A Little Bit of This and That

Here's a mixed bag to use up a few photos ....

First up, these are a few casual sightings from a nice relaxed walk around Coombe Abbey Park with Nichola last weekend, just over the border in Warks. I had nothing but a camera; it was never going to be a net-swishing walk!

Volucella pellucens - one of many hoverflies on umbelifers

Gastrophysa viridula - gravid female on dock

Morophaga choragella - spotted by chance on a stump

Zacladus geranii - 100s on flowers of Meadow Crane's-bill

On Wednesday evening, I managed a walk out down the lane after eating - though by then it was already a bit late. Swishing the sweep net was productive, lighting for photos was poor! I spent a good couple of hours walking a very short distance, poking about in the grasses looking for new plants as well as filling pots.

Liriomyza strigata - mines on Prickly Lettuce

A big clump of Feverfew has appeared since the last walk

Biting Stonecrop in flower, White Stonecrop just in bud. Big swathes of both have persisted in the same area since I first found them in 2012, despite the strip being encroached on more each year by bramble.

I found a big clump of cultivated Dutch Iris (Iris hollandica 'Alaska') along the lane. I'd noted the iris-like leaves earlier in the year but had no idea what they'd turn out to be. Clearly not planted, but also clearly from a dump of garden waste with bulbs in it.

Sunset

Moonrise

Orchestes alni - targeted on Ulmus, in the same place as the only other time I've seen it (2013)

I ended up adding a good number of plants and Hemiptera from this walk, including Stenotus binotatus which I then realised I'd omitted from my PSL when I had it to the garden trap in 2017. Also a good number of leafhoppers on Ulmus that turned out to be new for me Ribautiana ulmi, and some sawfly mines also in Ulmus of Kaliofenusa altenhoferi.

Another plant found in the square last weekend was Cat's-ear, which somehow I'd not recorded before.

And finally, one from the garden trap on Wednesday night ....

Luquetia lobella - second garden record

Meanwhile I don't know where to start with that oily fucker Matt Hancock. Am I surprised that's he's a hypocritical and self-serving liar - no. Am I surprised that he's not been immediately sacked by his boss (a hypocritical, lying, self-serving philanderer) - no. Am I surprised that at least two women have found him worthy of gum-sucking and more - hell yes.

New to Neonlicht

Time for some coleopteran bits, entirely stuff that has come to light and nearly all new for me.

I'll start with this one from 13/06/2021 that is only the fourth or fifth VC55 record, confirmed by Graham Finch (and he had one around same time but not sure on date, hence 4th or 5th). This is Berosus affinis, and it was only luck that I pointed the camera at it amongst the masses of Helophorus spp., and even more lucky that I could see the antennae and what appeared to be a distinct pronotal marking - the rest of it was caked in mud. I cleaned it up a little and got to Berosus, and that it was one of the x3 sp. already recorded in VC55 but all had only three records so I was reluctant to screw it up and passed it on.

The next two are about equally scarce in VC55, with 13 and 14 previous records respectively.

Hallomenus binotatus from 16/06/2021 - usually has two complete antennae and six legs. This has to be one of the flimsiest beetles I've encountered, with bits unilaterally falling off just through the process of getting it in a pot.

Cercyon unipunctatus from 13/06/2021

Not quite so scarce in VC55, the next one is from 16/06/2021 (although I think I'd overlooked it earlier in the week). I noticed the leg and antennal colouration vs D. aeratus which was also in the trap during the week. 

Dasytes plumbeus

You probably noticed that all of these are from 13th and 16th - two particularly good nights for beetles in the traps. There is also a Tribolium sp. pending from 13th, and one that evaded the camera (in so far as the only images are blurry as hell) was an active Nicrophorus vespillo on the 16th. I also still have a small carabid to work out from 16th. Other beetles over the nights included Harpalus rufipes, Stenolophus mixtus, Anotylus rugosus, Cantharis figurata and Cantharis cryptica.

This one is not new and is from and earlier trap on the 9th ....

Lesser Stag Beetle

Thank goodness for the neon-coloured synergetic light I'm running. Here's the best part of nine minutes of brilliant Neon Lights (or neun minuten der Neonlicht if you prefer). 

Caught in a Trap

Been gradually catching up on records that have been sat on pages of my notebook since mid-May. I've been able to update my PSL, adding c18 species and I still have a couple pending confirmation. I need to update my garden lists, and of course my square list. I fully expect to be back up to date and ready before we hopefully see another upturn in conditions.

In the meantime, here's some mothy stuff from the garden:

First up, a couple of luring successes. I've hung clearwing lures up in the garden before, but only for an hour or so whilst I loitered watching out in vain. Having now got a proper lure trap, I've tried a couple of lures left out in the day. Nothing to MYO (targeting Red-belted) and nothing to FOR (targeting Red-tipped). But the TIP lure left out whilst I was at work on 15th June came up with a solitary Currant Clearwing - the first clearwing on the garden list:

I also hung out the SKI lure on 13/06/2021 in the hope that I'd get Grapholita lobarzewskii on the garden year list (the first for VC55 was from my garden in 2018 but was completely knackered and unidentifiable on externals). Nothing to the lure all day, then just 15 minutes or so before it was getting dark and suddenly there were four in the trap. Really good to see a recognisable one!

