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A. van Dongen and Thomas Schmidt both sent me a picture of a beautiful animal – as they both described – and would like to know what a beast it is. A. van Dongen had seen the beast near the Biesbosch and Thomas Schmidt in the vicinity of the Ederzee in Germany. What they both had seen is a beautiful boktor with the beautiful name Muskboktor. People very often startle the word boktor, but there is only one that is annoying for humans and that is the houseboktor. All other boktorren do nothing with your house, so please let it live! The name Boktor originated because this family of beetles has long antennas, often longer than the length of the body. With that, those antennas look somewhat like horns, hence the name Boktor.
The muskboktor is also sometimes called willow box or rose boktor, but the real name is therefore muskboktor. This is because in the event of a disruption, say for defense, this boktor gives a musk -like scent. They have become a bit rarer in recent years. This has to do with climate change. Especially when they are very warm and dry days. You can see adult muskboktorren a lot on screen -plants where they enjoy the nectar and pollen. Larvae of these musk box drivers live in the wood of especially willow trees. Sometimes you also come across them in other deciduous trees.
Which bird behind the oystercatchers?
Reinder Smid took a picture of a few oystercatchers. When he looked back, he discovered that another bird had been recorded on the picture. What kind of bird is that is his question. On the enlarged photo you see a beautiful black and white bird with a long tail. That is a white wagtail. Even if the white wagtail is at a distance and the colors are rather vague, I often recognize this bird. This is because of the constant movement of his tail. The bird, therefore, owes its/her name to that. Furthermore, the male of this bird in the summer period is recognizable by a black -and -white feather suit with white wing stripes and a black throat. The females are less strikingly black and white. You can say that white wagtails belong completely to our country. It is the most general breeding bird of the countryside. You see them on the heirs of farms, but also in meadows between the legs of cows, horses and sheep and even on many roads in that landscape. They roam their food together as insect eaters. They prefer to stay at the legs of farm animals, because they hope that the agricultural animals push the insects and larvae up there. The nests of wagtails can be found in barns, niches in the buildings, under roof tiles, but also on ditches.
Small wells in the ground, but no insect nearby
Adriënne Saarloos-Zandee saw small wells in her garden, but no insects nearby. Last year these pits were there too. She wonders how they get there? Those dimples were made by an insect with the beautiful name Mierenleeuw. This name owes these insects to their larvae. Ant lions belong to the order of the net wings, such as mesh flies. This is a fairly small, but uniform group in which the adult animals of the different species have a similar physique. The lifestyle is also very similar.
As described above, this family owes the name to the predatory larvae. They are very specialized in catching soil -inhabiting insects, especially ants. Ant lion larvae make funnel -shaped dimples in the sand, often under an overhang. These can be lying trees and crossing edges at buildings but also bushes. In this video entitled ‘ Looking for the ant lion ‘by Christian Olivier You can see this nicely.
The adult animals have plant juices on their menu, but also flying insects. If you see them flying, you initially think you see a dragonfly. You often think of a water lady. In short, they hardly stand out.
Which insect will run here with a caterpillar?
Annie Weerts saw an insect coming flying with a caterpillar. On her photo you see an elongated black insect with almost red on that body at the end. The insect belongs to the fleece wings, which also includes the normal wasp. But this insect lies with another family, namely the family of the Langsteelgraafweps. The name of this longestlegraafwesp is a large caterpillarDoder. In addition to the name, you can also see from the elongated body which prey animals are on the list of the large caterpillarDoder: caterpillars of various types of butterflies. The caterpillars are often larger and heavier than the wasp itself. Once such a caterpillar traced, the Graafwesp paralyzes the caterpillar by inserting poison directly into the nervous system of the caterpillar. The caterpillar is therefore paralyzed, but does not die. Also for transport it is easy that the caterpillar is paralyzed. Otherwise this can sometimes be difficult with a mobile caterpillar.
The paralyzed animal is transported to a excavated cave, with a maximum depth of thirty centimeters. Once there, the caterpillar is put in that cave underground, see the attached photo above. Quite a job. Eggs are then laid on the caterpillar and the large caterpillarDoder then closes the cave. Larvae from the large caterpillarDoder come from those eggs. Those larvae feed on the fat reserves of the still living caterpillar. They then pupate in that corridor system and crawl up in the open air in the spring. Adult large caterpillaries get their energy (food) from the nectar of various plants.
Larvae of a leaf wasp?
Dirk van Rooij saw various larvae on a willow bush. She wonders if these are larvae from the normal leaf wasp. I think it is indeed larvae of a leaf wasp, but then of the willow blade. We also call these larvae bastard dripping because they look a lot like the caterpillars of butterflies, but they are not. The most important difference between the two is that real caterpillars, so from butterflies, have a maximum of five pairs of abdominal legs while the bastard drips have seven or eight pairs of belly legs (sham legs). If the willow leaf had to eat their belly full with the leaves of the willows, they will pupate on the floor. Copper -colored females of the willow blade were coming out of the dolls in the spring. They have a maximum size of 7.5 millimeters. With their laying drills, a kind of saw, they pierce the leaves of willows and put in fifty to eighty soft yellow eggs. Because they have such a special laying drill/saw, these insects are also called saw wasps. In the first instance, small, clear green larvae with large black heads come from those eggs.
Large Rupsendoder buries Rups – Lucas van Loenhout
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The big caterpillarDoder is a real hunter. The paralyzed caterpillar is buried alive in a corridor in the ground, where the caterpillarDoder also leaves one egg. After this she closed the corridor with a stone and some sand.