[031] Araniella cucurbitina, Cucumber Spider

[031] Araniella cucurbitina, Cucumber Spider

Introduction

Araniella cucurbitina, the Cucumber Spider, is a small green spider named for its colour, sometimes called the Cucumber Green Spider. (It’s not the only spider sometimes called this!)

I will also consider several other spiders but my randomization process means that some more common ones will come later.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Arachnida

Order – Araneae

Family – Araneidae

Genus – Araniella

Scientific Name – Araniella cucurbitina

This one is in the same family as [030] Garden Spider.

I will list and consider separately a few other spiders.

Cucumber Spider

After yesterday you can see that Araniella means a little spider. Cucurbita is Latin for plants in the gourd family (including cucumber)

Araniella cucurbitina is a small spider and a large part of its body has a green colour that could be associated with cucumbers.

It is widespread over nearly all of Europe and most of Asia. It is an orb-weaver like the Garden Spider and does not hide out of the way because of its camouflage.

The following random list includes some other spiders I have been able to photograph.

Amaurobius

Amaurobius ferox is a large spider, which comes from its own family, Amaurobiidae. It is found across Europe and likes dark spaces, often found indoors. It has an interesting mechanism for reproduction.

The mother lays a clutch of eggs. When they hatch, she lays another set of eggs for them to eat. Then a few days later she actively encourages her offspring to eat her.

Clubiona

Clubiona Species, also in its own family, Clubionidae (Sac Spiders) There are about thirty British species, widespread in the South of England. Generally found in leaf litter, sometimes in houses. I can’t remember where I found this one.

Nursery Web Spider

Pysaura mirabilis, the Nursery Web Spider is a member of the family Pysauridae, also called Nursery Web Spiders.

The female carries here egg sacs with her jaws and pedipalps unlike wolf spiders, which attach them to their spinnerets. Like wolf spiders, they are roaming hunters.

Philodromus

Philodromus dispar, a crab spider from the family Philodromidae, does not build a web. Found all over Europe, it’s an agile hunter that remains stationary and waits in ambush for its prey.

Steatoda

Theradiidae is a large diverse family of spiders. It includes some called Black Widow Spiders or Brown Widow Spiders, some of which have potent and dangerous bites. (The name Widow Spiders comes from the tendency of the female to eat the male after mating, which may not be much different in prevalence to spiders in general.)

Steatoda nobilis and Steatoda grossa are both sometimes found in homes and both are known as false widows because of their similarity. (S grossa is a native species. S nobilis originates from Madeira and the Canaries but has been spreading through Britain for well over a hundred years.)

Both weave an irregular web to catch their prey.

They can give a painful bite but rarely do so as they are not aggressive. Local newspapers and media frequently report scare stories about them but they are not dangerous.

This male Steatoda grossa was at one time a resident in my house.

Zebra Spider

Salticus scenicus, the Zebra Spider is a small spider, common throughout the Northern Hemisphere. From the family of jumping spiders, Salticidae, his spider gets its name comes from its stripy appearance. The Latin ‘salticus’ and Greek ‘scenicus’ mean ‘dancing’ and ‘theatrical.’

They have very good eyesight and are often found close to humans – on walls or fences or behind curtains indoors. They hunt like cats – approaching slowly and then pouncing.

Apart from the Garden Spider, they are the only spider I have seen several times outside homes

Names

I have said what I can about the specific names of species but many Scientific Names have no apparent origin.

Other Notes

All spiders can bite but they very rarely have a reason to do so. No spiders found in Britain are in any way dangerously poisonous. [Whenever the subject comes up on social media there are discussions on the precise definitions of ‘venomous’ and ‘toxic.’ But spiders won’t harm you by biting you and you won’t die from eating one.]

See also

There are several hundred species of spider found in Britain from 37 or 38 families. If you are interested you can buy Field Guides.

Two more species will come in May and September.

[030] Araneus diadematus, Garden Spider

[030] Araneus diadematus, Garden Spider

Introduction

Araneus diadematus, the Garden Spider, is a common spider often found in gardens waiting in the middle of its web.

Although it is widespread through Europe and North America, there is another species called the Garden Spider in America, so sometimes we call it the European Garden Spider to be more precise.

Its other names include diadem spider, cross spider, crowned orb-weaver, orangie and pumpkin spider. By now it should not surprise you that it is not the only pumpkin spider (but it does look a bit like a pumpkin.)

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Arachnids (Eight-legged, mostly spiders)

Order – Araneae (Spiders)

Family – Araneidae (Orb-weavers)

Genus – Araneus

Scientific Name – Araneus diadematus

Name

There are no prizes for guessing why it is called a Garden Spider. The word ‘spider’ comes through Old English from old German roots, cognate with ‘spinner.’

The name of the Genus and its Family and Order come from the Latin for spider and the more general term for the Order, Arachnids, comes from the Ancient Greek for spider.

The name, diadem spider and diadematus in the Scientific Name refer to its appearance.

Spiders

As this is our first spider, I will give some general notes about them and will work my way down the taxonomic tree.

Arthropods are a major group at the Phylum level. They have jointed bodies and a hard cuticle or exoskeleton. They include crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimp etc. and woodlice); Myriapods (millipedes and centipedes); Insects and Arachnids

The Class of Arachnids is mostly Spiders but also includes scorpions, ticks, mites, camel spiders and harvestmen, which we will not meet in this blog. [Sorry, we do have British harvestmen but they didn’t make it.]

Although there are some similarities, spiders are quite different to insects. They have eight legs and a body with just two main parts – sometimes called the cephalothorax and abdomen. Because the internal organs are shuffled round a bit, we should actually call these the prosoma and opisthoma!

They don’t have antennae but they do have a pair of chelicerae and a pair of pedipalps at the front of the head. Chelicerae are modified mouthparts which can be used to inject venom. Pedipalps have a number of functions including taste and smell and are used by male spiders in courtship and mating.

Spiders usually have eight eyes, arranged differently for each Family of spiders. They have spinnerets to produce silk and mostly catch prey to eat. Not all spiders make what we think of as spiders’ webs.

Description

I am not a great fan of spiders but Araneus diademata can be quite attractive. Its colour has a variety of shades from light brown through bright orange to a darker grey. All have the same lighter markings including an obvious cross. As is often true for spiders, the female is much larger than the male.

It is a classic orb weaver and is often seen in late summer and autumn just waiting at the centre of its circular web, woven between garden plants. When the prey flies into the web, the spider bites it to paralyze it, wraps it in silk and saves it to eat later. The header picture of this blog is not a good shot of the spider but it does show the web clearly. You may have to zoom in.

I won’t go into the courtship and mating rituals. Mating is external and the male has to be very careful. It is not unknown for the female to eat the male before, during or after mating.

Habitat

Araneus diadematus is widespread through Europe and America, common through almost all of Britain and is not restricted to gardens. They can be found almost anywhere in town or countryside. Garden flowers or other plants make useful points to attach their webs.

Other Notes

You may spot them through Summer and Autumn but they are most often seen in September and October. When they are waiting in the centre of a web, they are quite easy to photograph in close-up as long as you don’t touch the web. You may find it difficult with auto-focus, which often focuses on the background.

See also

I won’t give the game away but there are some more spiders to come. Actually, the next post will be a spider – or, to be more precise, lots of spiders …

[029] Apis mellifera, Honey Bee

[029] Apis mellifera, Honey Bee

Introduction

Apis mellifera, the Honey Bee is the main well-known bee throughout the World, often effectively domesticated for the production of honey. It may have originated in Africa or Asia but it spread naturally to Europe and has been spread further to the Americas, Australia and almost everywhere by humans.

There are seven other much less significant species of Apis known as honey bees so we have to call Apis mellifera the Eurasian Honey Bee. ‘Honeybee’ for ‘honey bee’ is common but not accepted by entomologists.

