Nico thought he would see a hornet, but recorded something that is much more fascinating

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Nico came across this insect while walking the dog

Nico recommended came across an insect when his dog walked and photographed this. He sent me the beautiful photo asking if this is a hornet. The answer is no. Nico has come across something much nicer and interesting, a hornet butterfly. This moth has a beautiful black -yellow -bordered back body and also a black -yellow head, brown wings and black wasp -like feelers.

That Nico thought of a European hornet is very logical, because the horns butterflies have taken on the colors of Hoornaars. This is a way to defend itself. This is called Mimicry, imitation. Especially the wings of the horns butterflies are perfectly simulated. Because most scales, except the brown on the edge, are missing. This is in contrast to most butterflies, except for, for example, the glass wing arrow tail. As a result, the majority of the wing surface at the Hoornaarsvlinders is transparent, just like with waspes.

The European Hoornaar has a more orange color, is less hairy and has a clear wasp stop. But that wasp stop is beautifully simulated by the brown triangular spot behind the breastpiece by the Hoornaarvlinder. Also, the strong vein, as is customary for European hornets, is not. The pairs at Hoornaarvlinders is done as with all other butterflies, see the photo above. After mating, the females lay their eggs in poplars or willows, because these caterpillars only eat from these trees.

Beautiful beetle

Carla Vermeeren thought she had photographed a black -headed beaver. She is curious if that is true. I think this is not the black -headed beetle but a lily cock. By the way, I can very well imagine that Carla was mistaken, because that happened to me. This is because both beetles have red covers, black legs and a black head. The lily rooster and the black -headed beetle are very similar, but there is a difference. In any case, they differ in size.

The black -headed beetle can become a maximum of twenty millimeters in size and the Leliehaantje only eleven millimeters. In addition, the covers of the Leliehaantje are shiny and the black -headed beetle has no shiny cover shields. Both beetles have a black head, but the feelers are clearly different. The black -headed beetle has very clearly sawn antennas and the Leliehaantje does not have that. Leliehaantjes belong to the family of the leaf beetles and the black -headed beetles with the family of the fire beetles. Finally, black -headed beetles are originally in our country. The Leliehaantjes are invasive beetles, which originated in Eurasia, but through the export and cultivation of Lelies have spread here.

What is the name of this Langpoot?

Jeanne Meijer read the story about the three -band tiger in the previous Stuifmail, see the photo below, and wondered which Langpootmug she has photographed. She sent me the photo above.

On that beautiful picture of Jeanne, which I unfortunately had to reduce, you can see that the photographed insect has two wings. The long legs are also very clearly present. The insect belongs to the order of flies and mosquitoes. Jeanne is absolutely right, this is clearly a long -legged mosquito. Again one with a nice name, namely the zigzag tiger. This is a typical tiger lang’s mosquito. This type of long -legged mosquitoes is recognizable by the black with yellow tiger drawing in the males on the breastpiece. The zigzag tiger is a species that simply occurs in our country, but also in Iran and in most of the European continent. The name owes this tiger lang -leg mosquito to the dark zigzag line on the wings. In addition, this insect has a dark colored end of the abdomen. The males at the top of the abdomen have a yellow color with a black center line and black side edges. Females have a middle line, formed by wide black triangles. The zigzag tiger, together with the horseshoe tiger, is the most numerous tiger lang’s mosquito in our country.

Bat found under the windowsill

Nicole van Kuringen saw a beautiful bat under her windowsill and wondered what kind it is. I think the name of this beautiful bat is late flyer. Late flyers are one of the largest bats in our country. They have a wingspan of a maximum of 38 centimeters and a body length of eight centimeters. Late flyers are scattered in our country, but especially in cities and villages. They prefer to hunt in open and semi -open landscapes where there are mainly hedges, avenues and forest edges. They often fly there at an altitude of five to ten meters, but sometimes also between the treetops. There are larger insect species on the Late Vliegers menu and especially large moths and beetles. But they also don’t let mosquitoes ‘fly’ on the left. During the day, late flyers prefer to stay in buildings, for example in cavity walls or under roof tiles. In the spring, the females, just like females of other bats in our country, gather in large maternity groups where they raise their young.

Which butterfly is this?

Peter Ector sent me a photo with the simple question: which butterfly is this? The answer is a very nice moth with the name Ligusterpijlstaart. Liguster pipel tails are quite common in our country because the plants on which these caterpillars live are sufficiently present. You can of course see the caterpillars on Liguster, but also on ash, lilacs, Gelderse roses, snowberries, normal elements and even on moersaspireas. Ligus pile tails are large moths, with the front wings having a wingspan a maximum of twelve centimeters, the adult moths like to come to light in the dark. They are real moths, which often rest on trees during the day, walls and fences. You can encounter this beautiful species in Europe and to the east to Japan.

Ligus pile tail in our garden – the fish thief

Ligster pies have a blackish top of the breastpiece and the striking dark brown strip along the inner edge of the front wing – which extends to the wing point – make this species recognizable. The black tires on the pink abdomen and on the light pink rear wing protrude powerfully. There is some variation in the color intensity: the pink has been replaced by white or the abdomen tires are yellowish. On this film you can see a Ligus pile tail in the garden of the fish thief. First he sat on the sleeve of a blue sweater. Then it was carefully deposited on a shelf with a hydrangea leaf.