Large Red-eyed Damselflies in Cheshire

May 19, 2011:
Large Red-eyed Damselflies (Erythromma najas) have now emerged here. At this small pool at the north-western limit for the species in Britain, several males could be seen out in the centre of the water where they rested on floating pondweed. As soon as the sun emerged there was frenzied activity as the males defended their territories from intruders. Occasionally also, an ovipositing pair would be ‘buzzed’. When egg-laying in tandem, the female was totally immersed under the surface but protected by an envelope of air around her body. Today all remained at long range and made photography difficult. These are quite fast-flying insects which keep low down close to the water surface but are easily picked out by their striking bright red eyes.


[Male; the female totally immersed when egg-laying]



[Territorial males resting on pondweed]

This same sheltered pool had several other species of Odonata, especially damselflies, and was a haven for other wildlife as well. A group of resting Mallard ducklings added to the idyllic scene.

DRAGONFLY: Banded Demoiselles have emerged at Brockholes Wetlands

May 11, 2011:
Banded Demoiselles (Calopteryx splendens) are now flying here. Several males showing their beautiful metallic-blue colouring were resting in the long grass adjacent to the Meadow Pool reed beds. At this date there was no sign of the females which have browner wings lacking the dark banding and a greener thorax and abdomen.




[Males above, female below]

PLANT: Fen Violet in central England

May 9, 2011:
Fen Violet (Viola persicifolia Schreb.) is a very scarce plant and in Britain is now only reliably found at a single locality in central England. A visit there this week revealed several hundred plants in full flower.



Much of the success of the plant here is due to conservation work carried out over recent years by a band of dedicated botanists. The locality is a fen meadow which approaches the NVC classification M24 (Molinia caerulea-Cirsium dissectum) and where other interesting plants grow nearby.




[Fen Violet, all above]


[The habitat where Fen Violet occurs; local botanists assessing the population]

Also found here is the related Dog Violet (Viola canina) with which the Fen Violet sometimes hybridises (V. x ritschliana). Dog Violet and the (sterile) hybrid appeared to be scarce here this year although a few plants were found.


[Flower of the hybrid, V. x ritschliana]

Fen Violet is characterised by its broad, very pale blue-white flowers, its greenish coloured spur and narrowly ovate, subcordate leaves. The hybrid approaches Dog Violet in flower characters and Fen Violet in habit. Fen Violet also occurs spasmodically in small numbers at two localities in eastern England and was much more widespread in past centuries before drainage reclamation drastically reduced its habitat.

Good populations are also known in the Burren area of western Ireland where it grows as the lowest zonal layer of violets on the sides of turloughs (small lakes with rapidly changing water levels). There the hybrid grows slightly above the Fen Violet with V. canina forming the uppermost zone. I saw it here in 1989 when all three taxa were locally profuse.

BUTTERFLY: Paphos Blue (Glaucopsyche paphos) in Cyprus

April 7, 2011:
Near Kidasi in the Dhiarizos valley fifteen kilometres to the east of Paphos, this endemic Spring butterfly was flying in good numbers although disinclined to settle. When it did so briefly to take nectar from a bright yellow crucifer there was just chance for a photograph.




In Cyprus to where it is endemic it is common although found mostly in the west and south of the island on the warm chalky garrigue. Its larval foodplant comprises various species of Genista (brooms) which are usually thorny bushes. The butterfly photographed here is a male and exhibits a bright blue upperside with a black band around the margin and the characteristic greyish underside with large black spots ringed in white in the post-discal area of the forewing.

ORCHIDS: Cyprus March-April, 2011

March 29-April 7, 2011:
The chalk garrigue lying within a triangle between the villages of Kidasi, Omodhos and Monagri in south-west Cyprus is rich in orchids. Many can be found near the roadside and often there are several different species growing in close proximity to each other. However, within the same general area and habitat there will be many other places where there are none at all, indicating that the conditions there are not exactly correct for these very demanding plants.

At the time of the visit many species were in flower, especially those of Ophrys (‘bee orchids’) with their strikingly spectacular flowers. Between Kidasi and Omodhos there was Ophrys israelatica, Ophrys asiatica, Orchis quadripunctata in two colour forms, Orchis italica and Barlia robertiana.


[Ophrys israelitica]


[Ophry asiatica]


[Orchis quadripunctata]


[Orchis quadripunctata, white form]


[Orchis italica]


[Barlia robertiana]

A chalk roadside near Monagri had Ophrys flavomarginata, O. umbilicata, O. iricolor and, quite surprisingly a few plants of the rare endemic Ophrys kotschyi (perhaps a new locality?).



[Ophrys flavomarginata, both above]


[Ophrys umbilicata]


[Ophrys iricolor]



[The rare endemic Ophrys kotschyi, both above]

A small gorge just south of Kidasi had Serapias bergonii, Ophrys lutea subsp. galilea (=O. sicula) and more Ophrys flavomarginata and Orchis italica.


[Serapias bergonii]


[Ophrys lutea subsp. galilea]

At this site there was also Bellevalia trifoliata (a monocotyledon but not actually an orchid). At Monagri there was another interesting monocotyledon: Gagea fibrosa.


[Bellevalia trifoliata]


[Gagea fibrosa]

Thanks to Yiannis for help with some of the ids.

