On opening the lid of the barbecue recently, I almost put my hand on this lovely creature. I take it that it is a noble false widow spider Steatoda nobilis? If so, I am quite glad that I didn’t annoy it. Peter Bishton
This is indeed a most excellent photo of the noble false widow spider. Females are much bigger than the males and have been known to bite humans, but only in response to threat or disturbance so I assume you evicted it safely before lighting the barbecue. It spins a loosely woven scaffolding-like web of extremely strong silk and sits at the entrance to it awaiting the arrival of prey. It will have to set up home somewhere else now.
I spotted this unusual-looking mushroom in the Burren. No sign of it one day and then in full bloom the next day. However, it does seem to have a short life span. What is it? I don’t recall seeing it previously in my area. Frank Russell, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare
The mycologist Hubert Fuller confirms that it is Helvella crispa, the white saddle fungus. It is typically 5-8cm tall, and with its convoluted/contorted white head and fluted stem it is readily recognisable. It is widespread and common. Best known as a species of deciduous woodland, it often grows beside footpaths in woodland. While it is more often associated with beech trees it is known to form associations with other trees such as hazel of which there is no shortage in the Burren. There is one previous record of the fungus in Lisdoonvarna in 2022.
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My front door has been attracting these beautiful stick insects all through the summer. This is the first time I’ve seen them so they must be thriving in Galway now. Marie Greally, Galway
They are thriving all right, but they are not stick insects. This is actually a common plume moth. It is so called because the wings of most species when spread at rest look like feathers or plumes. But not so this one. It rolls up its wings when at rest into a T shape. Its caterpillars feed on the leaves of bindweed. The moths fly at night and often rest during the day near porchlights that had attracted them the previous night. Your front door was obviously a prime snoozing spot.
This is a curlew sandpiper, one of a flock of 13 photographed by Sinead Craig of Inishowen Wildlife Club in northeast Co Derry on Saturday September 13th.
An influx of curlew sandpipers has taken place across Britain and Ireland during September 2025, with the arrival considered the most significant for many years. They travel back and forth between Africa where they overwinter and Russia – where all of the curlew sandpipers breed. The species had a productive breeding season there this summer and consequently there are large numbers of juveniles on the move this autumn, encouraged in our direction by recent southeasterly winds.
I noticed this emerald dazzler lumbering across a sunny deck in Crosshaven overlooking Cork harbour. Is it local or an exotic visitor carried by the warm coastal wind? Mary Catherine Lucey, Cork
No, it is a glamorous Cork native all right. This is the rose chafer – an insect related to the more common May bug that we see in early summer. It flies by day with a loud buzzing noise. It feeds mainly on the stamens of flowers. It is alleged that it damages roses, hence the name. The larvae live in rotten stumps and old compost heaps from which the adults emerge in all their splendid glory to fly in summer.
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