Forest ranger Frans Kapteijns shares his knowledge of nature every week. Anyone can submit questions via [email protected]. This time Frans pays attention to, among other things, a strange pigeon, a hairy caterpillar, a butterfly with a strange name and lying tree trunks with yellow stuff that resembles polyurethane foam. Part two of this Stuifmail will be published on Sunday morning.
The Stuifmail question number 7:
Kingfishers, who doesn’t know them? They are special birds, but what is the most special thing about the kingfisher?
Please send your answer to [email protected]. The winner will receive a beautiful small insect hotel, donated by the Van Gogh National Park. You will hear the answer on Sunday between eleven in the morning and noon.
Strange pigeon on the roof, what kind of one is it?
Chris Bijvelds sent me a photo of a strange pigeon that was sitting on his roof. He wanted to know what kind of pigeon it was. Now I don’t know much about bred types of pigeons, but I happened to remember something. My late uncle Frans was a pigeon fancier and he once told me about traditional racing pigeons, so I started investigating.
The strange pigeon on Chris’ roof could be an originally English homing pigeon or a bottlenose dolphin. In addition, there are two other old pigeon breeds that may be possible. This is primarily the Dutch carrier pigeon; these birds have a smooth beak and clean eye rims for optimal endurance in flight. Finally, the Oriental fancy pigeon without warts! This is specifically stated because pigeons have been bred with excessive facial and nasal warts. You can read more about it here.
I don’t know exactly which pigeon it is, but perhaps the real pigeon fancier will stand up and help us out of this dream.
What is hanging on my Wisteria?
Gilbert Verhoeven wondered what was hanging on his wisteria (Wisteria), so I started looking for the answer. First of all, it turns out that there are about ten species of wisteria: woody creepers that are native to the United States, China, Korea and Japan.
In addition, there is something special: there are left-turning and right-turning wisterias. The Chinese type turns counterclockwise, the Japanese one turns clockwise. Wisterias can grow up to 20 meters high and reach a width of at least 10 meters. After the flowering period they naturally develop seed, and that seed is in seed pods or pods. Such a pod is in Gilbert’s photo.
By the way, the seeds from those pods are very poisonous. Not when they are on the ground, but when you eat them. I don’t think anyone does that, but it can cause serious gastrointestinal upset. Would you like to know more about wisterias? Then look here.
What’s crawling past here?
Anja Thompson sent me two photos asking what was crawling by. I think the first photo above shows a caterpillar of the moth called ‘sticker’. The photo is a bit blurry, but I still dare to take a chance. A good friend had the same response.
The caterpillars of the stickers are quite hairy and have striking red bristles. Butterflies are moths that belong to the down moth family and are also active during the day. What is special is that the females have well-developed wings, but hardly use them. They often stay near their cocoon and lay eggs there. Males attract them by emitting a special substance (pheromones). After mating, the females lay their eggs on the trunk of the tree where they are currently sitting.
The second photo below shows a small beetle, the cherry pit beetle. Cherry stone beetles, also called stone fruit blossom beetles, are beetles from the weevil family. Female cherry stone beetles lay their eggs in the ovaries of, among others, the common bird cherry and sweet cherry. This allows the larvae to eat the soft kernels completely from the inside. Later, when the fruits fall, they burrow into the soil to pupate and overwinter.
What kind of caterpillar is this?
Donny van Koolwijk’s daughter found a caterpillar on the Millsebaan in Uden, which she then rescued and took home. Mother and daughter took pictures of the caterpillar and started looking in certain ones apps. Unfortunately, they did not reach a definitive solution and sent a photo to Stuifmail.
By the way, they were close, because one of the answers was the caterpillar of a pear branch. I think that is not correct and it concerns the caterpillar of the apple branch. These caterpillars hibernate as young caterpillars by pressing flat against a twig of the host plant. Various deciduous trees serve as host plants, such as blackthorn, but also native bird cherry, hawthorn, birch and pedunculate oak.
The adult apple branch moths have a considerable wingspan of up to 55 millimeters. The color of this butterfly species is pale green, but over time that color fades to more white.
What is that yellow stuff on a lying tree, is that polyurethane foam?
During her daily walk, Angelique Jansen saw yellow stuff on one of the lying trees on Roostenlaan in Eindhoven. She described it as a kind of polyurethane foam, but she thought it could also be a mushroom. She sent me a photo.
And she is right, because what she saw was the fruiting body of a sulfur fungus. This tree fungus owes its name to both its color and its smell, because it smells like sulphur. When the fungus is fresh, the caps smell like chicken, hence the English name ‘chicken of the woods‘. In a young stage, these caps are also edible and even very tasty.
Sulfur fungi are parasitic fungi that are mainly found on oak trees. When in full bloom they are bright yellow to brick red. They are mainly found on old oak trees in summer to early autumn. If such a tree is covered with a sulfur fungus, the trunk of that tree is slowly hollowed out from the inside.
