These dragonflies landed on a wall near me recently as I was eating my lunch. At first, I thought it was a large, unusual type of flying insect as they were flying as one but on closer inspection when they landed, I realised it was two insects who may have been having a moment. The red one flew by on its own not long after. Rob Sutton, Cork City
They were having a moment all right – indeed more than a moment as mating lasts 15 minutes in this species of dragonfly – the Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum. Mating commences when the male grasps the female by the back of the head and flies off with her securely in his grasp. He then transfers his sperm from the end of his body to his secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen and she curls her body under his, when they come to rest, so that she can receive it. They separate and fly off afterwards. I hope you enjoyed your lunch.
This scary looking creature was having a good feed on our Amelanchier. Are you able to identify this alien caterpillar. Paul Downey, Co Waterford
This is no alien caterpillar but one of our own – the caterpillar of the Grey Dagger moth. This species overwinters as a pupa and adults emerge in May. They are so called as the grey-coloured adults have black dagger-like marks on the forewings. They fly all summer at night and are very well camouflaged, resting on lichen-covered trunks by day. They lay eggs on a wide variety of deciduous trees including your garden shrub Amelanchier, whose leaves they feed on. Having gone through four stages of growth where they burst their skins and emerge bigger and hairier each time, they then seek out places in the bark of trees to overwinter as a pupa.
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I found Puffball mushrooms in the graveyard of the old church in Hollywood in Wicklow. Several of them have ripened under the canopy of an old mature Sycamore. This larger one is c.30cm in diameter and very heavy. Derek Vial, Hollywood
These were the giant Puffball mushrooms - Lycoperdon giganteum – which can grow up to 80cm across. These big white globes can appear under hedges, sometimes almost overnight, thus earning the colloquial name “sheep’s farts”. They are solid and heavy when young. As they age the insides become a dark-brown spore mass, the attachment to the substrate breaks and they are free to roll around. The millions of spores are thus scattered through breaks in the retaining surface skin.
I found what I think is Scarab Shield Bug on my patio. It’s currently sheltering underneath some loose sheets of paper. When I found it in the Insects of Ireland book, it says it was last recorded in Ireland in the 1930s in Ballyteigue, Co Wexford, although it adds “it may be overlooked”. Caitriona Casey, Woodstown Waterford
I don’t want to rain on your parade, but I am not so sure that you have a scarab shield bug. They have black legs, and your creature very definitely has red legs. I am more inclined to think that you have Chrysolina bankii, the Bronze beetle which occurs widely in the south and east of Ireland. This is a leaf beetle rather than a shield bug.
I photographed this redshank at Querrin Pier in west Clare at the end of September. John Glynn, Kilrush
While Redshank do breed in small numbers in wet grassland in Connacht and the west midlands, they move to coastal estuaries and mudflats for the winter. Their numbers there are greatly augmented by winter visitors from Iceland and northern Britain.
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