THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY OF THE YEAR

The other day it was warm, sunny and a bit muggy.  The air in the garden was filled with flying ants and tall plants like this hollyhock were crawling with the creatures climbing up high to launch themselves.  

  

Some people are terrified or disgusted by these little aeronauts but this is really a miracle of nature.

  

These are the females of the common garden black ant (Lasius niger) that nests under paving or big stones.  What they are after is to meet up with the smaller male ants from another nest on their nuptial flight.  They have been nurtured by the small, black workers and somehow all the nests in an area seem to know that today is the day.  

Here we have the females jostling for position at the top of the plant.

  

And below you can see one just about to take off.  Look at that determination.

So this is their one afternoon of love.  After mating the males die pretty soon while the females bite off their wings and burrow underground to start a new colony, where they will be the egg-laying queen for up to 15 years, amazingly..

 

MUSK MALLOW

The end of each of the five pink petals of Musk Mallow look as if they have been chewed.  

In the centre of the flower is a bunch of prominent stamens.  

Although the leaves at ground level are round, along the stems they are divided like a water plant, and quite unlike common mallow, though the flowers are similar.

A beautiful addition to the wildflowers in my garden.  Don't know how it got here;  I just stopped mowing.

DON'T FORGET THE BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT

 

FILNORE BUTTERFLIES

 

July is the bonananza buttefly month.  Enjoy them but, if you can, join in the BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT (see below for link to website) starting today.  Butterflies are declining rapidly and this citizen science project will help in their conservation.

The old faithful Meadow Brown is still around at Filnore Woods: brown on top with a flash of orange underneath;  one of the few butterflies that flies on dull days.

 

Another dark one is the Ringlet.  You can see the little rings clearly in a photograph but in flight it looks dark brown with a white edging.  Trying to follow one is frustrating because they flutter as if on their last wings but will not let you get near.

  

But the most magnificent July butterfly is the Marbled White.  It needs long grass for its breeding cycle so Filnore Woods' grassland is to its liking.  There's no mistaking it either - topside or the underside - both equally beautiful.

The big butterfly count 2023
From 14th July - 6th August, Butterfly Conservation's citizen science project aims to encourage us to help count the butterflies we see, in a bid to better understand the UK’s butterfly and moth population.
Launched in 2010, this survey of butterflies has become the largest of its kind, with over 64,000 participants and 96,257 counts of butterflies and day flying moths last year.
Find out how you can join in with this year's event.

Big Butterfly Count website

TIGERS IN THE GARDEN

This moth resting quietly on one of my courgette plants is a Scarlet Tiger Moth.  It's called scarlet tiger because when it flies the scarlet hind wings flash an improbable red, looking almost tropical.

Photo: Patrick Clement, Butterfly Conservation

Also on the Butterfly Conservation website is a photo of the Garden Tiger Moth, which is similar but more orange, when it reveals its hindwings, and with a different pattern on the forewings.

KNAPWEEDS

Lesser Knapweed is also known as hardheads because of the compact brown buds and seedheads.

Its relative Greater Knapweed has a bigger flower head surrounded by rayed florets.

 

MULLEIN MOTH

  

Each year we try to grow a pretty pink verbascum in our garden but each year a pesky Mullein Moth lays her eggs on the plant and despite their bright colours we find it hard to spot the caterpillars until they have done their worst.  They don't just take a few nibbles at the leaves; they totally devour leaves and flowers alike.    I know it is what they have to do but it is frustrating.   I picked off about 80 caterpillars large and small over several days but all that was left was a few bare stalks.  So I cut it down and it tried again.  

The native Verbascum is called Mullein.  In its first year it forms a rosette of downy grey leaves.  In its second year it  throws up a yellow flower spike which can be 2 metres tall. 

  

                                             Photo: first nature                                                                                     Photo: grit magazine

I guess the mullein moth caterpillars enjoy these native plants too and they also feed on buddleia but they like my Verbascum best.   

 

LADY'S BEDSTRAW

Lady's Bedstraw is the next grassland flower in bloom.  Each little flower only has four petals but en masse they make quite a yellow splash.

The legend says that Mary, mother of Jesus lay on a bed of Lady's Bedstraw in the stable because everything else had been eaten by the cattle.  

Like it's relative Woodruff, it contains a lot of coumarin, which smells like new mown hay when it dries.  Coumarin can be made into the drug dicoumarol, an anti-coagulant now superseded by warfarin and other drugs.

You can get a yellow dye from the leaves and stems and a red dye from the roots, though natural dyes have nowadays given way to synthetic dyes derived from the petrochemical industries.