The Death’s-head Hawk-moth must have a very difficult life

The mysterious life of the Death’s-head Hawk-moth

Death’s-head Hawk-moth. Photo: Steve Andrews

The Death’s-head Hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos) is a very remarkable insect in many ways. Once seen it will never be forgotten with its skull-like marking on the back of its thorax, dark but beautifully patterned wings, its massive size, and stout furry banded body. But this hawkmoth must lead a very difficult life, and it doesn’t surprise me that it is rare. The Death’s-head Hawk-moth’s main food is apparently honey and it steals this from beehives. It is even known as the “Bee Robber.” So one of the first things the insect must do in its life is locate a hive, not so easy these days with the terrible decline in honeybees, said to be due to Colony Collapse Disorder. It then has to enter the home of the bees, find the honeycomb and use its short proboscis to break through the wax to steal the sweet liquid.

There are theories about how it manages to do this without being attacked by angry bees. One theory is that it emits a smell that causes the bees to leave it alone because it mimics the scent of the bees. It appears that the moth requires the stimulus of being in a hive to go about feeding. In captivity if supplied with honey on a pad it won’t touch this. Websites with details of caring for the moth say that the only way to feed it is to carefully hold the insect and unroll the proboscis so that it goes into a mixture of honey and water. Although the moths will struggle, it is said that after one or two attempts they will learn to feed this way and will take their food on future days. I cannot confirm this because I have to admit I have given up with my attempts and have released moths in my care. The Death’s-head Hawk-moth also squeaks quite loudly when alarmed, and it is definitely alarmed when held for attempted force feeding. My question is why won’t it feed itself? Otherwise in published literature there is very little information about how the adults feed. In a very few places I have read that they also take tree sap and resin, have been known to puncture fruit, accept rotting fruit,  and even that they take the nectar from a Petunia flower, not the normal way but by breaking into the part of the flower that holds the nectar. I have left a moth with a pad soaked in honey and water, and also with Petunia flowers and the moth ignored all of it. Literature on these moths also maintain that this hawkmoth will not attempt to mate until the males have fed and until a few days have gone by. So even if you have males and females emerging around the same time it is still not easy to get them to mate. You have to find a way to feed them, and need somewhere to keep the insects safely where they do not damage their wings trying to escape. In my experience this moth emerges from its pupa at night and soon after the wings are dried it wants to fly. I have had them eclose in the early hours of the morning. I have read that the moth flies very late at night, and this appears to be correct. Researching the Death’s-head Hawk-moth fails to turn up much information that I haven’t given here. I am wondering whether these moths do feed otherwise but have not been studied well enough for anyone to know how they feed or what on.

  Death’s-head Hawk-moth caterpillar. Photo: Steve Andrews

The caterpillars are another matter though, and the information on them today is far, far greater than when I was a boy. Books on insects many years ago used to say the caterpillar fed on the foliage of the Potato, possibly on the Jasmine too, and that was about it. Nowadays the reported range these huge larvae can eat is very  wide indeed. Besides Potato and Jasmine, it is known to feed on Deadly Nightshade, Woody Nightshade, Snowberry, Thornapple, Tree Tobacco, Tomato, Hemp, Lantana, Olive, Privet, Lilac, Buddleia and Tulip Tree. I have found them on Thornapple in Tenerife and Lantana there. I suspect the caterpillar can also feed on Sea Grape because I encountered a wandering larva once in a shopping precinct where the only vegetation present was on some specimens of this tree. Unlike many species, the caterpillar of the Death’s-head Hawk-moth is almost spoiled for choice. Nevertheless I have found they don’t like to switch plants that they have been eating. Larvae reared on Privet expect more Privet. Besides the unusual feeding habits of the adult moths, I wonder what causes some of them to embark on lengthy migrations, including those in which it flies over the seas. This species has been found as far north as the Shetland Islands in the UK, but clearly could not withstand the winters up there, which would be far too cold. It is said that this species cannot get through winters in Britain elsewhere. What causes it to migrate? How does it decide which direction to fly? How does it find beehives? The Death’s-head Hawk-moth is a very mysterious moth don’t you agree?

Could Lisbon play host to an Ocean Aid concert

 Is Lisbon the ideal city for an Ocean Aid concert? 