LICHEN: Peltigera praetextata in Cumbria

March 8, 2011:
Deciduous woodlands in Cumbria are the home to several species of lichen which are scarce elsewhere in England. Whilst searching for some of these yesterday, another more widespread lichen was seen and photographed. This was Peltigera praetextata Floerke ex Sommerf. which was growing on moss-covered boulders in woodland on the west side of Ullswater.


[Colour when dry; photo width = approx 10cm]

It is a relatively large 'leafy' lichen which anchors itself to the substrate by spike-like growths (rhizines) on its underside. The upper surface is brown to pale grey when dry but becomes dark grey or almost black when wet. The surface is bullate (i.e. it has raised vein) whilst the margins and surface cracks of older specimens can bear isidia (outgrowths containing its photosynthetic partner).


[Colour when wet. The isidia can be seen and also the bullate surface (in the lower part)]

This is the only relatively common British species of Peltigera which bears surface isidia. It is widespread and locally common on mossy boulders, tree-bases and on damp, heathy slopes.


[Showing the spike-like rhizines on the underside]

MAMMAL: Otters in Cumbria

February 10, 2011:
There have been several recent reports of Otters being seen at a locality in Cumbria so today's unexpected glorious weather gave an opportunity to go to look for them.



A short wait by the lake-side was rewarded by the first sighting as what appeared to be a young one surfaced and rolled about in the water for a few seconds. Soon afterwards a group of three appeared, their size suggesting them to be an adult and two juveniles. These two engaged in a playful squabble before the parent guided them away out of view. There are frequent sightings of Otters in the north-west nowadays suggesting that they are undergoing a significant revival from their former scarcity when they suffered from the poisonous effects of chlorinated pesticides.

PLANT: Salvia veneris (Hedge) a Cyprus narrow endemic

Date retrospective: April 2001:
Salvia veneris is a beautifully-flowered extremely narrow endemic restricted to an area of only a few square kilometres of ecologically-interesting terrain around Kythrea (Degirmenlìk) in northern Cyprus. The plant has rounded, flattened, thickly felted grey-green leaves, nearly all of them basal. The flowers have a pale sky-blue hood and a cream-yellow lower lip finely flecked with darker markings although I've also found a few plants with pure white flowers.




[White-flowered form]

The substrate where it grows comprises barren eroded sandstones and marls and plants are usually found on the slopes of small hummocks amongst minimal competition. Such open dry earth is very loose and friable and although quite deep-rooted, the plants (and the habitat) can be easily damaged by trampling. They occur in discrete local populations, often comprising only 10 to 30 individuals and can be surprisingly difficult to detect against the greyish soil.




[Several plants can be seen as grey patches scattered on the friable substrate]

Salvia veneris occurs in loose association with several other interesting plants which include the recently discovered Wiedemannia orientalis Fisch. & Mey. and the endemic Hedysarum cyprium Boiss.


[Wiedemannia orientalis]


[Hedysarum cyprium]

Salvia veneris was first discovered by the party of botanists led by the Englishman John Sibthorp during a tour of the eastern Mediterranean in 1787; a specimen which they collected is preserved in the Oxford University herbarium. In addition, a beautiful and accurate painting was made by Ferdinand Bauer, the renowned Austrian natural history artist, who accompanied Sibthorp's party and an engraving of this is reproduced in ‘Flora Graeca' published by James Smith in 1806. Unfortunately no locality details were given on the preserved specimen and so the precise place where it was first collected is uncertain but may have been a little to the west of the limited area from which it is now known.

For a detailed account of this plant and its close relatives, see the Karaca Arboretum Magazine Vol 7 part 1 (Foley 2003).

PLANT: Arenaria norvegica subsp anglica (English Sandwort) in the British Isles.

Arenaria norvegica subsp. anglica, Ingleborough, North Yorkshire

Date: retrospective to the mid 1990s
This very scarce small white-flowered plant is a member of the Caryophyllaceae (Pink family). Arenaria norvegica occurs in Britain as two distinct sub-species (subsp. anglica and subsp. norvegica). The former, subsp. anglica, is a British endemic (i.e. not known elsewhere in the world) and is restricted to just a small area of the Yorkshire Dales whereas subsp. norvegica, although still scarce, is rather more widespread and is found in the Assynt area of Sutherland, Shetland, Argyll, the Isle of Rhum and western Ireland.
Subspecies anglica is biennial with narrow elliptic-ovate leaves, flowers to c.20mm in diameter and with three styles; subsp norvegica is perennial, has obovate leaves and smaller flowers bearing 3-5 styles.


Subp. anglica, Crummack, Ingleborough

Most populations of subsp. anglica are to be found on the limestone pavement area on the eastern flank of Ingleborough although it can easily be overloooked. It prefers very thin soils over well-drained limestone and grows in cracks and small depressions in the rock where competition from other plants is minimal. It has also been found in damp flushes and occasionally has colonised track-sides where limestone gravel has been laid as a base. In the early 1990s I took part in a survey of the plant on Ingleborough where eventually 27 separate populations were found in this very limited area. Population sizes can fluctuate dramatically depending on climatic conditions at the time of flowering (May onwards).


Subsp. norvegica, River Loanan shingle, Inchnadamph, Sutherland

Subsp. norvegica is also restricted to limestone substrates. In Scotland it mostly grows on fine scree and on riverside gravels (as above). In Ireland it was recorded on a single occasion in 1961 on extensive pavement in the Burren but couldn’t be re-found in subsequent years and was thought extinct until rediscovered in 2008. It also occurs in Scandinavia and Iceland.