The Nature of Touraine in 2016

Today's post is a series of photos, one taken in each month of 2016, to show some highlights month by month of the natural world in the Touraine in 2016.

January: A European Mistletoe Viscum album (Fr. Gui), on False Acacia Robinia pseudoacacia (Fr. Acacia) and covered in berries, in Amboise.

February: Cowslip Primula veris (Fr. Coucou) in a lawn, including a red flowering mutation, near Charnizay.

March: Wild Tulip Tulipa sylvestris (Fr. Tulipe des bois) flowering on the edge of a vineyard in Vouvray.

April: Ramsons Allium ursinum ( Fr. Ail des ours) on the banks of a stream, smelling strongly of garlic, near Sainte Maure de Touraine.

May: Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera (Fr. Ophrys abeille) in our vegetable garden in Preuilly sur Claise.

June: The biggest flood on record swept through the Claise Valley, photographed here at Chaumussay.

July: Small Spreadwing Lestes virens (Fr. Leste verdoyant) resting in the grass near Chaumussay.

August: A mud dauber wasp Sceliphron curvatum (Fr. Pélopée courbée), in our attic bathroom and flying too and fro to build a mud nest in a crack in a beam.

September: A male Orange Swift Triodia sylvina (Fr. Sylvine) resting on the green beans in our vegetable garden.

October: A Eurasian Swallowtail Papilio machaon (Fr. Machaon) caterpillar on Wild Carrot Daucus carota in our vegetable garden.

November: Grooved Bonnet Mycena polygramma (Fr. Mycène à pied strié) growing in the Forest of Preuilly.

December: The larva of a longhorn beetle Cerambycidae in our oak firewood. I'm told it is likely to be Leptura sp or Clytus sp, or a closely related genus. Based on that and the size of the larva, I think it could be either Plagionotus arcuatus (Fr. Clyte arqué) or Spotted Longicorn Chlorophorus glabromaculatus (Fr. Clyte poilu).

The beetle larva in the photo was identified for me when I posted some photos on the Facebook group Insects of Britain and Northern Europe. Entomology groups like this are one of the reasons I recently succumbed to the blandishments of FB. If you are interested in sending me a friend request, please do so, I'd be delighted. I use my real name on FB, but my profile image won't necessarily be me, and I will 'friend' you if I recognise your name or you send me a message explaining who you are if you are a lurker or use a pseudonym.