Almost everywhere in informal usage it is normally just called a bee.

There is far too much that I could say about honey bees so I will leave out a lot.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Hymenoptera

Clade – Anthophila (Bees)

Family – Apidae (Honey Bees, Bumble Bees and many others)

Genus – Apis

Scientific Name – Apis mellifera

Name

I think the word ‘bee’ has always meant this insect.

Apis is the Latin for ‘bee,’ and ‘melli-fera’ means ‘honey-bearing.’

Description

We all know what bees look like and what they do. The colouring and the banding on the body vary geographically. They collect nectar and pollen; make honey with the nectar; and help to pollinate plants by transferring the pollen to other flowers.

They can sting but rarely do so. Only the workers can sting as the sting mechanism is a modification to the ovipositor.

Reproduction and castes

For today’s lesson, I want to talk first about haplodiploidy, the system that determines the sex of Apis mellifera and all bees, wasps and ants. It is best summed up in the statement that: ‘a male has no father and cannot have sons, but he has a grandfather and can have grandsons.’

Basically, all males have one set of chromosomes (haploid) and all females have two sets (diploid.) When the queen produces eggs. they have only one set (haploid) and they can develop without fertilization into haploid (male) drones.

But when the queen mates, she stores a large amount of sperm for continued use and then starts to produce fertilized eggs. These combine her chromosomes with those from the sperm to produce diploid (female) offspring as workers.

As I am sure you know, Honey bees live as a permanent colony in a hive with a single Queen, who lays all the eggs, and large numbers of workers. The Workers are all females but infertile. A bee can only become a queen if she is fed the right diet as a young larva and the workers generally make sure that no new queens develop.

When a new queen is needed and emerges, she flies to a point where she mates several times with male Drones. She stores enough sperm to last her for life. The males, who cannot collect pollen or nectar, die immediately after mating.

Within a hive, the workers construct cells in which the queen lays her eggs. They look after the new bees and make and store honey.

Domestication and Beekeeping

Bees are almost the only invertebrate animal to be domesticated and people have been beekeeping for thousands of years. [When I found that statement on Wikipedia, I had to think what others there are. I can only think of the silkworm].

It is arguable whether bees are truly domesticated as beekeepers do little more than housing them, but they have certainly been selectively bred to be less aggressive and to produce more honey.

Colonies of bees are also kept specifically to pollinate crops. Beeswax, used by the bees to construct the honeycomb cells in the hive, is harvested for use in candles.

Other Notes

If you want to know more about bees or beekeeping there are lots of books available.

Honey bees must be the easiest insect to find. If you see bees flying between flowers as they collect pollen, they are probably Honey Bees or Bumble Bees.

See also

Their closest relatives are [052] Bumble Bees.

[028] Aphantopus hyperantus, Ringlet

[028] Aphantopus hyperantus, Ringlet

Introduction

Aphantopus hyperantus, the Ringlet, common and widespread in Britain, is one of well over a hundred species of ‘ringlet’ butterflies.

It’s mostly a plain brown butterfly with similarities to some of our other butterflies.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Family – Nymphalidae (Four-footed Butterflies)

Subfamily – Satyrinae (Browns)

Tribe – Satyrini (Graylings and Ringlets)

Subtribe – Maniolina

Genus – Aphantopus

Scientific Name – Aphantopus hyperantus

Name

I can’t find any significance in the Scientific Name but the ‘ringlet’ is obvious.

Three Related Species

For today’s lesson we start with the family Nymphalidae containing 6 000 species of butterflies, which include [009] Peacock and [010] Tortoiseshell. Two levels down the classification system we come to the large subfamily Satyrinae with about 2500 species. Until recently this was a separate family (So, of course, it was called Satyridae then!)

Satyrinae is divided into six tribes, one of which, Satyrini, has about 150 species, generally called graylings or ringlets.

Further down we come to the subtribe Maniolina with just five genera. These are very closely related and we have just one representative of each of three genera in Britain.

Aphantopus hyperantus, the Ringlet, is one of the three. Later we will meet [222] Meadow Brown and [288] Gatekeeper, both very similar. All three have variations in appearance within the species that do not help us with identification.

Description

The male is darker than the female, almost black on emergence as an adult and then fading. The top of the wings has spots round the outside as in the following picture, which I think is a female.

The underside of the wings has the distinctive rings that give this butterfly its name.

The white fringe to the wings is also an identification feature.

The number of spots above and rings below is variable. Sometimes the top has no spots!

Habitat

It is widespread over Europe and all of the UK. They prefer woodland to open spaces and can live on brambles, thistles, hogweed or other species.

Other Notes

This species nearly missed selection. I see quite a lot of them but their unexciting plain look does not tempt me to take many pictures.

See also

We have met two much more colourful members of Nymphalidae already. As noted above, look out for the Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper butterflies.

[027] Anthocaris cardamines, Orange Tip

[027] Anthocaris cardamines, Orange Tip

Introduction

Anthocaris cardamines, the Orange Tip, is a common butterfly throughout Europe. Only the male has the striking orange tips to its wings. The upper wings of the female look similar to the plain white butterflies of its family.

The underwings of both sexes have a striking mottled greenish pattern, useful in camouflage.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Family – Pieridae (Whites)

Genus – Anthocharis

Scientific Name – Anthocharis cardamines

Name

This butterfly is unusual in having no qualifier to its name. There are about twenty Anthocaris species, almost all of which are Orangetips of some kind (Mexican Orangetip, Southern Rocky Mountain Orangetip etc.) But the Orange Tip isn’t the Eurasian Orangetip or the Common Orangetip. It is just the Orange Tip.

The name, of course, comes from the upper wing markings of the male.

All I can find for Anthocharis is, perhaps Ancient Greek ‘beautiful small bird.’

Description

Its appearance is unusual as it’s the only British butterfly to show significant sexual dimorphism and the only one where the male is more colourful than the female.

I have started with the underside in my first picture (similar for both male and female) but it’s the top of the wings of the male that give this species its name.

The female looks very similar to other butterflies in the Pieridae family.

Habitat

The Orange Tip is common and widespread across Britain and much of Europe and the Near East. Larvae feed on a variety of plants, mostly in the Cabbage and mustard family, Brassicaceae.

Males tend to keep to the edge of forests while the females frequent meadow habitats. They feed on all the flowers in the area rather than seek out particular plants.

They are very selective when egg-laying, which they will only do in sunlight on a brassica plant in full flower that does not already have an Orange Tip egg on it. [The egg has a pheromone that deters another female. Where two eggs do hatch on one plant, the first to emerge will cannibalize the other.]

Other Notes

I see large numbers of these, almost all male, in early Spring.

See also

For other white butterflies see [267] Large and Small White Butterflies.

[026] Anser anser, Greylag

[026] Anser anser, Greylag

Introduction

Anser anser, the Greylag, is the common goose seen all over the UK, widespread and common over Eurasia and North Africa. Many British ones are semi-tame and can be seen on ornamental lakes. Wikipedia calls it a Greylag Goose but it’s generally known as just a Greylag.

In normal, informal English just as the word ‘duck’ is synonymous with ‘Mallard,’ the word ‘goose’ generally means ‘Greylag.’

I will look briefly at other Anser species

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (birds)

Order – Anseriformes

Family – Anatidae (Ducks, Geese and Swans)

Subfamily – Anserinae (Geese and Swans)

Genus – Anser (Grey Geese)

Scientific Name – Anser anser

The family of Anatidae are closely related in some ways and it is possible for Anser geese to hybridise with Branta (Black Geese) species or even with swans. When originally classified, all ducks, geese and swans were Anas but that didn’t last for long.

Name

‘Lag’ is an old name for a domestic goose derived from the call used in herding them, hence grey-lag. It won’t surprise you by now that anser is the Latin for goose.

