For the duration of this trip (to conduct some fieldwork) we camped on a site in Les Adrets-de-l’Estérel, a small town in the south-east of France, surrounded by forest, scrub, and hills.
The area immediately around the campsite was spacious properties (all surrounded by electric fences and high walls) with patches of roadside wasteland, grasses, scrub, and tall trees, including Cork / Chêne-liège (Quercus suber). It was hot and dry. We had a quick walk around camp, not expecting to find much on the first day, but how wrong I was!
There was a dead Jay / Geai des chênes (Garrulus glandarius) in the road, alongside several dead Rhinoceros Beetles / Scarabée rhinocéros Européen (Oryctes nasicornis); the isopod Porcellio orarum, the jumping spider Philaeus chrysops and several scorpions (Euscorpius flavicaudis).
1: P. orarum.
2: E. flavicaudis 3: Opilione
4 & 5: P. chrysops
That night, we went out with the torches, finding more scorpions and the large isopod Armadillidium depressum on a wall. There were large hawkmoths feeding on honeysuckle just out of the reach of the torchlight. While we were looking at the wall, Tom discovered a caterpillar of a species I had never seen before - around 5cm long, ground colour khaki green and ochre, with black-spotted patterning all over. The strangest thing by far was its rear end: where a horn would be in a hawk-moth caterpillar, this one had a large, yellow eyespot.
It was actually a couple of months before we found a positive identification, entirely by accident, from a social media photo where somebody else had found some. The identification of the mysterious caterpillar was finally revealed to be a Willowherb Hawkmoth / Sphinx de l'Épilobe (Proserpina proserpinus), a nationally protected species in France. The moths themselves are delicate and dusk-flying, visiting flowers in the same manner as Hummingbird Hawkmoths. The caterpillars, with their single yellow eyespot, are one of (or the?) only caterpillars in the family which does not possess a horn. There have been two records of P. proserpinus in the UK, both from the south of England. Since the UK has a lot of Epilobium, perhaps with climate change we may see the return of this species in a more permanent capacity.
Following the sound of some tree frog calls, we found one calling on the road underneath a grapevine; the Stripeless Tree Frog / Rainette méridionale Hyla meridionalis. As per usual, there were large numbers of Moorish Geckos / Tarente de Maurétanie (Tarentola mauritanica) on the buildings and terraces, on the rock face beside the road, and under every streetlamp.
At around 3am on the first night, we got up in turn and went across the campsite to the toilets, taking little notice of various rustlings. When we returned to the tent and were heading to sleep again, there was an enormous bang on the side of the van, lots of loud animal noises, and a crash as something fell into the side of our tent, then the footsteps ran off and faded away. We briefly wondered what had happened, before dropping back off to sleep. The next morning we pieced together what had occurred: presumably our tent plot hadn’t been occupied for a while, and a group of Wild Boar had been using it to cut through the camp. They had cut through on their usual route during the night, not realising the tent and van were parked there, and had tripped over the guy ropes, crashing into our tent and falling into the side of the van with a big bang and much squealing. We discovered that there was a high concentration of boar in the area, which was potentially at least part of the reason why every garden had high walls, electric fences and big dogs!
During the next few days, we made a number of excursions and found a lot of interesting creatures within the local vicinity. One of our first sites was a set of extremely hot, dry, scrubby hills, which proved extremely productive, and we made several return visits. The landscape of the area was reddish, igneous porphyry, with vegetation dominated by pine trees, thorny bushes and the occasional stunted cork. It seemed rather spiky and barren, but there was a lot of tough insect life thriving here.
We discovered a strange-looking neuropteran larva underneath a rock, blending in with the lichen, and quickly determined that it was the larva of an ascalaphid. We’d seen the ascalaphid Libelloides longicornis on a previous trip, and this could very well have been the larva of that genus. It appeared a little more mobile than the closely-related ant-lions, with semi-functional gripping legs for grasping the rock. It also looked like it may have camouflaged itself with rock dust or debris. There is a fantastic key to European Ascalaphidae larvae here, but I couldn't determine this one as I didn't have a ventral view.
I was scanning the general area with binoculars when I noticed, perched in the very top of one of the pine trees, the largest stand-alone hornet's nest I had ever seen. It was huge and teardrop-shaped, and well over two feet in diameter from end to end; seemingly empty, it dominated the surrounding landscape.
Somehow, the position in the top of the tree didn't seem quite 'right' for a normal hornet nest, so I suspected it to be the nest of the Asian Hornet / Frelon Asiatique (Vespa velutina). They are fairly well-established in southern France, and we discovered before long that it was not uncommon to see workers flying about. I had seen several European Hornet nests before, but none in this habitat, in such an exposed place. Vespa velutina has gained a rather fearsome reputation in the UK from the tabloid press, with the occasional nest discovered in England; it has not yet become established here as it has in France, and there are strict measures in place to destroy any nests found. Whether this will work in the long run to keep them from establishing, or whether it will begin to colonise in future remains to be seen.
