Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to the podcast here:
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Are these ants enjoying the sun?
Marleen Rodenburg saw a lot of ants in the Mastbos near Breda. She wondered if they were enjoying the sun en masse. Somehow, is my response. But what they are doing is something very functional. The nest of these red wood ants is still cold underground in early spring. In addition, red wood ants are insects and insects are cold-blooded animals. In early spring they warm up en masse to become active. With the heat from their bodies, they also warm up below the nest. The warmed animals go down into the nest with that heat. The colder ones take their place on top of their nest and in turn, when they have warmed up, they also go down again. So you can call them running central heating.
What grows on the lawn?
A plant is almost in bloom on Martin Neggers’ lawn. He suspects a bluebell, but that plant has a different leaf. Hence his doubt. But a bluebell does indeed appear on his lawn, but the wild variety: the wild bluebell. The wild bluebell has long, linear and light gutter-shaped leaves. This is clearly visible in the photo. In the middle you will see a rosette of blue bell-shaped flowers. The cultivated species often has lighter blue-colored flowers and somewhat narrower leaves. In our country, the wild variant mainly occurred in the richer deciduous forests of South Limburg. In addition, the wild hyacinth also appeared as a stinzen plant. These are plants that were often found near castles, monastery gardens and other historical places and were often imported from the south centuries ago. The word ‘stinzenplant’ comes from the Frisian word ‘stins’, which means stone house.
Something white on a tree?
Astrid Klomp saw a kind of fungus on a tree during a walk through Heeze and Leende. She would like to know which fungus this is. In the photo she sent me you see a whitish organism. Almost shiny. This organism is called silver tree cushion. This is not a fungus, but a myxomycete (slime mold). Silver tree cushions belong to the mycetozoan kingdom. These are cushion-shaped myxomycetes. Their membrane initially has a silver sheen. They can grow up to four inches long. The contents of the silver tree cushion are initially white, later chocolate brown. In Dutch they fall under the realm of slime molds, but they are absolutely not fungi or molds. They are single-celled animals, also called amoebas.
Strange moth in a garden centre
Harold Vos found a butterfly on the ground in a garden center. He saw that the butterfly was still alive. He sent me a picture of that butterfly and thought it was a Japanese silk moth. Quite coincidentally, I recently read in a book about the wonderfully beautiful moth family and also saw a number of foreign species in that book, including the Japanese silk moth. So I can confirm that what Harold suspected is correct. Japanese silk moths do not belong in our country. So I think that this moth came with plants from countries such as Slovenia and Italy, because more and more Japanese silk moths are now found there. Their habitat is increasingly expanding. They are also already found in Austria and Germany. They can survive there because the caterpillars eat the leaves of oaks, sweet chestnuts, beeches and hornbeams. Who knows, maybe one day they will come to live in our country, those beautiful Japanese silk moths.
Seen cup fungi in the Hogerwaardpolder near Rilland
Marianne Wijten found a bunch of cup fungi in the Hogerwaardpolder near Rilland. She wonders whether these occur more often in our country. As can be seen in the photo, Marianne has captured a bunch of cups of the pale brown cup fungus. This species is fairly common, from early spring to autumn. These fungi are saprophytes and like to grow in humus soil. Humus soil is created when dead plant and animal remains and feces are broken down by soil life. The pale brown cup fungus likes to grow on this, but you also find them on paper, cardboard, walls, burn marks and rotten wood.
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A minute of nature: red wood ants – Geert Naessens
The first rays of sunlight wake up the red wood ants. They all warm themselves in the sun and thus bring that first warmth to their nest with the help of their own bodies. Wood ants are well-organized, hard workers and together they are capable of great things. Different species live in our forests, sometimes barely distinguishable from each other. The red wood ant lives in a surprising symbiosis with aphids, which provide the ants with food.
What kind of animal is this?
Sjan Arts sent me a photo showing a butterfly. She would like to know the name. What she has seen is an bindweed pintail. Pintails are moths from the pintail family. These true moths are quite large. They can have a wingspan of between nine to twelve centimeters. What is special is that pintails can reach a speed of up to one hundred kilometers per hour over a short distance, but the average speed is often about 50 kilometers per hour. Bindweed butterflies are basically migratory butterflies from Southern Europe, but they are increasingly found in our country. However, in varying numbers every year. There are even migratory pintail butterflies, which are sometimes observed above the sea. Bindweed pintails are nocturnal butterflies, which are strongly attracted to artificial light. Honeysuckle and soapwort are plants that these butterflies like to fly to at night to suck nectar.
When will the first bees arrive in my insect hotel?
Mieke Huijbregts sent me a photo of a beautiful and large insect hotel. She is curious when bees will come in. The simple answer is: now, because spring has already started for many animals. The sun is already breaking through and temperatures of 15 degrees have already been measured. This means that solitary bees look for a place to nest and that can certainly be an insect hotel.
The first visitors to such a hotel are the horned and red mason bees. They look for a nice tube in which to deposit several eggs. So probably also in Mieke’s insect hotel.
What’s crawling on my windowsill?
Bets Vriens saw something on her windowsill. She would like to know what it is. She sent me a photo and in it you can clearly see a gray stink bug. Gray scale insects can grow up to sixteen millimeters in size. These bugs were once rare in Brabant, but that is no longer the case. You come across them more and more and they climb up everything, even windows. They look for a suitable place to hibernate in our homes – just like leaf-legged bugs and ladybugs. They prefer to do this in dry and dark places. But don’t be afraid of these house guests, they are certainly not dangerous.
Beautiful photos section
In the beautiful photos section, this time a photo taken by André van Drunen. He captured a viviparous lizard on March 4.
Nature tip
An excursion with a nature guide over the Stoppelbergen will be organized on Saturday March 16 from ten in the morning to one o’clock in the afternoon. This is a very uneven area in places. The name Stoppelbergen is probably derived from this. As is usual on the poor sandy soils, plantation forests with quite a lot of maritime pines were created here in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nowadays the forest is more varied, there is quite a lot of natural rejuvenation. A beautiful piece of vital heathland has been preserved and is now carefully managed by Staatsbosbeheer.
The walk takes you past fields, through forests and over the heathland towards Putte, where toponyms such as ‘Galgenberg’, ‘Koud heide’, ‘Toverberg’ and ‘Duivelsven’ testify to an eventful history. Guide Fred Severin will tell you more about it.
More information:
• Registration is not necessary.
• Departure point is the Staatsbosbeheer parking lot at the Zandvlietseweg 19a in Ossendrecht.
• Information can be found at IVN Green Zoom.
• There are no costs associated with the excursion.
• The walk takes 2.5 to three hours and is approximately eight kilometers long.
• The excursion is intended for adults and interested young people.
• It is advisable to wear sturdy shoes.
• Wear clothes that suit the weather.
• In any case, take binoculars with you!