Geese

Statistically, January has been a bit unusual with more than the expected numbers of trees, insects and birds all bunching up at the beginning of the alphabet. It has given us the chance to look at the taxonomy of Anatidae and all of the ducks. So, all that is left is the very small subfamily Anserinae, containing all geese and swans.

If we leave out the white geese, (which we won’t see in Britain) there are just three genera, each with just a few fairly similar species.

• Cygnus (Swans) coming a bit further down the alphabet,
• Branta (Black geese) coming at the end of February,
• Anser (Grey geese)

I will look mainly at Anser anser, which is the type species. It defines the genus.

Description

We all know what geese look like. They are larger than ducks and smaller than swans. They have a long neck, longer than ducks and shorter than swans.

Their plumage is mainly a dull grey-brown, darker on the head, mottled and barred on the back and paler underneath the body. As for all geese and swans, male and females are very similar with the males being slightly larger.

It has an orange or pink bill with a white tip. Adult birds have a very distinctive look to their neck feathers,

The large webbed feet are pink.

Habitat

Although geese live near water they feed mainly on grass. This not an efficient way to eat and so they consume large quantities of food. In general, they migrate further North in Summer where the longer days give them more time to eat.

The Greylag is now widespread and very common in Britain, derived mostly from feral populations. In the South of England and in urban regions many of them are resident all year. They have learned to eat many crops such as wheat, peas and potatoes.

As for all waterfowl, the young birds follow their parents and are able to feed themselves almost immediately. They are gregarious and the goslings stay with the parents. At first, they look very similar to most ducklings and goslings with black feet. They gradually become like their parents.

Mythology

Geese have been revered and associated with gods such as the Egyptian sun god Ra and the Roman goddess of love Aphrodite.

Domesticated Geese

Geese were domesticated at least 3 000 years ago from the species Anser anser and are now known as a subspecies Anser anser domesticus. In Britain at least domestic geese are usually all white and significantly larger than wild Greylag. The one below looks like an escaped domestic goose.

In the Eighteenth Century, geese were traditionally eaten at Michaelmas and driven in large flocks from the East of England to London. The tradition of pulling a wishbone for luck comes from the belief that geese had the powers of an oracle. When I was young, we did it with chickens and turkeys but I suspect that is a dying tradition.

Use

Apart from their use as a food source, goose feathers have been used as quills and for arrows.

I have also seen them at agricultural shows being used instead of sheep for demonstrations of sheepdog skills!

Other Notes

They are often seen on ornamental lakes but may not be so tame as my pictures may suggest. Some of my pictures of very young birds come from Slimbridge.

I want to include the following picture as an illustration of how well birds can cope with only one leg.

I saw this bird for several years in the Forest of Dean and it seemed to cope very well. I have also seen half a dozen other one-legged birds of different species including a Rook, a Pied Wagtail and a gull. As long as they can fly and hop around, they seem to be OK.

See also

All eleven species of Anser are quite similar in appearance. Most are not normally seen in Britain.

• Anser brachyrhynchus, the Pink-footed Goose. The Latinized Greek brachyrhynchos (‘short-bill’) is a better guide to identification than its pink feet. The bill is black with some bright pink. They are Winter visitors to localized areas of Britain – Norfolk, the North of England and Scotland.
• Anser albifrons, the Greater White-fronted Goose. Usually identified by the small white area to the base of the bill. ‘Albi-frons’ means ‘white-front.’ Note that some Greylag have this marking, possibly associated with domestic geese. They spend their Summers in the far North. A very small population winter in and around the Slimbridge WWT site, but they tend to keep well away from the hides. In Britain they are usually called just White-fronted geese.
• Anser fabalis and Anser serrirostris, the Bean Goose, is a rare visitor. (Internationally and in the USA, these are recognized as two species but in the UK, the British Ornithologist’s Union considers them to be one species.)
• Amser erythropus, the Lesser White-fronted Goose; Anser caerulescens, the Snow Goose and Anser rossii, Ross’s Goose are very occasionally seen as strays from their usual range.
• I have seen Anser indicus, Bar-headed Goose and Anser canagicus, Emperor as isolated birds that have escaped from collections.

[025] Anemone hupehensis, Hubei Anemone

[025] Anemone hupehensis, Hubei Anemone

Introduction

Anemone hupehensis, the Hubei Anemone, is a common garden plant, native to China but widely grown and naturalized in Japan.

It is also known as the Chinese Anemone, Japanese Anemone, or sometimes as thimbleweed or windflower.

Its large open flowers are generally white or light pink.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Flowering Plants

Order – Ranunculales

Family – Ranunculaceae

Genus – Anemone

Scientific Name – Anemone hupehensis

Some varieties are hybridized with other species of Anemone.

Wikipedia lists only three cultivars and four hybrid cultivars.

Name

The Greek ‘Anemone’ means daughter of the wind. You won’t be surprised by a bit of Greek mythology so here it is, coming from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. The plant was created by the goddess Venus when she sprinkled nectar on the blood of her dead lover, Adonis. The name comes from the frailty of the petals that can be blown away by the wind. All anemones can be called windflowers.

If you are familiar with the complexities of transliterating Chinese you will understand the Latinization of the species name. Much as the city of Beijing used to be called Peking, the province of Hubei in central China can also be spelled Hupeh. (In both cases, the pronunciation is the same in Chinese, but not in English!)

Description

Anemones come within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, and there is a similarity in the shape of the flowers. The genus Anemone has about sixty members.

Flowers of Anemone hupehensis are large and flat with prominent yellow stamens.

Anemone hupehensis is a perennial, late flowering plant almost the size of a small shrub. It is often seen in spreading groups and can become like a hedge.

Habitat and use

This plant is only native to an area of Central China but has been cultivated in Japan for hundreds of years and has naturalized there.

I won’t provide cultivation notes for gardeners so I won’t always say a lot about garden plants.

Other Notes

I can understand why this plant can be invasive in some countries. I see it sometimes spreading outside gardens along the pavement and hedges.

See also

We won’t see any more anemones but there will be lots more garden plants. Don’t always expect more than a brief introduction and some pictures.

[024] Andrena cineraria, Ashy Mining Bee

[024] Andrena cineraria, Ashy Mining Bee

Introduction

Andrena Cineraria, the Ashy Mining Bee is a dark bee with silver-grey markings that makes holes in the ground as nests for its young. It is sometimes called a Grey Mining Bee.

I will also consider a few of the other 1300 species of Andrena, the Mining Bees, or at least the seventy that are seen in Britain.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps and Ants and others)

Clade – Anthophila (Bees)

Family – Andrenidae (Mining Bees, mostly Andrena)

Genus – Andrena (Mining Bees)

Scientific Name – Andrena cineraria and others

Name

You can read below why they are called mining bees.

Andrena comes via Latin from an Ancient Greek word meaning wasp. A cinerarium is a place for holding the ashes of the deceased.

Bees

I won’t go into the complex taxonomy of Hymenoptera but you come down to Anthophila, the small group of families that make up bees, at a level between family and superfamily. It’s a grouping that is strictly within groups that define wasps – so technically bees are specialized wasps.

There are 16 000 species of bees in seven families.

Until a few years ago I used to think that we had two different types of bee in Britain – proper bees and bumble bees. Well, we do have one species of Honey Bee. And there are actually a few species of Bumble Bee. But we also have over two hundred and fifty other species of bees, mostly smaller than Honey Bees and some very much smaller. The best way to find them is to look inside open flowers in summer. They are solitary bees and don’t have queens and the social structure that we associate with bees in hives.

About a quarter of the British species are Andrena.

Andrena

I won’t go into the anatomy of bees or the distinctions between different families and genera, which may depend on checking the segments of the antennae or the hairs on the legs.

