Rosa canina, the Wild Rose, is a bushy deciduous shrub with open pink flowers, a widespread wildflower in Britain.
Rosa rugosa, the Japanese Rose, is a more compact bush with somewhat larger, redder flowers, widely cultivated in Britain in gardens and parks.
Both species have stems covered in thorns. (Botanists call them prickles, but to most people they are thorns.)
There are many other species of Rosa, called Roses, that we will meet tomorrow.
Rosa canina is also known as the Dog Rose. As a garden plant, Rosa rugosa is more usually called by its scientific name.
[Rugosa is also an order of horn corals, all now extinct.]
Many other unrelated plants are called roses, usually from the similarity of their flowers. We have already met [181] Rose of Sharon and [277] Primrose.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Rosales
Family – Rosaceae
Genus – Rosa
Scientific Name – Rosa canina, Rosa rugosa
See the next post for Rosa species, hybrids, varieties and cultivars.
Name
Rose comes via the Latin rosa from Greek rhodon, perhaps from Old Persian roots. It has become a word associated with a light pink colour.
The English dog rose comes from the Classical Latin rosa canina, coming from Ancient Greek. In ancient times it was used to treat the bite of mad dogs, perhaps because the hooked prickles resembled the dog’s canine teeth.
The Latin rugosus means wrinkled, from the leaf shape.
Wild Rose
Rosa canina is a deciduous bushy shrub. It is not really a climbing species but can scramble upwards with the help of thorns along its stems. Leaves, strictly speaking leaflets of a pinnate leaf, are usually serrated.
Flowers are open, almost flat, with five petals, usually light pink but can be from white to a deeper pink. Fruits, initially green, mature to a familiar bright orange or red rose hip (or rosehip.)
The Dog Rose is rarely used as a cultivated garden rose but all cultivated roses are grafted on to rootstock which is generally a variety of Rosa canina.
The genetics of Rosa species in the Canina section is unusual. Only seven of its chromosomes are paired. The others pass down singly via the female egg cells but not in the pollen.
Rosa Rugosa
I have included this species because its appearance is much closer to the Wild Rose than to the more ornate varieties that have been developed from other Rosa species (coming tomorrow.) Actually, most species have very simple flowers but we never see them in their native, uncultivated forms.
In the wild Rosa rugosa forms dense thickets by developing new plants from its roots. The prickly stems have densely packed prickles (unlike the curved ones for the Rosa canina) and leaves are similar to Rosa canina but with a fine corrugated surface that gives it the name rugose.
Flowers are open and flat like the Wild Rose but larger, generally dark red and with many stamens. The fruit is a similar rose hip but larger, sometimes looking like a cherry tomato. It starts green and turns a bright red.
It is a widely cultivated species and most cultivated varieties retain the simple form of a wild rose. They are suitable for planting in long expanses to fill rose beds, sometimes acting as an effective hedge.
Habitat and use
Rosa canina is native to all of Europe and neighbouring Asia and Africa. Rosa rugosa is native to Japan, Korea and eastern China,
Rose hips, which are high in Vitamin C, are edible raw and can be made into herbal teas, jams, jellies or other culinary products. Rosa canina and Rosa Rugosa are both used in rose hip production.
Other Notes
The rose widely used in heraldry is a simple dog rose, predating the modern garden roses that we will see tomorrow.
What we now call the War of the Roses, was an invention of Henry VII when it ended and the name was rarely used until the Nineteenth Century. The so-called red Rose of Lancaster had barely existed in 1485 and was more usually a gold rose. Henry had fought under the banner of the Welsh Dragon and Henry VI had used the badge of an antelope. Richard III used a boar for his banner. The idea of the War of the Roses enabled Henry to create the Tudor Rose as his emblem, combining the red and white roses as a symbol of unity.
The Red Rose and White Rose are now used to represent the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire – although the Hose of Lancaster and House of York had no real geographic connections to their respective counties.
The heraldic rose resembled either Rosa canina or a wild European species much like Rosa canina.
August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof was a German entomologist who gave his name to this species, Roeseliana roeselii, Roesel’s Bush-cricket, which is easily distinguishable from other bush-crickets found in the UK.
All insects in the family Tettigoniidae are known as Bush-crickets, except in North America and South Africa where they are called Katydids. (They used to be called Long-horned Grasshoppers.)
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Locusts and Crickets)
Suborder – Ensifera (Crickets)
Superfamily – Tettigonioidea (Single family)
Family – Tettigoniidae (Bush-crickets or Katydids)
Subfamily – Tettigoniinae
Tribe – Platycleidini
Genus – Roeseliana
Scientific Name – Roeseliana roeselii
It retains the synonym Metrioptera roeselii.
Name
Cricket comes from a diminutive of the Old French criquer, coming from their sound, cognate with crack or creak. I don’t know why bush crickets are called bush crickets (or bush-crickets.) Katydids derive their name onomatopaeically from the sound of one species, Pterophylla camelifolia, the Common True Katydid.
Like the Cetti’s Warbler, Cettia cetti, this insect manages to derive its common name, genus and species epithet all from the same person.
(Sorry, Cetti’s Warbler didn’t make it. It’s fairly common locally and there are several places where I almost always hear its familiar call. But, like the Nightingale, it is much, much more often heard than seen.)
Transliteration
By way of a short diversion, I need to say something about orthography, which is a really posh word for spelling. To be precise I am going to talk about transliteration, which relates to using the standard ‘English’ alphabet to represent words written in other languages. Greek uses a different alphabet; Russian uses a different alphabet; and Chinese and Japanese use more complex pictorial syllabic letter systems.
We represent Greek words by changing each Greek letter to an English letter – but sometimes we have to use two. Here are some examples,
δ (Delta) becomes ‘d’
λ (Lamda) becomes ‘l’
φ (Phi) becomes ‘ph’
ψ (Psi) becomes ‘ps’
θ (Theta) becomes ‘th’
υ (Upsilon) becomes either ‘u’ or ‘y’ [It’s a long story. Both letters have come from Upsilon.]
Just in case you think Latin has no problems, remember that Latin was written in upper-case only, with no punctuation or spaces between words. And the letters J and U did not exist to the Romans.
I won’t go into the Cyrillic alphabet used for Russian but it has its own letters that become shch, ts, ya, yu and several others.
The Chinese system is more complex because we avoid the Chinese writing altogether and use systems to write the sounds of spoken Chinese. The now obsolete Wade-Giles system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin fifty or more years ago. It is hard for Western people to understand that when the capital of China changed from Peking to Beijing it was not a change to the name, or the way it is pronounced in Chinese. It was just a change in the way we try to write the sounds of Chinese. See [025] Hubei Anemone.
I know you are wondering what this has to do with bush-crickets! Well, even modern European languages have their quirks. Some have various accents and the German language has umlauts, which are double dots over some vowels. In German, ‘ӧ’ is not pronounced the same way as ‘o’ and we generally maintain the difference. The standard way in English (which is also the way in German when the letter ‘ӧ’ is not available,) is to replace ‘ӧ’ with ‘oe.’ That’s why Rӧsel became Roesel.
Roesel
I know you are all want to know about August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. He is described as a painter of miniatures, a naturalist and an entomologist.
At birth (near Arnstadt in Germany) he was named August Johann Rösel. His father died when he was very young and his godmother Princess Augusta Dorothea von Arnstadt-Schwarzburg saw that he was a talented artist. So, his uncle Wilhelm Rösel von Rosenhof gave him an artistic education that continued at the Academy of Nurenberg. He became a renowned painter of portraits and miniatures.
A few years later he discovered the work of Anna Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium in which she described the insects and other animals which she observed in Surinam. He decided to write and illustrate a similar book on the German fauna.
He lived comfortably by painting and used his spare time to observe insects, amphibians and reptiles. He collected eggs and larvae in order to raise them at home and to study their development and metamorphoses.
His detailed observations, accompanied by beautiful illustrations, were published in two large books. The first, Insecten-Belustigung, appeared in 1740, devoted to insects and other invertebrates like the sea anemones. His classification of the insects followed a natural system and he is regarded as one of the fathers of German entomology. He included a detailed study of [030] Araneus diadematus.
He published, between 1753 and 1758, Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium devoted to frogs. He then started a similar work on the lizards and the salamanders but a cerebral attack paralysed him and he died a little later on March 27, 1759. Many descriptions of species made by Carl von Linné (generally known as Linnaeus) are based on the descriptions given by Rösel.
It was not until 1753 that he added von Rosenhof to his name in honour of his uncle.
It is unlikely that he had any particular association with the insect named after him, other than his general interest in entomology.
Bush-crickets
To most people almost all of the species of Orthoptera would be called just grasshoppers but entomologists like to divide the order into two suborders Caelifera and Ensifera. Until fairly recently these were called Short-horn Grasshoppers and Long-horn Grasshoppers. Now insects within Ensifera are called Crickets. Roughly half of the species of Ensifera are true crickets and half come in the family Tettigoniidae, Bush-crickets.
