Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Saturday 7 March 2020

Not So Tenuous Larva

Been busy today, though I did manage to get out for a couple of hours or so this afternoon, and the bits from that will have to wait. First up though, a quick follow up on the larval tube cases I collected yesterday from Ulverscroft.

No knowing if they were genuinely cases of Infucitinea argentimaculella, or if so were they tenanted, I had to have to go at opening them up to have a squizz. the first one I opened, the biggest, was in fact a dud - no larval workings, just a bit of twig or similar that had been lichenised. the second one, slightly smaller, was immediately more promising as there was a clear silken structure beneath the lichen-coated outer. It was vacated though, with perhaps the remanants of a pupal exuviae at one end.


So onto the third case, the smallest of the three, not much more than a centimeter in length and quite thin. Hold on - is that a ......


So with that, I can far more confidently add Infurcitinea argentimaculella to my list. Not hopeful of rearing this one, but I reckon looking again in a couple of months or so will be more productive.

Something completely different, I've been pleased to note a pair of Collared Doves knocking about the garden lately, often displaying and mating on the fence. Today they were back with another in tow for good measure. This has become a bit of a garden rarity in the last few years. They were milling about picking around the meagre offerings of whatever the Goldfinches had dropped.


I took pity on them and spread a couple of handfuls of sunflower hearts onto a less messy area for them .... and within seconds of me shutting the back door to watch what happened they were ousted by a pair of the usual fat greeder feckers.


Just as well I put enough out to satisfy all of them in the end.

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