Andrena species look pretty much like bees apart from their colouring and they are only a little smaller than honey bees. It’s their lifestyle that makes them mining bees. Like all bees they are holometabolous, going through a complete metamorphosis. After hibernating, when it gets warm enough, the adults emerge from the pupal state and they mate.

That’s it for the male, which dies shortly afterwards, but the female has to find somewhere to lay her eggs. She gathers pollen and nectar from flowers in the same way as honey bees. Then she looks for some sandy soils to dig a hole for a burrow. She makes small cells containing a ball of pollen mixed with nectar on to which she lays an egg. The hole is sealed and the larva emerging from an egg has something to feed on.

Description

Andrena cineraria is the most easily recognizable species of Andrena. The female is black with two bands of grey hairs on her thorax. The male’s thorax is completely covered in grey hairs and he also has a tuft of hairs on his face. These grey hairs give the bees their ‘ashy’ name.

You can sort out the males and females in the following pictures.

Habitat

Andrena cineraria are common and widespread in the UK and over most of Europe. They fly from April to June and they are important pollinators for many fruit trees.

They nest in lawns, gardens, parkland and agricultural borders.

Other Notes

They have been one of the visitors to my garden collecting pollen – together with other Andrena species shown below.

In nature reserves I have seen sections of footpath where hundreds of bees were mining a section of dozens of yards. Somewhere towards the end of August there will be a post about one of the hazards of gregarious mining.

See also

These are some of the other Mining Bees I have seen – Gwynne’s Mining Bee, Andrena bicolor; Hawthorn Mining Bee, Andrena Chrysosceles; Orange-tailed Mining Bee, Andrena Haemorrhoa and Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena Scotica – two pictures of each.

You will see [029] the Honey Bee and [052] Bumble Bees, both coming soon.

Feel free to look out for the other two hundred British species.

[023] Anas platyrhynchos, Mallard

[023] Anas platyrhynchos, Mallard

Introduction

Anas platyrhynchos is a duck so widespread, common and tame in Britain that it is generally just called a duck.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (Birds)

Order – Anseriformes (Waterfowl and a few others)

Family – Anatidae (Waterfowl – Ducks, Geese and Swans)

Subfamily – Anatinae (Dabbling Ducks)

Genus – Anas

Scientific Name – Anas platyrhynchos

Name

The word Mallard originally referred to any drake (male duck.) Anas is Latin for ‘duck’ and platy-rhynchos means wide- or flat-billed.

Ducks

(You can always skip over my bits about taxonomy.)

In [018] the Egyptian Goose, we looked at the structure of the order Anseriformes and the family Anatidae and the two main subfamilies of ducks:

• Anatinae – Dabbling Ducks
• Aythyinae – Diving Ducks

Visually, there is not much obviously different between Dabbling Ducks (which stay on the surface and just eat what they can find near the surface) and Diving Ducks (which dive deeper below the surface) but there are morphological differences that maintain the distinction.

I will concentrate on common British species in what follows. These are now generally classified as Dabbling Ducks

• [023] Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
• [022] Pintail (Anas acuta)
• [022] Teal (Anas crecca)
• [225] Gadwall (Mareca strepera, formerly Anas strepera)
• [224] Wigeon (Mareca penelope, formerly Anas penelope)
• [322] Shoveler (Spatula clypeata, formerly Anas clypeata)

Diving Ducks include these:

• [047] Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
• [047] Pochard (Aythya farina)
• Greater and Lesser Scaup (Aythya marila and Aythya affinis) Both fairly rare.
• [236] Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)

There is another subfamily, Merginae. These are all relatively rare in the UK

• [059] Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)
• [228] Goosander (Mergus merganser)
• [228] Red-breasted Merganser (Merganser serrator)
• Smew (Mergellus albellus)
• Eider and sea ducks

Some species are still uncertain:

• [012] Mandarin (Aix galericulata)
• [061] Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata)

A major change in 2009 followed DNA analysis, which has been the key to many sweeping changes in taxonomy. There is still not agreement as to the subfamilies I have used, or whether they are Tribes within other subfamilies.

Mallard

The Mallard doesn’t look very much like its two sister species that we met yesterday.

The male in his breeding plumage has the familiar dark green head, sometimes appearing blue or even purple.

In eclipse plumage he looks more like the female who, as for all dabbling ducks, is mottled brown in appearance.

About a dozen chicks may be reared at a time, although they rarely all survive to maturity. They have yellow heads with a marked eye stripe.

Females sometimes have different plumage patterns. I am not sure how much this due to escaped domestic birds but to some extent it is natural variation.

Habitat and use

Ducks have been farmed for thousands of years – for meat, eggs and down (soft, fine feathers used in bedding) and also as pets or as show animals. They are still seen as more of an haute cuisine species than the more mass-produced chickens and turkeys.

Almost all domestic ducks originate from the Mallard with the exception of the Muscovy Duck (and in parts of Asia the Indian Runner Duck.)

They also appear in fiction, particularly in anthropomorphised form in children’s fiction – such as Beatrix Potter and the cartoon character Donald Duck.

Other Notes

It’s hard to know how many actually wild Mallards there are in Britain because most of the ones we see are very tame. Almost all ornamental lakes have their own resident or semi-resident Mallards. They come in very close when fed bread by visitors.

See also

The origins of the domesticated breed of Aylesbury Duck are obscure but it is presumed to be descended from the Mallard. It is all white, and significantly larger than normal Mallards.

Escaped birds happily mate with wild Mallard.

I have to admit that until I wrote this, I believed that both white birds above were Aylesbury Ducks but they are not. Aylesbury Ducks are now almost extinct. They have been replaced by a similar looking Pekin Duck, also derived from Mallards, imported over a hundred years ago. It has a yellow bill while the Aylesbury Duck has a pink bill. There are now two recognized breeds of Pekin Duck, one European and one American. Pekin is yet another spelling of the name of the city we used to call Peking – now it’s Beijing.

There are several other British duck species as listed above.

[022] Anas acuta, Pintail

[022] Anas acuta, Pintail

Anas crecca, Teal

Introduction

Anas acuta, the Pintail is definitely my favourite duck. It is a dabbling duck and the male has an attractive plumage with a metallic silvery bill. The female, like other female dabbling ducks, is a mottled brown. There are just a few other Pintails but Anas acuta, the Northern Pintail is the most common and widespread and is usually called just a Pintail.

Anas crecca, the Teal, is significantly smaller, and has a plumage that has given its name to a shade of green. Alternate names get more complicated with Teals. Wikipedia says it’s the Eurasian Teal, Common Teal or Eurasian Green-winged Teal; whereas the American species (Anas carolinensis) is just the Green-winged Teal. British birders would never call it the Eurasian Green-winged Teal to avoid confusion with its American relative (which some now consider to be merely a subspecies of Anas crecca!)

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (Birds)

Order – Anseriformes (Waterfowl and a few others)

Family – Anatidae (Waterfowl – Ducks, Geese and Swans)

Subfamily – Anatinae (Dabbling Ducks)

Genus – Anas

Scientific Name – Anas acuta, Anas crecca

The Genus Anas is still quite diverse with 31 species. It can be split into three sections with Anas acuta and some other Pintails in one section; Anas crecca and some other Teals in another; and the Mallard (coming tomorrow) in the third section. So, these three birds are not that similar.

Name

The Pintail gets its name (and ‘acuta’) from the pointed tail of the male. 

The word ’teal’ seems to be long associated with the bird. Its use for the colour (a sort of dark turquoise or cyan) dates from about 1920. Crecca comes from Kricka, the Swedish name for the bird, which is onomatopoeic for its call. [We have to remember that Linnaeus was Swedish, even though he wrote in Latin.].

Ducks

We have already met [012] the Mandarin but I will leave some more general comments about ducks until tomorrow, when we meet the very familiar member of the Anas genus that is widely known in Britain just as a duck.

