I was about to carry out a heft of a beehive, on Killeen Castle estate in Meath when I came across these autumnal leaves on its roof – a moth beautifully camouflaged. What type is it? Philip Rock, Dublin
It is indeed wonderful camouflage. This is the angle shades moth in its characteristic resting position. By wrinkling and rolling the front edge of its forewing, it is easily mistaken for a dead leaf, not only by you but by sharp-eyed would-be predators, the birds. It overwinters as a large green caterpillar.
This has me mystified. On an extremely wet, sunless section of footpath with poor drainage, I came across this almost seaweed-type growth! Very moist and slippery. Can you identify, please? John J Kelly, Enniscorthy
It mystified Gráinne in Skibbereen as well, who describes it as resembling very slippy sultanas. This is Nostoc commune, a life form known as a cyanobacterium. It grows as a colony of single-celled organisms in filaments held together by a jelly-like substance. It has green chlorophyll, with which it photosynthesises, and a blue pigment (phycocyanin), which together gives it its English name: blue-green bacteria. It dries out completely to a black shrivelled crust in dry conditions, but it doesn’t die but revives suddenly after rain and thrives in moist, undrained conditions. Either improve the drainage or scuffle it out with a shovel if it ever stops raining long enough for it to dry out.
We found this huge dead spider in our classroom at school. Is it the Incy Wincy Spider or maybe another species? We’ve kept it safely in a box till we can identify it. Ellie and Caoilfhionn, 1st class, Derryconnor School, Donegal
It is huge, right enough. Well done for taking its picture with the pencil parer for size comparison. I don’t think it is Incy Wincy because that was an outdoor spider that got caught in the rain. This is the giant house spider (Eratigena duellica), which lives indoors. This is a male, which has extremely long legs – up to three times its body length. They are of course all on the spider’s head; your photo shows the spider upside down.
[ What is this curious creature found on shore after a stormOpens in new window ]
These patches of slime mould have appeared on our lawn in recent weeks. There seem to be two types. The paler one has black spores, but the yellow one doesn’t seem to have any. Kate & Jarlath O’Reilly, Waringstown, Co Armagh
The paler one with the black spores, shown here, is an older stage of the yellow one, which goes under the delightful name of dog’s vomit slime mould or scrambled egg slime mould. This is a living soil organism: one night in late autumn after heavy rain it bursts up out of the soil and covers a patch of grass with a yellow mass. It moves around slowly – about 10cm per day – eating bacteria and fungal cells. Eventually it hardens up and the insides produce millions of tiny spores, which are blown away by the wind. Many enter the soil and become the next crop in due course.
I’m wondering what this is. It fell out of my hair when I came back in from the garden. I had passed under a strawberry tree so it could have come from that. It moved like a caterpillar. Kathy Stoes
That’s because it was a caterpillar. It is one of the geometer group, a huge family of mostly night-flying moths. The caterpillars are called loopers as they only have two pairs of claspers and so arch their bodies and loop along when travelling. Many resemble twigs and so avoid their predators.
Please submit your nature query, observation, or photo, with a location, via irishtimes.com/eyeonnature or by email to weekend@irishtimes.com
[ This lovely lone robin has been singing plaintively in my gardenOpens in new window ]
