Beautiful Demoiselle

A male Beautiful Demoiselle

 

One of my favourite insects that frequent our river systems in the summertime.

A male Beautiful Demoiselle

 

A male Beautiful Demoiselle

Silver washed fritillary f.valezina

Silver washed fritillary f.valezina

I came across this form of Silver washed fritillary at Cabilla Woods yesterday and was unsure what species it was but my pal Dave Conway got very excited and was convinced it was the form f.valezina.

This has now been confirmed and is now thought to be only the second record ever in Cornwall.


Here are a few other angles although it failed to give me the "full frontal" view I craved!

Silver washed fritillary f.valezina

Silver washed fritillary f.valezina

Silver washed fritillary f.valezina

Butterflies at Cabilla Wood

Male Silver washed Fritillary

The summer sunshine had brought the butterflies out today at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve at Cabilla near Bodmin.

Male Silver washed Fritillary

 

We also spotted a possible different form of the Silver washed Fritillary, known as f.valezina, a darker and slightly green tinged female. (this needs to be confirmed as it is not known to be present in Cornwall!).

Silver washed Fritillary. f.valezina?

 

 

Comma showing some mite infestation on the fore wing.

Large skipper

Common Dolphins off the North Cornish coast

Common dolphins

What a fantastic evening I've just had watching Common dolphins off the North Cornish coast thanks to my good friend Will Delacour who's boat we were in, as we left home at Wadebridge at 4 pm just as the tide began to run into the Camel estuary.

We came across gannets plunge diving and manx shearwaters on the surface which heralded a great display from the dolphins as they swam along in front of, and alongside, the boat on numerous occasions.

All I needed to do was hold on tight as it was very choppy and try to get some shots sharp from a salt encrusted 18-70 lens!

Here are a few more........

Common dolphins

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Common dolphins

Labyrinth Spider

Labyrinth spider

Commonly known in the UK as our own funnel web spider it is actually harmless and quite common in many areas.

I photographed this one at Rosenannon Downs near Wadebridge on the heath vegetation.

On checking the details I include some info from http://www.uksafari.com/labyrinth.htm

"Labyrinth spiders produce a sheet web. It's so thick in places that it appears white in colour.

The web can be at ground level or up to 1.5 metres from the ground.  The majority are found around 60cm from the ground.  They are nearly always built along a south facing hedgerow, verge or grassy bank.

At one end there is a funnel shaped retreat, which can cause alarm because it is sometimes confused with other more dangerous funnel web spiders.  Further down the funnel is a labyrinth of tunnels which gives this spider its name.

If you could find your way through the tunnels you would eventually find the reason for this mysterious construction.  Hidden in the centre is the egg sac containing all the developing young.

The females remain with the young until they are ready to leave the web.  Sometimes they die before the spiderlings go, and in this case the young will eat their mother".