Steve Andrews interviewed at a Rock in Rio Lisboa concert

This summer, Lisbon was the city chosen to hold the UN Ocean Conference, a week-long event attended by thousands. Celebrities, including Aquaman star Jason Momoa, and oceanographer, explorer and author Dr Sylvia Earle, were among the many special guest speakers. There was extensive media coverage for the conference in which very great numbers of organisations concerned with saving the seas and the marine life in them took part.

I went along to the event myself and came away feeling inspired, and thinking this: if Lisbon is where a United Nations conference can be held with the theme being saving the oceans, wouldn’t the city also make the perfect place to hold an Ocean Aid rock concert? I came up with the idea of Ocean Aid when I penned my song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?”

I have blogged about it before. I have talked about my idea in any media interviews I have had worldwide. I even have a book with a chapter all about it. Saving Mother Ocean, which was endorsed by Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd, explains how I thought such an event could follow in the footsteps of Live Aid, but this time raising awareness about the many threats to the oceans and to raise funds for charitable organisations working on saving the seas.

I was thinking Lisbon would be perfect, not only for me because I live near the city, but far more importantly, because there are two well-known concert promoters here that stage really big all day outdoor music events. I am talking about Rock In Rio Lisboa and NOS Alive. I have been to Rock In Rio Lisboa concerts in Lisbon. One of the acts I saw here was Bruce Springsteen back in 2016. I mention “The Boss” because he is an example of the type of very high profile rock stars that have performed at a Rock in Rio concert. Concert organisers and promoters like Rock In Rio Lisboa and NOS Alive know what it takes to put on really big events. They know the sort of money that is needed, they know what it takes to successfully run such concerts, they have the right contacts in the music industry. And, again very important, there are parks in Lisbon that can be used to stage these events. In other words, we have it all here, everything that would be needed to put on an Ocean Aid Lisboa concert. I would choose Sea Shepherd to be the charity that funds could be raised for. Mick Jagger, Coldplay and Steven Tyler, are some very big name acts that I know support this organisation. As it happens, Coldplay are already going to be playing four concerts here in Portugal next year. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they also performed an Ocean Aid concert? I need to get my idea to the right people. I have tried sending messages to Rock In Rio and to NOS Alive but no replies as yet. I am sure they get thousands of people contacting them, so I am not that surprised I have had no response. Maybe this blog will get seen by someone from Rock In Rio Lisboa or NOS Alive, maybe some other big concert organiser will see it? If they do, hopefully they will like my idea and will help me make an Ocean Aid concert a reality in Portugal?

Testing positive for plastic, so is there a plastic pandemic?

Besides the Covid pandemic are we also the victims of a plastic pandemic?

It is worrying enough testing positive for Covid-19 and the pandemic has caused so much suffering and deaths around the world, but what if there is another form of pandemic that people do not know about? I am not talking about one that we can be vaccinated against. What if there is a plastic pandemic, not caused by a virus but by nano-plastics in the bloodstream? I was already well aware that micro-plastics and nano-plastics are being found everywhere, and I mean everywhere, so it didn’t surprise me that plastic has been found in human blood. We are consuming plastic in our food and drink and in the air we breathe. Most of this plastic we cannot see and are unaware of. The scale of this is unknown but it is happening increasingly, and now there are people who have tested positive for plastic. I was recently at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, and there were two guest speakers there who are some of the first people in the world who have gone through the alarming experience of finding they test positive for plastic in their bloodstream. Jo Royle, founder of Common Seas was one of them and Ben Jack, programme director for Common Seas was the other. They know that they are living with plastic circulating in their bodies. Scientists testing for plastic have discovered that as many as 77% of those tested were found to have the material in their blood. It is unknown as to what effect plastic in our bloodstreams can cause. Will the material lodge in organs and tissues, will this cause harm, how will the body attempt to remove the plastic, are some of the questions that spring to mind. Do plastic particles in the blood lead to blood clots? Of course, the main problem is that plastic was made to last forever, it was made so it doesn’t decompose. What it does do is it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, and this is how nano-plastics are eventually formed. The planet has been contaminated by them. Dust fine plastic can be blown in the wind, carried in raindrops, end up on mountain tops and in the ice in polar regions. Plastic pollution is one of the most serious threats to life on this planet. Big pieces get swallowed by animals on land and at sea and can kill the unfortunate creatures, other animals die after getting trapped and entangled in plastic netting, but what harm micro and nano-plastics currently do, or in the long term, we cannot presently say. It is an international problem and we all need to take personal action in any way we can to help tackle the problem of plastic pollution. I took action by writing the song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?” and the book Saving Mother Ocean.