The hornets themselves are fairly distinctive, being slightly smaller and darker than our native hornet (V. crabro). I later did a little bit of research. According to the Invasive Species Compendium, V. velutina creates large secondary nests after a first brood in a small primary nest (usually in a hole or crevice); these secondary nests are often in more prominent positions, such as tree canopies. They also have lateral main entrances, rather than bottom-facing ones as European hornets and Common Wasps tend to have. This one was an imposing sight even when not occupied. With no workers about and the nest seemingly abandoned, I would have liked to have got closer for a better look, but the scrub between myself and the tree was too dense, and there always exists the possibility of a potentially unpleasant shock if the assumption that the nest was empty was wrong.
We found an impressive trail of Harvester Ants (Messor sp. probably barbarus) traversing the edge of a footpath. We followed them from the start of the trail to the entrance of their nest, and it was interesting to see how giant their midden-heap was! The midden-heap was right next to a nest entrance, and was comprised mainly of grass seed husks and other plant shells no longer needed by the colony - their waste products. It was guarded (as were the workers moving backwards and forwards along the trail) by the large-jawed soldiers.
We conducted some data collection (primarily soil and air humidity and temperature) in a small riverside habitat, in which we found the large woodlice Armadillidium sordidum and Helleria brevicornis, both already well-known from the area. The habitat was deciduous woodland, mainly Holm Oak / Chêne vert (Quercus ilex), Elm (Ulmus minor) and Ivy (Hedera helix) with some streamside sedges on rocky substrate. It was humid and warm in the tiny wooded valley, with no wind.
Bottom image: Helleria brevicornis and Armadillidium sordidum
We followed this up with some data collecting in Les Adrets de l'Estérel, where we found a selection of deadwood which boasted a modest collection of scorpions, insects, and Slow worms / Orvet, Anguis fragilis or A. veronensis. Our location was right on the overlapping distribution border between the two species; the one in the image does have a slightly more delicate appearance, very similar to A. veronensis we found the previous year, so I am inclined to think it might be that.
The following day we visited Le Pont des Fées in Grimaud, which was a wide, stony-bottomed river full of fish with a complex, scrubby surrounding landscape, to see if we could find any riparian wildlife.
Here I found a good number of Four-spotted Blister Beetles / Mylabre à quatre points (Mylabris quadripunctata) and Omophlus lepturoides feeding on flowers. Like most representatives of this family, M. quadripunctata are toxic, but little information appears to be available about many members of the genus. I found a young Great Green Bush Cricket / Grande sauterelle vert (Tettigonia viridissima), plenty of Thick-thighed Flower Beetles (Oedemera nobilis), an unusual-looking bee-fly of the genus Usia, and a very obliging horse-fly / Taon alongside plenty of other invertebrates. We then followed the stream for a bit, finding a small Water Scorpion / Nèpe (Nepa cinerea) and a huge Green Frog / Grenouille verte (Pelophylax sp).
1 & 2: M. quadripunctata 3: Omophlus lepturoides
4: Oedemera nobilis
5 & 6: Tabanus sp.
1: N. cinerea
2: Robberfly (Asilidae)
3: Usia sp.
Above: Pelophylax sp.
The next day, we visited a local nature reserve in the hope of seeing Hermann's Tortoises; we picked a hot day and unfortunately arrived too late, so we didn't get as far into the reserve as we wanted to - ideally, we should have picked an early morning to start. This habitat was particularly dry, almost desert-like, with stunted, sun-bleached trees, patches of grass, and the occasional clump of wild rosemary and lavender. There was a lot of fallen bark on the floor and a few logs, but not many small stones to roll. I saw the end of a brown-coloured snake whip out of view between some boulders.
I had been having trouble with a mosquito in our tent the previous night, and was covered in large, hard swellings from reacting to the bites. I took an antihistamine tablet a couple of hours before we arrived at the reserve, which turned out to be a lucky coincidence. While rolling bits of bark, I picked up a large piece which had a small Paper Wasp / Guêpe poliste (Polistes dominula) nest underneath. This was not unusual; they are a common sight in most areas, and usually remain quite placid when being disturbed. However, this nest contained several covered pupal chambers (something I hadn't previously seen) and I took a couple of seconds longer than was sensible debating whether to take a photo; while replacing the bark, one wasp whizzed out and stung me on the hand. I had never been stung by this species before (only Vespula vulgaris), so I recorded it in my field notebook: "Small, sharp and surprisingly intense pain immediately around the sting site lasting for under 5 minutes ... 2 hours later, pain barely registered, and only felt if the area is touched or pressed". I have no idea whether the antihistamine helped with this fast 'recovery', but you never know.
