I spotted this hawk feasting on a pigeon. Would it have hunted the pigeon first? He seemed to be taking his time with it, over an hour from when I first spotted it, to when the hawk was sick of his audience and flew off with his lunch. Mairead Slater, Clonskeagh, Dublin
This is a female sparrowhawk, which is larger than the male and has dark grey back feathers and white and brown stripes along the breast. It is an urban predator and feeds on birds by gliding low along hedges and in gardens and then ambushing the unsuspecting prey. It catches its prey with its talons and then uses them to stab and crush it to death. It then plucks and eats most of it unhurriedly on the spot.
Can I have an identification for this spider please. It was found on a flowerpot in my back garden in Ashbourne, Co Meath. Ailbe Kit McFadden, age six
This is a running grass spider – most likely Tibellus oblongus because of the two black spots at the rear of its abdomen. It normally occurs on coarse grasses, rushes and heather and is most commonly seen in July, although females can last into the autumn. It doesn’t catch prey in a web but lies stretched out along grass leaves and rushes, waiting for insects to pass.
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I photographed these striking purple mushrooms at Ballynafagh Lake, Co Kildare, at the end of September. What are they? Emma Jane Leeson
There are a lot of mushrooms around at the moment. This one is the violet cobweb – Cortinarius violaceus. These are called cobweb mushrooms because there is a cobweb-like veil beneath the gills. The mycologist Hubert Fuller says that, while this group can be demanding when it comes to identifying species, this one is fortunately readily identifiable with its intense deep violet-coloured cap, gills and stem. The cap is dry and finely scaly, as in the image, 10 to 15cm in diameter, while the stem can reach 12cm in height. The cut flesh is said to smell of cedar wood. This is a mycorrhizal fungus, which forms a close mutual partnership with the roots of poplar, birch and beech trees, and is rare in Ireland and Britain.
This strange little insect crossed my path in the ruins of the Dominican Priory in Carlingford recently. It looks spectacular. I wonder what it is called? Úna Uí Dhuinn, Rathfarnham, Dublin
Wonder no more. This is the caterpillar of the pale tussock moth. It has a magnificent appearance with tufts of yellow, red and white hairs. These are nasty things and cause a rash if handled. Birds keep well away from them. This one was on its way, after a summer of feeding on tree leaves, to pupate in a hairy silken cocoon among leaf litter. It passes the winter like this and will appear as a moth in April.
We observed this very unusual insect with fluorescent-coloured legs in our garden in Donacarney, Co Meath. What is it? Is it an invasive species? Lucy and Chris Sweeney
It is an Ichneumon wasp, which are parasitic insects that lay their eggs in the caterpillars of moths and butterflies. These eggs hatch out into grubs that live inside the caterpillar, feeding on the living, growing, poor unfortunate. It eventually pupates inside the now-expiring caterpillar, and bursts forth as an adult from the shrivelled skin, which is about all that is left of it. This species is Pimpla rufipes – the black slip wasp. The protrusion at the back is the ovipositor of this female. They do not sting and yes, they are a native species, not a recent invasive species.
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