Eye On Nature

A movement on the River Nore, near Kilkenny, caught my eye. Head high above the water, a miniature Lough Ness monster, a stoat, was swimming strongly across the current. Was this a rare and fortunate sighting?

- John Williams, Gowran, Co Kilkenny

Stoats do swim across rivers, but they are not often observed.

We found this bumble bee on a sedum in our garden; it is encrusted with flesh-coloured mites (photo enclosed of Bombus terrestris with parasites). It cannot fly because of the infestation. We have seen others with the same parasites but not as bad. These mites seem only to affect the large bumble bees. Should we kill the infested bees to halt the infestation?

- Melanie Bredendieck, Skibbereen, Co Cork

Most bumble bee nests are infested with mites of the genus

Parasitus which feed on scraps of pollen and other debris and are relatively harmless to the bees. They attach themselves to the young queens and are carried with them into hibernation where they invade the new nest. In this case the mites may have defeated their own purpose by overloading the bee. If you examine the mites under a microscope you will see an even smaller mite that lives on them.

I was walking in the Slieve Blooms in mid-September and found a tadpole, light green in colour, alive and swimming in a pool of water not more than two inches deep. The tadpole was not completely formed as it had no legs. Is it unusual to find a tadpole in this condition at this time of year, and will it survive?

- Barbara Leahy, Tipperary

Some tadpoles are slow in developing or never develop into frogs. They can grow quite large and remain tadpoles. This is caused, experts think, by poor diet, and a shallow pool in the mountains might not have had enough nutrients. But your tadpole had changed colour and that seems to indicate that metamorphosis to frog had started but was halted at some stage.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail: viney@anu.ie Observations sent by e-mail should be accompanied by postal address.