I spent last weekend down in the Burren in County Clare at the Annual Recorders event organised by Biodiversity Ireland. The main emphasis was on Bumblebees and Butterflies. While it was a little on the windy side it was thankfully mainly dry. The field trips were all to the Burren National Park and proved very fruitful. Nice selection of butterflies including several Brown Hairstreaks, Silver-washed and Dark Green Fritillaries. An added bonus was seeing two different Burren Green moths which are entirely restricted to the karst landscape of North Clare and South-West Galway. I don't think it's found anywhere at all in the UK but they do range right across mainland Europe.
Another highlight for me were the Shrill Carder bees. This is a species which is also largely restricted to the Burren and only found in odd scattered other areas in Ireland. They were certainly one of the commonest Bumblebee species that we encountered during the weekend. I'll have to keep an eye out for them back up here in Connemara. Another "tick" for me was the Gypsy Cuckoo-bee which was discovered by one of our party. Good numbers of Early Bumblebees around also. This is quite a common and widespread species in Ireland but for some reason I've never come across any in Connemara.
I've also included a few shots of a Red-tailed Cuckoo bee which I found here near Carna today. This is our largest Bumble bee species. As the name suggests it's a parasite of the Red-tailed Bumble bee Bombus lapidarius. The queen enters a lapidarius nest, kills the resident queen and get the workers to rear its young. This particular individual had a very heavy load of parasitic ticks/mites. It had real difficulty in getting airborne, not sure if this was connected to these mites.
Another highlight for me were the Shrill Carder bees. This is a species which is also largely restricted to the Burren and only found in odd scattered other areas in Ireland. They were certainly one of the commonest Bumblebee species that we encountered during the weekend. I'll have to keep an eye out for them back up here in Connemara. Another "tick" for me was the Gypsy Cuckoo-bee which was discovered by one of our party. Good numbers of Early Bumblebees around also. This is quite a common and widespread species in Ireland but for some reason I've never come across any in Connemara.
I've also included a few shots of a Red-tailed Cuckoo bee which I found here near Carna today. This is our largest Bumble bee species. As the name suggests it's a parasite of the Red-tailed Bumble bee Bombus lapidarius. The queen enters a lapidarius nest, kills the resident queen and get the workers to rear its young. This particular individual had a very heavy load of parasitic ticks/mites. It had real difficulty in getting airborne, not sure if this was connected to these mites.
 |
| Dark Green Fritillary |
 |
| Brown Hairstreak |
 |
| Burren Green moth |
 |
| Shrill Carder Bee Bombus sylvarum |
 |
| Shrill Carder Bee Bombus sylvarum |
 |
| Shrill Carder Bee Bombus sylvarum |
 |
| Shrill Carder Bee Bombus sylvarum |
 |
| Male Red-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lapidarius |
 |
| Male Red-shanked Carder-bee Bombus ruderarius |
 |
| Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum |
 |
| Gypsy Cuckoo-bee Bombus bohemicus |
 |
| Red-tailed Cuckoo bee Bombus rupestris |
 |
| Red-tailed Cuckoo bee Bombus rupestris |
 |
| Red-tailed Cuckoo bee Bombus rupestris |
No comments:
Post a Comment