Well that went awry pretty quickly! So much for making an effort to keep
blogging, lasted about a month. It's not that I've had nothing to post about,
more that my available time when I'm up to doing anything around chemo is more
compressed when there is more going on. I've got absolutely no intention now
of trying to 'catch up' in any chronological order, but I will post a few bits
retrospectively in themes of a sort.
I'll start with some new for me beetles that were observed on sap runs,
logs and under bark at Charnwood Lodge during a decent moth trapping session
on 26/04/2025 with Graham Finch (VC55 Coleoptera Recorder). The first of which
I'd literally mentioned to Graham about an hour or so before that it was high
on my 'would like to see' list and I knew it was at this site.
Endomychus coccineus
Pediacus dermestoides
Glischrochilus quadriguttatus
Also seen were good numbers of this VC55 scarcity:
Corticeus unicolor
Another new for me beetle came by complete chance: I was at Fosse
Meadows on a quick mission (for another post) when something in flight caught
my attention. It looked vaguely Coleopteran in its action but of course I no
idea what it was until or unless it was netted. Within a couple of seconds of seeing it,
with reflexes I'd forgotten I had, I'd swiped and it was motionless clinging to
the inside of my net - and what a surprise it was to see!
Ptinomorphus imperialis
So rounding off the beetles, here's a few odd shots of others noted whist out
and about or to the garden trap ....
Hallomenus binotatus, garden trap 20/05/2025
Ptinus sexpunctatus, garden trap 12/05/2025
Polydrusus tereticollis, The Outwoods 04/05/2025
Anaglyptus mysticus, Watermead CP North 26/05/2025
And here's one that was a beetle in-waiting - this mine was tenanted
when I found it but the larva vacated in the ziplock bag on the way
home.
Orchestes quercus, Ketton Quarry 24/05/2025
I've really not got the energy to come up with some wittily crafted blog title and neatly juxtaposed track to round it off. So here's some noisy nonsense from a couple of decades ago ....
It must be getting on for a decade that I have tried and failed to lure Emperor Moth anywhere in VC55 using the EMP lure. And sporadically prior to the lure being available, I had a couple of attempts at rearing through larvae and trying to assemble males - again with no success. I'd seen one female to light years ago, and have successfully lured males in Devon and Somerset. My current lure is now 6yrs old, I got it to replace the first thinking it must be duff. Aside from trying out and about, I've left the lure in the garden many times but it's nigh on impossible to trap them coming to the lure so unless you watch it constantly you could miss something. But there again I had no reason to believe it was around here.
Yesterday afternoon though in glorious sunshine but with a stiff breeze, and it being quite a bit later than I had planned thanks to a chemo pump issue, I headed out to try a few sites in the northern Soar Valley. All sites I'd tried before, and all sites with larval records over the last couple of decades. At last success! Wanlip Meadows was the first site I tried, and I logged x4 to the lure within c10mins before pulling it. I then headed to Cossington Meadows a bit further north, x1 in a couple of mins, and then down to Watermead CP South with another x1 in a couple of mins.
All three sites are nothing like heath/moorland. They share a few characteristics: damp/wet grasslands, copious sallows, willows, bramble, hawthorn and blackthorn and likely plenty of Meadowsweet.
Wanlip Meadows
Cossington Meadows
Watermead CP South
I did manage to grab a little bit of phone video at each site, but they are pretty hopeless. Here's one from Watermead CP South seeing as I didn't grab a photo from that site:
I netted one from Wanlip Meadows for an initial in the pot shot, but any thoughts of getting a proper phot in the field were short lived and I brought it home to snap ....
Emperor Moth, Wanlip Meadows 03/04/2025
This moth is still in the fridge and marked up ready to return this evening.
Today I tried again over at Huncote Embankment but with no luck. So whilst back home waiting for the District Nurse, I stuck the lure out in the garden again - nothing seen in half an hour and then sat down to write/post this. I hear a shout from Nichola - 'what's this'....
'This' turns out to be an Emperor Moth that the cat has just presented to the back door .... still twitching and alive but not very lively. The bleeding cat is also twitching.
What a way to break a decade long duck!
Here's a D&B interlude by some outfit called Emperor ....
The garden trap last night produced a lovely looking Powdered Quaker amongst a handful of NFY species, but biggest surprise was yet another Blossom Underwing!
I ran the garden trap on Monday night, not with any great expectations as the predicted minimum temps were very low but it did look like it would take until gone midnight before they completely dropped off. The trap looked pretty bare when I checked just before heading off to bed, so I was surprised with a total of 31 of 9sp, in the morning. However the only highlight, and by far and away the best moth of the year for me so far, was a NFG Blossom Underwing. Completely unexpected for the garden so all the sweeter. It happened to be the very last moth I looked at, tucked up under the lip of the backside of the trap, but as I teased it out I could see the pale hindwing shining and knew what it was. Not the best marked specimen, it is pretty subtle this one, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to mistake it in the flesh - v. slightly smaller than typical Common Quaker which it doesn't really look like at all, but noticeable larger than typical Small Quaker which I guess you could overlook it for if unwary.
Blossom Underwing 31/03/2024
Otherwise I've had more successful overwintered Phyllonorycter mines in the last couple of days ....
Phyllonorycter cerascicolella - ex-mines on Cherry from Fosse Meadows 23/10/2024
Phyllonorycter nicellii - ex-mines on Hazel from Fosse Meadows 23/10/2024
Phyllonorycter sorbi - ex-mines on Rowan from Bradgate Park 22/10/2024
Phyllonorycter esperella - ex-mines on Hornbeam from Burbage Common 14/09/2024
I could post something by The Blossoms, but I don't like them.
Stuck the garden trap out last night, first time in a few days as it's been pretty chilly overnight. But even then it was decidedly nippy when I had a quick check at around midnight. Not too much to get excited about this morning, Early Grey NFY, nice to see another Twin-spotted Quaker, a nice cloudy Clouded Drab and a couple of Small Quakers [I like Small Quakers].
Clouded Drab
Twin-spotted Quaker
Small Quaker
Small Quaker
Brindled Beauty
Early Grey
Diurnea fagella
There was also a Caloptilia sp. which I feel sure will turn into C. falconipennella when it is checked out properly.
Back in October, I kept hold of a good few tenanted mines to try and rear. Rearing anything overwinter is tricky, and although I have successfully reared quite a few leaf miners these have all been early broods or species that overwinter as adults. Keeping mines over winter needs them to be in pretty natural conditions outdoors. I picked up a tip from Bluesky about using fine mesh net bags, the sort of thing that may be used for fruit/veg. A quick look on Amazon and I found some suitable bags - albeit in a fluorescent green ....
I transferred all of the mined leaves from the tubs I usually keep them in to the bags, labelled up and promptly hung them low underneath a big trug at the bag of the garden. Here they were maybe 8" off of the ground, protected from rain and snow but in now way protected from cold and wind. Fingers crossed, and there they stayed until last weekend. There was no sign of life in any of them at that point - aside from one or two barkflies that must have been on the leaves in the first place. I brought them indoors on Sunday and they've been in the office away from the radiator though obviously warming up more than they would in the garden.
Today I've had the first successes. x3 Phyllonorycter sp. have emerged from a bag that I'd labelled as Malus? from Fosse Meadows on 23/10/2024. This is because those leaves were collected from the ground next to a naked twiggy small tree that I had no clue what it was, but the leaves looked about right for apple despite being yellowy/brown. These all had 'green island' early Phyllonorycter mines. The emerged moths are all pretty much the same and look right for Phyllonorycter blancardella - TBC via gen det as P. hostis cannot be reliably separated by the mine or adult.
Almost certainly Phyllonorycter blancardella
The other success was slightly more exciting and certainly a bit smarter looking, from Grey Alder and also from Fosse Meadows on 23/10/2024.
Phyllonorycter strigulatella
I'm hopeful of more emergences in the next week or so.
This is about emergency, which is only only letter different ....
With time off of work, time on my hands and disposable income to dispose of, I've managed to be moderately productive of late playing with my virtual synths, drum machines, effects and noise generators. But I've also acquired some cheap but powerful hardware synths, all made by Behringer who produce faithfully sounding reproduction versions of older synths with modern additions (eg USB midi, some additional modulation options etc) along with unique new gear. I've bought three, all relatively inexpensive. The MS-1 (mine is red) is a clone of the first synth I owned - the Roland SH-101. I followed that with an orange Crave, another analog monophonic synth but semi-modular with CV patching. It is broadly based on the Moog Mother-32 but with unique features - it sounds massively fat for such a small box. The latest acquisition is a Pro VS-Mini, which really is tiny. It's a five-voice polyphonic vector synth based on the Sequential Circuits Pro-VS synth.
I've managed to easily midi connect and record all three for parts of recent tracks using FL Studio via a Minifuse 2 audio interface from Arturia.
I've uploaded a few new and remixed/remastered tracks to YouTube and will update my 'Tunes' page on here with links to all of them at some point, but here's a few.
