Common Old Garden Insects

There are not so many insects around now as we move into Autumn, so it’s good to look again at the common ones which are present. Spiders, like this large Garden Spider, are still hunting a last meal. These garden spiders die off in the Autumn, the next generation surviving as eggs over the winter to hatch in the spring. Ladybirds hibernate as adults. Most years we get a lot of Harlequin Ladybirds around the walls of the house on sunny autumn days, though this year there seem to have been less of them than previously and more of the native 7-spot ladybirds. Earwigs are also on the lookout for somewhere to hibernate - apparently they can often burrow deep underground to pass the winter, or like this male, come into the house seeking a cozy corner in which to hide out.

Aside from insects there have been some good birds around, but tough to get photos. The first fieldfare of winter was in the trees at the bottom of the garden, as were a couple of lesser redpolls that joined the goldfinch flock. Migrants included a male blackcap taking berries one day and a drop-in grey wagtail that visited the bare veg patch. A pipistrelle dodging the rain drops this evening might well be the last I see until the spring.

#65 European Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus)

#124 Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)

#287 Seven Spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata)

#311 Common Earwig (Forficula auricularia)

Elder Tree Dead-wood Fungi

I left these large logs from a dead elder tree in the corner of the garden and they attract a lot of wildlife; plenty of insects and even a hibernating toad.

Wood Ear Fungus (aka Jelly Ear Fungus) loves to grow on Elder deadwood, and there’s a good growth of it here. It sends out new fruit-bodies in the winter, which then darken and dry out during the year. The young growths are edible, a bit like black fungus you sometimes find in Chinese food; not much flavour apparently but an interesting texture if cut into strips in soup or salad. Will have to give it a try sometime.

Another fungus, this time on the dead stump of the same Elder tree, is Elder Whitewash (Hyphodontia sambuci), which appears as a white coating on the dead bark.

#10 Wood Ear Fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae)

#108 Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

#413 Elder Whitewash fungus (Hyphodontia sambuci)

Fat Frog

10 November seems quite late to find a frog out and about in the garden, but what struck me about this one is how fat it is. My first thought was that frogs must put on weight to get through the winter, but researching online it appears that while they do build up an energy store, mostly this is in the form of glycogen (carbohydrate) stored in the liver, rather than a fat deposit. Certainly glycogen is a more ready source of energy, which requires less oxygen to deploy - which is useful if you are hibernating at the bottom of a pond absorbing what little dissolved oxygen there may be through the skin, as many frogs do.

Hopefully the frog was healthy - it certainly seemed it. So, perhaps it is an adult female with developed eggs ready for the spring? Finding out online when female frogs develop their eggs was surprisingly difficult, but a detailed article on toads indicated that in toads mostly the eggs are developed during the late summer, with the weight of the ovaries reaching 12-15% of body weight during August-September. Assuming it works the same with frogs, and it does make sense they they would mostly develop their eggs prior to shutting down their metabolism for hibernation, then I hope this is a gravid female ready to spawn in my pond in March/April.