Insects of the Alicante Mountains (part 2)

Insects of the Alicante Mountains (part 2)

After spending time working on other things and not having much time for the blog, I have put some time together to bring you the second part of “The insects of Alicante”.

After this one I will bring you an entry about the Alcoy moors and Christians festival before finishing “The insects of Alicante”.

I left off with the Two-Tailed Pasha, and I will pick up again with the Dark Bush-Cricket (for some reason I put the Pasha in a bit too early on, but anyway, it makes for more interesting reading).

Dark Bush-Cricket

Not nearly as common as the Saddle Backed Bush-Cricket in the area. We have only managed to spot it a few times while on route. The one in the picture is a male Cricket, since it is missing a long spike coming out from the back of its body (females have it to lay eggs into the ground). Can be found from early summer to early winter.

As you can see from the picture, these butterflies are of a small size, no more than a finger nail. They can be found flying around the mountains in Alicante from early to late summer in large numbers and as you can see, they do not have any trouble with perching on a person for long periods of time.

Dusky Heath

Dusky Heath on Rosemary

Easter Burnet

These little insects can be seen high up around about 800-900m above sea level usually among vegetation. The best way to spot them is while they are in flight since you can really see the red and black in the wings, even with them only being about 3cm in size. Again these can be seen from early summer to late summer.

 This Grasshopper is probably about 5 times the size of any other ones you may find round the area. It will usually only fly it disturbed (in the case it is in the middle of a track/foot path, and so on). If you are not sure about it, do not try to pick it up, since the kicks from these little creatures can cut and make you bleed, nothing life threatening, but just so you know.

Egyptian Grasshopper

Libelloides coccajus

Part of the Lacewing family, the yellow on the wings can vary from almost white of intense yellow as seen in the picture. When seen in flight, they look like they are hovering, and the colors can clearly be seen. When landing they usually land on stems of flowers and plants, never perched on the top part. They can be found from about Easter to late summer.

Moroccan Orange Tip

Female Moroccan Orange Tip

At the moment these butterflies can be found everywhere. Most books show them as being wide spread in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Flight time over the year is marked up as being from February to April; in this area at least you can find them up until June. The most common one to see is the male, being bright yellow with bright orange tips to its wings, the female seen in the second picture is with orangy/brown wing tips.

Oil Beetle

This insect can grow to be about 5cm long in some cases I have seen over the years, distinct by its long black body with bright red stripes on its back. Usually seen scurrying over tracks and foot paths. These beetles lay their eggs on flowers, the reason being, when the eggs hatch into larvae they attach themselves onto bees that the carry them to the hive, once inside the hive, the larvae are not considered a threat to the colony and are left alone to grow feeding off the honey, to leave the hive and start the cycle yet again.

That’s all I have time for today, I hope you all enjoy the reading and the little bit of information I can give on the area. And as I have said before, please comment and let me know any suggestions you may have.

Tom

Mountainwalks.com