Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Monday, 4 May 2020
4-5-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - GOLDWING MOTH (Synthymia fixa)
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Synthymia is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae. It contains only one species, Synthymia fixa, The Goldwing, which is found in southern Europe and North Africa.
Forewing ash grey in the male, darker, slightly greenish grey in the female the outer half of wing suffused with brownish, the whole speckled with black; orbicular stigma oval, grey in a whitish ring, placed vertically at the edge of the grey basal space; reniform also vertical, an elongate figure of 8, white with dark grey centres; space between them crossed by a deep brown band, sometimes velvety brown in cell, the median vein showing white across it; inner and outer lines brownish, ill-defined; the inner waved, nearly vertical, the outer sinuous edged by grey and on the costa whitish; subterminal line thick, whitish; fringe dark-mottled; hindwing orange, deeper in female than in male; the base diffusely dark; terminal border olive brown, broad at apex, with traces of a submarginal line on inner margin; in the male more fuscous tinged, with traces of outer and submarginal lines; in the ab. griseofusa ab.nov. (= ab. 2. Hmps.) the whole of the hindwing is fuscous. Larva dark green, the dorsum lighter; dorsal and subdorsal lines pale yellow, edged with dark green; lateral stripe white, broad, with dark upper edge; head small, yellowish; thoracic plate black; anal plate brown. The wingspan is 37–40 mm.
Adults are on wing from April to July. There is one generation per year.
Sunday, 3 May 2020
3-5-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa striata)
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The Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa striata, is a modestly adorned yet charming small passerine bird belonging to the Old World flycatcher family. It is a migratory species, breeding across Europe and the Palearctic as far as Siberia, and spending the winter months in Africa and southwestern Asia. Despite its widespread presence, there is concern over its decline in certain areas.
Adult Spotted Flycatchers possess grey-brown upperparts and a somewhat pallid underbelly. Their crown and breast are streaked, which is the origin of their common name. They have short, black legs and a black bill shaped to suit their insectivorous diet. Juveniles can be distinguished by their browner plumage and the presence of spots on their upperparts.
These birds favor deciduous woodlands, parks, and gardens, particularly those with open spaces amidst trees.
The Spotted Flycatcher has a broad breeding range, extending from Europe to western Siberia and northwest Africa. During the non-breeding season, they migrate to southern Africa.
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With an upright posture, these flycatchers are often seen hunting from prominent perches, darting out to snatch flying insects and frequently returning to the same spot.
The call of the Spotted Flycatcher is a soft, high-pitched, and slightly descending 'tssssseeeeeppppp'.
The Spotted Flycatcher constructs an open nest in a recess, often against a wall, and is amenable to using open-fronted nest boxes. Clutches typically consist of 4-6 eggs. Remarkably, they exhibit excellent egg recognition, a likely evolutionary response to past parasitism by the common cuckoo.
The Mediterranean flycatcher, previously considered a subspecies, is similar in appearance but has been recognized as a separate species due to genetic differences.
As aerial insectivores, Spotted Flycatchers feed on flying insects, which they catch in mid-air from their vantage points.
Saturday, 2 May 2020
28-11-2016 JURONG, SINGAPORE - RUDDY SHELDUCK (Tadorna ferruginea)
The Ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) is a distinctive waterfowl that has a loud honking call. The ruddy shelduck mostly inhabits inland water-bodies and forms a lonf lasting pair bond. In central and eastern Asia, populations of this species are steady or rising, but in Europe, they are generally in decline.
The male Ruddy shelduck has orange-brown body plumage and a paler, orange-brown head and neck, separated from the body by a narrow black collar. The rump, flight feathers, tail-coverts, and tail feathers are black and there are iridescent green speculum feathers on the inner surfaces of the wings. Both upper and lower wing coverts are white, this feature being particularly noticeable in flight but hardly visible when the bird is at rest. The bill is black and the legs are dark grey. The female is similar but has a rather pale, whitish head and neck and lacks the black collar, and in both sexes, the coloring is variable and fades as the feathers age. The birds molt at the end of the breeding season and the male loses the black collar, but a further partial molt between December and April restores it. Juveniles are similar to the female but are a darker shade of brown.
