Cocooning In June

The year is racing by and photos I'd put aside for a moment are now a month out of date!  No less interesting though and now seems a good time to bring out this photograph of an Ichneumon Wasp's cocoon (probably campoplegine).  I had no idea what was in the cocoon until this morning, when David Notton, invertebrates expert from the Natural History Museum, helped me out on iSpot.

The Ichneumon's cocoon is the white bit that looks like a bird dropping (possibly to put off predators).  The dried wrinkled skin above is the remainder of the caterpillar it parasitised.  A happy coincidence that I should get this id just after posting the egg-laying Ichneumon video.

Also from June are these two photos showing weevil pupa inside intricately woven cocoons.  These are likely to be from the Curculionidae family -  'True Weevils' or 'Snout Beetles'.

I find cocoons and what's going on inside them absolutely fascinating.

Video Of Ichneumon Wasp Laying Eggs

 I was in the garden this evening, taking down the washing, when this Ichneumon Wasp caught my eye.  Needless to say, I flung the washing at the basket and ran indoors for my camera.  

Ichneumon wasps are parasitic; laying their eggs on, near or inside the larvae of other insects or spiders.  She will detect the larvae by the smell of their droppings and by sensing vibrations in the wood with her antennae.  I was incredibly lucky to have caught this female just as she was driving her long ovipositor into an old branch to lay her eggs in the crack.

You can see her walk up and down the wood, carefully laying one egg after another.  The long black sheath used to protect the ovipositor when not in use, helps her to balance.  When the eggs hatch, they will consume the host.  They will overwinter in the wood and pupate in the spring before emerging. 

Update (13/7/12) - David Notton at iSpot has given me a possible id for this ichneumon wasp of Ephialtes manifestator.  (Thanks David)

More From The Campsite

A few more photos from our recent camping trip.  We pitched our tent on a clifftop, on the south of the Island, where we had spectacular views of the English Channel at the expense of feeling the full force of the high winds I mentioned in my previous post.  This Kestrel was a frequent visitor to the skies above our tent, its source of food being a ravine 20 feet in front of our pitch.  Despite seeing it often, this was my best shot.

 When we collapsed the tent at the end of the week, we found this Dark Arches moth in the folds.  It's quite a large moth, with a wing span of 46-54mm.

I found it quite handsome, and photographing it made a good excuse for me to hide in the tent while Rob wrestled the sleeping bags back into their cases.

This Lesser Stag Beetle walked across our path later in the day, fortunately nowhere near our tent, which was now packed away and in the back of the car.  I'm not sure how well I would have handled finding this in my sleeping bag!  In fact, I have a fair idea and it wouldn't have been pretty!  At up to 32mm in length, it's a whopper of a beetle, and those mandibles are very intimidating!

Dragging out the last moments of our little holiday, we stopped in a lay-by for a picnic lunch.  After chucking half the packing out of the boot of our car to find the not-so-cool-anymore cool bag and slapping some, by now, misshaped bread round some warm cheese, I took my camera for one last walk along the hedgerow and snapped this Wasp Beetle.

As the name suggests it is a (long-horned) beetle that looks like a wasp.  These beetles also move and make buzz-like noises similar to wasps, but they are harmless.

Video Of A Click Beetle

We've just got back from a few days camping on the south of the Island.  The wind didn't let up at all and so most nature photography was impossible.  However, a few bugs took refuge from the weather in our tent and shortly after we set up, our daughter, Annie, alerted us to this acrobatic beetle.  

(Turn up your volume to hear the click)

When these little beetles are scared or upside down they snap a spine on their prosternum into a corresponding notch on their mesosternum which produces a loud click and launches them into the air.  A useful trick, and one that kept us amused for some time.