When we meet more duck species  I won’t say much more about them, other than what they look like and where we might find them.

Pintail

Anas acuta is widespread but does not breed in Britain. Its breeding area covers most of Northern Eurasia from Norway to Siberia. We only ever see them as winter visitors.

The male in breeding plumage has a chocolate brown head with a marked white stripe and a metallic blue bill. Its tail feathers are elongated by several inches from most other ducks.

The female is one of the more attractive of the mottled brown dabbling ducks. She has a pointed tail, not as long as the male, and a similar long metallic bill.

The males do have an eclipse form intermediate between their full breeding appearance and the plumage of the female, but I have never noticed it.

Teal

The Teal has a similar distribution and is also just a winter visitor to Britain.

It is noticeably smaller than other ducks. The male in his breeding plumage has a dark head with a dark green area round his eye that has given rise to the colour teal. The female (not shown) is mottled brown.

Habitat

I won’t go into the life of these birds because you will never see them breeding or immature. But you can see them still in breeding plumage.

Other Notes

As I will say for almost all waterfowl or water birds, the best place to find them is a wetland site such as Slimbridge WWT or other wetlands. They will not approach ornamental lakes where there are people.

See also

Tomorrow you can find out about all of our duck species…

[021] Anania hortulata, Small Magpie

[021] Anania hortulata, the Small Magpie

Introduction

Anania hortulata, the Small Magpie (or Small Magpie Moth) is a large colourful moth in the Grass Moth Family (Crambidae) which, untypically, rests with its wings unfolded. It is one of the largest British moths to be considered a micro-moth.

It should not be confused with Abraxas grossulariata, the Magpie moth from another family that looks very similar but a bit larger; or the Magpie Butterfly; or several other moths called Magpie; or [265] Pica pica, the Magpie (or Eurasian Magpie) or many other birds called Magpies!

Common Names are always difficult but almost anything in the animal kingdom that is wholly or partly black and white tends to be called a Magpie something. I have seen an Australian Magpie, which is not closely related to the corvid Magpie; magpie-larks, which are not larks; magpie-robins, which are not Robins; and Magpie Geese, which aren’t really geese.

I will also be including ‘all other moths,’ but my randomization process means that more moth species are yet to come.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Family – Crambidae (Grass Moths)

Subfamily – Pyraustinae

Genus – Anania

Scientific Name – Anania hortulata

Name

You can see from its colours why it is called a Magpie!

All I can find of the genus name, Anania, is its use as a personal name, from the Biblical name Ananias. ‘Hortulatus’ looks as if it might mean ‘garden.’ With over a hundred species in the genus, the task of naming species sometimes seems to become a bit random.

Description

You will recognize Crambidae from [011] Grass Moths, and being in that family is enough to make Anania hortulata a micromoth. It is the subfamily Pyraustinae, whose members do not look quite like the grass moths we have seen already.

You will understand the difficulties of taxonomy when I tell you what distinguishes this subfamily. The Pyraustinae are characterised by atrophied spinula and venulae in the tympanal organs; a narrow fornix tympani; a longitudinal groove with androconial scales on the male mesothoracic tibiae; an often spinose antrum; a sella (a medially directed clasper on the inside of the valvae), and an editum with modified setae on the male valvae. [Thanks to Wikipedia for that useful information!] This blog is not the place for anatomical details.

The Small Magpie is not completely black and white as its name might suggest. The head and nearby parts of the wings are a bright orange-brown colour. It is much more colourful than its sister species in Anania, most of which are an unimpressive dull grey-brown like most moths.

It rests with its wings displayed, showing the markings on its wings.

Habitat and use

The Small Magpie is found in Europe and North America and is widespread and common in Britain.

The larvae feed on several species including mint, nettle and deadnettle.

Other Notes

I put this picture up to illustrate the need for being observant. These are the doors to one of the main hides at Slimbridge. When I took my pictures, it must have been there for some time and several visitors to the site had been in and out without noticing or disturbing it. It didn’t move as I took my pictures or when I went into the hide and out again.

I suspect that there are much better locations where its markings would have provided good camouflage.

See also

You have to realise that although this moth comes very early alphabetically, it was the last moth in my selection process and am including some miscellaneous other moths into this post. There are two thousand species of moths that you may see in Britain. Most of the moths you are likely to see will fly into your house at night. Here are some that I have seen.

The first two are Carpet Moths. There are many hundreds of moth species called carpet moths from the proclivity of their larvae to eat carpets. All come in the family Geometridae. These are Thera obeliscata, the Grey Pine Carpet and Xanthorhoe fluctuata, the Garden Carpet.

Finally, two very common moths – Hofmannophila pseudospretella, the Brown House Moth from the Oecophoridae, and the Epiphyas postvittana, the Light Brown Apple Moth from the Tortrix family.

The notorious LBAM is native to Australia but has been introduced and become invasive in many counties.

Moth Traps

You can always join the growing number of people whose hobby is trapping moths. You will need a moth trap, which is not much more than a big box with a powerful light to attract the moths, normally kept outside somewhere. Many are now available commercially.

If you leave the light on overnight, you can see and record what has arrived next morning. Your catch will be affected by the time of the year and the weather conditions but you can expect some moths almost every night, sometimes dozens of different species. If you are keen on entomology in general you may also catch caddisflies, beetles, wasps and hornets and other insects.

[020] Anacamptis pyramidalis, Pyramidal Orchid

[020] Anacamptis pyramidalis, Pyramidal Orchid

Introduction

Anacamptis pyramidalis, the Pyramidal Orchid, is a relatively common British Orchid found on open grassland such as Commons. It is a small, perennial, monocot plant with a purple inflorescence shaped like a broad pyramid. (Mathematically it is more like a cone but not far from a pyramid.)

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Flowering Plants

Order – Asparagales

Family – Orchidaceae

Genus – Anacamptis

Scientific Name – Anacamptis pyramidalis

Name

The word ‘orchid’ comes via new Latin from Ancient Greek ‘orchis’ meaning testicle, apparently from the shape of the roots. This word replaced the Middle English ‘ballockwort,’ with similar etymology.

Anacamptis comes from the Greek for ‘bend forward’ and the Latin ‘pyramidalis’ refers to the shape. Taxonomists are never afraid to mix up Greek and Latin.

Orchids

The Orchid family, Orchidaceae is very widespread and diverse. They can be found almost everywhere and in all habitats. It is the second largest family of Flowering Plants (after the Asters) and has about 10% of the total species. About a third of the monocot species are Orchids.

Many Orchids are cultivated and there are about 100 000 hybrid and cultivar varieties.

They may have one or more erect stems, sometimes quite tall, that bear flowers and then die back.

Pyramidal Orchid

The Pyramidal Orchid grows to about twenty centimetres and is unnoticed in surrounding vegetation apart from its flower stem. About fifty to a hundred flowers make up the pyramidal shape, generally coloured from pink to purple, sometimes almost white.

Habitat and use

The Pyramidal orchid is native to much of Europe and Asia and is found in open meadows and grassland. It is now common in Britain in roadside verges and is very common on the Isle of Wight.

Other Notes

Unlike the related Common Spotted Orchid this flower seems to grow as an isolated single plant.

See also

Is relative [112] the Common Spotted Orchid is much more common and often both appear at the same location.

[019] Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Beautiful Plume

[019] Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Beautiful Plume

Gillmeria pallidactyla, Yarrow Plume

Introduction

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, the Beautiful Plume moth, is one of several Plume Moths found in Britain. Although they are medium sized and share some characteristics with butterflies they are usually classified as micro-moths.

Plume Moths have very narrow feather-like wings, which they hold straight when resting.

