Observations on nature
We had a visitor to our porch on May 10th. The bug had had red antlers, legs and wings. It came down off the wall and was well disguised under a leaf beside a terracotta pot. One of its legs looked a little bent. He has visited our porch before, about a year ago, and remained on the wall for about three days before disappearing.
Jackie Ball,
Sandycove, Co Dublin.
It is a male cockchafer or May bug, not the one from last year as they soon die. The large white larvae live underground for three or four years to emerge in May and are plentiful some years and scarce in others. They lumber around trees in the evening, and crash into lighted windows.
For some weeks now, our garden is being visited by tiny blue butterflies. My field guide says that they are holly blue, but, the distribution map shows them almost entirely absent from Ireland.
Kieran FitzPatrick,
Greystones, Co. Wicklow
They are found locally, mainly in wooded areas near the coast.