, typed ‘berberis’ and ‘sawfly larva’ into Google. From the results, I clicked on a link to the wildaboutbritain site. And there I discovered … that there was such a thing as the Berberis sawfly (Arge berberidis), that it was native to Central and Southern Europe, but that since 2002 a few sightings had been made in the south of England. Another Google search yielded an image of Berberis sawfly larvae. They had black legs, and looked remarkably similar to the ones in our garden.

At that point it dawned on me: maybe I had the world’s first ever sighting of Berberis sawfly larvae in Yorkshire! Maybe … or maybe not! How to find out?

The wildaboutbritain site mentioned experts at the Natural History Museum in London and the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley who were tracking the spread of the Berberis sawfly larvae across the UK. So, I set about trying to contact these people. I needed to know firstly if the larvae in our garden were indeed Berberis sawfly larvae and if so, whether they’d ever been sighted in Yorkshire before.

Was entomological history being made in our garden? Or not?

I waited for a reply. I waited and waited and waited. And then, on 28 October, two whole weeks after I’d first spotted them, the answer came. As you can read, at the very first post to this website …

To read the Berberis sawfly larvae story as it unfolded from this point, click here. And to watch a video of the female laying her eggs on my berberis bush, click here.

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

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Well, the time has come to choose theBigBuzz wildlife highlights of 2006! It’s been an action-packed year in theBigBuzz garden (just 8m x 8m), here in Heslington on the outskirts of York.

This year there are awards in 4 categories:

• Amphibian
• Bird
• Insect 
• Mammal.

So, without further ado, I shall reveal the winners …

1. Amphibian highlight of 2006

The Common Frog in the Lounge Incident, 24 July 2006, 10.30pm

So there I was, leaving the lounge on my way to bed, when I spotted something strange out of the corner of my eye by the waste bin. Which turned out to be … a Common Frog! Imagine my surprise! How long it had been there I have no idea. Hours? Days? I assume it had hopped in through the patio door, but why or when I have no idea.

I caught it quite easily using my tried and tested catching-something method, i.e. putting a jam jar over it. And I was about to take it outside when I decided I’d like to take a photo of it. So I took the jam jar off. Which was a mistake. The frog wasted no time at all, and immediately hopped off behind the television. And stayed there. Despite much (increasingly desperate) coaxing.

It was quite late before we got to bed that night! We did eventually manage to lure our visitor out from its hiding place, and I got a jam jar back over its head pretty smartish this time. And kept it on. As the photo above shows.

2. Ornithological highlight of 2006

A pair of Bullfinches, from mid-April 2006

We have only rarely had a bullfinch in our garden, and never two at once. Until this spring. Bertie and Gertie, as we christened them, became frequent visitors to our nyger seed feeder from 15 April. We had plenty of time to observe them because once they started tucking in, they were there for the duration. Goldfinches would come and go. Greenfinches would come and go. Coal tits would come and go. But the bullfinches were imperturbable. They came and they ate. And ate, and ate. We could almost see them getting fatter before our very eyes!

 We watched them court, then mate in the tree on 20 April (after Gertie had played hard to get for some time!) And then, on 31 July, we had our first ever juvenile bullfinch on our seeds, whom we took to be Bertie and Gertie’s offspring.

Was it the nyger seeds that attracted the bullfinches? This was our first year putting out nyger seeds. We tried them because we were having lots of trouble with woodpigeons, who were big fans of the sunflower seeds we’d always used in previous years. We got fed up of being woken in the early hours by clod-hopping woodpigeons on our roof, and were very pleased when we discovered they didn’t like nyger seeds. Long lie-ins again at last! The only downside of the nyger seeds seemed to be that the blue tits don’t like them. But that didn’t stop them nesting in our box this year, so things can’t be too bad for them in our garden.

3. Entomological highlight of 2006

Berberis sawfly larvae, discovered on 15 October 2006

There were a lot of strong contenders in this category. I became quite enamoured of earwigs during August, for example. I hadn’t seen them in the garden before, and the more I watched them and the more I found out about them, the more fascinated I became. But the overall winner had to be … the Berberis sawfly larvae, never before recorded in Yorkshire, 15 of which I found on our berberis bush in mid-October.

Identifying them proved to be a whole saga in itself, as a search of the posts on this blog will reveal. And I grew very fond of them indeed – even though they were eating up our berberis …

4. Mammalian highlight of 2006

Young stoat, 27 May 2006

It was not yet 8 o’clock in the morning when there came a shout from my husband in the lounge. I came dashing in to see what the excitement was and saw, to my astonishment, a long furry something jumping up and down at the patio window pane. It didn’t stay long, and we subsequently identified it as a young stoat. Never seen in our garden before or since. The photo below is a hot contender for worst wildlife photo of the year, but at least it gives you an idea of our surprise visitor that day …

I’ve just been in the garden, examining the berberis bush to see if I could see any more Berberis sawfly larvae. I looked and I looked and I looked, and I was on the verge of coming in and reporting that there were no more on the bush, when I spotted one!

It must be a very hardy creature, as it’s survived several frosts now, and blustery winds and driving rain.

Now there are so few larvae on the bush (perhaps only this one!) they are not easy to find at all. Can you spot the larva on this photo that I’ve just taken?

As you can see, there are many nibbled leaves on this stem. I asked Andrew Halstead at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley what damage this nibbling actually did to the plant. This was his reply:

‘The damage caused by the larvae (the adults feed on pollen from various flowers)  is the loss of leaf area. Light infestations will have little impact on the plant, but loss of much of the foliage in early summer, as can happen, will have a greater effect. Defoliated plants can produce a new flush of foliage but the plant is weakened and some shoots may die-back. The plant’s ability to produce flowers and berries next year may be reduced if there has been severe defoliation.’

So, I’ll have to wait till next Spring to see what impact, if any, all this autumn leaf nibbling has had on our berberis.

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

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