I will also consider other Plume Moths such as Gillmeria pallidactyla, the Yarrow Plume and Emmelina monodactyla, the Common Plume.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Arthropods

Class – Insects

Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Family – Pterophoridae (Plume Moths)

Genus – Amblyptilia, Gillmeria

Scientific Name – Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Gillmeria pallidactyla

Name

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla has one of the longest Scientific Names you will meet in this blog but I can’t trace its meaning. ‘-Ptilia,’ like Plume in the common name, means ‘feather,’ and ‘-dactyla’ means ‘finger(s).’ With the obvious wing shape of Plume Moths, many of them have names with ‘-dactyla,’ referring to finger-like wings.

There is no obvious meaning for ‘ambly-’ and ‘acantha-’ could mean prickly so maybe acanthadactyla refers to the pointed end to the wing.

For the Yarrow Plume, I would assume that the genus is named after someone called Gillmer, and its pale coloured wings could be called pallid fingers.

Description

There are about a thousand species of plume moths in the family Pterophoridae, of which about forty are found in Britain.

Both the forewings and hindwings split into elongated, narrow, feathery spars. When they rest the wings are extended at right angle to the body and rolled up. This makes very effective camouflage.

They can be pests as each species generally attacks and eats a single plant species.

All plume moths are fairly similar in appearance with plain or mottled wings in varying shades of brown.

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla is a relatively dark reddish-brown with patterned wings. I suppose it’s one of the better-looking ones. Somebody has named them ‘Beautiful’.

Gillmeria pallidactyla is a much lighter brown.

Habitat

The Beautiful Plume feeds on a number of plants including Hedge Woundwort, cranesbills, heathers and mints.

The Yarrow Plume feeds mostly on [004] Yarrow.

Other Notes

These may be hard to spot but they seem to believe in their camouflage. Perhaps they are playing dead. If you find one and try to take photographs, they are unlikely to fly away. I have found them in my garden and even in the house.

See also

There about forty plume moths seen in Britain. Some, such as the Yarrow Plume are named after the food plant of the larva. The well-named Common Plume is widespread over Britain as are the Beautiful Plume and Yarrow Plume.

[018] Alopochen aegyptica, Egyptian Goose

[018] Alopochen aegyptica, Egyptian Goose

Introduction

Alopochen aegyptica, the Egyptian Goose is a waterfowl but it’s not a goose! It is a shelduck, intermediate between ducks and geese.

It is a colourful bird, native to Africa that is now an established British resident bird, probably mostly from escaped birds in ornamental collections.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Birds

Order – Anseriformes (Ducks, geese and swans)

Family – Anatidae (Ducks, geese and swans)

Subfamily – Tadordinae (Shelducks and Sheldgeese)

Genus – Alopochen

Scientific Name – Alopochen aegyptica

Name

You can understand why it is called an Egyptian Goose.

If you think the division between ducks and geese is just about size, wait for [061] the Muscovy Duck, which is bigger.

Alopochen comes from Greek roots as ‘fox-goose,’ from the ruddy colour of its back.

Ducks, Geese and Swans

There is no easy way to distinguish between what we call ducks, geese and swans. As a first approximation (with some odd exceptions and not worrying about extinct species) you can divide the family Anatidae into these subfamilies.

• Swans and Geese
• Shelducks and Sheldgeese.
• Diving Ducks
• Dabbling Ducks
• Sea Ducks

There are a significant number of species whose precise subfamily is unresolved or disputed.

Alopochen is in the Shelducks and Sheldgeese subfamily, which includes some birds called Shelducks, some called Sheldgeese, some called Ducks and the Egyptian Goose. I won’t go into detailed distinctions but this group is intermediate between geese and dabbling ducks.

You can understand the confusion when you look at the genus Alopochen, which has another three or four species, all extinct. One of them is called a shelduck, one is called a sheldgoose, and one has two names – a sheldgoose or a goose!

Description

Whatever it is called, the Egyptian Goose is a colourful bird. Unlike our fairly colourful ducks both the male and female have identical plumage. There are various shades of brown and grey.

A large part of the wings is actually white but this is not normally visible except when alarmed or aggressive or in flight.

Habitat

The native range of Alopochen aegyptica is the Nile valley and the whole of sub-saharan Africa. (The three extinct species in the genus came from the African islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion.)

There have been Egyptian Geese in Britain since the Eighteenth Century but the species was not added to the official British List until 1971. (The British Ornithological Union is well-known for its reluctance to accept bird populations from escaped or feral birds!)

They are found throughout Britain but mostly in East Anglia. I have played golf on a course in Norfolk where my first shot would aim to clear a small lake inhabited by breeding Egyptian Geese. (Don’t worry. My golf wasn’t that good but no Egyptian Geese were harmed in the process.)

It has recently been declared a non-native species with gives it a less protected status in the UK than most birds.

They are fairly herbivorous, eating seeds, leaves and grass, sometimes small invertebrates. Only very young goslings are aquatic, feeding on aquatic plankton.

They nest in many locations, often using holes in trees.

Other Notes

I suspect that those I see are a mixture of wild and domesticated. Ornamental lakes with ducks, coots and moorhens obviously make attractive locations for an escaped or wild bird, especially when regularly visited by food bearing human visitors.

See also

Their closest relatives are [336] Shelducks but they have much in common with [061] the Muscovy Duck.

If you wait until December you can find out why shelducks are called shelducks.

… OK, I will tell you now. ‘Sheld’ is a dialect word for variegated or spotted. They do tend to be colourful like the Egyptian Goose.

[017] Alnus glutinosa, Alder

[017] Alnus glutinosa, Alder

Introduction

Alnus glutinosa, the Alder, is a common and widespread deciduous tree in the Birch family.

We know it simply as the Alder but it’s a European Alder or Black Alder or Common Alder or European Black Alder.

There are about forty species of alder within the genus Alnus, found across Eurasia and America but Alnus glutinosa is our only native species.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Flowering Plants

Order – Fagales (Beeches, Chestnuts, Oaks, Walnuts and many other trees)

Family – Betulaceae (Birch, Alder, Hazel and Hornbeam)

Genus – Alnus (Alder}

Scientific Name – Alnus glutinosa

It was originally classified as a Beech as Betula glutinosa before the genus Alnus was defined.

Name

Alder comes from Indo-European roots and has always meant this tree. The Latin ‘alnus’ is cognate. Glutinosa means sticky or glutinous, coming from the resinous gum that covers the buds and young leaves.

Description

The Alder forms a tall, sturdy tree and the trunk has a grey, knarled bark. The leaves are rounded in shape, darker on the upper surface.

The leaves stay late on the tree and are green until late Autumn.

Reproduction

In many ways, Alders are similar to conifers. They are monoecious, which means that each tree simultaneously bears separate male and female flowers the male flowers are catkins and the female flowers eventually become cones. The similarity of Alder cones to coniferous tree makes them distinct from their close relatives, the Birches.

Female flowers start as erect green stalks and develop into cones, which stay on the tree until the following Spring before releasing their seeds – small, flattened nuts able to float downstream.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Male flowers form catkins in Spring as the cones from last year harden.

• 

• 

Habitat and use

Alnus glutinosa is common and widespread in Britain and most of Europe. It shares much of its range with Alnus incana, the Grey Alder, a similar species with which it hybridises. (The Grey Alder is native to Northern Europe but not the United Kingdom.)

Its natural habitats are forest edges, swamps and near rivers.

It is known for being the host to well over a hundred species of insects. Here are some [124] Parent Bugs, Elasmucha grisea, on a female cone.

It is also host to large numbers of species of fungi and lichen.

It has somehow been introduced in several countries and is considered an unwanted invasive plant in the USA and New Zealand.

It is used as a pioneer species and to stabilize river banks and can be cultivated as windbreak. Its timber is very durable underwater and has been used for the foundations of medieval cathedrals and in Venice. Its wood is also used decoratively sometimes as a veneer; and for smoking fish and other foods.

Its bark has been used in tanning and dyeing; as a treatment for swelling, inflammation and rheumatism; as an ingredient for toothpaste; and in many other herbal remedies.

