Colours of nature

Hello dear reader!

Sorry for the inactivity. I know you are all eager to know what happened in the days I was absent. Maybe I took a plane to Honolulu and had some cocktails or I could be in Zimbabwe having some larvaejuice. Well, actually I was just being a teacher and it went well. Less interesting but not less satisfied as I passed my baptism by fire. Now, dear reader, what I haven't done was posting on this blog for what I feel very sorry. But maybe I can make it up with you. The last days I was able to catch some bugs with my lense. Did I said I? Well actally it's we because my girlfriend phtographed one as well. Now let's start with the little beetle that she found in her room. It's a Phyllobius pomaceus but you have no English name for it. In Dutch it is called: De Groene Bladsnuitkever. It's a common species here. Do notice the nice green shiny colour that he got. He eats leaves, so don't worry, my girlfriend still got her hand. Here are two nice pictures of our little beetle.

Phyllobius pomaceus

Phyllobius pomaceus

Now, saturday I noticed a red dragonfly close to a creek which was very steep. He forced me to hang on to the long grass to take this picture. I felt like I was Indiana Jones, with the difference that people would look at me like I was a loony. But ok, it was worth the shot. It's a Large Red Damselfly. What a lovely name. Latin name: Pyrrhosoma nymphula .

Pyrrhosoma nymphula .

These are the pictures, for now. But! I'm keeping some tadpoles in my room as an experiment. Each week I'm changing the water from the tadpoles with water from the shallow pond in my neighboorhood. Now soon I'll update a waterspecial with a lot of bugs in it. You can't imagine how many different animals can fit in just a bottle with some pondwater. Well, I hope I got your attention for now.

Enjoy the weather (yet again)

Love,

Pim

Mown grass.

Hello there.

What a nice weather, yet again. However I was not in the position to completely enjoy it, as I was working at my desk. But it makes my happy that's for sure. The smell of mown grass coming through the window, that's one of my favorite smells you know. A fresh smell! They should make a perfume from it, instant succes, a hole in the market! A lot of people enjoy that smell. But enough smelling for now, we got some bugging to do. I couldn't resist to walk in the neighboorhood, to feel the breeze. I've been locked in/around my house for over 4 days now. Teacher preparations you see. But today was the day I left the building. (sounds nice) As I passed the houses in my street I decided to have a walk through the fields. Fresh green nature! Arr! I saw some ducklings passing by and an enormous fat duck. My God that bird must've been pampered by all the food around. As I continued my walk I saw a little shiny beetle sitting on the vegetation close to the water. It had a nice shiny green/blue colour. Here is the picture:


Pebbles the Beetle (Agelastica alni)

As I looked this beetle up I noticed that she got only a Latin name in English, Agelastica alni, therefore I will name her Pebbles the beetle. It's a common species in Belgium as I noticed further down the road 6 more of them. Well that was it for today. When I came home I continued to work and occasionally sniffed some of the fresh mown grass.

God I love that smell.

Love,

Pim

May, month of the beetle.

Hello,

It's May you know! A month where most of the people are thinking about dresses, summer and the holidays. For me May is also a month full of new life. Little birds are hatching and some of them even try to fly, little tadpoles are swimming in the ponds nearby and most important is the coming of the Cockchafer or May bug. I always had some sort of affection for this beetle. It's a big beetle, that's for sure, but it also got some sort of clumsiness. When I was a little kid I loved to search for them in the bushes. You can hear them fall on the ground when you are shaking a branch. When they are on the ground they always look disorientated. They have this 'Leave me alone' look. When they finally have come to strength again, then they go searching for a natural airport for a lift off. You see, big beetles are lazy and you can see it in the way they move but also in the way they fly. It takes 3 times or so to finally get a decent lift-off. When you see them flying it's like a plane that's making an emergency landing. They also sound like some sort of B-52. BRRRRRRRRRRRR. That's the sound. Do you know that they are larvae for almost 3 years, but only a beetle for about 5 weeks? That's why they are called the May beetle. You can see them around that specific month, but then you got to wait another year. It's my third May beetle that I saw this week. But now it is the first time that I was able to make some pictures. He was sitting on the terrace until he was able to fly to the butterfly-bush. Well, here's our big friend:

May Beetle

May Beetle

There was a time (10 years ago) that I saw 5 of these beetles a day, but then there were some bad years when I sometimes didn't even spot one of them. It looks like this year is a good year. Let us keep it that way.

Enjoy the weather.

Love,

Pim

Pink snakes.

