Ladybirds in France including the Asian Harlequin Ladybird

Every year in autumn and spring there are articles in the media, especially in the UK, about the Asian Ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, or Harlequin Ladybird as it is known, one of several thousand different non native species introduced in both France and the UK although only a few are ladybirds. This species is generally regarded as the most invasive ladybird on Earth and although they undoubtedly have an environmental impact due to their high breeding and survival rate combined with their voracious appetite most experts are of the opinion that they are now so abundant that there is little if any point in killing them.

Harlequin ladybirds, above, are extremely variable but most have a clearly defined "M" or "W" on the pronotum.

Although they feed most commonly on aphids they have a wide food range that includes scale insects, adelgids, the eggs and larvae of butterflies and moths, many other small insects including other ladybirds, pollen, nectar, and sugary fluids, including honeydew and the juice from ripe fruits bringing them into direct competition with native species of Ladybird many of which are already under pressure resulting from all the usual reasons, habitat loss and pesticide use being uppermost.

The risk as always that comes from articles in the media and the consequent sharing on social media is that some people will unwittingly start killing anything that they don’t recognise as the stereotypical image of a Ladybird, generally the most common of which is the Red and Black spotted 7 spot ladybird, and there are too many people already locked into a “kill everything that isn’t a butterfly” mode of thinking.

To move on, there are 90 or more species of native Ladybird in France most of which wouldn’t be recognised as such. Some are brown, some black, some yellow and black, some black and red, some orange and perhaps not surprisingly many are highly selective about where they live and what they eat with many being vegetarian.

It would be difficult here to include that number of native species, so I have listed a few here to give some idea of just how different they are. 

Kidney-spot ladybird (Chilocorus renipustulatus) Black body with large red spot on each wing case, feeds on scale insects on the bark of trees.

Pine ladybird (Exochomus 4-pustulatus) Usually elytra are black with two larger red comma-shaped spots and two smaller red round or oval spots, feeds on aphids and scale insects.

Heather ladybird (Chilocorus 2-pustulatus) Black with 2 to 6 red spots feeds on scale insects.

16-spot ladybird (Tytthaspis 16-punctata) Beige with black spots. Feeds on Aphids, Pollen, nectar and fungi. Can overwinter in large numbers, 50 or more in one cluster.

Orange ladybird (Halyzia 16-guttata) Orange Ladybirds can be bright yellow or orange in colour with 16 creamy spots. Feeds on mildew.

22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora 22-punctata). Bright yellow with 22 black spots. Feeds on Mildews

24 spot ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata) Sometimes known as the Alfalfa Ladybird. Orange –red, number of spots may vary. Feeds on a variety of plants including Campions, vetches, trefoils, chickweed and plantains among others. They will also take grasses and in France can be a pest of lucerne.

Hieroglyphic ladybird (Coccinella hieroglyphica) brown or black with black stripes, spots and patches. Feeds on larvae of Heather leaf beetle.

Bryony ladybird (Henosepilachna argus) Orange red with 11 black spots. Feeds on White bryony and plants of the Melon family.

28-spotted potato ladybird (Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata) Orange with 28 spots feeds on the foliage of potatoes and other solanaceous crops.

 Chris.

Pine processionary moth and hairy caterpillars in France

With the aid principally of social media in all its aspects the Pine processionary moth increasingly strikes fear into the population with all the stories about how dangerous they can be.

There is certainly no denying their harmful nature should someone or their pet animal come into close physical contact with them or breathe in their harmful hairs but we mustn’t let this lead us into a panic that results in the destruction of our other native hairy or web forming caterpillars that need all the protection that they can get.

The first thing to understand is that Pine processionary moth nests are always in Pine trees and only rarely in Fir trees. A caterpillar web anywhere else is a different type of caterpillar.

Secondly, when on the ground they will invariably be found in the classic processions “nose to tail” and only very rarely as individuals should they have been blown from the trees by storms.

