Small Copper Butterfly

A small copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) basking in the sun amongst hawthorn berries, alongside the old railway track in Lower Largo. A bright attractive tiny butterfly, this one has lost a little bit of its hind wing.

Shaggy Parasol Mushroom

Another mushroom from a recent visit to the woods in Falkland Estate. There are several parasol mushrooms but these looked most like the shaggy parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes). Rhacodes is a mispelling of the greek rhakos or rhacos which means 'piece of cloth'. The cap is at first egg-shaped then opens flat and the outer skin breaks up into shaggy brown scales on a cream background. The stem is white.

Yellow Stag's Horn Fungus

Yellow Stag's Horn Fungus (Calocera viscosa) growing on dead wood in the Falkland Estate. It is a bright yellow, many branched jelly fungus which is abundant on conifer stumps and fallen trunks.

A Bright Blue Patch

Some work was recently done at the Upper Largo end of the Serpentine Walk and a patch of earth levelled off. In no time at all it was covered in vegetation, the most striking being these cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus). At one time cornflowers along with poppies brightened up the cornfields, although no doubt considered a troublesome weed, however, modern agricultural methods have led to it becoming quite a rarity.

A Tiny Rock Pool

A tiny rock pool on the beach (middle-shore) approaching Lower Largo Harbour from Lundin Links. Lots of barnacles and some limpets but my eye was drawn to the centre of the pool where there was a mass of  minute blue-grey larval-like creatures (about 3mm in length) that were in continual rapid motion although maintaining the roughly circular shape of the mass.

Looking at the close-up photo (click to enlarge) they are segmented, with antennae and paired legs. That suggests arthropods and crustaceans. (Crustacea is the major group or subphylum of the phylum arthropoda  that includes the crabs, prawns, and sandhopper types of animal.) I think that these are very small marine crustaceans of the order isopoda, although I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at the species. The land-based woodlice belong to the same order - they have an ‘armoured’ body or exoskeleton with lots of limbs and joints, and their body is flattened from top to bottom. Can see the resemblance to woodlice in the close-up below.

Update (August 2015) - Thanks for the comments and especially to the person who identified them as marine insects of the order collembola  rather than crustaceans, with the name Anurida maritime or seashore springtail.

Comma Butterfly and Others

On the path leading down to the back of Lundin  Golf Course car park there is a large stand of buddleia and it's a good place to see butterflies. Today spotted a comma butterfly (above, unfortunately did'nt get a very clear photo), only the second time I've seen one in Fife and the first time in Lundin Links. The last one was at Balcarres near Colinsburgh in 2011. The comma has gradually been extending its range northward and is now relatively well established in the Borders and Central Lowlands.

 There were several peacock butterflies and in the photo below there's also a red admiral.

Buddleia attracts bees as well as butterflies

Jellyfish Stranded on the Beach

Have quite often seen quite large numbers of moon jellyfish stranded on the beach around Largo Bay but the last couple of days on the beach at Lundin Links have seen several of these reddish coloured ones in various states of decomposition. At first I thought they might be compass jellyfish but they look much more like the photos of the lion's mane (Cyanea capillata) which is the world's largest  - their bells can be over 2 metres across. However, they vary greatly in size and the bell diameter can be as small as around 10cm. The ones I saw stranded on the beach were around 15 to 25cm across. They have a mass of thin tentacles that resemble a lion's mane, which is where they get their name from.

They can deliver a painful sting, even once washed up dead on the beach and so should not be touched.