17 May 2010

Coton Lakes, Warwickshire

Last Saturday I had a wander round ,in North Warwickshire. Glorious sunny day, a bit breezy.

This rather docile Female  Banded Demoiselle was on the path up to the hide and remained on this one piece of grass for  at least 15 minutes. I wondered if it was newly "emerged" and was drying its wings. There were also a number of smaller damselflies close to the river.



 Galls
I came across this sapling with its strange infestation.
This is in  fact the protective casing for a Gall wasp Larvae a tiny creature with a huge bomb proof shelter from which it eventually emerges. The gall is actually produced by the host plant reacting to some chemical trigger and serves as both shelter and food supply for the larvae. Quite fascinating. I think these are last years vacated galls.


Hunting Spider
 I'm not a huge spider fan, they give me the creeps but I came across this Hunting Spider lying in wait on a Nettle leaf so took a picture.

It must have heard the shutter and its aggressive instincts kicked in and it turned and reared up to me..!



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