In my song I sing: “Plastic kills the turtles and is eaten by the fish, plastic is in the food chain and the dinner on your dish. Where does all the plastic go, into the sea, into the sea, how did it get there, who threw it away, was it you or was it me?”

Aquaman star Jason Momoa in UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon

 Aquaman star Jason Momoa at UN Ocean Conference in Portugal

By an amazing coincidence, it almost seemed like a full page story in The Portugal News last year, had predicted that Aquaman Star, Jason Momoa, would attend the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon. On 26 June, 2002, the actor had joined Secretary-General António Guterres, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and many youth activists, on Carcavelos Beach, to kick off the Ocean Conference that would take place for the following week in nearby Lisbon. On 4 September, 2021, an article by Jake Cleaver in the Portugal News was entitled Poseidon, Neptune and Aquaman “Stand by me”. The story was about my song “Where Does All the Plastic Go?”, my book, Saving Mother Ocean, and my idea for “Ocean Aid” concerts.

I had mentioned Aquaman in a chapter in my book, Cleaver had picked up on this for the title of his piece about me, and now, the following year, the star of the movie about this superhero was really in Portugal to take part in an event to save the oceans. It seemed like magic! As it happened, I went along to the conference too, though sadly didn’t get a chance to meet Momoa because I was there on the wrong days. Nevertheless I think it is amazing how all this came about, and am delighted to know that someone as high profile as he is, attended the event and is speaking out about the importance of saving the seas. The American actor and activist is now the UNEP Ambassador for Life Underwater, and it turns out that he had wanted to be a marine biologist before becoming the movie-star he is today. It is also an incredible coincidence that I live near Lisbon, and my passion and focus has been to do what I can to raise awareness about saving the seas. Portugal is such a great place for events like this conference because there are so many people in this country, who are taking action to look after the ocean and to spread the word about dangers to the marine environment. Last year I took part in the COOL 21 event organised by Oceano Azul, and held outside the Lisbon Oceanarium. I gave a brief talk, sold some of my books, and performed my song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?”

There were very many people, who are concerned about the oceans, at this event too. One of them was Andreas Noe, aka “The Trash Traveller.” He has been doing all he can to save the marine environment, and cycled around the coast of Portugal on “the Butt Hike,” collecting over 1,000,000 cigarette butts, a terrible source of plastic pollution. I took a selfie in front of a display of thousands of these discarded butts.

Taking action comes in so many different ways but the more of us that become active the better. We really do need to save the ocean because life on this planet depends on it, and that life includes us! That is why I use the term “Mother Ocean.” She is the source of life on Earth! Let’s take care of our Mother!

SAVE THE FROGS DAY 2022 Report from Portugal

 Special report from Quinta do Conde for SAVE THE FROGS Day! 

With my friend, fellow singer-songwriter Ana Lisa Meier, for this year's SAVE THE FROGS Day, we decided to create a report about frogs and wetlands in the Quinta do Conde area of Portugal where we are. Ana is very lucky because she has a colony of Iberian Water Frogs in her garden. They live in, and around, the two garden ponds, which shows how valuable ponds like this are when it comes to amphibian conservation.  Here I am enjoying listening to the frogs and the birds singing.

We went to explore the wetland areas near where we live, took some photos and captured some video footage there. There is an area of wetland behind a sports stadium that depends on a lot of winter and spring rainfall to be of any use to amphibians. This year the rains came very late, after a winter drought, presumably due to the Climate Crisis. The water sadly drains away fast and feeds a river nearby, as well as being absorbed by the sandy ground. I feel this area could be greatly improved as a wetland habitat if some restoration work was done there so that the water was retained longer. 

