wildlife

[Anthony Darby]

Looks mature and winged to me. For young I would say nymph rather than larva. Larva implies complete metamorphosis with maggots or caterpillers etc.

[Roma]

Thanks, Yvain and Anthony.  It is fascinating what you can find among the plants if you look closely.

[Karaba]

Anthony, sorry, it's indeed an adult (imago) but not because it looks winged. Wings are hidden by the long pronotum and juvenile have the same look. On this picture, you can't see the wings, not even the tegmina. The criteria are on the posterior knee where the dorsal carina is interrupted just before the knee (adult), the dorsal carina is prolonged on the knee in juveniles. Not easy to explain, so here are few pictures. I didn't well remember these criteria that why I needed to have a close look on it.

Young
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-131138.htm
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-62506.htm
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-116920.htm

Adult
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-63497.htm
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-118170.htm

Ps: juvenile/larva/nymph : it's a traduction mistake. Young grasshopper are sometimes called "larve" or "juvénile" in french, but never "nymphe"

[Anthony Darby]

It's amazing indeed what you can find. I see hardly any grasshoppers here in New Zealand. Too many introduced birds eating them? I must try sweep netting some undisturbed grassland and see what appears.

[mark smyth]

Interesting behaviour today. I drove by a recently killed grey squirrel. On the way back there was a live one sitting beside it. Do squirrels pair for the summer or maybe life?

[Carolyn]

Mark,
I have been reading up about (red) squirrels.  Apparently they mate, then the male takes no further part in bringing up his family, so I expect the answer to your query is no.

An update now on our red squirrel: a second squirrel has arrived in the garden and was exploring the bird feeders and the trees.  It's slightly lighter in colour. I have a couple more photos to show - the first just showing how cute our furry friend is and the second one maybe indicates that this is a lactating female? (zoom in on the relevant part and you'll see). Any squirrel experts out there?
Sorry about the reflections in the glass for the 2nd photo - the sun came out)

[Anthony Darby]

Checking up on his flat mate?

[Carolyn]

Checking up on his flat mate?

Possibly, but he's just this minute made a hole in the middle of a saxifrage to hide some peanuts!

[Maggi Young]

From HortWeek Daily/Garden Retail: 12th March 2015

"Court rules Friends of the Earth criticism of Bayer thiacloprid products is 'freedom of expression'

Bayer has failed in its attempt to sue Friends of the Earth Germany over the pressure group's claims that thiacloprid harms bees.

A ruling by a judge in Dusseldorf on 11 March found that the environmental group had a right to voice its concerns, Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) bees campaigner Dave Timms said.

"Now we want to see action from the European Commission to ensure that any pesticides with evidence of harm to bees are taken off our shelves and out of our fields for good," he said.

The campaigners want the neonicotinoid thiacloprid banned. The chemical is legal to sell in Britain. Three other neonicotinoid pesticides were subject to a temporary ban in the EU from 2013.

Thiacloprid is used on crops in the UK in products such as Bayer Provado Ultimate Bug Killer, Multirose Bug Killer and Baby Bio House Plant Insecticide and Scotts’ Bug Clear and Rose Clear.

Bayer said it regrets the decision in favour of Friends of the Earth Germany (known as BUND).

It said the court pointed out the product is classified as "not harmful to bees" and labelled in accordance with binding legal regulations. The court decided BUND's allegations were freedom of expression, which deserves special protection. Bayer CropScience will wait for the written judgement before taking any other potential steps.

Bayer had filed the injunction arguing BUND publications on Bayer products Calypso and Lizetan Ornamental Plant Spray are incorrect. The German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety classified the product as not harmful to bees after evaluation.

Bayer Garden product manager Alison Mulvaney said: "The key point to understand about this judgement is that relates purely to freedom of speech.  It contains no comment whatsoever on the accuracy or otherwise of the statements being made by BUND.  The essential point is that Bayer’s thiacloprid-based products have officially been classified as ’not harmful for bees’ and continue to be so."

Friends of the Earth is now asking the European Commission to take a precautionary approach by suspending all uses of thiacloprid and to review its safety. The environment charity will be contacting retailers in the UK asking them to stop selling products containing thiacloprid. "

[ian mcdonald]

I would like to send pictures of wildlife but my machine warns me against using the picture sizer. Is there a general email address I could send them to?

[Maggi Young]

Ian, because of the nature of the programme needed to resize the pix some machines will "warn" against loading it - that is a protection  against unknown internet sources. The link form the SRGC is quite safe. I got the same message when I installed the re-sizer.
I regret that I do not have time to routinely resize and add pictures for members.

[ian mcdonald]

Thanks Maggi, I,ll give it a go.

[ian mcdonald]

I have loaded the re-sizer to desktop. Dragged and dropped an image to the re-sizer. How do I put it on to the wildlife blog?

[Maggi Young]

This thread  should be of help : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.0  and this post has specifics :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg266604#msg266604

[ian mcdonald]

Andromeda on a local reserve. Still not working. There is no Browse option and if I click on the image re-sizer the machine tries to send the re-sizer not the image it contains.