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Your nature notes and queries for Eanna Ní Lamhna
jellyfish catch their prey. The stinging tentacles that hang from underneath even sting when they are washed up, so bí cúramach. This is a blue jellyfish, Cyanea lamarckiian Atlantic species that can inflict quite severe stings on humans with its eight long clusters of tentacles.
This is the start of a honeybee colony in a tree. I have four empty hives nearby, but they haven’t bothered with them. I never saw this before;I consulted with the Hymenoptera expert John Breen, who said that originally honeybees nested in cavities such as hollow trees and caves. Humans started offering them hives as cavities and this is where we are accustomed to seeing them now.
But nesting elsewhere can still happen. If the bees swarmed and the weather got bad shortly afterwards, the swarm could be stuck where it was. The tree was leafy enough to be almost a cavity and so they started building. In this case the swarm may have moved on after a few days – it’s just a single small beginning comb.
No, it is the much more common hawthorn shield bug. We have 17 species of shield bug in Ireland, and the Hawthorn shield bug is one of the most common, with the National Biodiversity Data centre holding 1,256 records from all around the country. The juniper shield bug – once extremely rare – is now somewhat more common, as it will also feed on the berries and cones of cypress trees which are now being planted in gardens.
There are 149 records of this species. I found this caterpillar on the path on my walk. It is a lime hawk moth caterpillar. They are extremely rare in Ireland and have only had 100 sightings.
During their change from caterpillars to moths, also known as pupation, they stop eating and burrow underground. They then stay in their chrysalis for nineThis species was first recorded in Ireland in 2010 in Drumcondra. Since then, there have been about 120 records. It is slowly expanding its range outwards and has reached Newcastle in Wicklow and Clonee in Co Meath.
A night-flying adult, the caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the lime tree. They are the fruit of the potato plant which contain the seeds. Potato plants bear flowers in late summer. These are pollinated by insects and so fruit pods form with seeds inside just as happens in tomatoes, aubergines and peppers which are all members of the same family – the Solanaceae.
However, unlike the latter three, these fruit and seeds on the potato plant are very toxic and contain high levels of poisonous chemicals called solanine and chaconine. The underground tubers – spuds – are, on the other hand, extremely safe to eat unless they have been exposed to light while growing and turned green. In that case they will then contain solanine too and should not be eaten.
Potato breeders use seeds from potato fruits to grow new varieties, selectively breeding for desired traits. The rest of us plant small “seed potatoes”, to be sure that all our underground crop of tubers is exactly the same.
Please submit your nature query or observation, ideally with a photo and location, using the form below or by email toÉanna Ní Lamhna, a biologist, environmentalist, broadcaster, author and Irish Times contributor, answers readers' queries in Eye on Nature each weekDocumentary maker Eoin Warner: ‘As a child I realised I had been gifted this thing by nature’‘I did the deed with the girlfriend of a very good friend and it’s been bothering my conscience lately’ Listen to ‘I did the deed with the girlfriend of a very good friend and it’s been bothering my conscience lately’Donald Trump expected to urge Ireland to buy liquefied natural gas from US during visitDamage to homes ‘likely’ as status-orange rain warning issued for three counties
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