Tom – Page 7 – Forage France

18 May 202026 February 2022

Cockchafers

A large nocturnal flying beetle that is attracted to light and can often be found bumping into windows or street lights.

Life cycle

Known as May bugs, they start to emerge and be seen during the month of May; however, they can actually be found, as adults, from Late April to July. Their adult lifespan is between five and seven weeks.

The female lays around 80 eggs in the soil using her pygidium which looks like a stinging point on the abdomen, to ‘inject’ eggs into the earth. The cock chafer is totally harmless to humans and carries no sting.The cockchafer larvae then spends between three and four years in the earth in depths of up to 100cm. They then work their way to the surface only in spring, hence the name “May bugs”.

Appearance

Because of their long development time as larvae, cockchafers appear in a cycle of every three or four years; the years vary from region to region. There is a larger cycle of around 30 years on top of that, in which they occur in the tens of thousands. They are found, more commonly, in the south of England, but are widespread in the UK.

The cockchafer has “feather-like” antennae that are splayed, the female has six fingers on the antenna and the male has an extra one making seven. As with many insects, it is thought that, the more complex the antennae the greater their sensitivity in locating breeding partners and food, detecting danger and possibly for navigation.

The word cock chafer derives from the late 17th century use of the word “cock” meaning size or vigour and to the English word “chafer” which simply means beetle. They are known by many colloquial names such as; May bug, doodle bug (mainly due to how loud it is when it flies), mitchamador, billy witch and spang beetle.

So get out and try to hear of see them flying around lampposts or hear external lights.

Enjoy

Tom

15 May 202026 February 2022

Horse Chestnut

Horse Chestnut.

The candelabra of suburban avenues and the source of childhood conkers,as well as the sticky buds of biology/botany lessons, this tree, which is native to the Balkans, is well integrated into British life.

It became popular here in the 17th century where it was planted throughout Europe along avenues, churchyards and parks.

It is our only tree with large, radiating, compound leaves. It’s name perhaps comes from Turkey where, in 16th Century where it was said that they used to feed the nuts to coughing horses, but horses don’t like them, cattle do! Another theory of the origin of its name is that the leaf scars on twigs resemble horseshoes, either way, both are plusable.

Nuts are supposed to grow into seedlings in Britain but it is unusual to find one that has not been planted on purpose.

Uses

In herbal medicine the horse chestnut is used to treat varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

For centuries the large shiny nuts that are enclosed in spikey cases are used by british children to play a game called conkers where they are attached to string and hit against each other, the looser being the one with the broken nut.

There’s hearsay that if you place conkers around your house it will keep spiders away, but there’s no scientific proof that this is the case.

The Victorians wrote recipes for making conker flour. The seeds were shelled, ground and then leached to remove bitter flavours. It’s not a common practise these days and if consumed in excessive quantities conkers are mildly poisonous.[efn_note]Woodland Trust[/efn_note]

They can grow up to 40m in height and live for 300 years. They have leaves which are large green and palmate (finger like) with 5-7 leaflets. The flowers are beautiful towers of pink or white flowers. which turn into green spiky fruits.

The flowers provide a rich source of nectar and pollen for insects, particularly bees. Caterpillars of the triangle moth feed on its leaves, as does the horse chestnut leaf-miner moth whose caterpillars provide food for blue tits. Deer and other mammals eat the conkers.

Hybrid Horse Chestnut

Aesculus × carnea, or red horse-chestnut, is an artificial hybrid between a red buckeye and a horse chestnut. The origin of the tree is not known, but it probably first appeared in Germany before 1820. The hybrid is a medium-size tree to 20–25 m tall, halfway between the each of the parent species in most respects, but inheriting the red flower color from the red buckeye. It is a popular tree in large gardens and parks.

Get connecting and enjoy,

Tom

13 May 202026 February 2022

Caddisflies

In the Order of Trichoptera the caddisfly, of which there are approximately 7000 species, starts life in freshwater habitats and then emerge as an adult.

The name Trichoptera, derived from the Greek words “trichos” meaning hair and “ptera” meaning wings, refers to the long, silky hairs that cover most of the body and wings.

Caddisflies are moth-like insects with two pairs of hairy wings that are folded roof-like over the abdomen at rest. Antennae are long and many jointed with a large basal segment. Large compound eyes are present. [efn_note] Encyclopedia Britannica [/efn_note]

Life cycle

Eggs numbering around 800 at a time are laid in jelly that swells on contact with water. After a few days the larvae hatch. Depending on the species of caddisfly they may be herbivorous, carnivorous, or a bit of both (omnivorous).

In this larval stage the young caddisfly will protect itself in many different ways depending on the species. Some will spin protective silky webs around themselves. Some will use that silk to make a web to catch food and some will use it to attach debris to themselves to form a protective layer and camouflage from potential predators (see attached video).

The larvae are important to the aquatic community by controlling plant growth and animal and plant waste. The adult caddisflies are unable to eat solids so imbibe nectar from plants instead.

Parasitic wasps are known to seek it’s host underwater and lay eggs inside the protective case of the caddisfly. The egg hatches and the larval wasp devours the caddisfly larvae.

When the adults emerge, they behave much like moths, they are strongly attracted to light and can be found swarming around objects on the river banks or shore line.

Hopefully you get to see some of these amazing insets when you go pond dipping or moth trapping.

Tom

11 May 202026 February 2022

The Ancient Order of Mayflies

Mayfly – unlike its name suggests the Mayfly emerges between spring and autumn and live, on average, 1 day as a full adult.

Ephemera sp. drying on Equisetum arvense

The Mayfly is part of an ancient order of insects known as Palaeoptera which translates to “Ancient Wings” (from the Latin paleo meaning “old” or “ancient” and Opera meaning “wings”). This order of insects also includes dragonflies and damselflies.

There are over 3000 species of mayfly around the world and they are grouped into 42 families (400 genera).

As part of this ancient order, mayflies, exhibit some ancestral traits with its long tail and wings that fold back and not over the abdomen like so many other winged insects.

Life cycle

The Mayfly starts life in water after the female drops between 400 and 1000 eggs onto the surface of the water. Incubation can last anything from a few days to a year. They hatch into larvae and moult as they grow anywhere from 10 to 50 times, as this is dependant on water temperature.

Depending on conditions mayflies can stay as larvae from anything between a few months to several years. They then emerge as adults usually all together when the light (usually at dusk or dawn) and conditions are right. This mass emergence is thought to be a strategy to minimise the chances of being eaten.

Once they become adults, or sub adults, the Mayfly is unique in the fact that it moults one more time to become a fully developed adult. Its surprising that after spending so long under water in the larvae stage they would spend so little time as an adult. Some species are adults for less than five minutes (Dolania americana) and some a couple of days.

The Ancient Roman encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder described the mayfly as the “hemerobius” (from the Greek word hēmerobios meaning living for a day), in his Natural History:

“The River Bug on the Black Sea at midsummer brings down some thin membranes that look like berries out of which burst a four-legged caterpillar in the manner of the creature mentioned above, but it does not live beyond one day, owing to which it is called the hemerobius.”
Pliny the Elder

Mayfly larvae have been chosen by scientists as bio-indicators because they do not tolerate polluted water. Their presence meaning the water is

Mayflies are consumed in several cultures and are estimated to contain the most raw protein content of any edible insect by dry weight. In Malawi, kungu, a paste of mayflies (Caenis kungu) and mosquitoes is made into a cake for eating.

Enjoy

Tom