Midsummer is when wildlife usually revels in long warm days, but this summer has been dire. Bees and butterflies have had a sodden time, and so have the insects, birds and bats that feed on them.
Gardeners are seeing fewer greenfly and blackfly in the downpours, but the rains have brought out swarms of slugs and snails. And a voracious alien known as the Spanish stealth slug has invaded the UK and is hybridising with a native British slug to produce highly fertile offspring that are slithering across the country in record numbers. At least hedgehogs have feasted on the slug bonanza, with Kew Gardens reporting their first sighting of a hedgehog in 20 years.
The downpours have also flushed away silt in upland rivers, giving clean shingle with well oxygenated water enjoyed by salmon and other creatures, including some very rare beetles, the larvae of caddis flies and even a spider called the river shingle spider.Mayflies have also emerged well from rivers. These grow as an underwater nymph on riverbeds for two or more years before emerging on the river surface as an adult in late May or June, flying off for a brief life of a day or two to breed. The females then lay their eggs on the river and all the adults die, without even having enough time to feed. But with climate change, the lifespan of the mayfly larvae has become shorter as rivers have grown warmer in recent years.
Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:05 am
