A to Z challenge 2023 – L is for . . .

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – L is for . . .

My theme for this challenge is Nature in all much of her wonderful diversity. My posts will reflect the fact that I am resident in the south of England.

All photographs in this post are the property of the writer.

Lonicera (honeysuckle)

One of the most generous and delectable plants in the garden, honeysuckle comes in a wide variety of colours, can be evergreen or deciduous, usually climbs but can be shrubby. 

Lonicera attracts butterflies and bees during the day and night-flying moths at night. 

They have a wonderful, heady scent although we have one in the garden, ‘Copper Beauty’, which is evergreen and is reputed to have ‘fragrant orange-yellow flowers’. 

Lonicera 'Copper Beauty'

 It certainly has the pretty flowers but I have never noticed any fragrance.

 The rest of the honeysuckles make up for it, though, and it is good to see the glossy green leaves in winter.

Libellula depressa

The broad-bodied chaser or darter is one of the commonest UK dragonflies, with a wingspan of about 70mm (just over 2¾ inches) and is not one of the most attractive. The male has a pruinose blue abdomen. Now, pruinose is an adjective unfamiliar to me and I rather liked the sound of it. Simply expressed, which suits me, as I’m a simple soul, it means ‘frosted –looking’. I have seen the colour described as 'powder blue', which makes it sound quite delicate.

However, the one in our photographs is a female, described as ‘golden or greeny-brown’. 

Broad-bodied chasers are on the wing from May to July and eat midges and mosquitoes, so are a welcome visitor near bodies of still or slow-moving water.

Lily beetle

 This little beetle's scientific name is Lilioceris lilii - isn't that a lovely name? It rolls off the tongue.

Lily beetles are attractive scarlet pests that attack lilies (surprisingly!) and fritillaries and need to be removed.

Lily beetles doing what comes naturally

 I don’t like squashing them so throw them in the pond for the fish. It’s probably far crueller to drown them! 

Identification problems . . .

I saw a moth on Barry’s hat this morning and of course I had to try and identify it – without success so far, I have to say.

side view

detail - so delicate

Anyway, in the course of my research I came across this note –‘passes winter as an egg’ and that made me laugh. I started thinking how difficult it would be trying to metamorphose backwards, as it were, and fit into a receptacle now patently far too small. In human terms that is a ghastly thought, not to mention eye-watering.

I also discovered that the Ghost moth, among others, has no tongue and cannot feed. What a sad life that must be. I suppose it’s akin to human parents raising their young and then popping their clogs. I know it feels like that sometimes and often we feel redundant. Let’s be honest, we are redundant once the bank of Mum and Dad serves no further purpose and our young people have flown the nest and are busily growing their own credit ratings and treating overdrafts as a challenge rather than a limit (or was that just me?)

It is sobering to realise that so many beautiful creatures live very short lives. Dragonflies spend more time as somewhat unattractive nymphs. They live in the murky depths of ponds for three or four years, terrorising the more peaceable inhabitants. Then they emerge from their hard cases as diaphanous beauties, bringing colour and pleasure to onlookers, though not to the unfortunate insects they hunt without mercy. 

Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)

Not as great a beauty as the Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

What a stunner - but completely helpless on the ground for dragonflies cannot walk . . .

Laying eggs

So much beauty, such a little life

They mate, they lay eggs, they die. However, they have no thought for the future, no understanding of their ephemeral existence. What do I know, though? Maybe they have a very complex belief system and look forward to dragonfly heaven where food is plentiful and life never ends. Would I have found them so attractive had I lived/existed in prehistoric times when they had wingspans up to 75 cms? Nonetheless, they are fascinating beasts.

However, and I hate to repeat this cliché, it’s all relative . . . We live but a blink of an eye when compared to galaxies. Who knows what the Mars probe will reveal? (provided it lands safely, of course!)