Of over 6 000 species of bush-crickets worldwide, about a dozen may be found in the UK including [201] the Speckled Bush-cricket.
Description
Roesel-s Bush-crickets can be brown or yellow or sometimes greenish. They are recognizable by the light yellowish margin to the pronutum (the visible part of the thorax, roughly where animals might have shoulders.)
You can see, in the first two pictures above, the long, curved ovipositor of a female Bush-cricket that gives them the name Ensifera, ‘sword-bearer.’
They have one generation per year, Nymphs emerge in May and go through five or six instars. Adults emerge from June to July, sometimes a bit later. They disperse by walking through grasses and ditches
It usually has only vestigial wings but occasionally winged ones can emerge, allowing the insects to spread more easily.
Habitat
Its range covers central and southern Europe and parts of northern Europe. It is one of the most common species of Orthoptera found in the UK. Originally common in saltmarshes and around estuaries it is now common in urban wasteland
Like most grasshoppers and crickets, they live in grasses, eating grass seeds and smaller insects.
Other Notes
In many ways Bush-crickets are similar to [078] Grasshoppers. You won’t see them unless you search the grass at your feet. If you do see one, it may jump to somewhere you can’t see it. Generally, they don’t fly.
Apart from Roesel’s, the UK species are not easy to tell apart from each other
See also
Here is a Dark Bush-cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera
It is fairly common over Britain and found over most of Europe. Females are virtually wingless and males have very small wings. Winged forms are never seen.
Robinia pseudoacacia, Black Locust, and Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust, are two trees cultivated as ornamental trees in parks and gardens in the UK.
They are both in the legume family, Fabaceae, but come in separate subfamilies, so they are not close relatives of each other, but they do look very similar.
Other members of Gleditsia may be called Honey Locusts and trees in Robinia may be called Locusts.
Robinia pseudoacacia is also called the False Acacia. Gleditsia triacanthos is also known as the Thorny Honey Locust.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Fabales
Family – Fabaceae (Legumes)
Subfamily – [A] Faboideae [B] Caesalpinioidea
Tribe – [A] Robinieae [B] Umtiza
Genus – [A] Robinia [B] Gleditsia
Scientific Name – [A] Robinia pseudoacacia [B] Gleditsia triacanthos
Fabaceae is a huge family with over 20 000 species and its subdivisions are changing and not necessarily agreed.
Names
These two trees seem to get their names by association with another tree, Ceratonia siliqua, the Carob tree, that has fruits called locust beans. It is not clear why Carob fruits are called locust beans.
Acacia is another genus in the legume family. Acacia and the Carob are both more closely related to Gleditsia than to Robinia but the name Locust was first applied to the Black Locust. I think ‘black’ refers to the dark colour of the bark.
[The insects that are called locusts are [078] Grasshoppers, named from the Latin word for grasshoppers. Modern entomology no longer considers locusts as distinct from grasshoppers. They are a phase that is triggered in some grasshopper species by their habitat.]
Robinia is named after the French botanist Jean Robin (1550-1629) and his son Vespasien Robin (1579-1662), who brought the plant to Europe in 1601. Jean Robin was the gardener to three French kings – Henry III, Henry IV and Louis XIII. In 1601 and 1636 Jean and Vespasien planted Robinia trees at two locations in France, where they still both stand.
Gleditsia commemorates Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch (1714-86), a botanist who lectured at the University of Frankfurt.
Black Locust is a medium sized deciduous tree, native to only a few areas of Eastern USA, but now widely cultivated and naturalized across temperate locations of the World. Its name as a false Acacia comes from similarities in the leaves and thorns, as the flowers are very different (and Acacias only grow in tropical and subtropical climates.)
It was named as a locust because of its similarities with Ceratonia siliqua, known as the Old World Locust.
It has dark green relatively wide compound leaves. Leaves contain 9-19 almost round leaflets There are pairs of short prickles at the base of each leaf and young trees may have spines on branches.
Flowers are creamy white in loose clumps. The fruits are typical legumes, flat pea-like pods about 5-10 cm long.
It has several cultivars including a popular variety with bright yellow-green leaves.
[B] Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
The subfamily Caesalpinioideae, sometimes treated as a family (when, of course, it becomes Caesalpiniaceae,) contains about a hundred genera, mostly tropical trees but including various other forms.
Honey Locust is roughly similar in appearance to the Black Locust. It is native to a slightly large area in the Eastern USA. Its pinnate leaves are bright green.
Fruit pods are about 15-20 cm long.
Long, branched thorns up to ten cm long grow out of the trunk. Thornless varieties are cultivated.
Unlike the Black Locust, the pulp inside the seed pods is edible and was used as a traditional food and medicine in the USA. Its sweet taste is the origin of the ‘Honey’ part of its name.
Ornamental Versions
I have spent a lot of time trying to distinguish these two species and I have come to the conclusion that I can’t do it with any certainty. Even though they are quite loosely connected taxonomically, they have marked similarities in their appearance – pinnate leaf structures and long flat seed-pods. They are the only trees with seedpods likely to be seen in the UK – apart from Laburnum anagyroides, the Laburnum.
I think the variations in cultivated varieties and differences in younger growing trees make it impossible to decide which is which. The thorns of Honey Locust do not appear in many cultivars and the other differences are less significant than the variation in cultivars.
Pictures that follow are probably all varieties or cultivars of either Black Locust or Honey Locust – or they may be from other species of Robinia or Gleditsia or hybrids. I have included some pictures of thorns, leaves, flowers and seed pods.
See also
To most people the Laburnum tree, (Laburnum anagyroides or other cultivated species or hybrids,) may be more familiar. Its yellow flowers are easily recognisable, the leaf structure is not pinnate and its seed-pods (containing poisonous seeds) are much smaller than either Locust tree.
Rhus typhina, Staghorn (or Stag’s Horn) Sumac, is a popular cultivated ornamental tree that is a close relative of [100] Smokebush but looks nothing like it. It has attractive, dark red fruits that look like flowers.
Other members and former members of the genus Rhus are also called Sumac, with various spellings.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Sapindales
Family – Anacardiaceae
Subfamily – Anacardioideae
Genus – Rhus
Scientific Name – Rhus typhina
Several cultivated varieties are available.
Name
See [100] Smokebush for Sumac. The staghorn reference is to the velvety branches like the covering of antlers.
Rhus comes from rhous, the Ancient Greek name for these trees. Typhina comes from Typha, the genus name of [349] Bulrush or Cattail – with its velvety flowers.
Description
The taxonomy of the genus Rhus has been variable. It is sometimes divided into subgenera and sections, and many species have been moved out.
Rhus typhina grows generally as a large shrub or small tree. The stems and petioles of the leaves are covered in purple-red hairs that give them a velvety look.
The long, compound leaves have up to thirty leaflets that are long, pointed, finely serrated and light green in colour, always including a terminal leaflet.
Until I started to write this post, I thought that they had large dark red/ purple flowers but these are actually infructescences. They are tightly bunched groups of small hairy fruits that look a lot like a large flower.
The flowers, which come earlier are tiny, insignificant and whitish green.
Habitat and use
Rhus typhina is native to an area more or less corresponding to North-east USA.
It is now widely cultivated throughout temperate areas for its attractive fruits and autumn leaves, together with a few other species of Rhus. Several varieties are available.
Dried fruits of several sumac species have been used as a crimson spice, particularly in the Middle East. The fruits have also been used to make a ‘pink lemonade’ drink.
The leaves and bark have traditionally been used in dying and tanning. As for almost everything, it was used in mediaeval medicine.
Rhagonycha fulva, the Common Red Soldier Beetle, is one of the most common and widespread species of Beetle in the UK and is often seen in summer on flowers. It has recently acquired the informal name (Hogweed) Bonking Beetle.
It is also known as the Bloodsucker Beetle.
I will also consider Cantharis species, the other most common Soldier Beetles found in Britain
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder – Polyphaga
Infraorder – Elateriformia
Superfamily – Elateroidea (Click beetles, Soldier beetles, fireflies and others)
Family – Cantharidae (Soldier Beetles)
Subfamily – Cantharinae
Tribe – Cantharini
Genus – Rhagonycha
Scientific Name – Rhagonycha fulva
Not surprisingly, the genus Cantharis comes in the same Tribe.
Soldier Beetles
There are over 1300 species in about a hundred genera in the family Cantharidae. Most species do not have common names.
The Taxonomy of Insects is complicated because it has well over a million species divided into over two hundred families. Soldier Beetles, Cantharidae, were named because one of the first noted species had colours reminiscent of the red coats of British Soldiers. They are also called Leatherwings because of their soft elytra (wing coverings.) They are divided into five subfamilies and several tribes.
