Bumblebees in April

(originally published April 26, 2012) Ok you may have to bear with me on this subject, I am very slowly getting the hang of bumblebees but since this is my first year of attempting to identify them I may well get one or two wrong. This applies to all insects really. I find it hard to tell some species apart so mistakes and revisions are bound to happen. If I am at any point unsure about an ID I will make a note next to the picture so that people can tell when something is not certain.

Ahem, anyway, this blog will cover the members of the genus Bombus, which covers the carder, cuckoo and bumblebees of Ireland. First is my favourite species, the carder bee, I like the reddish colouration. It’s quite common and I have found several in the city as well as in Ballycotton.

Most common around the city are these two species, the white tailed and the buff tailed bumblebee, these two are a bit too similar for my taste with the tail and stripes being of a slightly different colouration. I have only confidently split the ones with extremely yellow and extremely orange stripes from each other. It is their queens that are easiest to tell apart and there’s been plenty of them around for the past month.

White tailed bumblebees

Buff tailed bumblebees

The also common red tailed bumblebee is a bit easier to identify, seeing that its mostly black with a red tail. There is a rare species up the country that looks quite similar but down here in Cork it’s probably safe to assume that these are red tails.

And now for the complicated bees, I think....and I do mean think that this is a garden bumblebee given that its a long looking specimen and has a joined stripe on the thorax and the abdomen indicating that its not a white or buff tailed. I could be wrong...

This bee I am finding much harder to identify. Its tiny and looks at first glance almost black. Its reddish tail seem to suggest that its an early bumblebee but frankly I am just not sure. Hopefully with further research I will be able to pin this one down.

Most of my fevered attempts at identifying these fat little insects comes from this website, a great way to get started if your interested in Irelands diverse bee species. http://pollinators.biodiversityireland.ie/

Butterflies in April

(Originally published April 7, 2012) Well I’m finally getting to this blog, I had intended to have a number of posts here by now, but that’s life I guess. As its now spring the insects have began to return to the city. Specifically I have been looking at bumblebees and butterflies and trying to photograph the various species that have now taken to the air. Today I’ll show you my first butterflies of summer 2012. With any luck at all it’s only the beginning.

This is a small white (Pieris rapae), one of a number of white butterfly species. I spotted this individual and 4 others in Ballycotton last week out on the cliffwalk. Soon this species will be everywhere. It was great to see it again since the butterflies disappeared around October last year.

This peacock butterfly (Inachis io) was seen in the Fota gardens, little island last week. It’s a great looking butterfly and also coincidently one of Ireland’s most common species. Note its brown camouflage with wings closed making it almost invisible when on a tree or on leaf litter which stands in stark contrast to its vivid red wing patters and false eyes when open. I don’t quite remember the specifics but this presumably is designed to startle would be predators and confuse them as to where to bite, attacking the false eyes allows for escape. This individual started vibrating when I approached it which I took to be either its attempt to lure a nearby mate or a threatening display towards me, based on my books it seems to be the latter. I have never witnessed them doing this before!

The third and by far most common species currently I have seen recently is the small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) which is similar in size to the peacock but less bold. It is this species that one usually finds hibernating in houses. I quite like the blue rims on this species. The first individual below seems a bit worse for wear but the second one shows off some of this butterflies beauty a bit more.

I have already seen glimpses of holly blues and orange tips around the city. These two species are top of my list of species to photograph this month.

Large red & Azure damselflies

(originally published May 19, 2012)

Whilst taking a stroll around Little island near Cork last week I managed to find a sizeable group of large red damselflies in Fota gardens. At first I feared that getting close to them might be problematic and therefore I wouldn’t get a good shot. This fear was soon laid to rest as I discovered a minimum of 50 of these lovely damselflies. I never saw this species before which made the day all the better. This is Ireland’s only red species of damselfly aside from the rufescens form blue tailed damselfly I found last year. These are my first Odontates of 2012. Hopefully there will be plenty more to follow.

Amongst them where a small number of blue type damselflies. Once home and looking through the pictures I quickly ruled out blue tailed and common blue damselflies which left only azure and variable damselflies as candidates. I can’t say it was easy since some of the diagnostic features are hard to figure out from these shots. With some help at dragonflyireland’s facebook page however they were pinned down to azure’s.