New in the Orchard This Year

The results of neglect are clear to see in the orchard, and one of those results is several species new to the place in April. None of them are rare, but I haven't recorded them in the orchard before. Neglect, with nothing more than the vegetation being slashed by Sylviane early in the year, and one of her horses being put to pasture in the potager for a few days, is so far delivering excellent biodiversity observations.

 

Golden Ground Beetle Carabus auratus (Fr. Carabe doré), not uncommon, but increasingly threatened by pesticides.

Green-winged Orchid Anacamptis morio (Fr. Orchis buffon) is abundant locally, and can form large colonies, but has never before popped up in the orchard.

Monkey Orchid Orchis simia (Fr. Orchis singe) can also form large colonies, but has never appeared in the orchard before.

One of the leaf beetles, Chrysolina bankii (Fr. Chrysomèle de Banks), a species which is localised, but can be abundant where it occurs. Its favourite food plant is ribwort plantain, which the orchard has in abundance.

Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi (Fr. Thècle de la ronce) butterfly, a species that eats such a wide range of plants as a caterpillar that you could see it in almost any habitat in the Touraine Loire Valley.