[A] Rhagonycha fulva
There are about 150 species of Rhagonycha of which seven are found in Britain. The name Bloodsucker Beetle for Rhagonycha fulva just comes from its red colour.
I cannot trace the origins of the word Rhagonycha. Fulva in Latin is an amber or orange shade of the colour red.
Rhagonycha fulva is a medium size, roughly rectangular beetle, mostly a shiny dark red in colour. The elytra have a black patch on their ends. Its antennae are black.
Larvae live at the base of grasses and eat invertebrates such as slugs and snails. The relatively short-lived adults feed on pollen and nectar and may eat Aphids.
Habitat
Rhagonycha fulva is common over most of Europe and parts of Asia Minor. It has become established over eastern Canada.
Adults can be found in summer on grassland and woodland, in hedgerows and in parks and gardens. They are fond of Hogweed and other plants in the carrot family Apiaceae, and also Asters.
Other Notes
It is commonly seen on [174] Hogweed and other flowers. Like many insects the adult phase us relatively short and is mostly dedicated to seeking a mate and mating. The mating process takes quite a long name, which is where its modern common name comes from.
[B] Cantharis Species, Soldier Beetles
Cantharis is a genus containing about a hundred species of Soldier Beetles without individual species Common Names. Fifteen of the species can be found in the UK.
It should not be confused with the strangely named Spanish Fly, Lytta vesicatoria, that used to be called erroneously Cantharis vesicatoria. (The Spanish Fly is actually a beetle, coming from an unrelated family.)
You won’t be surprised at a bit of confusion with names. The genus Cantharis, and hence the tribe, subfamily and family of soldier beetles, are all named from the Ancient Greek word Kantharis, which means the Spanish Fly, Lytta vesicatoria. As noted above, this shiny green beetle (Spanish Fly is a beetle) used to be called Cantharis but is unrelated – it doesn’t even look that similar. Now the soldier flies have the name Cantharis and the Spanish Fly had to be renamed!
Description
There are 32 central European species of Cantharis of which 15 are to be found in the British Isles. They are relatively large beetles with a long, straight, darkly coloured abdomen and fairly long antennae. I won’t guarantee my pictures to species level but with a bit of help from social media I will give suggestions.
This is Cantharis flavilabris.
This is Cantharis pellucida.
This is Cantharis lateralis.
Other Notes
These species are not nearly as common as Rhagonycha fulva. As always, keep looking on the top of open flowers in summer to spot beetles.
Reynoutria japonica, also known as Fallopia japonica or Polygonum cuspidatum, is one of the most unwanted invasive plants in the UK, known as Japanese Knotweed, Asian Knotweed, Fleeceflower, Himalayan Fleece Vine, Billyweed, Monkeyweed, Monkey Fungus, Elephant Ears, Pea Shooters, Donkey Rhubarb, American Bamboo, Mexican Bamboo and many other names across the World. I will stick to Japanese Knotweed.
Several other plants in the related genera Reynoutria, Fallopia, Persicaria and Polygonum are called Knotweeds.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Caryophyllales
Family – Polygonaceae
Genus – Reynoutria
Scientific Name – Reynoutria japonica
Scientific synonyms – Fallopia japonica; Polygonum cuspidatumand about a dozen others.
Name
The genus Reynoutria was defined by Maarten Houttuyn in 1777 in honour of someone called Herr von Reynoutre who had been reported to have done a great deal of service to botany.
Description
It has rapidly growing red bamboo-like stems and large green oval leaves.
The masses of white (or light cream) flowers are similar to those of Bukhara Fleeceflower.
Wikipedia say very little about the plant but much more about its invasive nature. It can colonize riverbanks or roadside verges, tolerates a wide range of soil conditions and has extensive roots with rhizomes. Roots can extend seven metres horizontally and three metres deep and when cut down the plant will resprout vigorously from its roots. The roots can damage buildings, flood defences, roads and retaining walls and the plant overgrows and shades out buildings and other vegetation. It may need repeated application of selected herbicides for several years for successful eradication.
In the UK there have been legal problems with banks and building societies refusing mortgages on houses where Japanese Knotweed has been found in neighbouring gardens.
Habitat and use
Japanese Knotweed is native to Japan, Korea and parts of China.
It grows widely in Japan and is foraged as a wide vegetable.
Japanese Knotweed was originally introduced as an ornamental plant but escaped naturalized plants are amongst the most unwanted invasive weeds in the UK and in many other countries.
I always check species on the RHS (Royal Horticural Society) web pages and almost always find some cultivated varieties. A few other species of Reynoutria are available in cultivated forms but the RHS now describes it as follows:
Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is a weed that spreads rapidly. In winter the plant dies back to ground level but by early summer the bamboo-like stems emerge from rhizomes deep underground to shoot to over 2m (7ft), suppressing all other plant growth. Eradication requires determination as it is very hard to remove by hand or eradicate with chemicals. New legislation now covers its control.
Other Notes
When I discovered this plant, I photographed it as soon as I could because I knew it was unwanted. Within two days it was dying, presumable after extensive application of weedkillers.
See also
As noted above Russian Vine is a close relative. (That’s another name for Bukhara Fleeceflower.)
Recurvirostra avosetta, the Avocet, is an unusual wading bird that has been adopted by the RSPB for its logo. They became extinct in Britain around 1850 but started to reappear about a hundred years later and now breed regularly at several sites.
There are four geographically separate species of Recurvirostra called Avocets, so ours has the formal name Pied Avocet, but in this country, we just call it an Avocet.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Class – Aves (Birds)
Order – Charadriformes
Suborder – Charadrii
Family – Recurvirostridae (Avocets and Stilts)
Genus – Recurvirostra
Scientific Name – Recurvirostra avosetta
Name
Avocet comes via French from the Italian avocetta or avosetta, possibly coming as a diminutive of the Latin avis, bird. Another possible etymology comes from their resemblance to European lawyers (advocates) wearing black and white outfits. The species epithet is a Latinized form of the common name.
If you can’t work out recurvi-rostra by now, then I must have been wasting my time with my lessons in etymology.
Description
The unusual thing about Avocets is their upward curving bill. (There’s a hint about recurvi-rostra there.) They eat small crustaceans and insects, generally searching for their food by sweeping from side to side with the bills underwater in saline or brackish water.
They are white with black markings.
Avocets disappeared from Britain in the mid-Nineteenth Century, partly because land reclamation destroyed their habitat but also because of skin and egg collectors. Just after World War II they started breeding on reclaimed land near the Wash that had been returned to salt marsh to prevent German invaders from landing. They now breed at several sites in Norfolk and have spread to other wetland sites. They nest on the ground in loose colonies near estuaries or mud flats.
They are very territorial, especially when looking after their young. At nature reserves I may see many species of wading birds that generally ignore each other but if there are any Avocets, they will chase away other species from their little patch.
Habitat
Recurvirostra avosetta has an area where it is resident along eastern Africa. Other populations breed across temperate Asia and winter around the edges of India and northern Africa. It also has pockets of resident location across the Middle East and around the coasts of temperate Europe. It now has scattered areas of residence across England, Wales and Scotland, concentrated around East Anglia.
The other three species of Recurvirostra come from Australia and the Americas.
They like salty or brackish wetlands such as mudflats, estuaries and the sea shore, where they may be seen in flocks.
Other Notes
Apart from Norfolk (well-known among birdwatchers as the best place to see almost any birds,) my first sightings of avocets, and most of the pictures here, come from Upton Warren in Worcestershire. It’s an unusual inland site because it has lakes fed by mineral water from underground so the lakes are saline. I used to visit there regularly and see nesting Avocets before they were seen at other inland sites.
They are now beginning to nest at Slimbridge.
See also
Recurvirostridae is a very small family. Apart from four species of Avocet it only contains about four species of Stilts. (You should know by now, When I say ‘about,’ not everyone agrees about whether a species is a species or a subspecies.)
(Black-winged) Stilts, Himantopus himantopus, are small black-and-white waders with long straight black bills and very long red legs. They are very rare vagrant visitors in the UK.
Rattus norvegicus, the Rat, is a very common and very widespread small animal, normally treated as unwanted vermin.
It can be called the Brown Rat, Common Rat, Street Rat, Sewer Rat, Wharf Rat, Parisian Rat, Norway Rat or Norwegian Rat but is usually just called a Rat.
There are hundreds of species called Rats.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Class – Mammals
Order – Rodentia
Suborder – Myomorpha
Superfamily – Muroidea (Mice, Rats, Voles, Hamsters, Gerbils and others)
Family – Muridae (Mice, Rats and Gerbils)
Subfamily – Murinae (Old World Rats and Mice)
Tribe – Rattus
Genus – Rattus
Scientific Name – Rattus norvegicus.
The Fancy Rat and Laboratory Rat may be called Rattus norvegicus domestica. (It is not clear why this has what looks like a feminine ending when the masculine domesticus would match Rattus and norvegicus. It can only be a noun in apposition, domestica meaning housekeeper. See Names.)
Name
The Brown Rat was originally called the Hanover Rat in Eighteenth Century England to associate it with the House of Hanover. It was named Rattus norvegicus in 1769 by the English naturalist John Berkenhout, who believed it had come from Norwegian ships. Its exact origins remained uncertain but it now assumed to have come vie Persia (now Iran) in the early Eighteenth Century.
The word rat comes via Old English from Germanic, Indo-European roots. The Brown Rat was unknown in Northern Europe until fairly recently – so it may have applied to the Black Rat at first.
In mediaeval Latin the word rattus was used for a rat, coming from the Germanic. (In earlier Classical Latin the word mus meant either a mouse or a rat.)
Rats in general
There are about five or six hundred species in the Murinae subfamily, generally called rats or mice. The long, thin tail is a distinctive feature. There is no taxonomic distinction between rats and mice. Newly discovered species are generally given the name Rat or Mouse depending only on size. Many other less closely related species of rodents are also called rats.
The genus Rattus has at least sixty species but may also be considered to include all the species of about 35 other genera!
Norwegian Rat
The Rat is very much like a larger version of a Mouse. They can be brown or dark grey. I won’t attempt to describe them or how they differ from their relatives.
Over most of the World the Brown Rat is now associated with people and it has spread with people to cover the World. It has largely replaced Rattus rattus, the Black Rat, which spread across Europe about a thousand years earlier.
First sightings in Europe were about 1550, reaching France, Germany and Britain around 1730-50.
The population of rats in the UK is estimated to be a little over the human population.
Habitat and use
Rattus norvegicus was originally native to southeast Siberia, northeast China and parts of Japan but is now found worldwide.
For its use as a Fancy Rat (a show animal or pet) and as a laboratory animal, see [232] Mouse, which has similar variants.
Rats can live in damp environments such as river banks but are often associated with human habitation and sewers.
Other Notes
I don’t think what I am going to say will surprise you but almost all of the rats I have seen have been associated with outdoor areas associated with bird feeders. They can climb up and dislodge things like suet balls and happily scavenge what falls to the ground. It is a pity that sometimes the bird feeders are removed because of the hazard of rats. They are generally treated as vermin – unwanted animals associated with spreading disease and destroying crops.
See also
See [232] Mouse, which also considers Fancy Mice and Laboratory Mice.
There are several species known as Buttercups from the genus Ranunculus found in the UK. Ranunculus repens, Creeping Buttercup, is the most common. Ranunculus bulbosus, the Bulbous Buttercup, and Ranunculus acris, the Meadow Buttercup, are also common and widespread. They are familiar from their flowers which are bright yellow, sometimes taken as examples of a typical flower. Most ordinary people would just call them all Buttercups.
The 600 species of Ranunculus also include the subgenus Batrachium (sometimes considered a separate species,) containing water plants known as Water-crowfoots (or Water Crowfoots, or even Water Crowfeet!) I will take Ranunculus aquatilis as an example.
Ranunculus repens is also called Creeping Crowfoot or Sitfast.
Ranunculus acris is also called Tall Buttercup, Common Buttercup or Giant Buttercup.
Ranunculus aquatilis is the Common or White Water-crowfoot
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Ranunculales
Family – Ranunculaceae
Subfamily – Ranunculoideae
Tribe – Ranunculeae
Genus – Ranunculus
Scientific Names – See text
There are many cultivated species, hybrids and varieties
Name
There are some possible derivations of the name buttercup but it clearly comes from yellow colour of its cup-shaped flowers. Crowfoot comes from the shape of the leaves.
Ranunculus (See [295] Frog) is Late Latin for little frog or tadpole, so the genus name may come from its association with locations near water.
Repens is Latin for creeping; acris means bitter tasting. [It looks as if Ranunculus is masculine and acris is feminine, but acris could be a genitive form.]
Buttercups
As always, I will not guarantee my pictures to species level.
The flowers are open with five petals and all parts of the flower are bright yellow. They may look glossy because the petals have a smooth upper surface.
Ranunculus repens, found over most of Eurasia, spreads by creating runners from the roots.
Ranunculus bulbosus, native to Western Europe and the Mediterranean coast, forms a small bulb-like corm just below the surface. It also has distinctive reflexed sepals.
Ranunculus acris, common across Europe and parts of Asia, is a much taller species
Water-Crowfoot
Ranunculus aquatilis is native to most of Europe and parts of North America and North Africa. It is unlike our other buttercups and is often seen as an unwanted river weed. It grows in water, in shallow streams.
It has branching thread-like leaves in fast-flowing water. It also has floater leaves that prop up flowers. the flowers resemble those of other buttercup species but are smaller and white with a yellow centre.
I see it a few metres from my home in the River Chelt. A single well-rooted plant can form an extensive mat of several metres in length. It is available as a cultivated species for garden ponds.
Other Notes
More than twenty species of Ranunculus can be found in the UK. I have not attempted to identify my pictures to species because you will normally just notice the flowers, which are very similar.
Many types of Ranunculus (from several species and hybrids) are available as cultivated garden plants but they look nothing like the common yellow flowers we know as buttercups. Like cultivated [305] Roses, they may have much larger flowers with many layers of tightly packed petals in almost any colour.
Rana temporaria is generally known just as a Frog but its full name is the Common Frog or European Common Frog or European Common Brown Frog or European Grass Frog.
All the 7 000 members of the order Anura are generally called frogs, except for about six hundred species in the family Bufonidae that are called toads.
I will consider all UK frogs and toads in this post including the Common Toad, Bufo bufo.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Superclass – Tetrapods (Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians)
Class – Amphibians
Order – Anura (Frogs – and toads)
Suborder – Neobactria (Almost all extant species)
Family – Ranidae (sometimes called true frogs)
Genus – Rana
Scientific Name – Rana temporaria
The Common Toad, Bufo Bufo is in the family Bufonidae
Name
The Old English name for frogs was frosc with various spellings, from Germanic origins. It seems to have acquired the ending ‘-g’ as a nickname in the same way as dog, pig, hog, stag and earwig.
The Old English toad is specifically English of unknown origin. It is cognate with tadpole (meaning toad-head.)
Rana is Latin for frog. Temporaria means timely, seasonal, transitory or temporary. Collections of frogs can appear in Spring each year to disperse over Summer.
It won’t surprise you that bufo is the Latin for toad.
Amphibians
I need to look at Amphibians, a very small group of animals that we will only meet once in this blog. They are four-legged vertebrates that typically live first in water and later on land.
The three orders of Amphibians are Apoda (snake-like Caecilians); Urodela (lizard-like Salamanders) and Anura (Frogs and Toads.) In the UK you are unlikely to see any of these apart from two or three types of Frog and Toad. You can get an idea of what makes them amphibian from the next section about Frogs.
Frogs (and Toads)
90% of the 8 000 species of Amphibians are Frogs and Toads.
There is no real difference between frogs and toads. Frogs are usually aquatic with smooth, moist skins. Toads are generally terrestrial with dry, warty skins; but there are many exceptions. Those within the family Bufonidae are called ‘true toads’ by zoologists.
Before I describe adult frogs, I will start with their development. They start in water as eggs, clumped together to make frogspawn, and go through stages of metamorphosis much like insects. The initial stages are called tadpoles and at first, they just look like the eggs with tails. At this stage they are aquatic and have gills and they feed on microalgae.
When it come, the change from tadpole to frog is rapid. The gills disappear, lungs appear and legs emerge. Many other changes take place as it becomes a carnivorous adult. At this stage there is still a long tail, longer than the rest of the body. The tail is absorbed later as the legs develop fully.
[Not all species have exactly the same full development stages.]
Adult frogs have the familiar form with a dumpy body, bulging protruding eyes, legs folded under the body and no tail. The hind legs are long and enable the frog to move in a jumping hop.
Rana temporaria
As with many wild animals, my early ideas about frogs came mostly from cartoon animals and anthropomorphised children’s literature. I imagined them as being fairly large with smooth, bright green skin. They are actually only two or three inches long and not brightly coloured. (That’s about six to nine centimetres.) Wikipedia with delightful vagueness says that Rana temporaria can be olive green, grey-brown, yellowish or rufous and can occasionally be red, black or white. It also adds that they can lighten or darken their skin to camouflage themselves and the male generally turns blue-grey in the mating season.
They do have irregular darker blotches on their backs.
Males are smaller and have swellings on their front feet to hold on to the female during mating, which is external.
In the UK they usually hibernate in mud or piles of leaves – from about October to January. At the age of about three they return to their place of birth to lay eggs and mate.
They feed on invertebrates – insects and their larvae, spiders, snails and worms.
Habitat
The Common Frog is found over most of Europe. It is by far the most common frog in the UK.
They live in damp places, near ponds or in long grass. When we had a pond in our garden, we often found frogs hiding in the undergrowth. Unfortunately, our cat also found them and would bring them inside to us as presents!
Other Notes
The Edible Frog, which supplies the well-known French delicacy ‘Frogs Legs,’ is an unusual hybrid called Pelophylax kl. esculentus. This is a hybrid between Pelophylax lessonae and Pelophylax ridibundus that is fertile by hybridogenesis. [It is a klepton, which explains the ‘kl.’ in its name. The hybrid species cannot mate with another hybrid but can reproduce by mating with the species of either parent. I have simplified this – or, to be more precise, I don’t fully understand it!]
See also
Bufo bufo, the (Common or European) Toad, is found over most of Europe, but not the island of Ireland. It’s the most common toad in Britain.
It is much larger than the Common Frog and can’t really jump. It moves by walking or a shuffling series of jumps with all four legs. It emerges at dusk and feeds on invertebrates. Small items can be caught with its long tongue and food is swallowed as it has no teeth.
The toad has cultural significance and it used to be associated with the Devil and with witches.
Mr Toad was immortalized in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. See [040] Water Vole.
Rallus aquaticus, the Water Rail, is a relative of [152] the Coot and [157] the Moorhen but is rarer and keeps well away from humans. You may see them in carefully controlled areas where they are attracted to bird feeders in winter.
Other species in the genus Rallus are called Rails and so are many species in the wider family Rallidae.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Class – Aves (Birds)
Order – Gruiformes (Cranes and Rails)
Suborder – Ralli
Family – Rallidae (Rails, Coots, Moorhens, Crakes and Gallinules)
Genus – Rallus
Scientific Name – Rallus aquaticus
Name
Rail is an Anglicized version of the French rale, which comes from Medieval Latin rallus, possibly from its harsh cry. I will let you work out aquaticus.
Description
The Water Rail does not look immediately similar to a Coot or a Moorhen. It is a smaller, more slender bird with a long, pointed bill and long legs. Its laterally flattened body helps it to walk through reeds.
Its upperparts are a stripy mottled dark and light brown. Its underparts are from blue-grey to blue, with black barring on its flanks. Its bill is from red to orange, somewhat darker on top. The legs have long toes but are not webbed.
The Water Rail is a wetland bird and is generally seen in or very near reedbeds. It builds a nest in reeds just above the water line. Unlike Coots and Moorhens, Water Rails are not normally seen swimming on the water. When seen they will seek to hide themselves. You may see them very occasionally wading in water as they run between reedbeds.
They are omnivorous, normally feeding on small animals – leeches, worms, slugs and snails, aquatic insects and larvae. They may eat small vertebrates – frogs and toads, fish, birds, mammals and sometimes carrion. They can kill small vertebrates by impaling them with their bills and breaking the spinal cord.
In winter they may eat more plant food – buds, flowers, shoots, seeds, berries and fruit.
The call of the Water Rail is usually described as like a squealing pig.
Habitat
The normal range of the Water Rail is patchy, covering much of temperate Europe and parts of Asia. Over much of its range it is migratory. In the UK It can be found over most of England, Wales and Ireland, and its patchy distribution either resident or migratory.
It lives in wetland areas, particularly reedbeds. See [261] Reeds.
Other Notes
For such a shy bird, normally avoiding humans, it is surprising that they are regularly seen near wetland bird feeders. This is almost always in winter, when they must find it difficult to find other food. The feeders have to be sited very near to water and reedbeds. Wetland nature reserves can often manage to do this near to a building and you can watch from inside the building.
All of my pictures and almost all of my sightings of this bird come from winter bird feeders. They get used to the idea and tend to come back every twenty or thirty minutes to look round and scavenge on the ground.
The genus Quercus has about five hundred species, generally called Oaks, all native to the Northern Hemisphere.
Several related genera also have species called oaks. I have split the genus into two blogs. After [292] Pedunculate Oaks and other Oaks, today I will look at the more recent introductions to the UK such as [D] Quercus rubra, the Red Oak, but especially [E] Quercus cerris, the Turkey Oak.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Fagales
Family – Fagaceae
Subfamily – Quercoideae
Genus – Quercus
Subgenus – Quercus
Section – Quercus or Lepidobalanus or Leucobalanus (White Oaks)
About 100 species including …
Quercus alba – White Oak (North America)
Quercus petraea – Sessile Oak
Quercus robur – Pedunculate Oak
Section – Mesobalanus
Seven species
Section – Cerris
About 30 species including …
Quercus cerris – Turkey Oak
Quercus ilex – Holm Oak
Section – Protobalanus (Intermediate Oaks)
Five species
Section – Lobatae (Red Oaks)
About 100 species including …
Quercus rubra – Northern Red Oak
Subgenus – Cyclobalanopsis (Ring-supped Oaks)
About 150 species
Names
Species in the section Lobatae are called Red Oaks to distinguish them from the White Oaks (Section Quercus) although not all have common names including ‘red.’ The main difference is their leaf shape but red oaks generally have darker coloured bark. As we have seen rubra means red.
The Turkey Oak does come from Turkey. Cerris comes from cerrus, the Classical name of the Turkey Oak. As for many scientific names the exact spelling does not match valid Latin.
You will recognize balanus from [313] the Barnacle. (Well, you will when you get there. I wrote it a few months ago.)
[D] Red Oak
All the Red Oaks come from the Americas. [They do include Quercus laevis, the American Turkey Oak, which gets its name from the resemblance of its leaves to a turkey’s foot!]
Quercus rubra, generally known as the Northern Red Oak, is native to the East of the USA. In Britain it is generally just sold as the Red Oak. It is probably the most common of several North American species of oak sold in Britain.
The bark of Quercus rubra can be reddish grey-brown with vertical ridges and shiny stripes. On older, larger trees it is a lighter grey with vertical stripes.
The lobed leaves of Quercus rubra are larger than the other species of Quercus in these blogs. They turn a spectacular red in the autumn.
[E] Turkey Oak
Quercus cerris is also called the Austrian Oak. Its original distribution from Italy to Turkey does include parts of Austria. Its range included northern Europe and the UK until the last Ice Age, about 120 000 years ago.
It was introduced into England in the Eighteenth Century as an ornamental tree and is now widespread and naturalized. It’s fairly similar to our native oaks but its acorn cups are covered in soft, curly spikes.
Its timber is less useful than other oaks as it tends to crack and split, so it is used, for example, in fencing.
Other Oak Species
As well as the species considered in these two posts, several other Quercus species and several hybrids are cultivated in the UK as ornamental trees in parks and gardens. As for all cultivated plants, the varieties can have leaves of different shapes and colours including variegated leaves.
Other Notes
Andricus quercuscalicis is a species of gall wasp with a two generation life-cycle alternating between Quercus cerris and Quercus robur (or sometimes Quercus petraea.) The sexual generation develops on the male catkins of the Turkey oak. The parthenogenetic, all-female generation develops in large knobbly galls on the Pedunculate Oak where the acorn is developing.
This gall only appeared in Britain in 1950 but there have been concerns that it may seriously affect the fertility of the two native English oaks. In 1998, the Ministry of Defence ordered the felling of all Turkey Oaks on its UK bases
See also
Quercus suber, the Cork Oak, is an evergreen tree in the same section as the Turkey Oak. Found in western Iberia and Mediterranean coastal areas, it is the source of cork used for wine bottles and other uses. I have seen cork trees on the island of Corsica where it is one of their main products.
[292] Quercus Robur, Pedunculate Oak – and Other Oaks
Introduction
The genus Quercus has about five hundred species, generally called Oaks, all native to the Northern Hemisphere.
Several related genera also have species called oaks. I have split the genus into two blogs and will look at three fairly common species today – [A] Quercus robur, the Pedunculate Oak, and [B] Quercus petraea, the Sessile Oak, are native species; [C] Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak, has been naturalized in the UK for five hundred years.
I will deal with the rest of Quercus tomorrow.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Fagales
Family – Fagaceae
Subfamily – Quercoideae
Genus – Quercus
Subgenus – Quercus
Section – Quercus or Lepidobalanus or Leucobalanus (White Oaks)
About 100 species including …
Quercus alba – White Oak (North America)
Quercus petraea – Sessile Oak
Quercus robur – Pedunculate Oak, Common Oak, English Oak
Section – Mesobalanus
Seven species
Section – Cerris
About 30 species including …
Quercus cerris – Turkey Oak
Quercus ilex – Holm Oak
Section – Protobalanus (Intermediate Oaks)
Five species
Section – Lobatae (Red Oaks)
About 100 species including …
Quercus rubra – Northern Red Oak
Subgenus – Cyclobalanopsis (Ring-supped Oaks)
About 150 species
Names
Oak comes via Old English from older Germanic roots and has always been the name of the British oak trees. See [B] below for ‘pedunculate’ and ‘sessile.’ Holm is an obsolete form of ‘Holly.’
Quercus is the Classical Latin name for oaks, probably used initially for an Italian species. Robur is another Classical Latin name for a type of oak, cognate with rub- as used for [135] Robin, [136] Redclaws and Red Oak. Petraea means (growing in) rocky places. Ilex is the Latin name of the Holm Oak. You will remember from [185] Holly, that ilex was used indiscriminately for Holly or the Holm Oak. (So, while the Holm Oak seems to get its name from holly, the scientific names seem to go the other way round with ilex coming from the oak.)
Those of you trying to come to grips with Latin may have noticed that Quercus robur and Quercus ilex use nouns in apposition for species epithets rather than adjectives. The adjective in Quercus petraea is feminine. Quercus looks like a regular (second declension) masculine -us ending, but it is actually (fourth declension) feminine.
Acorn comes via Old English æcern from old Germanic roots. It was altered to become more similar to ‘corn.’
[A] Pedunculate Oak
To most people Quercus robur is what we call an Oak but is also known as the Common Oak, English Oak, European Oak or Pedunculate Oak. Its natural range corresponds to Europe except the far south and far north, and it is widely cultivated in other temperate areas. It is in the section of Quercus known as White Oaks.
Many of the largest and oldest trees in England are Pedunculate Oaks. Some very old trees have very thick trunks but are relatively short after being pollarded or coppiced early in their lives. Some British oaks are estimated to be a thousand years old.
The English Oak has traditionally been grown as a source of timber. It has become almost a symbol of England, appearing sometimes in English history. It is the most common woodland tree in England.
The lobe-shaped leaves are familiar as is the acorn and both appear in the symbol of the National Trust.
Like all species of Quercus, it has both male and female flowers. Male flowers are long, thin yellow or green catkins and female flowers are tiny and insignificant.
The Pedunculate Oak supports over 400 species of insects and the acorns provide food for [311] Squirrels and birds such as [159] Jays.
All the oak species in this blog are available as cultivated tress and all have several varieties and cultivars.
[B] Sessile Oak
I try not to use botanic terms but the biggest difference between Pedunculate Oaks and Sessile Oaks is in the leaf attachment to branches. Pedunculate Oaks have sessile leaves, directly attached without a stalk. Sessile Oaks have pedunculate leaves, attached with a short petiole. That’s not very helpful but the acorns are the other way round. Sessile Oaks have sessile acorns and Pedunculate Oaks have a connecting peduncle.
(Don’t ask me why but leaves have petioles or are sessile; flowers have pedicels or are sessile. Peduncle is used for an inflorescence or a fruit or sometimes a single flower.)
The Sessile Oak is also known as the Cornish Oak, the Irish Oak and the Durmast Oak. [Durmast may be a misreading of ‘dun mast’ referring to light brown acorns.] Its natural range is very similar to the Pedunculate Oak.
Quercus petraea has also been used as a source of timber.
Quercus robur and Quercus robaea share their native ranges and often hybridize naturally as Quercus x rosacea.
[C] Holm Oak
Quercus petraea, the Holm Oak, Holm-oak or Holly Oak is sometimes locally called the Evergreen Oak. Its native area consists of Italy, Spain and areas close to the shores of the western Mediterranean.
(Two other species are called the Holm Oak. Quercus agrifolia, also known as the Californian Live Oak, is an American species. Quercus rotundifolia, also known as the Ballota Oak, is mostly found in Spain and Portugal.)
Leaves of the Holm Oak are not lobe-shaped like other familiar oak species. They are thin pointed ovals, dark green and almost glossy above and lighter coloured, slightly furry, below. Younger leaves may have small points on the outside reminiscent of holly leaves. Flowers and fruits (acorns) are similar to other oak species.
The Holm Oak is a popular tree in some parks and gardens because it provides dense shade cover. It is one of several species of Quercus that are evergreen. Evergreen species are spread throughout the subgenera and sections as a result of separate convergent evolution.
Other Notes
I am lucky enough to live near Pittville Park in Cheltenham, which has many trees about two hundred years old, including several impressive oak trees.
See also
I will look at the rest of the genus Quercus tomorrow.
In no particular order, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, the Bullfinch; Chloris chloris, the Greenfinch; andFringilla coelebs, the Chaffinch, are three of the four relatively common species of finches found in the UK. We have already met [067] Carduelis carduelis, the Goldfinch.
There are many other similar species and formally we have to call our birds the Eurasian (or Common) Bullfinch, the European Greenfinch and the Common Chaffinch.
Many birds in the Finch family, Fringillidae, are called Finches, but many have other names. Conversely several birds called Finches are not in the family Fringillidae!
I will consider them separately and look briefly at our other finches.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Class – Aves (Birds)
Order – Passeriformes
Family – Fringillidae (Finches)
The Finch family Fringillidae has about 150 species, almost all of which come in the subfamily Carduelinae, named from the genus Carduelis, which we have already met as the Goldfinch. Until about ten years ago the Greenfinch was Carduelis chloris but after DNA studies the Greenfinch now has its own genus as Chloris chloris.
The Bullfinch, in this subfamily, is Pyrrhula pyrrhula.
The other subfamily Fringillinae only contains the genus Fringilla consisting of just the Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs, and three close relatives. (A third subfamily has recently been added.)
See text for more details.
Names
Finch is an Old English word coming from Germanic roots, probably originally applied to the Chaffinch.
The Bullfinch gets its name from its front-heavy bull-like appearance. It was originally Loxia pyrrhula. (See the Crossbill under Other UK Finches. The word Loxia comes from Ancient Greek meaning crosswise.) Pyrrhula comes from the Ancient Greek pyrrhus, meaning flame-coloured, cognate with pyre.
I would not normally call a Greenfinch green but in some circumstances parts of it may look a slightly greenish shade of yellow. Chloris from Latinized Greek is a pale green colour.
Chaffinch does actually come from chaff-finch. In the days when farmers threshed corn to separate the wheat from the chaff, the Chaffinch would search through the discarded chaff.
From roots meaning to chirp or make a noise (possibly cognate with to bark,) fringilla was the Classical Latin name for a small bird, possibly a Robin or Chaffinch. Coelebs is a Latin word meaning unmarried or single, cognate with celibate. (Don’t ask me why a Chaffinch is seen to be unmarried!)
Finches
The family Fringillidae consists of small passerine birds (roughly the same size as a [135] Robin or [251] Sparrow.) with stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds or nuts. It is a diverse and widespread group and includes groups of birds called Redpolls, Crossbills, Canaries and several others not normally called finches.
Several species, especially canaries, have been traditionally kept as caged birds for their singing. They also used to be used in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide.
Since about 1990 there have been many taxonomic changes with species being moved into or out of this family.
[A] Bullfinch
Male and female birds are identical in shape but there is a marked sexual dimorphism in their coloration. They are relatively large finches with a rounded shape that gives them their name.
Both sexes have dark wings with a black top to their head. They have white wing bars and rump. The male has a blue-grey back and the rest of hist body is bright pink.
The female is a much lighter slightly pinkish grey all over.
This bird is found over most of temperate Eurasia and is resident for most of its range. Its range includes all of the UK and it likes woodland environments. It mainly eats seeds and buds of trees and has been considered as an unwanted pest in orchards.
They are generally seen as a pair and will sometimes come to bird feeders, even in gardens, but they remain a relatively rare species.
The last picture above shows a male Bullfinch and male Greenfinch.
[B] Greenfinch
Wikipedia describes the male Greenfinch as mainly green. I would say it has various shades of yellow and brown with a hint of green. There is a bright yellow edge to the wings and tail.
The female is duller and could best be described as mostly brown. She has a less prominent yellow edge to her wings and tail.
Juvenile birds look more like the female birds. Their backs are mottled and the breast has stripes of brown and buff.
The range of the European Greenfinch is more or less Europe and it is only migratory at the edges of its range. Like the Chaffinch and the Bullfinch, it is a woodland bird.
When I started birdwatching fifteen years ago the Greenfinch was a relatively common garden bird. We saw it in our garden and often at other locations with birdfeeders.
Since about 2008 numbers have decreased in the UK considerably because of a microscopic parasite Trichomonas gallinae, that also affects Chaffinches (but has not affect their numbers significantly.) I rarely see them now but occasionally I hear one in the countryside. All of my pictures are over ten years old. Their call is a single drawn-out note ‘dzeeee.’
[C] Chaffinch
The Chaffinch is one of the two most common birds in Britain but it may not be noticed because of its relatively camouflaged appearance and its ground-dwelling nature. You may see them in the countryside, especially in woods – perhaps on paths ahead. it is not associated with urban gardens. They are sometimes called pinks or spinks from their sharp single-note call.
