Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to it here:
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Which spider did we spot on the Veluwe near Otterloo?
José Hermes spotted a spider on the Veluwe near Otterlo and sent me a photo with the question, which spider is this? I think this is one of the jumping spiders, called the greenhouse jumping spider. Jumping spiders are a large family of almost 5,500 species all over the world. They do not make webs, but pounce on their prey. By the way, they make a spider silk thread when they jump, which secures them. In addition, they have even better eyesight than normal spiders. So they clearly hunt by sight. They have small powerful legs and a stocky body. They mainly hunt in warm and sunny weather. Greenhouse jumping spiders originally occurred in Asia, Australia and South America. They often live here in greenhouses.
A strange organism on some corn plants
Christel van Halderen saw something strange in the corn. She wonders what it was. She sent me a photo and thought it was a fungus herself. Christel is right. What she saw is called scald. This form of bubonic fire or corn fire is caused by a fire fungus that attacks the corn. These fire fungi mainly affect the grass family and the cypergrass family (including sedge species). Corn, wheat, barley and oats fall under that grass family. What the fire fungi mainly do is attack the seeds. Then you will see a separate tissue develop, which is called galls (see photo). These galls later burst open and the spores then fly to the next corn plant.
Small green strange creature
Rosemarie de Wit sent me a photo of a tiny animal that I couldn’t make into porridge at first. After a lot of searching and opening books, I came up with an answer: the caterpillar of a snail caterpillar butterfly. Snail caterpillar butterflies – and there are more species – belong to the moth family of snail caterpillar butterflies. These caterpillars are slightly flattened, slightly egg-shaped and have a very short, somewhat square protrusion. These caterpillars owe their name to this, because they look a bit like a small snail. The moths of this species are small to medium sized, often brightly colored and hairy.
See the photo of the small snail caterpillar butterfly above.
Strange organism on a wooden garden table
Annerie Kocx saw a strange organism on her garden table last year. Unfortunately, the photo was so unclear that I couldn’t make anything of it. But this year the organism was back and based on this photo I can put a name to it. The name of this organism is bundled net tuft. This is therefore a myxomycete. This myxomycete species (slime mold species) lives on dead wood and can mainly be found in mixed forests, in coniferous forests and on garden tables. This species lives in small compact groups. You can read more about myxomycetes via this link.
What kind of birds are these on the barbed wire at Het Zwin?
Yvonne Rommelaars saw a few birds on barbed wire in the beautiful nature reserve Het Zwin in Belgium. She recognized one, that was the stonechat. The other doesn’t. So her question is: who was sitting next to the stonechat? The answer is: also a stonechat, but the female. So the male and female of the stonechat sat comfortably together on the barbed wire. Stonechats are small songbirds and grow up to thirteen centimeters in size. The male has a black head and a white stripe or spots underneath. The chest of the male is orange, with a dark brown top.
The female has a brown head and also a brown upperpart, but no white stripe or neck spots. In addition, she also has hardly any orange on her chest and stomach.
Strange cocoon on the caravan in Cres, Croatia
René van Kuik found a strange kind of cocoon in Cres, Croatia. At least, that’s what he thought. I do not think so. I forwarded the question to Naturalis to be sure, because I had never seen anything like this before. According to Naturalis, this is the emerging skin of a cicada, more specifically one of the squat cicadas. Previously, this species could not be found in the Netherlands, but since 2010 the species has been advancing in our country, see this link.
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Apoda limacodes snail caterpillar – Nature Cam
The snail caterpillar is a moth from the snail caterpillar family. The wingspan is between twenty and thirty millimeters. This is a common butterfly in the Netherlands. These almost legless caterpillars can often be found on oaks and beech trees in August and September. The green caterpillar moves in the same way as a snail and, due to the lack of visible legs, also looks very similar to a snail. Hence the Dutch name ‘snail caterpillars’ from the family Limacodidae.
What kind of mosquito?
Willie Hurkmans wonders which mosquito, one and a half centimeters long, she was dealing with. She sent me a photo. What you can immediately see from the photo is that this is not a mosquito. The insect belongs to the diptera or diptera. In addition, the insect has a typical head and the body has a metallic sheen. All this together plus an inch and a half length makes me think this is a fall metal gun fly.
Leaf flies are harmless flower visitors and cannot sting. The larvae of autumn metal leaf flies live in compost, decaying plant material, decayed fungi and also in cow manure.
Which beautiful blue butterfly landed on my leg during a walk in Carinthia?
Anja Hurkmans had a beautiful blue butterfly land on her leg. She is curious which butterfly this is. The photo is a bit blurry, but I think I recognize a tree blue in it. In addition to blue, the tree blue also has whitish wings, with small black spots on the wings. The antennas are checkered in black and white.
The tree blue belongs to one of the most beautiful butterfly families called the blue family. Tree blues have honeydew (from aphids or scale insects), sap from bleeding trees and nectar on their menu. Very occasionally you see them sitting near puddles of water. They drink there, but they also sometimes sit on feces. If you have shrubs in your garden, you can observe them beautifully because they fly high in the tops of shrubs. They also do this with trees, but then they are difficult to see of course.
Beautiful photos section
In the beautiful photos section, this time a photo taken by Maryvonne de Kok. She captured a wasp spider in the hedge.
Nature tip
An autumn excursion will be organized in Bergen op Zoom on Wednesday, October 11 from two to four in the afternoon. Autumn is seen by many as a colorful period, but in addition to the coloring of the leaves, nature also prepares itself in many ways for the approaching cold. Together with a guide you can go along to discover the special features of the season. Are you walking along?
More information:
Registration required, see this link.
Departure point is De Kraaijenberg visitor center, Fianestraat 21 parking lot in Bergen op Zoom.
Participation costs two euros per person (payment with PIN). Protectors of Brabants Landschap and members of IVN Groene Zoom can participate for free upon presentation of their annual pass.
This excursion is aimed at adults.
The activity is not intended for groups. Teaching packages are offered for schools and BSOs. No organized activities are possible for children’s parties, but you are always welcome in the Klauterwoud!