The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

These are all insects found in the veg patch during June. I think I have discovered more interesting mini things going on since I have been looking at and picking dill for the Swallowtails as I'm noticing every little speck and checking out what it is.

This first is a definite Good - our ladybirds which disappeared (seemingly to spend spring in the UK!) have reappeared. I first came across some eggs around the end of May on a small wild poppy that I was about to weed out, then the same kind of eggs on a dill leaf just close by. I didn't even know they were ladybird eggs at first; didn't really keep an eye on them and never saw any larvae, until just last week when I discovered a pupa right near where the eggs had been laid. And then I spotted a fully grown Seven-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) on my spinach, still close to this same spot. And then my pupa eclosed.....

Ladybird eggs on dill (top) and poppy (right), and the pupa on the left.

Right place right time! I discovered it just after it had eclosed. These ladybirds are so
completely different when freshly emerged. It had a little walk on my hand then went off to let
its wings dry out for a while (photo bottom left). Oh and the red colour is the poppy
which I never weeded out in the background so rather pleased that I didn't!

Some hours later with dried out wings and the spots now starting
to be visible, making ID possible. The next day it was a bit
more orange and the following day it had gone.

An adult Seven-spot Ladybird. In my excitement to take some photos I didn't notice
it was eating an aphid (top right) which I obviously made it drop, poor thing.

I don't call many insects bad, but this one is. It's pretty but it is a serious agricultural pest. I have never taken a photo of one before because it's one of the few critters that I kill immediately. If you haven't guessed by now, it's a Colorado (Potato) Beetle. I've never had a bad infestation but I do keep my eyes open and look over my spuds every couple of days to check. They also feed on tomatoes and aubergines/eggplants as they are the same family as spuds, but here when I do find them, it's on my potatoes.

Colorado Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) running around on my gardening glove.

I do feel bad calling these True Crickets ugly, but they give me the creeps as they are too much like cockroaches for my liking! I haven't got this close to a living one before as I've usually only seen them dead or semi chewed by a cat. This one was trying to get away from me, I think, as it wouldn't keep still and was cornered up in a path between wall and wood edging.

True Cricket of the family Gryllidae.

And now on to a mix of critters. The following are not doing any real harm here although I'll have to keep an eye on what these bugs are up to when I plant out my winter brassicas! I found these eggs because, again, they were on dill and at first glance slightly resembled a tiny caterpillar so I had to check them out. A bit of research and I found that they were probably Shield/Stink Bug eggs, so I waited.... and sure enough they were. 

Now I can't be 100% sure, but right next to this dill is a load of Ornate Shield Bugs (Eurydema ornata), who seemed to migrate to the young emerging plants of nasturtiums when I took out last year's winter brassicas in the early spring. Nasturtiums are a brassica and often used by us gardeners as a companion plant which attract both blackfly (aphids) and the two Cabbage White butterfly species to lay their eggs on, in an effort to keep them off our crops. You can see from the photos that they have really damaged the nasturtium leaves, and I certainly won't be letting them do that to my kale!

Bottom left are Ornate Shield Bug (Eurydema ornata) nymphs on my nasturtiums
and the rest of the photos are eggs on nearby dill and just eclosed nymphs,
and a few days later one wandering off (bottom right).

Here are a mating pair of Ornate Shield Bugs (Eurydema ornata) and below
some nymphs at various stages of development (called instars).
You can see how sucked of sap that nasturtium leaf is!

Whilst picking blackcurrants I was getting covered in black ants which was a bit annoying, but I was very pleased to see a small Vapourer Moth caterpillar drop out of the bushes! These are one of the Tussock family of moths and are really cool, but I wouldn't want to touch one with those long bristles, so I am glad it didn't actually land on me. It has a little friend too, a young earwig!

Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) caterpillar and an Earwig nymph looking rather cute at this stage.

Now this is an interesting situation I have been watching over the last few weeks. This is a groundsel plant, a weed that I'd normally hoe off, but it is one of the host plants for the Cinnabar Moth so once I'd seen the moths flitting about the veg patch I had to leave some of these weeds here. Now many more groundsel is springing up and nearly all of them have at least one caterpillar on. Some seem to move off in search of fresh food, but many stay put and this plant below is now almost defoliated, but with dozens of caterpillars still on it. They are cannibalistic when there is not enough food. I have moved a few of them onto other groundsel plants and some onto ragwort which is another one of their host plants, but they curl up when you touch them so are not easy to transfer as they fall off! Can you also spot the brightly coloured bugs on the plant?

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) supporting two species of insect.

This bug Melanocoryphus albomaculatus also likes feeding on Senecio species;
strangely enough a bug that is more at home around the Med area and is a lover of
hot dry places. Dry it can find in my garden though hot only sometimes!

I'm finding plenty of eggs so not all these Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillars are going
to make it to adulthood as there is not enough food to go around.

And here are the adult Cinnabar moths, but .... I found them like this, dead.
They were obviously in the act of mating but what happened I have no idea!

Now these following bugs were found whilst picking raspberries, so technically outside of the veg patch but who cares! They are Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) nymphs, and I was so happy to find them as I've never seen them before. They are so incredibly cute.

Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) nymph on raspberry leaf.

More nymphs of Coreus marginatus including a younger nymph which was much darker
and sizewise seemed to be about 50% antennae, bottom left!

And now I'll finish with a few insects from my Pollinator Meadow, although the self seeded Phacelia next to it is actually occupying what will be my leek patch later on.

All kinds of bee love Phacelia but I've never yet figured out why this bumble bee on the right
has black pollen sacs, I've seen this a few times before and they look like big wax balls. ??

Coreopsis lanceolata in the Pollinator Meadow attracting all kinds of insect.
This is a N. American plant but many of the seeds in my original packet of seed
'for pollinators' included N. American species mixed with natives. Our bugs don't seem to mind!

Top left: Rose Chafer Beetle (Cetonia aurata).
Top right: Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva).
Bottom: I think the same (unknown) solitary bee, with possibly a female Oedemera nobilis.

Veg patch update - June

Just a quick note to say that if you are a subscriber by email, you will not see the videos embedded in the blog posts, not even a still to let you know that there is one there. I noticed the same thing on Feedly, although if you press the Preview button on Feedly you can then view the videos. So email subscribers you'll have to come direct to the blog to see my videos of the Swallowtail butterfly eclosing!

This is a pure gardening post; I also have tons of interesting bugs found recently in the veg patch, but I'll post that separately, otherwise this post would be way too long! But before you skip this if you are a bug rather than gardening lover, I want to let you know that the Swallowtail who fell out of its cradle whilst pupating, eclosed yesterday with no problems whatsoever and is now outside doing what Swallowtails do. Phew! 

Earlier in June when the grass was nice and green -
but since then I have nice new gravel spread on the drive!

The rest of the photos are taken in the last week of June. I was plagued by problems earlier in the year. First the various different lettuce that I sowed in March under cover nearly all failed to germinate. Annoyingly, French seed packets seem to think that lettuce seed is good for about 6 years, whilst British seed packets seem to give you about 1-2 years before their 'best before date'. I think it is actually somewhere in between.

The next two sowings after buying more seed I lost about 80% to slugs; this includes spinach which I was growing for the first time. Those that survived then got munched by sparrows so I had to cover every plant with a cloche! I was reduced to sowing seeds in pots in the cold frame which have now been planted out. Of course by the time these plants got near to maturity (and I'm still waiting on cos and batavia which need 2-3 months to heart up) the weather turned really hot and dry. I have spent so many hours watering I get so fed up by it all. I would buy lettuce but sadly in France there is very little choice and all the lettuce sold here is very floppy and I only like hearted crunchy lettuce, so I have no choice but to grow my own. 

Strawbs, lettuce, the cucumber frame, spinach already bolting and a strip of flowers near the
fence. I have taken out the borage now and planted annuals which are attractive to pollinators.
Oh, and those are mulot traps, a burrowing mouse which is a complete and utter pest
which tunnels under all my strawberries.

This is the weird disease which is affecting my dill plants.
I don't sow dill, it self seeds everywhere but as it's an important
food source for Swallowtail caterpillars I'm a bit concerned.

I'm getting more and more into having flowers in the veg patch and some I plant, and some
appear all of their own accord. In the background where you see the yellow flowers,
that is my Pollinator Meadow Year 3 and still doing its job of looking great
and attracting tons of bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

My early potatoes (Belle de Fontenay) have taken longer to mature this year and I had to set up seep hoses along the ridges of the potatoes because it's impossible to water them when they are earthed up.

Potato flowers are attractive too!

Behind the spuds I planted sunflowers which I grew from seed,
but in the middle there's one that self seeded from last year
(they were whoppers) and the opium poppies are self seeded.
There are also two potimarrons (a French pumpkin) in this area.

Opium poppies again. These are the ones that produce the seeds
that you buy for culinary purposes so I'll be collecting seed
from them later on. Never done it before but
I'm 99% sure I've got the right variety!

Harry and some tomatoes.

Annoyingly this year I could not buy a barquette of six of my favourite tomato variety and buying individually was too expensive, so I only have three plants, although I've propagated three more from side shoots. This variety (Fournaise) is really early to form fruit as you can see here. Even my cherry toms have only a few toms actually forming yet and the six Premio variety which I did buy in a barquette are very slow to form fruit.

Fournaise, my favourite, best producing tomato.

Looking from the lettuce/spinach bed towards the pea and bean bed with another strip of flowers for pollinators on the right by the perimeter fence. The empty gaps on the left foreground are spring onions which have been sown, these are taking forever to germinate and I am getting maybe one for every 20 seed sown even with brand new seed. I have found over the years that some years they just will not germinate, and other times they germinate no problem at all. And it's got nothing to do with the weather. A mystery.

Lettuce and spinach bed looking towards peas and beans
with my large Greengage tree in the background.

Another disappointment this year were the sugar snap peas which I had to buy in England as they don't exist in France. Big mistake. Not only were there ordinary peas which had got into the packet too but apart from the first few pickings, they are really stringy and tough even when I pick them young before they swell up (which they do really quickly) so they are all being composted now. What a waste. I'll stick to French mange tout in future which are miles better. Of course it may have been because the weather turned hot and sunny and I just couldn't water enough, but a veg like that has no place in my dry garden.

