Spring sees curious critters up and about
AS the Westcountry basked in unseasonably warm weather, a variety of intriguing Spring insects took to the wing and crawled into view as I walked in Lydford Forest at the western edge of Dartmoor a couple of days ago.
While a decent mix of showy butterflies competed for attention – including brimstone, peacock, red admiral, comma and small tortoiseshell – it was a beetle, a fly and a moth which really caught my eye.
And strange critters they were indeed.
The first was a violet oil beetle – extraordinary in both appearance and life cycle. These quite large and flightless beetles are black, with a violet sheen, and can be seen lumbering about in the open. But what is so striking is their distended abdomen, which they trail behind them.
Their larvae hang around in flower heads and hitch rides on bees, back to their nests where they gorge on the colony stores of nectar and pollen.
The second insect was the equally bizarre dark-edged bee-fly – a hovering fly as furry as a bee with a long pointed proboscis which it uses to feed on flower nectar.
These buzzing hair-balls are quite cute looking, in their own idiosyncratic way, and despite the alarming appearance of the spike-like proboscis, they are quite harmless. But, just like oil beetles, they are less harmless to bees as their life-cycle involves flicking eggs into the nests of solitary wild species where their emerging larvae feed on bee grubs.
My final find was an extremely well camouflaged moth called the angle shades moth. It has angular patterns and ragged wing edges which resemble a dried leaf, and is a common and widespread species which is far from easy to spot, though will come to light at night.
Spring brings a profusion of wildlife interest – and while birds tend to hog the headlines, there are plenty of smaller treasures to admire.