An Autumnal Wealden Wood

 Autumn is a time of year when nature prepares itself for the coming winter. Deciduous trees start to shed their leaves and animals that go into hibernation will be feeding up in order to survive the winter months. If the weather is mild, there is still plenty of insect activity to be found and it can be a good time of year to look for caterpillars of several species as they reach maturity before wandering off to pupate.

Adder (Vipera berus) 

(male)

(melanistic male)

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) (male)

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) (male)

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) (male)

Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) (female, form helice)

Birch Mocha (Cyclophora albipunctata) (larva on birch)

Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) (larva on sedge stem)

Hemichroa crocea (Sawfly sp.) (larvae on birch)

Pristiphora testacea (Sawfly sp.) (larvae on birch)

Another species of Sawfly larva (possibly Euura kirbyi) resting on sedge stem.

The Vapourer Moth

Sexual dimorphism is common in the insect world where males and females of many species differ from each other, most usually by size or colour and markings. Nature doesn't do anything without good reason and males are often brightly marked for courtship or to hold territories and females are often duller so as to go about the business of egg-laying unnoticed. 

 The Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) takes this concept to an extreme level and male and female look nothing like each other. The male is commonly seen flying along woodland edges during summer and into autumn and he is equipped with an impressive pair of feathered antennae which are used to scent-track a female. 

The female Vapourer is flightless, having only very rudimentary wing projections and she has evolved into a swollen egg producing receptacle. When she emerges from her pupal cocoon she will wait to be found by a passing male and once mated, she will lay her eggs on the outside of the cocoon and surrounding foliage. When exhausted, she will die without ever having ventured far from her birthplace.

Earlier this week I happened upon a mating pair as I walked in one of my local Wealden woods.

Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) (mating)

The next day I returned to observe the female laying her eggs.