Wild Words From the Ground - April

Welcome to our series of blogs featuring the photos and sightings of wildlife in the garden (and our outreach sites like Chattowood and the Meanwhile Garden) by our staff, whether in the office, shop, tea-room, nursery or garden. The images are curated and commented upon by Dr Chris Gibson, our Wildlife Advocate.

While the photos are not always of the highest quality – our staff are always busy doing their main jobs! – they give a real feel of life in the garden, something we are very keen to encourage, as indeed was Beth.

We start this month not with the showy garden inhabitants, but some of the creatures that some prefer not to think of. Spiders always elicit mixed responses in any audience, but we must accept their importance as predators, helping exert some control and preventing populations of their prey getting out of hand.  Cathy photographed two that show they can also be very attractive!

On the narcissus is the well-named Stretch Spider Tetragnatha sp., and teetering above the leaf is a Cucumber Spider Araniella sp., green above, with an orange rear end, and living in a web, often horizontal, across a leaf. The one thing that connects these two is that in both cases there are several externally similar species that can be told apart only by microscopic examination of their genitalia...(not something that we would condone!).

Rob has also been photographing some of the garden inhabitants that may be less appealing (to some) but all of which play important ecological roles in the garden ecosystem. First we have Common Earthworms in a hermaphrodite-mating menage-a-deux; next a pair of amphibians which are now starting to become active – a Smooth Newt and a Common Toad, predators of slugs and grubs both; and finally fish being very obvious in the shallows of the ponds, which Ben suggested may be some Tench that were brought in several years ago.

And so we reach the insects. Malin’s photo below is very interesting, not because it is especially rare (although Box Bug has been in our part of the world only for a decade or so, since it ditched its reliance on Box as a food plant), but because normally one doesn’t see the body coloration, as the wing cases cover it over. I have never seen the body colour before, so it is very instructive!

One thing that distinguishes true bugs (Hemiptera) from other insect groups is that they don’t have the egg-larva-pupa-adult lifecycle of butterflies and beetles for example. Instead they grow in a series of stages (instars), separated by a skin shedding, usually getting more like the adult at each stage. Miya shared this photo of a ‘radioactive-orange-looking’ creature as she was weeding the stock-beds. Whilst it is not possible to identify it specifically, it is the nymph (early stage) of one of the many sap-sucking plant bugs...

Beetles (Coleoptera) are often mistaken for true bugs, having hardened forewings, but they have chewing not sucking mouthparts. Many are very familiar, like Scott’s Harlequin Ladybird, which are just starting to emerge after the winter. This species was new to the UK, from the Far East, a couple of decades ago, but is now one of the commonest ladybirds. When it arrived we were worried because, although it does eat aphids, it also eats other ladybirds. But our fears seem unfounded as it has slotted in here, and only one of the 40 or so native types has declined as its numbers built up. The name Harlequin comes from the fact that it is very variable, coming in a wide range of different forms: this one is form succincta. Other forms have different numbers of spots, and also black ones with red spots, but all have the distinctive black M-mark on the thorax.

Rosemary Beetles, as in Mel’s photo, is another relatively recent but now common arrival. Isn’t it stunning, a veritable rainbow jewel! And for me at least, its nibbling of Rosemary and related leaves is a small price to pay for such beauty.

Our third beetle this month is much less distinctive, but no less important. Rob’s photo shows a Strawberry Seed Beetle Harpalus rufipes, a predator of other insects like aphids and sometimes used in biological control in gardens and greenhouses.

Hymenoptera – the bees, wasps and ants, and a whole host of parasites especially of other insects – are one of the most abundant insect groups in garden habitats, albeit often very difficult to identify unless you are a complete specialist.  And identification is especially problematic when you don’t even see the critter: Scott’s photo of a nesting volcano is certainly hymenopteran, but whether bee, wasp or ant it’s not really possible to say.

Many Hymenoptera visit flowers for nectar and/or pollen, but they don’t necessarily see them as we do. Insect eyes are sensitive to light wavelengths that are outside our range, especially in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Rob has been investigating this by looking at flowers under UV light, to get an idea of how our plants communicate with bees and other pollinators. These photos of Veronica show the sort of ‘bullseye effect’, one of the more common ‘designs’ flowers have evolved to show bees where to go. It is estimated that up to 35 percent of all flowering plants have these UV pattern properties.  We hope that Rob may share more of his photos in another blog some time.

Rob’s photos may be remarkable, but there are some things in nature that are so stunning that they need no photographic magic. One such is my favourite butterfly, the Green Hairstreak, a flittery little sprite of an insect, with reflective, shining green underwings that help it merge into foliage on a sunny day. Right on cue, or perhaps even a little early, the result of a fine, settled, sunny spell, a Green Hairstreak appeared for Scott in the Gravel Garden. This a fantastic place to see this beautiful species right up to the end of May, sometimes around Gorse (one of its larval foodplants) and often nectaring on the sheets of flowering Thyme that are so obvious right now.

The emergence of Green Hairstreaks is proof positive that the starting gun for Summer has been fired, just as in mid-March the Dark-edged Beeflies presage the Spring to come. From now it will be a headlong tumble of new flowers attracting new insects, pretty much on a daily basis. What better time to come (open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 ’til 5) to see the wonderful array of wildlife with which we share the garden? And please come back to see what is happening in the wild side of the garden over the coming year!

For a different perspective on the last month, you can see Chris Gibson’s personal blog at the link below:

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: …and they’re off! | Chris Gibson Wildlife