Eye on Nature

We came across an intriguing insect on St Patrick's Day on Bunmahon Beach. It was peeping out of a case made of debris and was less than an inch long.

Marilynn Hearne

Tramore, Co Waterford

It was a caddis fly – the brown sedge fly, emerging from its larva case. The sticks prevent trout from eating it. It must have been washed out of the Bunmahon River on to the beach.

In mid March we found ladybirds with six spots in our garden. Had they hatched or hibernated?

Dyan Smith,

Ennis, Co Clare

They were emerging from hibernation.

I saw a stoat with a white tip on its tail running along the road on the edge of the Comeraghs. My book says that the tip is always black.

Mark Roper

Piltdown, Co Kilkenny

The UCC mammalogist Dr Paddy Sleeman says that it could be tail-tip albinism, or that it turned partially white due to the cold, or that it lost the tip of its tail to a bird predator.

Michael Viney welcomes observations at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address