Introducing The Rat-tailed Maggot!

I have a new mini-pond in my garden. It sits on the patio and is approximately 1 metre square by half a metre deep. I chose this as, being raised up, it would exlude frogs, for which my dear wife has a phobia!

The pond came as a kit and only took a couple of hours to build. Planting it up took a little longer.

Garden Mini-pond

Just 10 days after planting up and filling the pond with water, we had our first visit by a damselfly - a male Large Red Damselfly.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male)

Anyway, to cut to the chase, one day when out in the garden with the camera I noticed a small 'blobby' thing with a long 'tail', and took some photos. Bear in mind that this 'thing' was only about 10 mm long!

Rat-tailed Maggot (Helophilus pendulus) (larva)

It turns out that this is the larva of a hoverfly species. There is one group of hoverflies that have larvae that live in damp places, and this particular species favours ponds. That 'tail' is actually a tube that it breathes through.

Here is the adult hoverfly - also taken at the new pond.

hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) (adult male)

Who'd believe that such a repulsive looking larva could transform into something as handsome as that hoverfly?!

I hope that you are all well, and staying safe. One day we'll all meet again!

Birds in Colin's Garden

Colin Carr has sent in a couple of delightful photos showing birds in his garden. I would be somewhat excited to have had any of these in my garden. This was the message from Colin:-

Some Blackfordby birds enjoying the rain.

A mother thrush trying to persuade her youngster to start eating for itself, and failing miserably!

And almost in the same spot (taken through the window) a relatively rare sighting of a female black cap.

A lovely little thing.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) (female) - Blackfordby Garden

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) (adult and young) - Blackfordby Garden

Thank you for these, Colin. Keep up the good work.

Best wishes to you all. Stay safe - - - Richard

BLACKFORDBY MOTHS at the end of June

First, my apologies for not keeping the blog up-to-date lately - things have been a bit hectic in the Pegler household of late! 

Our Chairman, Brian, had his moth trap out on 24th June, and he got more than he bargained for! He ended up with over a hundred moths of over thirty species. I can fully imagine just how time-consuming that can be as I ventured to put my own trap (somewhat less sophisticated than Brian's) out on Thursday, thinking that it would be a night with few moths to trouble me the next day, and I ended up with 59 moths of 28 species which has taken me until today to identify them all. 

Brian was particularly pleased to get a Satin Beauty, which is a bit of a rarity for Leicestershire and Rutland. Here are a few of Brian's moths from that night.

Beautiful Hook-tip (Laspeyria flexula) - Blackfordby garden

Leopard Moth (Zeuzera pyrina) - Blackfordby garden

Phlyctaenia coronata - Blackfordby Garden

Satin Beauty (Deileptenia ribeata) - Blackfordby Garden

Shoulder-striped Wainscot (Mythimna comma) - Blackfordby garden

Small Blood-vein (Scopula imitaria) - Blackfordby garden

Smoky Wainscot (Mythimna impura) - Blackfordby garden

Thank you, Brian, for sharing these images with us. You have some wonderful finds there!

Take good care, folks, and stay safe - it'll be a while before this virus becomes history!

Richard Pegler