We went to look at the river, which some years gets nearly dried up, although there are usually some pools left standing. Frogs can be found here and at this time of year you can hear Iberian Water Frogs singing, though they are very difficult to spot. 

 

I once saw a European Pond Tortoise here too. I wasn't able to get a photo because it dived in the water. This species is endangered, so I was pleased to see that at least one was surviving in a wildlife habitat near where I live.  Further along this river there is a bridge and the frogs can be heard loudly there, although we were unable to actually see any. They stop calling when you approach. 

Sadly right by this bridge we encountered some highly polluted water from a drain entering the river. This is really bad because this river feeds an Ecology Park further along its course.  Water pollution is a serious threat to amphibians, fish and other wildlife. 

Back by the stadium and right by a main road are a lot of temporary pools that fill up in winter and spring and are always used by local amphibians. Tadpoles can be seen in the cloudy water but it is always a race against time for them because the pools always dry up, leaving just cracked mud until next rainy season. making the situation worse, people enjoy driving through these pools. I once saw a vehicle stuck in one of them with the mud flying up. I must admit I thought it was funny and had no sympathy for the driver. It was as if this was "Instant karma."

 

Ana and I next went to take a look around the Ecology Park of Quinta do Conde, a place I have written about before in this blog. There is a small lake there and when I last visited, it was full of water and there were plenty of frogs about. Sadly this was not the case this time, though Ana spotted one tadpole. The water was very low and we discovered yet another source of pollution because there was oil floating on the surface at one end of the lake and a trickle of oily water entering it there. Someone had thrown a shopping trolley into the water and a landing stage for visitors to stand on to get a better look over the water had been demolished for some reason. 

 

The Ecology Park was showing neglect and was disappointing, although there are extensive reed beds there, and many other smaller pools and dykes in an area used for allotments that local people grow fruit and vegetables in. Because the water was so low in the lake I thought that Herons and Storks had probably caught a lot of the frogs and any fish that live there. Storks congregate in the fields next to the park, and Herons are also seen here. Storks and Herons, of course, have to find food, and are just as important as frogs. Although our visit to this park was somewhat disappointing, it fitted in with what we were trying to do, which was to conduct an exploration of our neighbourhood, to keep things local. I think it is important for anyone who wants to help with conservation of amphibians and other species of wildlife, to do what you can in the area you live in. This applies wherever you are in the world. If you have found this report interesting and would like to find out more about what you can do to help SAVE THE FROGS, please visit the SAVE THE FROGS website! Now I'm off to help SAVE THE FROGS! 

Butterflies flying in March in Portugal

Butterflies flying in March in Portugal

There are many butterfly species currently flying in the area of Portugal I live in. They are enjoying the warm spring sunshine. I saw several Green Hairstreaks (Callophrys rubi), two Clouded Yellows (Colias crocea) , two Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta),

lots of Speckled Woods (Pararge aegeria aegeria) and several Large Whites (Pieris brassicae) on a short walk today. As well as these butterflies, I spotted two Spanish Festoons (Zerynthia rumina). I live in Quinta do Conde and like to walk through some forest and scrub on my way to the local supermarket and back. I usually see butterflies unless it is very cold, wet or windy. There are plenty of plants the Green Hairstreak butterflies can lay their eggs on here. They have a choice of Gorse (Ulex) or the Rockrose (Cistus) species. I was watching a Clouded Yellow female carefully searching in a short grassy area for Clovers and Medicks that are sprouting after some recent rains. Like all butterflies, the success of a species is very much linked to the distribution of plants they need for their caterpillars, and how well these plants are growing at the right season. Even if the correct plants are available in a given area, heat and drought can shrivel them up or prevent them growing at all. This is a disaster for a female butterfly. Every year we get several months in the summer period when the vegetation mainly goes brown or dies back to the ground. It can even be difficult finding some green blades of grass.