They are also sexually dimorphic. The male has a blue-grey neck and top to its head; a pinkish brown back; dark pink face and breast and lighter underparts. The wings are black with white bars.
The female is generally duller, mostly brown with lighter underparts.
Its range includes most of Europe, Northern Africa and parts of Asia and for most of its range it is resident.
They do not normally feed on birdfeeders but, like [279] the Dunnock, will scavenge on the ground underneath rural feeders. In external café areas such as Country Houses of Motorway Services, they will scavenge around people under the tables.
Apart from two very localised Canary Island species, the only other extant Fringilla species is the Brambling, Fringilla montifringilla. The male in summer plumage has distinctive dark head and upperparts but otherwise both male and female are superficially similar to the Chaffinch.
Its summer distribution covers the more northern areas of Eurasia and it is seen in Britain as a relatively rare winter visitor. I have seen a few Bramblings, but never close enough for good pictures.
Other UK Finches
Apart from the Goldfinch that we have already seen, the other species of finch seen in the UK are relatively rare or localized. Here they are.
Siskin, Spinus spinus. (Strictly speaking it’s the European Siskin as about twenty other species are called Siskins, mostly also from the genus Spinus.) Widespread in Europe but generally found only in forests, particularly coniferous forest. I have only seen them in and near the Forest of Dean and in Scotland. Numbers are much higher in winter when they migrate from more northerly locations and they may come to isolated forest birdfeeders. They are somewhat similar in appearance to Greenfinch but smaller.
Linnet, Linaria cannabina nothing to do with the plant [210] Toadflax, also Linaria. Found over all of Europe by increasingly scarce in the UK. Likes open heathland and keeps well away from people. Quite gregarious. The female is an unassuming brown. In summer the male has a bright red breast and head patch.
Hawfinch, Coccothraustes coccothraustes. A relative newcomer to the UK, still only seen in small numbers at a few isolated sites. Its shape is a bit like a Bullfinch. It is our largest finch and its bill is certainly larger than other finches.
Mealy Redpoll or Common Redpoll (locally often just called a Redpoll), Acanthis flammea. A relatively rare winter visitor, this bird has a red head that gives it its name. Usually seen in flocks and sometimes visiting rural birdfeeders.
Lesser Redpoll, Acanthis cabaret, and Arctic (or Hoary) Redpoll, Acanthis homemanni. Two very similar but much rarer species. Sometimes one or two may be found amongst Common Redpolls. (The division of the genus into species and subspecies is subject to discussion and change.)
Crossbills – Loxia curvirostra, The (Common) Crossbilll. Occasionally seen locally with seasonal variation. Its large bill has tips that cross over. Males may be red or orange and females green or yellow.
Loxia pytyopssittacus, the Parrot Crossbill, almost indistinguishable from the Common and Scottish Crossbills.
Loxia scotica, the Scottish Crossbill. A small population found only in Scottish Pine forests.
Loxia leucoptera, Two-barred Crossbill. A rare vagrant visitor.
Twite, Linaria flavirostra. A small relative of the Linnet, seen sometimes in large flocks, especially to the north of the UK.
(European) Serin, Serinus serinus and others are occasionally seen as vagrant visitors.
Other Notes
The Greenfinch, Chloris chloris, is another example of dual naming like the Linnet. Chloris gayana is a type of grass found in Africa. There is nothing to stop a plant and an animal from using the same genus name.
Chaffinches may be seen with extensive tumours on their legs and feet caused by a viral infection. This is not the same as the affliction that has affected Greenfinch and it doesn’t seem to cause them problems.
See also
You can look out for a few more posts about birds of various types, including some very common ones. See if you can think of some that haven’t come up yet.
Pyrrhosoma nymphula is our last species of Damselfly. It’s something like the other damselflies we have seen before but it’s quite large and it’s more or less red!
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies)
Family – Coeanagrionidae
Genus – Pyrrhosoma
Scientific Name – Pyrrhosoma nymphula
Name
It’s not hard to find an explanation for this insect’s common name.
Pyrrho-soma means a fiery red body, from Latinized Greek. Lots of insects, especially butterflies and damselflies, seem to be named after attractive ladies or nymphs.
Description
The male Pyrrhosoma nymphula is mostly black with red markings.
Females come in several types with varying amounts of red.
Nymphs have a two-year life. They grow through their first winter and hibernate for the second.
Habitat
This damselfly is widespread and common over all of the UK and is found over most of Europe.
See also
There is a Small Red Damselfly, Ceriagron tenellum, that is a little bit smaller. It is much rarer and is found only in a few small areas of England.
Pyronia Tithonus, the Gatekeeper, is our last species of the ‘browns’ but it’s the brightest, often tending to an orange colour. It is also known as Hedge Brown.
Other geographically separate species of Pyronia are also called Gatekeepers or Hedge Brown.
The name Gatekeeper comes from its habit of patrolling hedges, so it was often seen near gates.
Pyro- is a Latin/Greek root meaning fire, presumably from the colours.
In Greek mythology Tithonus was a brother of Priam, the future king of Troy. He was kidnapped by Eos, the goddess of the dawn. She asked Zeus to grant him immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. As he aged Eos transformed him into a cicada. Tithonus probably comes from Titone from tito-one, ‘queen of the day,’ another name of Eos. The link, if any, to this butterfly is very tenuous.
Description
The Gatekeeper is another of the brown butterflies, somewhat similar to those we have seen. It usually rests with its wings open and is a much brighter colour. In sunlight in can appear orange or orange-red.
The key defining feature is the dark eye spot on its wings, which always has two white dots, unlike the other browns with a single dot.
The male has a dark band across his upper fore-wing.
Females are similar apart from this band. They may have small white dots on the hindwing.
The underwings are duller.
As for all the Nymphalidae butterflies, the Gatekeeper only has four functioning legs. I have searched, without success, through my pictures for traces of the front legs. They are too small to be significant.
The life-cycle is one year, mostly spent in the larval stage feeding on a range of grasses. Adults feed on nectar from several plants including [082] Thistles, [187] Ragwort, [208] Privet, [138] Hemp Agrimony and [343] Clover.
Habitat
Pyronia Tithonus is common and widespread over England and Wales. Its northern limit is gradually moving further north with warming climates.
Its natural range includes most of Europe and parts of Northern Africa and south-west Asia.
[288] Pyrochroa serraticornis, Cardinal Beetle and other Beetles
Introduction
We have met several beetles and this blog collects all the many other species seen in the UK, including Pyrochroa serraticornis, the (Common) Cardinal Beetle.
Pyrochroa coccinea and the closely related Schizotus pecticornis, are also known as Cardinal Beetles.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Coleoptera
Suborder – Polyphaga
Infraorder – Cucujiformia
Superfamily – Tenebrionoidea
Family – Pyrochroidae (Fire-coloured Beetles)
Subfamily – Pyrochroinae
Genus – Pyrochroa
Scientific Name – Pyrochroa serraticornis
See text for other beetles
Name
Like the Cardinal birds and many other things called cardinals, the Cardinal Beetle derives its name from the vivid red colour of Roman Catholic Cardinals. (You will not find Cardinal birds in the UK. They are native to the Americas.)
It won’t surprise you (if you haven’t picked it up from these blogs) that pyro-chroa, from Ancient Greek roots, means fire-colour, and serrati-cornis means having serrated antenna.
For other species, see text below.
Beetles
There are about half a million species of beetle, of which about five thousand are seen in the UK. They are divided into well over 200 families and I will not attempt to look at them all.
You can find other beetles in this blog from the Beetle category listed below.
Before I go on to individual species it’s worth remembering that beetles are fully metabolous and spend most of their life in the larval stage, underground or otherwise out of sight. But we only ever see the adult stage, which may be a short period of mating and egg-laying.
My only requirement for those that have chosen to include in this blog is that I have good pictures. So here they are, in no particular order.
[A] Cardinal beetle
Pyrochroa serraticornis is one of about 150 species of Fire-coloured Beetles (Pyrochroidae) that look a fiery red or orange-red. The larvae live under the bark of trees and Wikipedia notes that while they normally eat fungus, if it gets crowded, they will eat each other.
[B] Carpet Beetle
Anthrenus verbasci, the Varied Carpet Beetle, is in the family Dermestidae, which has over 500 species often called Skin Beetles, Leather Beetles or Carpet Beetles. Larvae, especially from the genus Anthrenus, can cause extensive damage to stored wool, leather, silk, feathers and other materials. This makes them unwanted pests and gives them their names. (Anthrenus comes from the Ancient Greek anthrene, a hornet or wasp. Verbascum is a genus of plants known as Mulleins. The genitive ending verbasci suggests that it is one possible food plant for this beetle.)