The cones are sold in Britain as shrimp food and as a water treatment for aquariums.

Other Notes

The tree from which most of my pictures come is on the banks of the River Chelt.

See also

You may have already worked out that the closest relative of this tree is [051] the Silver Birch.

[016] Allium ursinum, Wild Garlic

[016] Allium ursinum, Wild Garlic

Introduction

Allium ursinum, Wild Garlic, is an insignificant small plant found in woodland but in early Spring it provides areas of white flowers comparable to similar spreads of [154] Snowdrops or [178] Bluebells. If you pick a leaf and rub it you can smell the familiar scent of garlic.

Wikipedia suggests that it is also known as wood garlic, bear leek, bear’s garlic, broad-leaved garlic, buckrams or ramsons, but to me it is always wild garlic.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Clade – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)

Clade – Monocots (See below)

Order – Asparagales

Family – Amaryllidaceae

Genus – Allium

Scientific Name – Allium ursinum

Wikipedia lists about 15 synonyms, most of which are Allium. It also suggests that the genus Allium is hard to determine and may contain between 260 and 979 species!

Name

Wild Garlic is a classic example of the difficulties of using common names. In Britain Allium ursinum is known as wild garlic. It’s common, widespread and well-known.

But if you ask Wikipedia it gives eight other choices of Allium species from around the World that not unsurprisingly are known somewhere as wild garlic. It also notes that in Africa there are species of Tulbaghia called wild garlic. This is a closely related genus and they have the same familiar scent.

It is, of course, called wild garlic because it is a close relative of Garlic (Allium sativum) and similar species the Onion (Alium cepa), Leek (Allium ampeloprasum) and Chives (Allium schoenoprasum).

The word ‘garlic’ comes from gar-lic meaning spear-leek. Leek has ancient origins and originally covered leeks, onions and garlic. The reference to spear is to the shape of the garlic cloves.

Ramsons is also derived from Old English ‘hramsa’ and has always meant wild garlic.

Allium is the Latin for garlic, which has been cultivated for thousands of years. I’m not sure why it is called Allium ursinum. Ursinum means ‘bear’ and the common name Bear’s Garlic is a back-formation from this.

Description

Wild garlic is a bulbous, perennial plant that reproduces by seeds.

You can see in the picture above the long, pointed leaves typical of monocot plants and the single stalk with an inflorescence of white flowers. In Britain the flowers emerge before the deciduous trees overhead begin to sprout their leaves.

Several star-like flowers are grouped in the inflorescence.

We may stop to admire the flowers and smell the leaves but once the flowers have died, they become insignificant again until next spring.

Habitat and use

Wild Garlic is widespread throughout Europe in deciduous woods, especially in ancient woodlands, and is often associated with swathes of Bluebells.

Its leaves are edible and it has a number of culinary uses.

Other Notes

Wild Garlic is very much a wild flower that I expect to see in profusion at the right time of year, when walking through woods. With the magic of digital photography, I can tell you that my pictures in this post come from the months of April (2017) and May (2008). [I have some even older pictures and may scour through them for some species. Unfortunately, Allium comes too early alphabetically for me to be able to look for new pictures of flowers.]

See also

I normally cover other species in the same genus and have mentioned onions, leeks and garlic already above.

But I want to use this post to talk about monocots, as this is the first one that we have met.

Monocots, strictly monocotyledons, form a major subdivision of the flowering plants with about 60 000 species including palms, bananas, lilies, orchids, most cultivated bulb plants and grasses.

Don’t worry about the technical definition of a monocotyledon, which is a plant whose seed starts with a single embryonic leaf. Most flowering plants have seeds with two cotyledons, so they are called dicotyledons.

The most significant distinction is that monocots don’t have the mechanism for secondary growth that enables stems to grow and expand every year. This helps shrubs and especially trees to grow to much larger sizes than the wild garlic! Typically, monocots have a number of elongated leaves almost at ground level, arranged in a circle pointing upwards and outwards, with a single long stalk in the middle supporting the flower or flowers.

Palms, bananas and a few species such as Cordyline, Dracaena, and Yucca can have another form of secondary growth that enables them to approach the stature of trees. See [093] New Zealand Cabbage Tree and [342] Chusan Palm.

Monocots are relatively rare but the next wildflower we meet will also be a monocot …

[015] Alectoris rufa, Red-legged Partridge

[015] Alectoris rufa, Red-legged Partridge

Introduction

Alectoris rufa, the Red-legged Partridge, is a game bird native to France and Spain but introduced to Britain for shooting and now naturalized. It is fairly common in open fields and has striking markings on its face and underparts. You probably wouldn’t notice its legs.

It is also known as the French Partridge.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (Birds}

Order – Galliformes (Game birds)

Family – Phasianidae

Genus – Alectoris

Scientific Name – Alectoris rufa

Name

Partridge come through Middle English from the Latin ‘perdix,’ the name of the bird.

Alectoris is Ancient Greek for a farmyard chicken (also a member of Galliformes) and ‘rufa’ means red. There are seven Alectoris species, which look fairly similar, and all have red legs but it’s probably true that those of Alectoris rufa are slightly redder!

Game Birds

The order Galliformes consists of about 300 species of what we call game birds and all the ones we know come within the family Phasianidae – partridges, pheasant, peafowl, grouse, turkeys and the farmed bird we call a chicken. (It’s actually a domesticated Red Junglefowl from distant Asia.)

They are closely related to the birds that survived the mass extinction event that killed off most dinosaurs. (Taxonomists consider birds to be technically included within Dinosaurs.)

Game birds are heavy bodied, ground feeding birds and they rarely fly.

Description

What you notice about this bird is not its red legs. Unlike its relative the Grey Partridge, it has very obvious colourful barred markings on its flank. It also has a bright red bill and a similar coloured ring round its eyes with an almost pure white chin. Perhaps its visibility makes it an easier target to shoot.

Habitat and use

The Red-legged Partridge was introduced into Britain in the Eighteenth Century and has now replaced the Grey Partridge as a target for shooting. This means that they are bred in large numbers and released every year. The numbers bred are always more than can be shot and some survive to breed in the wild and establish a natural population.

Other Notes

Their nests are just scrapes in open grassland and they might find it hard to survive without the help of the gaming community and the annual replenishment of their numbers. Populations of wild partridges are generally in decline everywhere.

See also

I have to mention Perdix perdix, the Grey Partridge or English Partridge, native to most of Eurasia, which used to be common and used to be a familiar game bird. As its name suggests it is not as colourful as the Red-legged Partridge but it looks very similar in shape.

It is no longer a target for shooting, modern farming has destroyed much of its habitat, and it is a threatened species in Britain.

[014] Alcedo atthis, Kingfisher

[014] Alcedo atthis, Kingfisher

Introduction

Alcedo atthis, the Kingfisher, is a small attractive colourful bird, generally only ever seen near or flying over water.

As I am sure you will have guessed by now, Kingfisher is not a precise enough name. It’s a Common Kingfisher or European Kingfisher or River Kingfisher. But it’s the only one you will ever see in Britain so we call it just a Kingfisher.

This species is on the margins of acceptability for inclusion in this blog. I only have one half-decent picture but I thought it was too good a species to leave out.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (birds)

Order – Coraciformes (Kingfishers, Rollers and others)

Family – Alcedinidae (Kingfishers)

Genus – Alcedo

Scientific Name – Alcedo atthis

Name

I will let you have a guess at where the word ‘kingfisher’ comes from.

As with a lot of taxonomy, names come from Ancient Greek Mythology. The first pair of mythical birds, Halcyon (Kingfishers) were created from the marriage of Alcyone and Ceyx. They lived in sacrilege by referring to themselves as Zeus and Hera and died for this. But the other gods, in compassion, made them into birds in their original seaside habitat. Also, special ‘Halcyon Days’ were granted, seven days each side of the winter solstice, when storms would not occur for them – to care for winter-hatched young. We still talk of halcyon days referring to an idyllic time in the past.