This is a big problem for the butterflies, like the Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina), that have larvae that feed on grasses. The latter butterfly flies later in the year and does surprisingly well here, though I have seen them sheltering in the shade of trees when it is very hot. I always wonder how they find enough grass to lay their eggs on. For the Speckled Wood in February and March this is not a problem because the grass species grow back after the winter rains. This year there has been a terrible winter drought so the land is very dry. Nevertheless many plants, including grass species, have survived, though they are nowhere near the usual size. I have been especially glad to see the small colony of the Spanish Festoon is still thriving. Last year, I didn’t see any of this species and feared that the brutal cold of the winter of 2020-2021 had wiped them out. I was obviously wrong because I have seen several of this species in the area they are found in here. Speaking of the Spanish Festoon, and its potential problems, it took me years to find the food-plant they are using in my locality. The Spanish Festoon needs any of the species of Birthwort (Aristolochia).

The species that grows here is the Round-leaved Birthwort (A. rotunda). It is a delicate plant that winds its way amongst bushes and undergrowth so is not that easy to spot, especially in shaded areas. It only grows in one part here, where it is found in a lightly wooded area with a pathway and a bank. I can see for myself how this species is bound to stay where its food-plant grows because every year this location is the only place I can find this spectacular butterfly. I say spectacular because its wings are marked with darker zigzags and red dots on a yellow background. I am a migraine sufferer and the jagged lines remind me of the aura formation many people who get migraines are used to seeing.

Horrible as migraines are, the Spanish Festoon is a truly beautiful species of butterfly.

All photos by Steve Andrews

Helping the Red Admiral Butterflies

Red Admirals need Nettles

Red Admiral Photo: Steve Andrews

The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is a very pretty butterfly you are probably familiar with. You can’t miss it with its striking red, black and white wings, and in the UK, it is one of the last butterflies to be seen in late autumn. We all love to see butterflies but many people don’t realise how important the plants the caterpillars need to feed on are. In the case of the Red Admiral, the main food-plants are Nettle species. The Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is the most commonly used plant but here in Portugal where I live, the Annual Nettle (U. urens) is the species they use.

Annual Nettles Photo: Steve Andrews

These nettles spring up as a garden weed and on waste ground in the autumn and winter when rains fall. Sadly because they are regarded as a weed, many people destroy them, either manually with care, due to the stinging threat from the plant, or with herbicide, and any Red Admiral eggs, caterpillars or chrysalises, get destroyed too. I saw a large patch of Small Nettles growing on some rough ground in a shortcut between two roads in my neighbourhood. I checked for Red Admiral caterpillars and soon found some, which I took into care, just in case anyone came along and killed the plants. I am very glad I did because some council workers turned up and removed all the vegetation that was growing there.

There is a skill to finding Red Admiral caterpillars, but it is very easy to learn. The caterpillars are usually found towards the top of a nettle stem and they fold leaves around themselves as shelters. The leaves are held with a small amount of caterpillar silk. They eat surrounding leaves and you can spot the holes in these leaves and their ragged appearance where they have been eaten away.

Sometimes the Red Admiral caterpillar will pupate inside their shelters too, but not always, because they will also transform into chrysalises that hang suspended from nettle stalks or possibly on a wall, fence or other object near where the caterpillar has been feeding. I keep the caterpillars in sandwich boxes with a paper towel on the bottom to help absorb any dampness and to make it easier when cleaning out the container and providing new food. Often I find that the caterpillars will choose to pupate after spinning a pad of silk on the plastic top of the sandwich box. The chrysalises are brown but some are speckled with gold. As the butterfly inside becomes more developed and nears the time for emergence it becomes much darker and you can see the wings colouring up in the wing-case on each side of the chrysalis.

When the Red Admirals finally emerge, or eclose, as lepidopterists would say, they need to dry their wings thoroughly before they take their first flight. It is very important at this stage that they are not disturbed and that they don’t fall off whatever they are clinging to. This can be a problem for all species of butterflies at this stage of their life-cycles. Fallen butterflies can become cripples if they fail to expand and dry their wings properly. Usually all goes well, though, and the Red Admiral is all set to fly away. This butterfly can fly a long way. Many of those seen in the UK are migrants, though this species can hibernate in Britain too. In Portugal they have more than one generation but need nettles. I usually see them in autumn, winter and spring. In summer it is too hot and dry. There is a place in some woodland near where I live that I can almost guarantee I will be able to find a male Red Admiral every year in the right seasons. Of course, it isn’t the same butterfly but is obviously an ideal spot for a male of this species to create a territory he can patrol.

All photos by Steve Andrews