We saw these translucent blobs on the beach in Rosslare in early July. Can you identify them? Eithne Cavanagh
These are sea gooseberries (Pleurobrachia pileus), comb jellies, which are in a different classification to jellyfish. They float in the sea, often in large shoals, trailing two long tentacles behind them. Unlike jellyfish, these do not contain stinging cells but rather release a sticky mucus-like substance to entrap plankton. The lines on their bodies are comb rows which contain hairs called cilia. These beat in unison and propel them through the water.
We spotted this wee insect nosing round our nasturtiums. Is it a bee, a wasp, or maybe a fly? Enda Scanlon, Co Clare
It is a female hoverfly – the marmalade fly – Syrphus balteatus. This adult is feeding on the nectar produced by your nasturtiums. She will lay eggs among the aphids feeding on the leaves. On emerging, the larva will attack and eat these aphids – each one can eat up to 50 per day. Hoverflies are flies and so they have no stings, but birds – which fear bees and wasps – are fooled by their livery and leave them alone.
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My 10-year-old daughter and her friend found this lizard-like creature on a walk around Ballynafagh lake near Prosperous last weekend. Have you any idea what it is? Conor Toland
I know exactly what it is, as will frequent readers of this column. It is a newt, a native species of amphibian. While it may superficially resemble a lizard, it is much more slow-moving, which was why they were able to catch it. Newts have four toes on their front legs while lizards – which are reptiles – have five. Newts have round heads as opposed to those of lizards, which are pointy. They are closely associated with water and are often found around lakes and ponds.
I spotted these hanging around outside the wasp’s nest in a bush in my garden one afternoon in July. Are they drones or queens? They are noticeably larger than the worker wasps. I haven’t seen them since. Pat Cogan, Cork
John Breen, the hymenoptera expert, has identified these as Norwegian wasps – Dolichovespula norwegica – most likely queens because of their larger size and the time of year seen. By July, growth of the colony in the nest has peaked and the queen produces eggs that develop into new queens. These leave the nest to mate and then find a suitable place to overwinter. Norwegian wasps have small colonies (100 to 200 workers) in small nests hanging in hedges/bushes and die out naturally around the end of August. They are unlikely to be a problem and need to be protected as they are not that common. In fact, no wasp species should be a problem if you can stay out of its flight path.
We spotted these baby birds earlier in the summer. They were trying to fly over the wall of our garden but couldn’t make it. The mother was around but she was very difficult to see. The two babies chirped all evening; eventually one of them made it over the wall, but the other didn’t until the following morning. What type of birds were they? Should we have fed them or was it better to have left them alone? Elayne Devlin, Dublin
These were just-fledged baby blackbirds that had left the nest and were out in the big bad world learning to fly. You were right to leave them alone. Mammy had things under control and was encouraging them to fly. She was still around the following morning when offspring No 2 finally made it.
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