The next day we took a trip to a large gorge, the source of the River Vence. It was a scenic walk down, with beautiful limestone cliffs and mountains either side, riddled with intriguing caves and holes. There was a single-track road that led into the gorge, followed by some walking trails and footpaths. On the road, we found a number of run-over Slow worms; we also found two live ones, one of which appeared to have suffered some recent injuries from a cyclist who had gone past us.
While we were searching for creatures under rocks on the riverbank, I was approached and thoroughly investigated by an Asian Hornet, which buzzed curiously and slowly around my head. Having read that they don't forage far from their nests, and can be quite defensive of their territory, I went on my way. Rolling rocks revealed some Dalmatian Crickets / Grillon des bastides (Gryllomorpha dalmatina) and the isopod Armadillidium simoni.
We took a visit to another river valley, the Vallée de la Vésubie, collecting data about the woodlouse Armadillidium maculatum. This species is endemic to the region, and inhabits cool, humid, deciduous forested valleys which are often subject to rainfall. It is often bred in captivity and is a popular species in the pet trade.
In addition to A. maculatum, we found several other interesting invertebrates: a beetle larva of some sort, a Lesser Stag Beetle / Petite biche (Dorcus parallelipipedus), a Forest Cockroach / Blatte sylvestre (Ectobius sp.) and I spent a fair amount of time watching a tiny white woolly aphid (Eriosomatinae) with two long, trailing tails.
1: Lesser stag beetle
2: Beetle larva ...? 3: Ectobius sp.
4: Woolly aphid
That night, we decided to try and get some additional data from the Slow Worm logs near the campsite. It was a still evening, and we headed down at dusk to see if the scorpions would be out. As we approached the top of the track where the logs were, we could hear a boar rooting about in the vegetation. Assuming that it would leave when we started walking down the track, we started to advance, at which point it decided that it was quite happy where it was, and gave us a warning squeal. We took a few steps back, but I then saw my first live Rhinoceros Beetle of the trip, and walked a few paces forward to grab it, at which point the boar decided that it had had enough and charged at us through the vegetation, making significant amounts of noise and certainly putting us off from trying to continue.
The night fauna around the campsite was excellent. As well as the boars, isopods and scorpions, there were Garden Dormice / Lérot (Eliomys quercinus) creeping about in the hedges, plenty of beetles, and a great number of large Moorish Geckos. These geckos were extremely charismatic, and would often notice the camera and change colour in response.
We decided to have an off-day between the fieldworking excursions, and tried to find a beach to relax on near Nice. We found a coastal path and wandered down it for a bit, where I saw plenty of flying insects and one of the more unusual finds of the trip: the velvet ant Ronisia brutia, a huge mutillid related to the more common species Mutilla europaea.
Our final trip was to the Gorges du Verdon, comprised of lush green forest, plenty of lakes and reservoirs, and rocky cliffs and hills. After taking a footpath on my own, I found a snake lying across the path: it was clearly a Viperine Snake / Couleuvre vipérine (Natrix maura), but it was the most well-patterned individual I had ever seen, with a dorsal zigzag that very closely resembled a viper.
On our final morning, I found and finally captured one of the mosquitos that had been wreaking havoc on me in our tent; the newly-invasive Tiger Mosquito / Moustique tigre (Aedes albopictus), renowned for spreading disease as well as being particularly large and strikingly-marked.
Overall, this was two very full-on and fun weeks of fieldwork and invertebrate-hunting. June is an excellent time of year to find Mediterranean wildlife!
Invertebrate Highlights:
• Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) • Bee Fly (Usia sp.) • Blister Beetle (Mylabris quadripunctata) • European Hornet (Vespa crabro) • Forest Cockroach (Ectobius sp.) • Harvester Ant (Messor barbarus) • Isopod: Armadillidium depressum • Isopod: Armadillidium esterelanum • Isopod: Armadillidium maculatum • Isopod: Armadillidium nasatum • Isopod: Armadillidium simoni • Isopod: Armadillidium sordidum • Isopod: Armadillidium quinquepustulatum • Isopod: Armadillidium vulgare • Isopod: Helleria brevicornis • Longhorn Beetle (Stenurella melanura) • Rhinoceros Beetle (Oryctes nasicornis) • Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) • Velvet Ant (Ronisia brutia) • Water Scorpion (Nepa cinerea) • Yellow-legged Scorpion (Euscorpius flavicaudis)
Reptiles and Amphibians:
• Green Frog (Pelophylax sp.) • Moorish Gecko (Tarentola mauritanica) • Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis) • Spiny Toad (Bufo bufo) • Stripeless Tree Frog (Hyla meridionalis) • Viperine Snake (Natrix maura) • Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis)