May 22-25th: Good Bugs and Bad Bugs

This is a handsome unidentified beetle about an inch long highlighted by the bright white limestone.

We are seeing many dragonflies, hatched by the sudden warmth. This one has an iridescent blue body and brown wings.

Now for the villains. Superficially the bush looks quite attractive, a kind of hoar- frosty look with all those “cobwebs” spun in the branches. They aren’t cobwebs, but caterpillar cocoons, and the bush is dead. The caterpillars hatch out and simply eat the bush. The caterpillars themselves are to be avoided as they can eject fine hairs when agitated which, if inhaled, cause a lung reaction that can be debilitating in humans and fatal in dogs. Apparently there’s an epidemic of these creatures in parts of Europe- and we saw lots of these cocoons in Spain, particularly in pine trees. There’s no real remedy unless you spray all the trees in Europe.

Having built up these creatures into nightmare proportions, here’s a (carefully taken) photo of one of the hatched-out cocoons. That’s Jane’s finger, and you can send her get-well-soon cards and flowers to Brantôme hospital. Joking, of course!