Monday 30 March 2020

A life that is a lottery from start to finish!

Black Oil Beetles have the most extraordinary life cycle! 

I am lucky enough to have a good population of black oil beetles (Meloe proscarabaeus) in my garden – in fact most gardens in the village where I live, appear to have this fascinating beetle stomping around!


Oil beetles are so called due to the rather toxic, oily substance they release from their leg joints to deter predators. Having said that, I have now made them sound rather frightening – but don’t be scared – I regularly pick them up to move them to a safer place and I have never been “contaminated” by any substance!

The best thing about these big black beetles is their incredible life cycle, which quite honestly you couldn’t make up unless you have a particularly vivid imagination. It’s a very risky choice for a way to live, but if my local population is anything to go by – it works!!

The female digs a short burrow in the ground, in which she lays a vast number of bright yellow eggs – sometimes as many as 1,000 in the burrow, which she then back-fills. This huge number of eggs is important as the newly hatched larvae, which resemble a tiny louse and are known as 'triungulins', now have a monumental task ahead of them.

Having scrambled their way out of the burrow, they must then find a plant that is ideally in flower and climb all the way up to the flower head. There they must patiently wait until a bee lands on the flower to collect pollen and nectar. This is the chance that they have been waiting for, as they quickly climb aboard their winged host, hanging on with specially adapted feet that each have 3 hooks.

The problem is that they need to find specific hosts – mainly solitary bees species, if they are to successfully complete their life cycle. Unfortunately, many will jump onto the first insect that visits the flower head; choose a butterfly or bumble bee literally means that life is about to finish – what a lottery!

Luckily, enough beetle larvae seem to land up clinging to the correct bee host species, which then transport them back to their nest. The beetle larvae then disengage and immediately start to tuck into the bee’s pollen and nectar store and also any of the bee’s eggs that it can find.

Eventually the larvae, having gorged on its hosts hard gained produce, will pupate, hatching out as an adult beetle the following spring to start the whole process over again.

The mind boggles as to how in evolutionary terms this fascinating beetle landed up with such a programme of life!        


Tuesday 17 March 2020

The UK food sector "not critically important" - discuss.

UK food security suddenly seems more important doesn't it? 


About three weeks ago, one of the most senior government advisers said the UK does not need its farming or fishing industries.

Apparently, Dr Tim Leunig is understood to have said the food sector was “not critically important” to the country’s economy – and that agriculture and fisheries “certainly isn’t”.

The economic adviser to the chancellor is reported to have said that ministers could follow the example of Singapore, which is “rich without having its own agricultural sector”.

In the light of the current Covid-19 crisis, in which much of the world’s transport networks have all but shut down, I’m left wondering if this “highly intelligent” economic adviser is still of the same opinion, just three weeks later?

The UK’s farming community has constantly raised the importance of “food security” to Government, and yet in recent times, DEFRA minister after DEFRA minister have given speeches about the future of the countryside, often failing to even mention agriculture.

Of course, it is so very easy to criticise or ignore farmers whilst shelves are stacked high with incredibly cheap food and UK citizens bellies are full.

But what happens when the chips are down (excuse the pun) and supermarket shelves start to become empty and all the talk is suddenly about food supplies?

If nothing else, the Covid-19 crisis might make future UK Governments (and their advisers) realise just how important UK food producers are to the well-being and security of our nation.

In fact, let’s hope that we all become a little more appreciative of our farmers and growers.   
  





Monday 16 March 2020

The Holly leaf-miner

The leaf blotch made by the Holly leaf-miner

If you check out our one native species of Holly in Britain – Ilex aquifolium - then you are very likely to find our only native leaf-miner that lives on Holly. Not all things in natural history are that uncomplicated!!

The Holly leaf-miner - Phytomyza ilicis – is a tiny fly that spends most of the year living as a larvae or pupae “inside” the holly leaf, rather like a letter inside an envelope. There are many hundreds of species of leaf miner; not just flies however, as many are made by tiny moth species too.

The Holly leaf-miner lays its eggs in May and June, in the underside of a young Holly leaf. The eventual blotch on the leaf that the larvae make is green to start with, but over time it can often turn wine red. Also, usually there will be a dark spot in the middle of the leaf blotch, which is made up of frass (or poo) excreted by the larvae.


Some can turn a colourful red! 

Once you start to check out Holly to see if it has this little fly species, you will quickly realise just how common and widespread this species is – it seems to be on most Holly bushes and trees. You may never have noticed it before – but you will from now on!  


Tuesday 10 March 2020

It's all about our consumption of red meat you know!! Or is it?

The UK cannot go climate neutral much before 2050 unless people stop flying and eating red meat almost completely, a report says.

