Mealybug destroyer at large

Today I spotted a weird looking little creature powering around the rim of  a flowerpot containing a plant bought yesterday from the Staplecross Shrub Centre.  After Googling about I tracked its identity down to the larva of a mealybug destroyer, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, a small Australian ladybird which, as its name suggests, is predatory on mealybugs.

This species now seems to be quite widely used to control mealybugs in the horticultural industry and this was no doubt how it arrived in Staplecross, perhaps brought with the many plants imported from Holland.  It is not winter hardy in this country.

Late May highlights 2018

Our granddaughter brought home a spray from a tree with which I was unfamiliar.  It was trained against a wall of a house in Ellenwhorne Lane a kilometre of so north of here.  It turned out to be kiwifruit, Actinidia deliciosa.  We found a caterpillar of Svensson's copper underwing, Amphipyra berbera, on it.

The caterpillar is very similar to the common copper underwing, Amphipyra pyramidea, but can be distinguished by the continuous lateral white line behind the head (it fades out for a couple of segments in A. pyramidea), the black speckled forelegs and the red-tipped spine at the end of the body.  It feeds on various trees and shrubs and seems quite happy munching away at the kiwifruit leaves.  The species is widespread here in East Sussex, but less common than A. pyramidea.

Another interesting moth was the appearance of a rather battered pale tussock, Calliteara pudibunda, on our lighted kitchen window.  This is a male with pectinated orange antennae. Sixty years ago when we worked in the Rother Valley hop gardens we often came across the beautiful golden haired caterpillars that were known as 'hop dogs'.

Halfway down the garden a very attractive combination of plants has occurred of its own free will: a mixture of wild yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) and a garden cranesbill, Geranium macrorrhizum I think.  I am sure it would be difficult to create deliberately.

I was also struck by a white-flowered plant of herb-robert (Geranium robertianum) that has splayed itself out on the back wall of the house unchallenged by any other vegetation.

Rabbits return

Rabbits have returned to the garden.  Yesterday there was one young one and today there were three and it was a pleasure to watch them gamboling about enjoying life.  They are welcome here.

A week or so after posting this the three rabbits had gone and a black and white cat (not ours) was seen sneaking across the lawn with a dead one hanging limply from its mouth.

There were some interesting insects in Churchland Wood a couple of days ago.  An early  broad-bodied chaser dragonfly (Libellula depressa) perched on a bluebell.  I wondered where it had come from as there are no water bodies nearby in which it might have bred.

In the same area I noted this mating pair of craneflies, Tipula varipennis.  Usually found in lush woodland, there are also records from highland and island areas without tree cover.  One of the distinctive features of this species is the thickened front and mid femorae of the female.

Our large bird cherry tree has flowered spectacularly this year (as it usually does) and has been shedding petals like snow for several days.  Some have settled on a water butt and the photo below not only shows this but a reflection of myself - a rare guest appearance - holding the camera.

Madder and madder

An unusual-looking weed I have been nursing along in a seed tray wher it sowed itself has now flowered and turns out to be field madder (Sherardia arvensis).  Although common in Britain and across the temperate world, this is the first time I have come across it.

Like its related species common madder (Rubia tinctorum) and wild madder (Rubia peregrina), field madder has been used to make a red or pink dye.  The generic name Sherardia is in honour of the 17th/18th century English botanist William Sherard.

In the welcome spring sunshine witches' brooms show up well among the pale green leaves and the blue sky.  They are probably caused by the fungus Taphrina betulina, but sometimes by other organisms.