One that I will have to await confirmation, but I am pretty confident about is this non-descript looking Gelechiid that came to the garden light trap on 13/06/2021:

It is pretty worn and plain looking, but those basal spots and the small distinct discal spot - along with general shape and what is left of colouration - look absolutely spot on for Platyedra subcinerea. This species overwinters as an adult and flies again in the late spring, so you'd expect one to be pretty shabby by now. Moreover, it should be a lot further south and is perhaps declining - so needless to say that if confirmed it will be new for me, the garden and VC55.

Otherwise the garden trap has been starting to tick over with a good few NFY species in the last week or so. Here's a selection of Noctuids, and a couple of others lazily snapped at the trap:

Clouded-bordered Brindle ab combusta

Broad-barred White

Ingrailed Clay

Heart and Club

Clouded Brindle

Common Swift

Water Veneer

Bucculatrix albedinella

Catching up on Bycatch

Not quite sure where to start. Over the last week or so I've quietly built up a fair collection of stuff that has come to the garden light trap, including a good number of bits that I've not seen before. I've also had some success on the moth front. I think for now I'll focus on the bits that are not moths or beetles - mainly caddisflies and a couple of other bits. I should point out that many caddisflies have long antennae, which I've made no effort to include in the frame as they seem superfluous!

Agraylea multipunctata (13/06/2021)

Polycentropus irroratus (12/06/2021)

Limnephilus lunatus (12/06/2021)

Hydropsyche instabilis (16/06/2021)

Mystacides longicornis (12/06/2021)

Phryganea grandis (13/06/2021)

Caenis horaria (13/06/2021) - identified via the Moth Trap Intruders facebook group

Dinocampus coccinellae (14/06/2021) - another one identified via the group, by Gavin Broad

This funky looking wasp is the parasitoid of ladybirds.

The one that got away! I took this photo, checked the image and thought it looked interesting, and it then evaded capture as I tried to pot it and it fecked off. Having trawled through the British Bugs galleries several times, I eventually homed in on Psallus montanus, and I think it is either this or Psallus betuleti.

Bordered Shieldbug (09/06/2021) - wasn't expecting one of these to light

Tipula lunata (13/06/2021)

Here's the original version of a track that was remixed into a club banger c20 years ago.

From the Garden Trap 11/06/2021

Yes, I completely lost the will to come up with tenuous, witty or cryptic blog post titles. Here's three from last night, in a trap bulging with NFY species - if not numbers of individuals!

Varied Coronet - less than annual here, rarely more than one in a year and all singles since 2002

Coronet - this went from VC55 rarity to common in decent sites in the early 2000s. There was one record from 1977, until we had a couple at Clipsham Quarry on 11th July 2003. On 26th July 2008, I had 66 on one night at Pickworth Wood, and by then it was starting to turn up in gardens etc. In my garden it has quickly gone from NFG in 2016 to annual trap fodder.

Treble-bar - much less than annual, this is the 7th record and individual

Always worth checking the claspers ....

Seeing as a coronet is a type of horn, horns are more treble than bass, and in recognition of a great band that I'm looking forward to seeing in Oct (new album in Sep), here's a horny ditty that'll make you tap your feet.

post-script - arse, I'm thinking of cornet. Oh well.

Drowning

I'm properly struggling with trying to get back to a normal work-life balance. I was intending to ease myself back into work, but three weeks in and my innate desire to have everything 'right' has almost tipped me right into a work-work mentality and I'm drowning. I've barely had time to log on to the home PC, let alone get out and do anything. I've been feeling knackered when I do get home, and given that the conditions have improved I've been compelled to run the garden light trap more which means earlier starts compounding the fatigue. I'm not complaining, I needed to get back into working for a living and I will, eventually, strike a balance and make time for R&R.

In the meantime, I did manage to get out into the square and find lots of stuff at the weekend, and as mentioned the light trap has started to produce some proper diversity - both lepidopteran and 'bycatch'. But I'm not going to offer anything like a comprehensive roundup, or even half-arsed summary. I'll share a few photos now, and I'll make some effort to get my records and lists up to date over the weekend.

Toadflax Brocade

Rhinocyllus conicus - swept from Spear Thistle

Epinotia bilunana

Ptinus sexpunctatus - light trap

Scorched Wing

Bordered Shieldbug - found by chance in garden

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Magdalis armigera - uncooperative individual swept from Ulmus sp.

Broken Barred-carpet

Orange Ladybird

Flame Carpet

Red-necked Stint, River Warbler etc etc - no intention of driving all over the shop for year ticks. Sulphur-bellied Warbler - meh.