Recently, I took a short trip on the Robertstown barge on the Grand Canal. I was surprised when looking into the water to see a totally black fish which I estimated to be about 12 inches. I did not recognise it and neither of the men in charge of the barge had seen such a fish before. Declan S. White, Orwell Road, Dublin
It could have been a tench: the habitat and size are right and, in Ireland, it is found mostly in the midlands. Its colour is dark olive or blackish, depending on the water, and it likes muddy, weedy ponds, lakes and canals. Normally living on the bottom, tench come up near the surface to spawn in summer.
I am a tyre fitter in Carrickmacross and today I saw a most extraordinary thing. A truck came in with a puncture and when I took the tyre off, I could see cobwebs inside covered with black tyre-dust. There were also two little spiders the size of small garden spiders, with very short legs and brown bodies, which got mangled in the removal. How did they get in, and survive without food or water, and with the pressure, heat and centripetal force of a tyre doing a few hundred rpm?
Joe Callan, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan
The spiders must have been resident in the tyre before it was put on the truck. The remains you saw could have been dead spiders, or moulted skins, which can look exactly like the real thing. If the latter, the spiders would have been well gone before the tyre went into use.
EARLY in September in my garden, my sister and I were amazed to see a tiny hummingbird moth hovering over a pot of geraniums. It quickly moved from one flower to another and then zipped off out of sight. Is this a very rare sighting? Any information on them would be greatly appreciated.
Carol Killarney, Monivea, Athenry, Co. Galway
Hummingbird hawkmoths migrate here from southern Europe almost every year, but this year they arrived in hordes. They were seen all over the country feeding on the nectar of flowers, particularly valerian, honeysuckle, buddleia, jasmine, petunia and escallonia. They lay their eggs on bedstraw and wild madder on which their caterpillars feed. They hibernate during the winter as adults, but do not survive our winter, and either return to the continent or die.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail: viney@anu.ie. E-mails should be accompanied by a postal address.