Well hello,

It's me again. Nothing really remarkable happened today (except for the death of Bin Laden). No surprise really as I was in my room all day. College you know. Teacher stuff. It was a sunny day and I hate it when I'm inside and the sun is shining. One of the things I really like is to walk barefoot in the garden. It makes you feel connected to nature in some way. But that wasn't happening today. Bloody work. One of the spare moments I was outside, I was having a coffee. That's when I noticed one of the most common creatures in the world. An earthworm. He was underneath a bush close to the terrace. You see, most of the people don't know how amazing worms actually are. So this is the day I'm having a plea for all the worms out here. First of all, they are one of the only animals in the world that you can cut in half and that can still survive. Second is that they contain the 2 sexes, so called hermaphrodites. And they are one of the most useful animals in the world. They can reform organic materials into compost. An average worm can produce 4, 5 kg of compost a year. Well that's what I call an amazing shit! And last but not least they make little holes in the ground that makes the earth 'breath'. They do more useful things than we will ever do, therefore: Hail to the worm. Oh yes here is the picture of Mr. useful.

Earthworm

You have my deep respect buddy. They always remind me of pink little snakes. Some sort of girly edition of the snake. Little Willy was almost gone in the ground when I got back inside. It's a lovely world.

Well, I call it a day.

Love,

Pim

No place for an arachnophobist.

Hello dear friend,

I'm back again. Are you still shivering from the first picture that I posted? Hold on then for another round! Where were we? Oh yes, in the garden with Boris my little friend. After I gave Boris his 2 minutes of fame, I safely let him in peace underneath his cosy little rusty pot. So the hunt continues. You should know that where my girlfriend lives, there are these enormous conservatories. These are dense and wet. Perfect environment for creepy crawlies like my buddy Boris. To the conservatory then! When we eventually were strolling along for 15 minutes, looking in each corner and under dusty tables we decided to go outside again. My gut feeling was wrong. Damn! There must be some little insect sneaking around us. And that was the moment that my lovely female compagnon made a very wise remark. "Why don't we have a look in the abandoned conservatory?" Abandoned conservatory? How could I've overlooked that? Women, they can say wise things you know. So we entered this old conservatory. There was some old carpet on the floor and dead plants in the corner. The plants looked like they had been dead for 500years or so. When I lifted up the carpet it was a bingo right away. A 4cm long spider looked shyly into my eyes. When I looked closer I could see that it was carrying a white ball. It looked like it was stuck to its abdomen. Because it is spring I know that some spiders carry their eggs close to them until they find a safe place to leave them alone. Maybe under your bed. Muha! I took my camera and I could see my little friend smile into my lense. Click. Got him. Hanky looks like a lovely name doesn't it? So here's the picture I took of Hanky.

Hanky the spider

I smiled because today was a good day. 2 big smackers, nice. Hanky was already gone when I looked back. It was getting dark and as I am human my stumach started to growl. I was hungry. Ok, one more carpet. Now, it looked like they kept the best for the last. My God. there was this 6cm big spider staring at me. If my mother would have been here then she would be in a tree by now. It was a quick fellow. But I got him.

Tegenaria atrica

No doubt that this was a house spider or Tegenaria atrica. His long legs and typical body were easy to recognise. As he was gone, so was the sun. Enough hunting for today I was thinking. Let's grab a meal. So satisfied I went into the kitchen where I ate a good fresh lasagna. Hmm. Life is good.

You can come out of that tree now.

Love,

Pim

Boris the spider.

Greetings!

Ready for the first post? Here it comes. Last tuesday I was paying a visit to my girlfriend (yes, I have a social life). And when we were walking in the garden, I explained her my plans for creating this blog .So she grabbed her camera and gave it to me. Now, you have to know when I am into searching insects, I really become obsessed. I feel this 'sensation' inside of me. So here I was with this camera and a perfect setting. There were some logs and a iron pot in front of me. Now underneath the logs there was really nothing special (I am disappoint) but then underneath the pot! Oh my, a crown jewel! What a beauty! There was this 2-3 cm long black spider with this shiny black-blue abdomen. It was just waiting for my lense. Click! My first trophy! Yeah! When I came home I searched in my gigantic insect-book what sort of spider this would be. I kept on searching but I still can't find his name. Therefore he will be called: Boris.

When I find his name I will update it as soon as possible but until now he shall be named: Boris.

Boris the spider

Before I leave you here, I can say that this wasn't the only insect that I took notice of that day. (Pictures will follow)

Stay hooked and see you next time.

Love,

Pim

P.S. Boris the spider