Garden Life

During the spring, my son and I planted a selection of wild flower mixes in pots at the bottom of the garden. The resulting summer blooms bring colour, aroma, and various butterflies and other life to the area. Today’s post highlights some of the garden life I encountered during a morning of observation earlier this month.

Comma Butterfly

I remember this butterfly as regular garden visitor when I was a child. In fact, the comma has spent the last few decades undergoing a significant revival. Over the past 40 years, the number of comma butterflies in the UK has increased by over 50%. The increase in numbers is thought to be down to two primary factors. The first, climate change, meaning the insects are spreading more widely across the UK, including into Scotland. Secondly, their adaptability. Having seen a huge fall off in hops farming, meaning the caterpillars’ primary food source declined, the comma has gradually moved instead towards a diet of stinging nettles.

 

The striking pattern to the edge of the wings helps to camouflage adult butterflies, particularly among dead leaves during hibernation. Caterpillars are similarly well camouflaged; coloured to resemble bird droppings. The name, comma, is taken from the white punctuation mark on the underside of the wing. You can just about make this out on the lower half of the wing in the first picture.

Large White Butterfly

There were a lot of large white butterflies around, and the name fits the description. They are large, and they are mainly white.

Pictured is a female large white, distinguished from the male by her black wing spots. They spent their time between buddleia (as in the image) and the longer grasses and other plants where they stopped to lay eggs.

The female in this photograph is preparing to lay her eggs, which she will deposit in clusters of around 40 to 100. Resembling alien eggs (from the film of the same name), she lays around 600 in total. One of the clusters is pictured below, alongside evidence of hungry caterpillars.

Eggs usually hatch within a couple of weeks; the warmer the weather, the faster the hatching process.

Buff-Tailed Bumblebee

The majority of the bees I spotted in the garden were buff-tailed bumblebees. The largest of the 24 species of bumblebee in the UK, the buff-tailed is named after the colour of their queen’s tail. Workers (female) and drones (male) bees have whiter tails, and are distinguished from white-tailed bumblebees by a buff coloured line between the tail tip and main body. Photography can be particularly helpful in identification. Trying to identify very similar looking insects by eye is almost impossible with some species.

The faint buff line separating the tail from the rest of the abdomen is visible in the image above. Note also the pollen sacs on the bee’s legs. Only the queens and female bees gather pollen. In the case of the buff-tailed bumblebee, they will take their haul to an underground nest which houses a community of up to 600 bees.

Buff-tailed bumblebees are known for their short tongues. This can cause difficulty in trying to reach nectar in certain types of tubular flower, such as honeysuckle. The bees side-step this inconvenience by making small holes in the base of the flower to access nectar directly. Animals (mainly insects) who participate in this particular behaviour are known as nectar robbers. Once a hole has been created, other nectar consumers will often be observed making use of the shortcut.

Meadow Grasshopper

The meadow grasshopper is often found among long grass, which is its primary food source. Meadow grasshoppers lay eggs in ‘pods’ of 4-6, tucking them under the soil where they remain over winter until the nymphs hatch the following spring.

The grasshopper pictured is a male, with longer wings than a female has. Meadow grasshoppers are generally referred to as being the only flightless grasshopper in the UK, using jumping as their primary method of travel. Males can in fact fly short distances, although their flight is limited owing to their short hind wings. Females are unable to fly.

The wings of meadow grasshoppers are said to be vestigial. That is they are remnants of the operational wings of their ancestors. Over time, environmental factors such as a reduced need to fly, or development of other methods of movement such as jumping, mean fully functioning wings are no longer required.

Green-Veined White Butterfly

A commonly seen butterfly, the green-veined white looks similar to other white butterflies, but has distinct green stripes. The so named veins are more prominent on the underside of the wings. The veins are not actually blood vessels, but are lines created through a combination of yellow and black scales.

This green-veined white is a male hatched from the summer brood, the second brood of the year. Identified by the black spots on either wing, summer males generally have more obvious markings than the spring brood whose wings are often plain white.

Females have two dark spots on each wing, visible faintly in the spring brood and much more clearly in the summer cohort.

It’s very hard to see in the photograph, but the male was attempting to reach a female who was laying eggs deep in the long grass. Caterpillars from these eggs will feed to pupation and then overwinter before hatching into the spring brood of butterflies the following year.

Long Hoverfly

An elegant insect with slender body and distinctive black and yellow bands, the long hoverfly is seen throughout the UK, although less common in the north.

Females lay eggs on aphid infested plants, which provide larvae with their main food source after hatching. Adults feed on nectar and are particularly effective pollinators for garden plants, including fruit and vegetables.

As with all hoverflies, the long hoverfly may resemble a stinging insect but has no sting. With their dual role of pest controller and pollinator, they are welcome garden visitors.

A large number of the hoverflies arrive in the UK from mainland Europe during the spring, flying over 600 miles during migration. Their young will make the return trip to mainland Europe in late summer. In total, up to four billion hoverflies of various types are estimated to migrate between mainland Europe and the UK every year.

Honourable Mention

There was also a red admiral around the garden, a striking butterfly which has its own blog post here. And perched among some of the taller plants, a female house sparrow watching the moving feast before her (picture below). Although sparrows will eat butterflies, their preference is for caterpillars and given the abundance of flying insects, I’m sure there were plenty of caterpillars to be found.

Further Information

There are many reference sources for more information about garden life. The following list details some of my particular favourites:

The Wildlife Trusts
The RSPB
Butterfly Conservation
Natural History Museum
Buglife
Royal Entomological Society