One of my favourite things to do at the moment is to check the iNaturalist worldwide sightings log by 'newest first'. 95 million observations logged by 2 million nature lovers around the globe. It's a reassuringly large number of people who care enough about nature and science, and it gives a glimpse of amazing nature all around the world. There's only 7000 users in Wales though and my home borough seems to be a hole in the map for everything but the most common species, even though biodiversity is quite high up here.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
It's a really good website for recording your natural history finds, easy to use and very helpful if you need anything identifying. You set up a profile and upload any photos you have of any living thing to go on the database, even if it's a photo from several years ago. Then people can come along and verify your ID or suggest a different one. There are all sorts of people helping ID stuff, from amateurs like me to specialist professors of tiny things you've probably never heard of. It's a bit addictive if you like lists though as it automatically sets up your life list of sightings, broken down into the various orders of life, and gives you stats on the number of species you've recorded. I've logged 255 species out of a possible 299,745 so far
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Not an insect, but I lifted a piece of landscape fabric today and the was a slow worm underneath. I knew they were around on the Allotments but first time I have had one on my plot.
The kids usually raise a few caterpillars into butterflies/moths each year, and lasts autumn my youngest found a big cocoon buried in the soil whilst digging. We thought it might be an elephant hawk moth as we had hatched one we found the year before.
The cocoon looked more or less the same (big brown thing about 2 inches long). It promptly went into a tank in the shed for winter. Noticed a few signs of movement over the last few days and lo and behold this beauty hatched this morning. Its a Lime Hawk Moth, which Ive never seen before. Never had one in the moth trap even. Don't have any lime trees nearby that I know of, so I assume it was on the prunus that it was near.
Wow what a stunner I hope I get more hawk moths this year. So far I've just had the two sizes of elephant but I did find an eyed hawkmoth caterpillar a few years ago so they must be around up here.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Im always surprised by how big they are, we've had elephants, privet and poplars in the trap, but still hoping for an eyed, and the would love to get a deaths head in there one day
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The cocoon looked more or less the same (big brown thing about 2 inches long). It promptly went into a tank in the shed for winter. Noticed a few signs of movement over the last few days and lo and behold this beauty hatched this morning. Its a Lime Hawk Moth, which Ive never seen before. Never had one in the moth trap even. Don't have any lime trees nearby that I know of, so I assume it was on the prunus that it was near.