The tiny eat or be eaten world

Untamed Gardener

Aisling Blackburn

With the solstice behind us and still lovely long days ahead of us yet, it’s very late for a nightly stroll around 2am. In particular this one is marked by the heavily scented Japanese honeysuckle at the corner of the entrance. For a moment I am transported, stepping off a plane in hot Alicante, a delicious waft of perfume, essential oils from local grasses and flowers wafting in my face. Then the sound of a lone cricket, and I am back in west Cavan. The last time I saw one of those I was in a bog down the road near Ballyheady, around the time of the lockdown.

One of several mini raised bogs, still intact and rich with flora and fauna, where I have spent hours tramping about. Almost everything I have learned about insects and bogs has come from these outings with local naturalist Heather Bothwell, who extols the pleasures of slow walking and getting accustomed to staring at plants that are no more than ankle height. Up to this point, I had been missing out on a whole world of creatures such as the aforementioned cricket, spiders, frogs and a host of caterpillars. Now armed with a camera, waterproofs, a small tripod here was the joy of lying on my belly whilst staring at grassy looking plants watching spiders and such clambering through them, I could spend time where life is neither simple or easy there in that tiny eat or be eaten world.

Swift

Butterflies and moths make up 10% of life on our planet, would you believe? Identification of these requires a more energetic and swift approach. Thus, armed with butterfly net, a good identification book and one small, lidded container, the ability to move swiftly and precisely is an asset, kind of the exact opposite of when looking for caterpillars. But it's a fun activity for the whole family. While always on the lookout for the rare marsh fritillary whose food plant, the devil’s bit scabious grow abundantly in damp areas around the bog, we looked for the large heath butterfly. Its food plant is bog cotton, and therefore it’s a true bog plant species. The food plant is where the butterfly lays her eggs. It needs to be a guaranteed food source for when the larvae emerge, as this is the only stage in the life of a butterfly where it grows and sheds its ‘skin’ several times before the chrysalis stage. Every butterfly has its own food plant, but butterflies can sip nectar from many flowers including honeysuckle.

I listened to a very interesting webinar from the Teagasc led Signpost series on YouTube – encouraging Irish butterflies on farmland. Jesmond Harding, the writer of The Irish Butterfly Book, advised to only cut a third of boundary hedges every year as so many butterflies lay their eggs on various places in hedgerows. The holly blue for instance, lays up to three broods on holly in spring and ivy in summer. The very rare brown hairstreak, though not usually found in Cavan, lays her white eggs in the branches of blackthorn. However practical this is for most farms; it is a practice worth considering, preventing more biodiversity loss. You only have to look at our neighbours over the water whose strict hedgerow maintenance practice and pesticide use has resulted in a decline of 4 out of 5 species of butterfly. It’s hard to imagine a summer without them.

Butterflies and moths frequently pupate on grasses; in the same webinar Harding says on cocksfoot in particular. Another reason to leave a good patch of long grass or a hare’s corner.

A bright sunny day is ideal for butterfly spotting, I discovered. Flying creatures with their delicate wings enjoy the warmth of the day to flit about. This applies equally to damselflies who are to be found mating around bog pools. I must mention that this was the first year that I saw a marsh fritillary and it was in my garden! I thought I was seeing things. This was during that hot spell in May. I really love the silver washed fritillary too, a little more common but no less beautiful.

Pure elegance

Slow down now for the fabulous emperor moth larvae are missed at a fast gate. A very cheery caterpillar, with its bright green and black stripes and orange/ pinkish blobs on its chubby sausage shaped body. Not unlike the character in the ugly duckling story, the adult is far from comical, it’s huge wingspan and stunning markings are pure elegance. Annoyingly, even though I grow all the food plants in my garden I rarely see them! Their flight time is over now, but you can still have fun looking for the caterpillars. The Emperor moths are rivalled in size and beauty perhaps by the elephant hawkmoth. A night flyer for which tubular flowers such as the honeysuckle are also a favourite. It can be seen (but not easily) now and all of July.