Wildlife mid 2009

[Kees Green]

I will try to post a pic of my little friend I found at Awakino Ski field, this is a new species of cicada for New Zealand. I thought that I had made a great discovery only to find it had been found years before. It is still not named along with a lot of other cicadas in both Australia and New Zealand.

[Anthony Darby]

Is the Sea Buckthorn planted for Brimstones? I thought they needed ivy?

Brimstone larvae won't feed on sea buckthorn. They feed on Rhamnus and Frangula spp. Dense growth of ivy is used by the adults as a hibernation site only.

[Ragged Robin]

Leaping out of the dry grass in Italy this amazing Praying Mantis was perfectly camouflaged and when picking wild figs one peered round a leaf to look at me that was bright green! It's the first time I have ever seen them in the wild - great insects 

[Stephenb]

One of the Beechgrove Potting Shed Team, Donald McBean from Forres, is involved in a project to use sea buckthorn in large scale plantings to harvest the berries for medicinal and cosmetic purposes....  ironic  that, since in many places there are projects to eradicate the plants as being pests! 

In Scandinavia (notably Estonia and Finland) there have been breeding programs to develop improved larger berried, higher yielding and sweeter forms of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) suited to the milder Scandinavian climate, based on material from breeding programs in Russia. Although, it is largely a coastal plant in Europe, which may make one think that it is not that hardy, it is extremely hardy. For example, here in Norway there are relic plants also in the mountains at 1,150m from a once much wider distribution. It can only survive (i.e., compete) in poor soils at the outermost coast and at the tree limit.

In recent years, thornless varieties have started to appear in Scandinavia from the breeding programs further east. If you’ve ever tried to harvest the berries, you’ll know that the thorns are not to be messed with, so this is a major advance. Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust is now offering 6 cultivars.

[Anthony Darby]

The bushes up the hill from me are thornless. I'll try to remember to take a pic.

[mark smyth]

Last year Ray Mears was on TV harvesting the berries. They are supposed to have the highest levels of vitamin C

[mark smyth]

Bottled sea buckthorn juice
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2307/1551161659_7a4847d31f.jpg

[Anthony Darby]

The other day I spotted a slug behaving rather oddly. When I looked more closely it seemed to be being attacked by a small black insect which I thought was a staphylinid beetle (thin with short wing cases, the most famous being the Devil's Coach Horse - Staphylinus olens). Having looked at the pics closely, it appears to be a small Violet Ground beetle (Carabus violaceus) larva that is giving this slug a slow and violent death.

[Arykana]

we went a good 10 miles hike yesterday, started with a big  and came home  like 
but! here is some pics

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/arykana/mk2.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/arykana/mk1.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/arykana/mk-2.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/arykana/mkus.jpg

[Maggi Young]

Anthony: What does the adult violet beetle feed on?


Erika: good that your camera felt really   and not     !
 

[Anthony Darby]

Bigger slugs.

[Maggi Young]

Bigger slugs.

 good news, good news!

[Tony Willis]

These appeared in my neighbours lawn yesterday. The larger one is about 10 inches across.They grew for the first time two years ago and gave last year a miss.

[Lesley Cox]

They look a little like the fungus we know as "Slippery Jack," edible (but don't try these on my say so) and the Russians eat them with garlic and lemon juice. A fungus-loving friend asked what they tasted like and was told "Garlic and lemon juice."

[mark smyth]

This wasp was probing/laying eggs in my troughs today. I watched it ?smelling with its antenna and then arching it's back to push it's ovipositor in to ? Its jerking movement wasnt good for photography. I lost sight of it when it walked in to a dwarf compact conifer