Environment

Is that a wasps’ nest in my bird house? Readers’ nature queries

Ethna Viney on blue tits, crab spiders, angle shades moths and hummingbird hawkmoths

Eyes on nature: a hummingbird hawkmoth photographed by Paul Murphy in Limerick

Ethna Viney
Sat Jun 10 2017 - 05:00

Can you identify the pea-sized spider in the photograph I’m sending you?

Matthew Walton

Mountshannon, Co Clare

The photograph of the female crab spider sent in by Matthew Walton.

It is the female crab spider, ‘Misumena vatia’, also called the flower spider. It lies in wait in flowers and pounces on insects collecting nectar.

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Eyes on nature: one of the blue tits that Colum Clarke saw in a street lamp in Kill of the Grange, in Dún Laoghaire

The blue tit in my photograph has chosen to bring up its brood inside a street lamp in Kill of the Grange, in Dún Laoghaire.

Colum Clarke

Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow

The pheasant feather Maura Neligan found in her garden

I found the feather in my photograph in our garden recently. It was 41cm long, and silky bronze with green highlights.

Maura Neligan

Glenageary, Co Dublin

It is the tail feather of a pheasant.

The angle shades moth photographed by Joe Walsh

How about this good-looking moth?

Joe Walsh

Cahir, Co Tipperary

The insect you photographed is the beautiful angle shades moth. It rests with wings wrinkled like a dead leaf.

Eyes on nature: the blue-grey nest that wasps built in Brigid Murtagh’s bird house The blue-grey nest that wasps built in Brigid Murtagh’s bird house

The round object in my photograph is hanging inside a tiny bird house. It’s a pale blue-grey, and it vibrates gently.

Brigid Murtagh

Bray, Co Wicklow

It’s a wasps’ nest. The queen wasp tore strips from a painted piece of weathered timber and chewed it to make the papier-mache nest. There are terraces of cells for the larvae inside.

Eyes on nature: a hummingbird hawkmoth photographed by Georgina Dalton in Meath

It seems to becoming a hummingbird hawkmoth year. Photos have come from Monica Curran in Offaly, Sheelagh Stewart in Donegal, Georgina Dalton in Meath, and Paul Murphy in Limerick. This summer visitor from southern Europe is immensely difficult to photograph, as it hovers at such fantastic speed.

Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address

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