Thirdly, they will only be found on the ground when Pine or Fir trees are in very close proximity.

Moving on to a few other web forming species with one that always causes undue worry and that is the Spindle Ermine Moth that form large webs on Spindle trees often completely covering them and stripping all the leaves. This usually occurs in early May when the first leaves are produced and despite it looking like a disaster zone more leaves are produced when the caterpillars descend to pupate and the tree busts back into life.  

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Spindle Ermine Moth 

Another species that was once very common but now in decline principally due to hedgerow removal and poor management is the Small Eggar Moth.  The caterpillars form dense webs on Hawthorn and Blackthorn. Again the host plant recovers once the caterpillars have descended to pupate.   

Small Eggar Moth

Various species of Ermine moth can be found on apple trees and these again are harmless to the overall health of the tree and humans although they may cause damage to fruits should the web engulf them. 

Ermine moth species on Quince tree

There are of course many hairy caterpillars that don’t form nesting webs and all hairy caterpillars can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions but this would normally only be if they came in contact with sensitive areas of our skin or if someone was unusually sensitive. As children we used to have great fun putting them down each others shirts to cause itching. However that said they will have no effect on the harder surfaces of our skin such as our fingers and the palms of our hands. 

I’ll provide a small selection here of some of the more common species that people are likely to come across and I can't emphasise enough the need to care for all our native species that are struggling so much. Without caterpillars and moths a huge number of other species will starve without enough to eat. One Blue Tit chick alone can eat up to 100 caterpillars a day.

Brown Tail Moth

Fox Moth

Garden Tiger Moth

Garden Tiger Moth

Oak Eggar Moth

Pale Tussock Moth

Ruby Tiger Moth

Cream spot Tiger

Chris

New Bat species for France - Myotis crypticus

Le Murin cryptique  Myotis crypticus   Feb 2019

A new species of bat has been discovered in wooded areas of Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain.

This brings the number of species to be found in France

To 35

It is very close to Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) and positive identification has so far relied on DNA analysis. Despite their closeness they do not hybridise. 

Reproduction colonies are usually in hollow trees but can be in artificial man made structures. Hibernation takes place underground in fissures. Much remains to be known about this species.

Chris

Beetles in the Firewood in France

Every year in France, usually from about February, some people find their houses invaded by small red or reddish-brown beetles. This is by no means everywhere and many people will never see one, however where they are present they can sometimes be observed in relatively large numbers.

The creature concerned is a Longhorn Beetle, Pyrrhidium sanguineum, although being only 8 to 12 mm it is rarely recognised as being one. Known in English as Welsh Oak Longhorn Beetle and its common French name is La Callidie Sanguine).

Females lay eggs in crevices in dead or freshly cut wood with bark that is exposed to the sun from March – June and are polyphagous in nature using a range of deciduous trees, but with a preference for oak (Quercus spp.).  Larvae burrow into the timber making galleries up to 60cm in length where, when fully grown, they pupate.  They can’t use seasoned timber and usually have an annual life cycle, occasionally this can be two years.

When this wood is stored or kept for a while in the home or perhaps a garage as firewood the adult beetles tend to emerge earlier due to the higher ambient temperature. Where firewood is stored outside in proximity to the home they may be seen a little later in the year when it is warmer.

Fortunately for us we don’t need to worry as they are completely harmless in our homes and can be popped outside where they belong.

Chris

Glanville Fritillary France

The Glanville Fritillary, Melitaea cinxia,  is named after Lady Eleanor Glanville, a 17th century Lepidopterist who discovered this species in Lincolnshire. She first discovered this species in 1702 when it was first named as the Lincolnshire Fritillary and only later in 1748 was it was officially re-named the Glanville Fritillary.  These days it is mainly confined to the south coast of the Isle of Wight, with the occasional colony, typically short-lived, appearing on the South Hampshire coast.

Click on images to expand

It is a butterfly that can be found in most regions of France and the Channel Islands where it forms small colonies where there is suitable habitat. There has been a reduction in numbers especially in the north and west of its range with habitat loss being the most likely main cause.