Many kinds of kingfisher are named after this couple although the derivation is obscure for Alcedo atthis. Alcedo is the Latin for kingfisher, probably from the Greek Halcyon. Atthis is probably the name of a beautiful young woman but the connection is not clear.

Kingfishers

The kingfisher family, Alcedinidae, has over a hundred species, mostly from tropical locations. The birds are medium sized, often brightly coloured and have short tails and long pointed beaks.

They catch prey by swooping down from a perch of flying overhead. They have excellent colour vision and can compensate for reflected glare on water. They can also see as they dive underwater and can estimate the depth under water of their targets. Not all species of Kingfisher actually eat fish.

Description

Alcedo atthis is a relatively small species of kingfisher, slightly larger than a sparrow. It has bright orange underparts and a fluorescent blue-turquoise back and head. It is unmistakable in flight. The shining turquoise colour is produced by iridescence created by the fine structure of their feathers,

When flying they are fast and direct, almost always over water – round the edge of a lake or following a river.

Habitat

They like to perch over water and hunt by flying directly down to their prey but they can also hunt by flying along a river. Bird photographers often entice them by placing a suitable large stick at the water’s edge next to a hide. They are said to be curious and always ready to try out a new perch.

They are vulnerable to harsh winters and may migrate to coastal locations.

Breeding

They nest in a hole made in the side of riverbanks and may go back to the same nesting site every year.

Other Notes

I have seen these birds at several locations but it’s usually just a glimpse as they fly past. All the places where I have seen them perching relatively close are nature reserves of some sort. Slimbridge has a carefully constructed river bank opposite a hide, where you may be lucky enough to see one when they are breeding. While the female is on the nest inside the bank the male brings food back about every twenty minutes. He generally poses outside for a few minutes after delivering it before flying off again.

Birds find it easy to swallow fish head first. When feeding young they manipulate it the other way round to give it to the chick the right way.

See also

There is no other bird remotely similar to the Kingfisher that you will see in Britain.

[013] Alcea rosa, Hollyhock

[013] Alcea rosea, Hollyhock

Introduction

Alcea Rosea, the Hollyhock, is a tall decorative, large-flowered garden plant, often seen spreading outside gardens but not yet threateningly invasive.

It is native to China but was introduced into England as early as the Fifteenth Century. Several other Alcea species are native to Europe and are also called hollyhocks, so Alcea Rosea is technically the Common Hollyhock.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Flowering Plants

Order – Malvales

Family – Malvaceae (Mallow)

Genus – Alcea (Hollyhock)

Scientific Name – Alcea rosea

It has Scientific synonyms Althea rosea, Althea Mexicana and Althea sinensis. Althea is a closely related genus that includes the marsh-mallow and used to include the Hollyhock.

The Hollyhock is widely grown in gardens and has dozens of named cultivars.

Name

William Turner (1509-1568) an early herbalist gave it the name ‘holyoke.’ Wiktionary says that the name was in use before that and derives from ‘hokke’ or ‘hoc’ meaning Mallow so that it is a ‘Holy Mallow’. It is a close relative of Mallow and Marsh-mallow has some similarity in appearance.

Alcea and Althaea are both Latin names for plants in the Mallow family.

Description

The Mallow family, Malvaceae, includes several closely related plants with similar flowers and the Hollyhock has an obvious resemblance to Mallow, Tree Mallow, Marsh-mallow and Hibiscus with its splayed purple flowers. Cultivated varieties now come in a number of different colours.

What distinguishes the Hollyhock is what biologists call its ‘habit’ or general structure. One or more main stems grow rapidly to a height of two or three metres and each has flowers emerging all the way up the stem.

Habitat and use

Perhaps the rapid growth of this plant contributes to its popularity. It is generally a biennial but is sometimes treated as an annual or short-lived perennial. It will self-seed and may flower in the first year if the seeds germinate early enough.

It is not my intention to give detailed cultivation notes for garden flowers and this is primarily a garden plant. But it does seem to adapt well to wherever the seeds find themselves. There is a house a few doors from where I used to live that always had Hollyhocks apparently climbing up its wall – presumably from seeds in the tiny space between the house and the pavement.

Alcea rosea was introduced to England for herbal use – as a moisturizer or laxative; or to control inflammation, bleeding gums or bedwetting.

Other Notes

I see hollyhocks on footpaths and verges where they are clearly wild and, as noted above on pavements.

See also

[221] Mallow is a clearly related species. In terms of its rapid growth and habit you can also compare this plant to [116] Foxglove and [171] Sunflower.

[012] Aix galericulata, Mandarin

[012] Aix galericulata, Mandarin

Introduction

Aix galericulata, the Mandarin Duck, is a colourful duck that nests in trees. It is native to Japan and China but is now much more common in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

In context it is usually just called a Mandarin.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Animals

Phylum – Chordates

Class – Aves (Birds)

Order – Anseriformes (Ducks, Geese and Swans)

Family – Anatidae (Ducks, Geese and Swans)

Genus – Aix

Scientific Name – Aix galericulata

It was originally named Anas galericulata. But originally all ducks, geese and swans were put into the single genus, Anas.

Apart from many species now extinct, there are only one or two species left in Anseriformes that are not Anatidae.

Name

Although the word ‘mandarin’ refers to a high government minister in China, its origins are from Portuguese and earlier Sanskrit. It has come to mean either a high minister not necessarily Chinese, or to anything Chinese.

Aix is an Ancient Greek word used by Aristotle to refer to an unknown diving bird. Galericulata is Latin for a wig, referring to the head and neck of the male bird.

Description

The Mandarin is a good example of sexual dimorphism. The male bird is very colourful with his orange whiskers and ‘sails’ on his back.

The female on her own would be considered a very attractive bird but her mostly grey plumage is overshadowed by the male.

They nest in cavities in trees near to water. Shortly after the ducklings hatch the mother flies to the ground and waits for them to jump to the ground. As with many birds they are imprinted on their mother and they follow her to nearby water.

Eclipse

The phenomenon of eclipse is a sort of protection found in many ducks that exhibit sexual dimorphism and in some other birds.

All birds moult either once or twice a year, growing a new set of feathers. Sexually dimorphic birds do this twice a year. The spring moult introduces the more colourful plumage needed for courtship and mating and the moult after breeding returns the birds to a less colourful appearance.

While the female looks the same all year. The male goes into ‘eclipse,’ and looks much more like the female in winter. The Mandarin does this and the male becomes almost identical to the female. He retains his red beak and some other minor differences.

Habitat

Because of their nesting habits the Mandarin Duck likes forest areas beside rivers and lakes. Mandarin used to be widespread in Eastern Asia but they have suffered because of the destruction of their forest habitat. Numbers in Russia and China are now very low but Japan may still have 5 000 pairs. Asian populations are migratory.

A feral population has established in Britain, escaping somewhere from collections, and there are probably more Mandarin in Britain now than in China.  Other populations are developing in Ireland, Berlin and some places in the USA.

Other Notes

I see Mandarin often when I visit Cannop Ponds within the Forest of Dean, which form a perfect habitat for the species, where they can nest in the forest. They are often as tame as Mallards and will allow close approach as they rest at the edges of lakes. When people feed the ducks, Mandarin will join the melee of Mallard, Coots and gulls.

They will even approach the bird feeders, which are not really there for ducks.

In the culture of China, Japan and Korea, a pair of Mandarin represent a loving couple or a happily married pair.

See also

The only other Aix species is Aix sponsa, the equally colourful American Wood Duck, but you won’t see those in Britain. You will, of course see several other ducks and some geese and swans, and lots more Birds.