The larvae are quite hairy and are one of several species known as woolly bears. They develop often in the nests of birds or in stored fabrics. Larval and pupal stage may take from one to three years, depending on their environment.
Adult beetles, that look like small [278] Ladybirds, live for only about two weeks.
[3] Cereal Leaf Beetle
Oulema melanopus, the Cereal Leaf Beetle, is in the family Chrysomelidae, Subfamily Criocerinae, Tribe Lemini. There are about 50 000 species in the Chrysomelidae family, loosely known as Leaf Beetles.
(Oulema is somehow derived from Lema, another genus in the same tribe, from which Lemini is derived. Melanopus is a New Latin word meaning black and red.)
This beetle is one of the worst members of Chrysolemidae as a crop pest. The larval stage, which only lasts two to three weeks, does all of the crop damage at its critical growing stage. Pupation underground also lasts two to three weeks and the adults normally overwinter, hidden in protective crevices.
It is native to Europe and Asia but has spread with agriculture to other countries. It eats most cereals and other grasses but particularly sems to like the major crops Oats, [177] Barley, Rye and [345] Wheat.
[4] Oil Beetle
Meloe proscarabaeus is a European species of Oil Beetle. All species in the genus Meloe are generally called oil beetles. This may come as a surprise – but the genus Meloe comes in the Meloidae family, Meloinae subfamily, and Meloini tribe!
They are called oil beetles because when disturbed they release oily droplets of haemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood,) from their joints. Most species, including Meloe proscarabaeus, are flightless. They lack the hind wings and hence the elytra are smaller. (Meloe has been used since about 1650 but its origins are unknown. Proscarabaeus relates to the Scarab Beetles in the family Scarabeidae. Scarab is an ancient name for various types of beetle.)
Meloe proscarabaeus is found over all of Europe except the far north. When the larvae hatch, they climb into a flower and wait for a solitary bee (such as [024] Andrena.) They attach themselves to the bee, return to its nest and feed on the eggs and the pollen and nectar collected for the nest. The pupal stage takes place still in the solitary bee’s nest. The newly emerged imago seeks a mate immediately on emergence.
[5] Dor Beetle
Anoplotrupes stercorosus, the Dor Beetle, is a species of earth-boring dung beetle in the Geotrupidae family. (Dor is a Middle English name for this insect, from the humming noise as it flies. It comes from Old English for a general humming insect, cognate with drone. Geo-trupi- means earth-boring and anoplo- means unarmed. Stercoro- relates to dung, so the scientific name means an unarmed (earth-)boring dung beetle.)
It is present throughout Europe and where cattle have been introduced. They generally live in forests. This beetle is very similar to Geotrupes stercorarius and can be distinguished by counting tiny bumps on the outside of the hind legs.
Larval and adult phases feed on dung, rotting fungi, litter mould and tree sap. I found one in the Forest of Dean, where it was benefitting from the dung of [328] Wild Boar.
[6] Bloody-nosed Beetle
Timarcha tenebricosa, the Bloody-nosed Beetle, is another species from Chrysomelidae, the Leaf Beetles. It gets its name in the same way as the Oil Beetle above. As a defence, they may exude bright red-orange haemolymph from the mouth. (The nearest I can find to the origins of Timarcha is someone called Timarchus who ruled the Seleucid Empire in Media briefly around 160 BC, and another Greek called Timarchus about two hundred years earlier. The Latin tenebricosa means dark or gloomy.)
The larvae feed only on [155] Bedstraw. They pupate over winter.
The last three species here illustrate the fact that most ground-dwelling beetles are completely black in colour – or at least a very dark blue or similar, nearly black, colour
Other Notes
Please note that, as always, common names are not agreed and can be ambiguous. Also note that identification to species level is not always guaranteed.
See also
[300] Rhagonycha fulva will get its own blog post soon. I have already written this. There are thousands of other beetle species but most of them spend almost all of their lives at or below ground level. You are unlikely to see one flying.
Pyrausta aurata, the Mint Moth, is an attractive, common and widespread micro moth that could easily be mistaken for a small butterfly. It is also known as the Small Purple and Gold (Moth.)
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Family – Crambidae
Genus – Pyrausta
Scientific Name – Purausta aurata
Name
The name Mint Moth comes from its preferred food source.
Pyrausta comes from pirausta, the Italian name for this moth. My guess is that it comes from the Latin ‘pyra usta’ meaning ‘burnt pyre’ from its colour. Similarly, the Latin aurata means golden.
Description
The Mint Moth is not like the other members of the Crambidae family that we saw in [011] Grass Moths. It is larger and more colourful and rests with its wings displayed, so it could easily be mistaken for a butterfly. It is a colourful purple brown with light yellow markings. It can be found in the day and also flies in the night.
In the UK it usually has two broods each year, in May/June and July/August. The caterpillar has several colour variations with a dark line along its back.
Habitat
Pyrausta aurata is widespread in Europe, much of Asia and north Africa.
It can feed on species of mint (Mentha species) but also likes marjoram, catmint (Nepeta cataria) and some other species.
Other Notes
Here is one sharing a plant with a hover fly, Eristalis species.
Pictures come from my garden where we had catmint. There were visited for two or three years but we have moved elsewhere now.
See also
The closely related Pyrausta purpuralis is very similar in appearance.
Pyracantha coccinea, Red Firethorn or Scarlet Firethorn, is a very popular garden plant, generally used in hedges. It may informally be called just Firethorn but is more likely to be just known as Pyracantha.
It is named from its attractive red berries but is now also seen in varieties with yellow or orange berries.
Of course, other species of Pyracantha are also called Firethorns.
It can be a sprawling shrub but more usually it’s a garden hedge.
It’s an insignificant plant with leaves that to the layman are leaf-shaped and leaf-green in colour. The stems have sharp spikes. (They are thorns but I won’t go into the botanical discussions about thorns, spines and prickles.)
Like many hedge species it produces clumps of small white flowers that go unnoticed.
They turn into masses of bright red berries that may stay on the plant over winter. (As you know from the Cotoneasters, they are actually pomes, not berries, but almost everyone calls then berries.)
Habitat and use
Pyracantha coccinea has a native range from southern Europe to western Asia. It has been cultivated in gardens in Europe for four hundred years and has been introduced to North America
There are varieties and cultivars of Pyracantha coccinea and other Pyracantha species, with berries described as red, orange-red, orange, yellow-orange and yellow.
Other Notes
The varieties with orange or yellow berries are now popular and, because the berries form an attractive feature, you may seem them planted with alternating varieties. This can create hedges with a mixture of red and yellow berries that appear to come from the same plants.
I think the thorns also make them a useful hedge plant where they dissuade unwanted visitors.
They are also sometimes planted as a narrow hedge in front of a wall to make it more attractive.
See also
You can look at the Hedge Category below, or see the Cotoneaster post for some more close relatives.
Pterocarya fraxinifolia, the Caucasian Wingnut, is a close relative of [189] Walnuts that may be found in parks.
It is also known as the Caucasian Walnut although its fruits are not similar to walnuts. Other members of the genus Pterocarya are called Wingnuts. (Cyclocarya paliurus, the Wheel Wingnut has been moved out of the genus Pterocarya.)
(Terminalia canescens, an unrelated Australian tree known as the Winged Nut Tree is also sometimes called the Wingnut.)
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Plants
Division – Vascular Plants
Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Order – Fagales
Family – Juglandaceae
Subfamily – Juglandoideae
Tribe – Juglandeae
Subtribe – Juglandinae
Genus – Pterocarya
Scientific Name – Pterocarya fraxinifolia
Name
The Ancient Greek pteron-karyon means wing-nut. We have met [150] Fraxinus, the Ash tree, so fraxini-folia means with leaves like Ash.
Description
This is one of very few species of which I have only ever seen one example. But it is an impressive example, a single tree, probably two hundred years old in a local park.
Pterocarya fraxinifolia grows to a large tree with a very thick trunk supporting widely spreading branches.
Long thin stalkless pinnate leaves can have as many as 25 leaflets.
Trees bear separately both male and female flowers. Male flowers form long thick green catkins that stay on the tree for a long time, turning brown.
Female flowers form longer, thinner catkins, initially with red tops to the flowers. The fruits are green winged nuts.
Both types stay so long that you may see both through much of the year.
Habitat and use
Pterocarya fraxinifolia is native to a relatively small area in the Caucasus.
It is available for cultivation as are other species of Pterocarya and some hybrids and varieties. Because of their size they are not suitable for small gardens but may be seen in parks and public gardens.
Wingnuts have been grown for timber production.
Other Notes
Wikipedia says that this species was not introduced into the UK until after 1800, so I suspect that the one in Pittville Park is one of the first. It is certainly over two hundred years old.
See also
We have a few more trees to come but none achieve the stature of this species.
The Species of Britain 