2-5-2020 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - SMALL WHITE BUTTERFLY (Pieris rapae)
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Pieris rapae is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is known in Europe as the small white, in North America as the cabbage white or cabbage butterfly, on several continents as the small cabbage white, and in New Zealand as the white butterfly. The butterfly is recognizable by its white color with small black dots on its wings, and it can be distinguished from P. brassicae by its larger size and the black band at the tip of its forewings.
The caterpillar of this species, often referred to as the "imported cabbageworm", is a pest to crucifer crops such as cabbage, kale, bok choy and broccoli. Pieris rapae is widespread in Europe and Asia; it is believed to have originated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Europe, and to have spread across Eurasia thanks to the diversification of brassicaceous crops and the development of human trade routes. Over the past two centuries, it spread to North Africa, North America, New Zealand, and Australia, as a result of accidental introductions.
Friday, 1 May 2020
Thursday, 30 April 2020
13-7-2017 MONTE ORONA, VALENCIA - CONTINENTAL STRIPED SHIELD BUG (Graphosoma italicum ssp italicum)
The so-called "striped bug" in Spanish, Graphosoma lineatum subsp. italicum (Müller, 1766) , is a subspecies of the so-called "shield bugs", due to the shape of its scutellum, and belongs to the Pentatomidae family . Pentatomidae comes from the Greek and means "in five parts", referring to its antennae composed of 5 segments, compared to the 4 of other bugs. According to some authors, the species Graphosoma lineatum (Linnaeus, 1758) is divided into two subspecies. The typical one, Graphosoma lineatum subsp. lineatum (Linnaeus, 1758) , seems to be distributed in northern Africa and possibly the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. The other, Graphosoma lineatum subsp. italicum (Müller, 1766) is more widely distributed, in the Mediterranean and Euro-Siberian areas, reaching as far north as Denmark. Other authors give the latter the status of species, and it is now called Graphosoma italicum (Müller, 1766) .
This is a showy bug, 8-12 mm long in both males and females, with a flattened, almost round body, similar in appearance to a shield, and with a face that clearly protrudes from the head. This shield ( escutellum ) covers almost the entire abdomen, is triangular in shape and is usually as long as the corium of the elytra.It is easily identifiable by its reddish aposematic colour, which warns potential predators of its unpleasant taste. In fact, like many other bugs, it has glands on the sides of its thorax that exude a repulsive-smelling liquid when held. On the red background, 6 longitudinal black bands run across the head, thorax and abdomen. The sides of the abdomen ( connexivum ) are red with many small black spots, with a checkered pattern. The ventral part of the abdomen is dotted. The tarsi have 3 segments and the legs are generally black (red in the typical subspecies lineatum ), except for the third tibia, which can be reddish. They have a pair of black antennae composed of 5 antennae or segments and prominent eyes. Sexual dimorphism consists of females showing a median suture on the eighth abdominal segment, not present in males.
12-10-2017 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SATIN WAVE MOTH (Idaea subsericeata)
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Idaea subsericeata, the satin wave, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Adrian Hardy Haworth in 1809. It is found from central and southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor to Transcaspia.
The ground colour is white with strong silky gloss, the lines grey, seldom strongly expressed, on the other hand usually all present, thus numbering five on the forewing and four on the hindwing; the outermost line (distal shading of subterminal) the oftenest absent; all except the median are parallel with the distal margin, but slightly wavy; the median on the forewing is usually somewhat oblique, but occasionally almost parallel with the others; that of the hindwing runs straighter across the wing, instead of following the curve of the strongly convex distal margin. Cellspots and terminal line wanting or rarely the former present, minute; fringe usually with a series of minute black dots at the base, which are sometimes in part, more rarely entirely obsolete. Forewing beneath often with a smoky suffusion, either basally or all over; median and postmedian lines present, often well developed; a small discal dot present. Hindwing beneath white, with discal dot and postmedian line. Male antennal ciliation little longer than diameter of shaft; hindtarsus short.
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