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A stranger in the woodshed
On August 17, Jos Huybers saw a small animal between the logs in his wood shed. He wants to know what it was. In the photo you see an animal that you don’t encounter very often. This insect has two completely different forms: one form in the nymph period and another form in the adult period (imago). In the photo that Jos sent you see the insect in the nymph period. The name is mask bug or dust bug. This name was given to this bug because during the nymph period the insect is covered with a sticky, oily substance that causes dust and dirt to stick firmly to the nymph. They may be barely recognizable, but they are fairly common in and around our homes. Especially in dusty attics, but also in other places where there is a lot of dust. It is important that there are many small insects present, because they are on the menu of this nymph of the mask bug.
The adults look very beautiful, with their shiny dark brown to dull black color. In addition, they are beautiful, slim-built bugs, which also have rough hair. They are useful insects to have around the house, because they have all kinds of difficult insects on their menu. Both the nymph and the adult masked bug are real predators. They hunt all kinds of insects that are harmful to us, such as silverfish, flies and dust lice.
Is this a pale cockroach?
Etiënne van de Wiel came across an insect during a walk on August 17. He thought of a pale cockroach. The insect can indeed be a pale cockroach, but also a cross-banded cockroach. Still, I think it is a pale cockroach, but it is often very confusing because these animals look very similar in a young stage. In addition, both bugs are also forest animals.
The invasive cross-banded cockroach did not originally occur here, but it did occur in southern France and Spain. Nowadays this cockroach can be found in abundance in the Netherlands. The confusion is greatest at a young stage, especially when they are both outside. The cross-banded cockroach is much lighter in color at that stage and the pale cockroach is also light in color. This difference becomes clearer later. The cross-banded cockroach often enters houses during the winter period (too cold outside), while the pale cockroach basically stays outside.
Adult cross-banded cockroaches look really different later on. Then they have two transverse bands on the torso, which pale cockroaches do not have. If they are both outside, they are not really harmful to humans because they live there on rotting organic plant material (such as fallen leaves). Would you like to know more about the cross-banded cockroach? then see this link.
So I think Etiënne photographed a pale cockroach. Pale cockroaches can mainly be found on Dutch sandy soils and in the dunes. It is the rarest of the native cockroaches. They are missing in the rest of our country.
Large moth suddenly in the garden
On August 17, a large moth (not a moth!) flew into Katja Sprenger’s garden. She would like to know which moth it is. She called an acquaintance who is a bird watcher. He gave the answer blue orphan child. He immediately wanted to jump into the car, but unfortunately the butterfly had already flown. I understand that he wanted to do that, because Katja had seen something special. The blue orphan is a very rare migratory butterfly that is only occasionally observed in the Netherlands. This very beautiful moth used to be very, very rare, but in recent years this beautiful orphan has been seen more often. Reports come from various locations, such as the North Holland Dune Reserve.
This quite large moth with a maximum wingspan of 95 centimeters belongs to the spider owl family. Just like other orphans, but also the scallop butterfly.
The blue orphan hibernates in a bark crevice, but as an egg. Blue orphan caterpillars live on various host plants such as poplar, oak and ash. Pupation takes place in a loose cocoon in the litter layer or between the leaves of the plant they have eaten, the so-called host plant.
An unused wren’s nest?
Nout Smit found an artful nest of a wren on August 18. He writes that the nest had not been used. The latter is quite normal, it is certainly more common in wrens. Male wrens produce an average of five to six litters at a time. The male mainly does this to attract females, because then they see that he is a powerful male. Call it muscle language. The male wren then sings loudly to attract a female. The female in turn then chooses one of the nests, which she will first line and then use for breeding. Once that female is breeding well, the warbler will sing again to attract another female and mate with that female. If it is also breeding, the game starts again. All this to produce many offspring. Often it remains with three filled nests and the remaining of the five built nests remain.
After the young from the first nest have fledged, the male often helps the females and young in the other two nests. If these young wrens are also independent, the male wren will look for new partners again and the fun will start all over again.
An oak tree with acorns in a kind of chain
On August 18, Frans van Westering saw a so-called Christmas decoration made of acorns on the Strabrechtse Heide. He called it that because he saw a stem on the cup of the first acorn and then on that stem another cup containing another acorn. He wonders if this is a mutation or something like that. You don’t see it often, but this phenomenon does indeed occur in pedunculate oaks. Especially with a good acorn year, also called mast year. You also see it in sessile oaks, but a) they are not that common and b) sessile oaks have short stems on the cups, so it is less noticeable in sessile oaks. Of course, this is a deviation from normal development, but it is not unusual. Oak trees have both male and female flowers. So they do not stand as one flower, but separately from each other, on a tree. This is called multiple flowers. They do not self-pollinate, but the oak trees receive pollen from other trees through the wind. That’s called cross-pollination. These frequent female flowers often receive a lot of pollen from nearby trees. In a good year, a lot of fruits/acorns grow on the tree. In a very good pollen year, those multiple female flowers can even produce two fruits/acorns. These then end up in a cup via a subsequent stem.
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How the wren builds his nest – Fe Davids
The wren is a small, round bird with an almost always upright tail. Males and females like to forage in low undergrowth. The males make spherical nests – five per male – from moss, leaves and twigs. All with a side entrance. The female inspects these nests and chooses one to incubate in, after which she further lines the inside with feathers, soft hairs and spider silk. The male can then attract other females for a second or third litter.