They require low growing sparse grassland, natural flower meadows, scrub, woodland edges and even roadside verges but due to the increase in what is called improved pasture and in cereal production in the broad sense there is increasing isolation of populations. The widespread use of Roundup (Glyphosate) to keep the ground clear in vineyards is another threat to this butterfly along with a number of other species.  

In the southern half of the country there are usually two broods with the first on the wing in April / May and the second generation June / September. Regardless of whether there is a single brood or two broods in a season they over winter as caterpillars in webs that they form on the ground with their food plant which is principally Plantain hence the French common name of La Mélitée du Plantain. 

Lady Eleanor’s collection of butterflies still exists and is housed in the Natural history Museum.

Chris

Field beans as a fodder crop for sheep in France

In the autumn of 2018 several large fields where we live were planted predominantly with Field beans with a few other plants including fodder radish, mustard and phacelia. This has never happened here before and I was quite excited at the thought that these may be left to flower in the spring which would have been great for all manner of species including my bees. However it seems this is not going to happen.

Yesterday when I was out with my dog I saw that one of the fields was electric fenced and had sheep in it and that the adjacent field was also electric fenced but had been grazed.  

From both an agricultural and environmental perspective I can see the benefits in this. The crop as a green manure provides good winter cover, prevents nutrient leaching, adds nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil and the owner of the sheep has fresh early season fodder for their animals.

I should explain that sheep aren’t pastured where we live as it is more profitable to grow cereal crops and that the farmer that owns these particular sheep also grows cereals here including barley for his winter sheep feed. His sheep are kept for the summer some distance away on land that is unsuitable for cereals and are transported to his farm here for winter where they are housed in a huge barn where they are lambed before being returned in spring to their summer grazing pastures.

Regardless of your views on eating meat this would appear to be an improvement for the animals involved and the land.

Chris

Hunt or hunting days in France

There are always people asking what days are the hunting days in France and the simple answer is that there is no National law that prohibits hunting on any day of the week during the open hunting season although various Associations keep petitioning for Sundays to be hunt free.

Part of the confusion where it exists is that there isn’t simply one type of hunting or la chasse and that la chasse is often erroneously thought of as being uniquely chasse en battue that involves a minimum number of participants with some driving or flushing through an area using dogs pushing any animals, (boar, deer, fox), out into the open to where one or more hunters wait with guns. Usually this type of organised hunt takes place on two or three specific days of the week that are agreed at the commune level, (ours is Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays) and the people that participate in this like to call themselves La Chasse.  However rough shooting for smaller creatures, birds, rabbits, hares etc. can take place on any day of the week although in practice Wednesday afternoon is usually avoided due to being a half school day.

To be clear - La Chasse can be defined as using various means in order to capture and kill creatures either for eating or for destruction and no single group of hunters can claim this as belonging to them alone.

There was a brief period from July 2000 and July 2003 when hunting was banned on Wednesdays and this was instituted throughout France at the request of the Minister of the Environment, Dominique Voynet, through Article 24 of the hunting law 2000-698 of 26 July 2000, which stipulated: "Article L.224-2 of the Rural Code is worded as follows: ... The practice of shooting hunting is prohibited from Wednesday 6 am to Thursday 6 am".  However in 2003, the repeal of this "no-hunt Wednesday" was included in the bill on hunting put forward by Roselyne Bachelot then Minister of Ecology! It was then voted into law by the majority UMP-UC

The law of 2003-698 of July 30, 2003, by Article 27, thus cancelled this provision altogether (which had in the meantime been transposed to the rural code to that of the environment): "The last paragraph of the Article L. 424-2 of the Environmental Code is deleted."

Therefore only the Prefect of each Departement can order days without hunting in application of the article R.424-1 of the code of the environment but in practice this rarely occurs.

Other limits that are set each year at the Departemental level each year limiting or restricting the time periods and numbers of specific species will apply.

Chris