Reflections on 2018

A selection of photos from 2018 - click to enlarge

There are, I am sure, good lessons to be learned from the six months of silence since the last post. While I reflect on what they might be and announce that I will try harder to post more regularly in 2019, let’s take a look at the highlights of 2018.

I will start with the wonderful news that Falmouth Town Council is partnering with the charity, Buglife in the Urban Buzz project. This will see areas of the town planted with wildflowers to help pollinator insects in the town. I am so looking forward to seeing these areas flowering for the first time this year.

Three participants in the 2018 Bug Hunt

As part of the Urban Buzz project last August there was a bug hunt organised by Buglife and the town council in the old parts of Falmouth cemetery. The event attracted families who were given sweep nets and were soon capturing a variety of interesting insects and invertebrates. There were also pooters available to try, these are a bottle with two tubes – one to suck on and the other to collect an insect and place it in the bottle. The hunt was so successful that plans are being made for another one this year.

 The two display boards placed in both parts of Falmouth's old cemetery to raise awareness  of its importance to wildlife and the local community.

A major factor in the success of conservation efforts depends upon raising awareness in the local community. In August the Town Council placed two display boards in both parts of Falmouth’s old cemetery. They inform visitors of its importance to wildlife and the fact that it contains several rare species of solitary bees. They also display information on conservation efforts both in the cemetery and the town.

Apart from being excited over the Urban Buzz project there were two personal recording highlights this year. The first was discovering a new species of bee in Falmouth, Anthophora furcata. Not only was this a new record for this part of Cornwall but it is an interesting bee in that it is one of the few species to make its nest by burrowing into dead wood.

    A male Anthophora furcata, captured and released in a
    garden near Kimberley Park.

My second find was seeing my first European Hornet in Falmouth, only saw one and only once. This is our native species and is impressively large and unlike the Asian Hornet not a threat to beekeepers and their hives. Despite its size it is usually a docile creature that often hunts at night.

 Our native hornet, a new record for Falmouth, will we see
 more of them in 2019?

Another fantastic find was shown to me by Simon Penna, Head of Maintenance for Falmouth Town Council. A number of solitary wasps were making their nests in a dead Ash tree in Kimberley Park. Now although solitary, that is the female usually makes an individual nest some species will share the entrance that then leads to their own nest. This was the case with this species, Ectemnius cephalotes and there were steady streams of female wasps bring back captured flies to the entrance. It was fascinating watching them carry the fly beneath them and manoeuvring it into the hole. Each egg that the wasp lays is provision with several paralysed flies for the larvae to feed on when it hatches. Paralysing the fly keeps it fresh for the larvae, an interesting alternative to refrigeration but please don’t try this at home.

A female Ectemnius cephalotes solitary wasp returns to her

nest with a paralysed fly for her larvae to feed on. As an

adult wasp they will feed on nectar.

Most people only encounter and would recognise social wasps, who like honey bees live in a nest with female workers and a queen. In Falmouth the two species usually seen are the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and the European wasp (Vespula germanica). In October Storm Callum damaged one of the conifers in the lower part of Falmouth cemetery. One of its lower branches was almost completely torn from the tree. This caused a common wasp nest to fall from its original position to be caught lower down. Thanks to the skilful work of the cemetery manager, Matthew Brotherton and the maintenance crew not only was the branch safely removed but the still active nest also survived. This gave a rare chance to see the intricate design of the nest and watch the activity of the common wasps for several weeks until the colony came to the end of its lifecycle.

The Common Wasp nest revealed after the damage caused
to a tree by Storm Callum.

The biggest impact made by the weather this year was made by the beast from the east, an influx of cold air that saw snow falling and settling in Falmouth. The effects of this unusually cold spell in March were immediately seen on tender plants such as Alexander that were hit hard. Many queen bumblebees delayed establishing a nest and new colonies by up to four weeks and many butterfly species appeared later than normal.

  Solitary bee (Andrena fulva) on Alexander flowers. Being

  introduced by the Romans from the Mediterranean, 
  Alexander was hit hard by the unusually harsh weather.

Generally I saw a fall in the abundance of insects this spring and to a lesser extent in the summer. My hope is that it was a result of this cold spell and it is not repeated in 2019 to allow populations to recover. Certainly with local conservation efforts the prospects look very promising for this year. It is though a reminder that climate change is something we all should be concerned about.