Folklore | Butterflies | Flowers | Galls | Moths

FOLKLORE

In mid-August there used to be a harvest festival Lughnasadh, named after the ancient Celtic god Lugh. The people used to climb hilltops or gather at rivers and lakes and do outdoor sports like Curragh races off the Aran Islands. Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus, or fraocháin in Irish) used to be picked, symbols of the first harvest fruits. Bilberries still create small hedges along the pathways in Glendalough.

BUTTERFLIES

The Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown butterfly can be seen now. It loves Bramble flowers and is very common in hedges. It belongs to meadows but likes the tall grasses on the hedge bank. The males are smaller and darker than the females. The eggs, laid singly on the leaves of grasses, hatch in September and the caterpillars hibernate in October. They continue feeding the following spring and the larva pupates hanging from a blade of grass. The caterpillars are a greenish-greyish colour.

The Speckled Wood is also to be seen in shaded hedges. It produces two generations a year, the first emerging in April.

The Brimstone is sulphur-yellow and its food plants are Buckthorn and Alder. It is one of the few butterflies that overwinter in Ireland as an adult. It emerges from the pupa at the end of July and flies along the hedges. The male is a darker yellow than the female.

The Tortoiseshell, the Peacock, the Painted Lady and the Silver-Washed Fritillary may be seen on their food plant – the Buddleia. Very rarely, Commas may be seen. The Peacock Painted Lady hibernates until the next spring in hollow tree trunks. It lays its eggs in spring on the Stinging nettle Urtica dioica. The Silver-Washed Fritillary lays its eggs in the crevices of the trunks of trees, especially in oak. In spring the larvae feed only on the leaves of Dog violet (Viola canina). Back to top

FLOWERS

Michael Viney describes an August bunch of wildflowers in Mayo: ‘a sturdy twig of fuchsia, lanterns dangling; spikes of rosy purple loosestrife; a froth of meadowsweet; flaming orange sprays of montbretia.’ – all often found beside the hedgerow.

Herb Robert’s name might come from its colour ‘herba rubra’ or red plant. Its hairy stems go red in sunlight and when the flowers hang down it means bad weather. It is a good insect repellent because of its bad smell. It is a species of geranium or cranesbill which you can spot as the fruits looks like the bill of a crane. Back to top

GALLS

The ‘briar ball’, ‘Moss-gall’ or ‘Robins pincushion’ can be seen on the Dog-rose (Rosa canina) and Field Rose (Rosa arvensis). They were used by apothecaries as remedies for colic and as a diuretic.

Galls are caused by gall wasps such as Diplolepis rosae. The female wasp lays her eggs in the rosebuds in April. The young gall is green but turns red by August and is up to 10 cm in diameter. Inside it has many chambers and each one has a white grub, the larva. They over-winter in the gall, pupate and emerge the next May.

The gall wasps in the genus Periclistus lay their eggs on the ready-made gall, just like the cuckoo bird uses other birds’ ready-made nests for its eggs.

Both of these gall wasp larvae are attacked by parasitic wasps such as the Chalcid Wasp (Torymus bedeguaris). The female pierces the gall to get to the larvae. They are also attacked by the Ichneumon Wasp and a chalcid wasp which also infects the Periclistus. All these relationships happen in one Robin’s pincushion!

A mite called Eriophyes similis causes uneven green pustules along the leaf margins of the blackthorn. The misshapen shoots and distorted leaves of the hawthorn show damage by the gall midge (Dasineura crataegi).

Most galls are found on the oak, for example, the Oak-Apple and Marble Galls. Back to top

MOTHS

The Elephant Hawk Moth can be seen at this time of year– it is pink and green. Its large caterpillars have markings like big eyes on the head, and their body is brown with black lines with a small spike at the end. Back to top

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