Last Sunday we had some local experts leading a group of us on an invertebrate survey. It's interesting and important to know what buglife we have at Filnore. A lot of different creatures means a healthy environment.
Butterflies, grasshoppers and dragon flies are the easiest to see but there are loads of other little guys hopping and buzzing about if you have a net and a hand lens to see them. Some really tiny creatures are beautifully patterned and coloured, but you have to get down to their size. My camera isn't the best at close-ups and high magnification so I can only show you a few from the day but I'll say more in future blog posts, using more professional pictures from the internet.
I'll show you the worst picture first. This is a Long-winged Conehead, a member of the grasshopper tribe, with long antennae and a dark brown stripe down its back. Very smart. It also likes nibbling and gave one or two of us quite a nip, without managing to break the skin. It probably thought we were grass stems.
Genuine Filnore photo
photo from ecomart website
The next is a moth, called the Brown Broad Bar.
You can see why.
And lastly a few shots of a Comma butterfly. You can see the c-shaped comma on the dark underside of the wing when it perches with its wings held together.
And when it opens its wings to sunbathe, you can see the ragged shape and the lovely colours of the upper side of the wings.
This is a strong fast flyer. The caterpillars feed on nettles.
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