The claim comes from the government-funded research group Energy Systems Catapult, whose computer models are used by the Committee on Climate Change, which advises government. It warns that livestock production for dairy and meat may need to be cut by 50% rather than the 20% currently envisaged by the Committee on Climate Change. 

But a spokesman from the National Beef association, Neil Shand, told BBC News that “scientific studies typically underestimate the role of livestock in capturing carbon in the soil”. He says this because British beef are largely grass fed and grassland is good at capturing carbon. 

He went on to say “It does seem rather unfortunate that the report links beef production and aviation in this way. The timing is more than a little ironic; the shops are full of people panic-buying and it seems clear that the nation’s food sector relies very heavily on imports, and the associated transport that brings them into the UK”.

However, much of the information you read about the planet-wrecking capability of cows is based on the most extreme scenario. I agree that cattle grazing pasture land in South America that used to be rain-forest, is massively destructive to biodiversity, coupled with the fact that the tree felling also releases a lot of carbon dioxide. 

Also, cattle kept on huge, very intensive coral type ranches in the US Midwest, do use a lot of water and create a large amount of pollution. 

But there is an easy way to avoid this – buy British. In Britain, beef cattle tend to be kept outdoors on permanent pasture. So the Government needs to differentiate between pasture fed UK cattle and those that are intensively raised overseas. They also need to factor in the transportation footprint of foreign raised beef.  

I wrote on this subject on the 17th February (see below) and still wonder why the Government bangs on all the time about “red” meat production being such a problem in this country? UK farming contributes 10% of the UK’s greenhouse emissions, with just 4.5% coming from livestock – that’s ALL livestock.


An English scene - not the sort of image normally portrayed of world beef production

The result of this bombardment is that British consumers are substituting red meat for chicken, in an effort to live a greener lifestyle. As Greenpeace has said “they may be unwittingly contributing to the razing of rain-forests”.

With sales of chicken rising in Britain, Greenpeace warned of the hidden climate impact of raising these birds, whose feed is mainly grown in South America. This means rising consumption could further endanger rain-forests, which are already shrinking by millions of hectares each year. 

Furthermore, a survey of 23 leading British supermarkets, fast-food restaurants and food companies found none were tracking whether soya used for animal feed in their supply chains was linked to deforestation.

The UK imports roughly 3.2 million tonnes of soya each year, with a further 600,000 tonnes already embedded in imported meat and other products. Approximately 68% of UK soya imports come from countries in South America, where soya is driving deforestation.

Chicken is by far the most popular meat in the UK – and the biggest driver of our soya consumption. The UK is the third largest producer of chicken in Europe, slaughtering over one billion chickens annually. People in the UK eat more than twice as much chicken as beef or lamb. Over the past 20 years, overall demand for beef, lamb and pork has fallen sharply, but this drop has been offset by a 20% increase in consumption of chicken – partly as a result of a switch from red meat driven by health and environmental concerns.

I said in my blog of the 11th February that the National Farmers Union president Minette Batters, announced the NFU’s ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions for agriculture by 2040. I think that the Government can help farmers achieve this with some much clearer thinking, because at the moment there is a mass of confusion and misinformation driving peoples eating habits.  





Tuesday 3 March 2020

My scruffy lawn has its pluses!


The local rookeries are now full of noise and endeavour as rooks go about restoring old nests and building new ones. Once the main structure of the nest is built of sticks and twigs, (many of which are simply stolen from a neighbours nest when they are not paying attention!) then the all important internal lining is next on the agenda.

This is where my lawn seems to offer all the perfect ingredients for a soft, warm interior lining for a rooks nest! Regular visitations are being made to gather grass, leaves and moss, ripped up with ease from my scruffy lawn using their long powerful beaks.

A beak full of lining material for a nest high up in the trees

Egg laying is probably already underway from those who have completed their nests, laying 3 or 4 greenish blue eggs, which are also marked with various brown spots and blotches across the shell.  Incubation takes around 16 days before the young hatch.

The nestlings will stay in the swaying nest for another 33 days or so before fledging.  There is a short time between completely leaving the nest and exploring the wider countryside, when the youngsters come out of the nest and explore the upper branches surrounding the nest, flapping wings to strengthen them ready for flight. These birds are known as "branchers" and was historically the time when local countrymen bagged a few for their annual treat - a rook pie.

Rooks can pair for many years together and go back and claim the same nest within the rookery. Ringing recoveries have told us that the oldest known rook lived for 22 years and 11 months. Just think how many youngsters that particular rook helped to bring up!

PS: If you want to read a little more about Rooks - then you might like to go to the "species of the month" link on the top right of this page and check out November 2009.