Surprises in Spain: More Exciting Insects.

Introduction.

This is the second part of the holiday blog featuring wildlife, nature, and the outdoors.

Montserrat.

Apart from one of the best weddings ever, another highlight of the holiday was a visit to Montserrat outside Barcelona in Catalonia. Linton’s been to so many interesting places in the world when he was a pilot and this is somewhere that he very much enjoyed and thought I would like too. When we got over from Mallorca, we took a short train journey out of Barcelona to Aeri de Montserrat and then caught the funicular train up to Monserrat for a few days walking.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see both the green train that took us up, and the yellow cable car that carried us back down to Aeri de Montserrat at the end of the visit

The Famous Monastery.

We stayed in the hotel close to the famous Gothic Benedictine monastery perched on the cliff edge, not unlike the monasteries of Meteora in Greece. This monastery has a colourful and eventful history and has been twice burnt down by Napoleon’s troops in 1811 and 1812. It was a popular place for Nazi visits during WW2, and Heinrich Himmler was driven up there in 1940. Today, it is of great religious significance for many pilgrims and visitors who visit the museums and take monastery tours. Rock climbers and walkers go further up towards the jagged serrated mountain tops for which the settlement has been named.

If you want to hear the melodious bells here is a short clip youtu.be/L-cNKsKsmp4

Mountains.

There are some spectacular pink-coloured conglomerate rock formations from sedimentary materials formed millions of years ago. The paths are steep but steps and a defined path make the going easier in many places. If you are not keen on heights it may be challenging though. We climbed around 2,000 feet to Saint Jeroni which is the highest peak in this multi-peaked range. It is 4,055 feet above sea level with impressive views on all sides. A few butterflies chased each other on mating flights on a hot sunny day at the top, and some Bonelli’s eagle floated above us as if suspended on the warm air currents.

Carpenter Bees & Hummingbird Hawk Moths.

Later, back down at the monastery I checked out all the flower beds for pollinators and was rewarded by stunning close-up views of hummingbird hawk- moths and carpenter bees. I’ve always been fascinated by carpenter bees and have waited years to see one; I just love the way they change colour depending on reflected light. They belong to the apidae family to which honey bees and bumble bees also belong, and there around 6,000 in this group of long-tongued bees. Carpenter bees and allodapine bees are members of the subfamily Xylocopinae in which there are nearly 1,000 species so lots of them in the world.

The North American carpenter bee has yellow hairs on its thorax while the European carpenter bee is entirely black with brilliant violet wings. Males of many of species are tan in colour.

If you look closely at the bee in this short video (https://youtu.be/BZIz_L7yOeg) you will notice irregular brown patches which I think are mites because in some Xylocopa species the first metasomal tergum folds in on itself to create a cavity that houses beneficial mites. The mites consume fungal mycelia that develop in the brood cells and would otherwise be harmful to the developing bee so there is a symbiotic relationship between bee and mite.

What is fascinating is that the metallic blue colour results from reflected light and not pigmented hairs on the bee body. The exception is found is tropical Asian carpenter bees where their blue colouring is caused by blue pigment.

Nesting takes place in wood or woody material such as plant stalks which takes time and effort to excavate by chewing the materials and making a tunnel. Sometimes a female will wait for a year to perhaps inherit her mother’s nest when she dies and save herself some work.

Some of the species are key pollinators of passion fruit and they are present throughout the world apart from Antarctica, New Zealand, and colder regions of the far north.

Well Groomed Honey Bees.

This pollen collecting honey bee is spending a bit of time on lavender grooming its head and cleaning antennae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTBhpmgi0uY .

An Asian Hornet Close Up.

On the way back down to catch the Barcelona train we shared the cable car with several oncologists and surgeons from Taiwan who had spent only an hour or so walking around the monastery before heading back to Barcelona for a big medical conference. We interacted at the station as Linton helped the men get their tickets and the next train back to the city. They were cutting it fine for their convention.

We stayed for a couple of nights, in a lovely hotel at Arrey, just outside Barcelona for the very special celebration of the marriage of my great-niece Rosa to the lovely Paulo who’s family live in Spain. On arrival at the hotel after our trip from Montserrat, we fancied a swim. The pool was a little chilly and refreshing but considerably warmer than the bracing poolside pre-swim shower. As soon as I got out and onto a sun lounger to warm up I noticed what looked like an Asian hornet drinking from the puddles below the shower a few feet away. Sure enough, it really was an Asian hornet and my first live sighting. Linton took some photos of it collecting water and it kept coming back every few minutes before flying off over towards some tall trees outside the grounds https://youtu.be/S5rZpsnjCRU. We kept turning on the shower and topping up the water as soon as the sun dried the puddles which attracted some puzzled looks from fellow guests.

It should be noted that it is illegal in the UK to trap and release Asian hornets without a permit, but this was Spain and I wanted to collect a sample for teaching and this was the perfect opportunity. Besides, I didn’t plan on releasing it to follow it to its nest. Linton was game on to help me and he had just finished his first beer so the glass provided the perfect trap. He quietly slipped the glass over the hornet and I tore the cover off my jotter to slip under the glass to trap the insect. Linton nipped up to our room and came back with his net clothing bag which was perfect for covering the rim of the glass as we poured in the fatal shot of vodka, conveniently purchased from the hotel bar. In a second the hornet was dead and we decanted the vodka and I mounted the hornet on rolled up toilet tissue to keep its legs displayed before rigor mortis set in and the legs folded inwards.

What did we do with the vodka? No, of course it wasn’t wasted!

While waiting for Linton to return with the net, I videoed the hornet and if you stop the video at various points, you can see the insect more clearly https://youtu.be/wX18TAc-R4U. Video recording and editing needs to be further developed on my part and I am very much a tyro, still.

This is a useful reference to use if you think you’ve come across one yourself and are not quite sure: https://www.nonnativespecies.org/assets/Uploads/ID_Vespa_velutina_Asian_Hornet_5.0-1.pdf http:/

Death’s-Head Hawk Moth.

We found a dead death’s head hawk-moth (another first for me) but I didn’t take it home as it had started to decay and would not have been very easy to transport or pin in my collection box back home. It was exciting enough to see one though and get a better idea of the size which is quite large.

Finally.

It seems that I’m the best honey producer, at least according to the bride and groom!