The trunk of the willow tree in our garden was covered in these creatures. While pruning the tree back to a manageable height – it had shot up over the past few years- I grabbed the trunk and my fingers were covered in “blood” that oozed from their squashed bodies. What on Earth are they? P Fallon, Castleknock
Your bleeding aphids are giant willow aphids, Tuberolachnus salignus. They are all female – no male has ever been found. The females reproduce by bearing live, asexually produced young that are exact clones of themselves. Numbers peak in October and the trunks of willow trees can be one-third covered with them. Your pictures show the nymphs – the adult females have two wings. They suck sap from the two- to-three-year-old stems and twigs of willow and produce sugary honeydew out of their rear ends, which attracts wasps and ants. The red liquid is the aphid’s internal fluid, or haemolymph, and it’s full of pigments. The stain on your fingers will go after a few days.
This great bittern turned up at Inch in Co Donegal in early November. Derek Brennan, a local birdwatcher, was lucky enough to bag this photo of the well-camouflaged creature. It stayed around for several days to the delight of the twitching community. J Toland, Letterkenny
The bittern was native here once and was immortalised by Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna in his early 18th-century poem An Bonnán Buí. We occasionally get one or two as winter visitors, but they don’t stay and breed here as we no longer have the suitable extensive wetlands with reed beds and open shallow water that they need.
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My dad and I noticed this beautiful colourful creature making its way across the pathway. We wondered exactly what it was and what was the brown stem-like object protruding from it? James Cunningham, Meath
This is the caterpillar of the pale tussock moth – a common enough garden moth that flies at night in summer. The caterpillars appear later on and are covered with irritant hairs. There are four dense tufts on segments towards the front and a slimmer tuft of long red or brown hairs towards the back, which you are calling a stem. All these hairs, including the longer abundant pale-yellow ones, are exceedingly irritating. If one lands on the skin it burrows in, and scratching only exacerbates the problem, as the barbs on the hair help it lodge deeper. It can cause an itchy skin rash that can last some days. I hope you haven’t found this out the hard way.
I found this tiny little creature while mowing the lawn. It’s smaller than the normal red ladybird. It’s yellow in colour with 10 black spots on either side and four on the head area. Any information would be appreciated. No name given
This is the 22-spot Ladybird, Psyllobora 22-punctata, which, in spite of its name, can have 24 spots as you have counted. It is only 4mm long, much smaller than the common seven-spot, which is 8mm. It is widespread, often found in grassland, where it feeds on the mildews that occur on leaves and stems of the wildflowers occurring there.
We spotted this unusual-looking bright green insect on our door. What is it? Muiris Dunworth, Co Louth
This beautiful insect is a green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea. This is an adult, which feeds on nectar, pollen and aphid honeydew. The wingless larvae are active predators and feed on aphids and other small insects. The adults overwinter, so your one was seeking entrance to a nice, sheltered spot indoors.
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