Aphids - Advantages of Cloning versus Sex

The Blackfly and Greenfly (Aphids) are abundant in the garden at the moment. I attempted focus stacking (first photo) some on a red campion stalk. The stacked photo is not that successful photographically as they are very shiny and moving and so the stacking has accentuated the reflections. However, it has shown their amazing biology well. In most colonies, all the aphids are female. Without males, no energy is expended finding mates, courting, and the laying and incubation of eggs. Parthenogenesis, the development of unfertilised eggs, enables female aphids to give birth to live young as soon as they are adult - you can see one emerging in the first photo. Some of the females in these clones will have wings to disperse the colony.
 Parthenogenesis  produces clones of individuals very rapidly and this is obviously an advantage but aphid colonies do not go on reproducing themselves indefinitely. At a certain time clonal reproduction ceases and  males and egg-laying females appear, mate and produce fertilised eggs. You can see a male (winged) on the rose bud greenfly colony

The last two days were very cold and overcast in Cambridgeshire and this Four-spotted Chaser emerged on Monday morning and was still in the same position on Tuesday until mid afternoon when the wind turned more southerly giving a bit of warmth. The irises are full of exuvia -6 or 7 so far this year. 

Paxton Pits - Cute and Not so Cute subjects - Part One

At last a respite from the cold overcast days with some sunshine that brought out a cute baby rabbit and lots of insects. First the 'Flies'. Not seen quite so many Scorpion flies in a habitat - a lot of them females, also Dance fly and Lacewings. The Empis flies preferred a certain hedge to settle, the males having presented the female with her dinner to occupy her while mating. ending with a couple of Hovers

Macro in the Garden - Spiderlings and other Inhabitants

Garden Spiders spin a cocoon around their eggs in the autumn and after a few days guarding the nest the female dies and the spiderlings hatch in the spring. They spend their time till the first moult huddled together though they disperse rapidly if touched. The Cucumber spider was the same size -around 2 mm. This week we have had Broad-bodied and Four-spot Chasers hatch out from the pond.

Hobbies at Wicken Fen

Winds this Spring have been almost exclusively from the Northerly direction and therefore not helpful for birds migrating north. In the middle of this week we had a brief respite of southerly winds which brought in some /hobbies to Wicken. Great to see their antics.

Aliens Visit CCC Workshop

We had an evening of creative photography concentrating on ICM (intentional camera movement), panning and in-camera multiple exposures. Several of us had fun with a disco ball - I seem to have aliens plus their planet of origin. We then tried to draw butterflies and letters using a street lamp as light source. Worryingly, I found this very easy which probably, like drawing perfect circles, denotes some strange mental abnormality! Lastly we had a go at multiple exposures.

 

Wicken Fen - Insects, Fox and Returm of the Hobbies

Yesterday was the first bright and relatively warm day for a time, so headed to Wicken Fen for a session with the birds and bugs. Not a lot around on the insect side though Brimstone, Red Admiral and Peacock all active plus as Red and Black Bug Cercopis vulnerata and a Cardinal beetle Pyrochroa serraticornis. An old Vixen fox (obviously with suckling young) watched as things hotted up from the hide - first the Terns and then up to five Hobbies entertained us with their antics (separate blog to follow). Also Buzzard, Marsh Harrier and Courting Great Crested Grebes

Smooth Newts

Many thanks to Richard Revels for introducing us to his Newts and the attractive set up to photograph them. We greatly enjoyed the session until exhaustion of a battery stopped play.  These are Smooth Newts (also known as  Common Newt, Lissotriton vulgaris). The first two are males with the crest and the third a female.