Sugar Snaps.

Rust is very prevalent here and my garlic always has rust (leeks always have it too to a lesser degree, and sometimes spring onions, and one year even the plums succumbed to it!), but this year it was even worse and the heads have not swelled up as much as normal; having said that I never get through all the garlic that I grow so not a probem. And they still store fine.

Rusty garlic lifted.

The Pollintor Meadow Year 3.
The Phacelia in the foreground I allowed to grow because it is short lived;
my leeks will be transplanted into this area later.
And in the distance many more self seeded flowers growing around the peas!

An older photo when the sugar snaps were still tender, with spinach and a courgette.
The courgettes are doing really well!

Another disappoinment are my aubergines. I've only tried once before here in Brittany, growing them in pots and I had not a single fruit. This year they are in the ground and the leaves just yellowed and they refused to grow at all. I have given them a supplementary feed specific to this kind of veg so will wait and see if anything happens. I'm annoyed because one neighbour nearby grew them really successfully last year! I used to grow them easy peasy when I lived the other side of France too. 

And now fruit - soft fruit is always good and reliable here but the fruit on the trees not so. But things are looking good - we have the most amazing crop of cherries which have not split nor have they been munched by birds! Also the three plum trees which are near the veg patch are absolutely loaded with fruit. One tree has more fruit in three foot of branch than it's ever produced in the previous nine years! However..... I won't know until they are ripe if they are any good as brown rot attacks them four out of five years and it gets them just before they are ready to pick.

But raspberries, strawberries, black and red currants are doing well and I can hardly keep up with the harvesting!

Cherries, greengage top right and unknown dessert plum bottom left.

Raising Swallowtails - Part 10 - The Eclosion!

With 13 chrysalises I hoped I'd get to witness at least one eclosion, but after having missed the first two by maybe just a minute or two it was time to do something about it. I knew the third one was imminent as it was already showing signs of wing colouration through the chrysalis skin and luckily it was one of the few on a stick, so I could take it out of the box. The rest are irritatingly hanging off the mesh lid or on the sides of the plastic box.

So with thanks to my friend Marianne who told me to just set up a camera and leave the video running, but also set a timer to remind me every 15 mins or so to check on it, I duly set to work. Luckily my OH had a mini tripod that was perfect for my old Cybershot. Out came the blue tack to fix the stick in place - as I needed light for the video I stuck the top of the stick to the window frame. Then the background looked naff so my OH got some kitchen paper and we blue tacked that in place to make this makeshift studio!

My studio.

After running two batteries flat that afternoon/early evening I was pretty sure it would be eclosing around 8am the following day as that seems a popular time with these butterflies. So I set the video but also decided to sit in the kitchen waiting and watching.... when suddenly I noticed the chrysalis had just started to split. I grabbed my camera and took photos too (you'll notice my flash going off in the video but that can't be helped).

So here it is, it doesn't last long and you can view it full screen with reasonable quality, but there isn't a medium size option, unfortunately. (P.S. I have reloaded this with added music and taken out the original sound track of me stomping about the kitchen and the noise of my flash going off!)

Aaargh the darn thing climbed straight upwards and up the window frame! I had imagined it would dangle from the chrysalis for a while which is why I set the camera in a position that would show that. Well I'll know next time. :-)

Note the browny-red liquid that the butterfly excreted as it was eclosing. This is pupal fluid although last year's ones managed to do it outside of the chrysalis; this year's are obviously tidy beasts.

So here are the photos I took at the same time as the videos, and would you believe that just after the final shot shown here the batteries died in my Speedlite! But it didn't matter as I've plenty of photos from that stage onwards from the other butterflies.

Climbing up the window frame.

This was the only salvageable bit of the rest of the video which started with the eclosion - a few seconds where it sticks its proboscis out and has a good old wiggle. I had grabbed the camera, tripod and all, to try to film some more but managed to get most of it out of focus!

Here are a few photos from the first Swallowtail to eclose that I must have just missed by a minute or two, judging by how crumpled up its wings are. These start to smooth out very quickly after eclosion.

Freshly eclosed and climbing up the stick towards the chrysalis that featured in my video.

Hugging its sibling!

I left this one in the box for a while, usually I put them on a pot plant but it seemed
perfectly happy hanging off the chrysalises and getting its wings in working order!

Here's a not very good video of one of them flapping its wings to pump 'blood' (called hemolymph) into them and also exercising its proboscis a bit. 

My African Violet makes a handy place for them to hang from
until they are ready to go outside.

You get nicer photo ops with flowers in the background.

And here's one from last year when it was released. I already took dozens of photos of them last year when I set them free. My first two this year flew off straight away and the third sat on a flower for a while.

It's a really wonderful feeling releasing these beautiful creatures that you've raised yourself.

Well there you have it, over these 10 posts I think I have pretty much covered everything involved in the whole life cycle of these butterflies, but if there's an opportunity to video a pupation.... well I'll see how I go with the next batch!

The previous post showing photos of a pupation are here in Part 9, if you missed it.