Species Of The Week Number 39: Green Silver-lines
This week is National Insect Week. Organised by the Royal Entomological Society, its website has lots of fun insect-related content under the strap line of "the little things that run the world".
Not only are they little things but there are loads of them. One estimate is that there is an average 40 million insects per acre of land. Another that for every single human on the planet there are 200 million insects.
Let's just concentrate one one.
The Green Silver-lines (caught in our Meanwood moth trap recently) is one of the more remarkable - as well as being a bit of a looker as you can see.
Male Green Silver-lines are experts in stridulation, and ten points are available if you know what stridulation is. For everyone who now has zero points.... it is is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. A bit like grasshoppers do.
Unusually, Green Silver-lines stridulates using specially adapted abdominal organs called tymbals which it contracts with its muscles to produce a click. A second click is created when the tymbal returns to its original shape. If you want to hear it then climb up to the top of a Meanwood beech tree at dusk, which is where they like to hang out, stridulating at leisure. Some other moths also produce sounds (probably as a survival method to confuse echolocating bats) but it is though likely in Green Silver-lines it has a reproductive/mating function.
Want to know more? Then Google yourself over to the research article by Niels Skals and Annemarie Surlykke in Volume 202, Issue 21 of the Journal of Experimental Biology!
We shall be seeking out more magical Meanwood moths at the second of our moth and wine events on Sugarwell Hill this Wednesday from about 9.30pm. We'll be in the grassy area behind Meanwood Valley Urban Farm. It is also a good way just to meet and chat with other Meanwood residents. Everyone welcome. BYOB (and ideally a camping chair). Moth trap provided.
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