I've been away on a long weekend up on the north west coast of Cumbria. Doing
nothing remotely to do with natural history, just getting some fresh air,
peace and rest. It was a great and much needed break with some superb scenery,
and we managed to avoid the wet weather by heading wherever the rain maps said
it was dry. I'll perhaps post some scenic shots another time.
I'm aware that I've had a number of new moths for the garden that I never
rounded up, but I think I have a few more pending gen
det so will do a fuller round up on those later in the autumn.
The trap was on last night for the first time in a week and it was again
pretty good for Hemiptera. Here's a selection, starting with a few new species for
me ....
Idiocerus herrichi. This one looked quite funky by the trap so I potted
it up for a proper look. Note the banding on costal edge of forewing,
scutellum pattern and funky moustache on the genae.
Lamprotettix nitidulus - another distinctive scutellum pattern, looks
like a sad owl drawn by a child
Orthotylus flavosparsus. Usually has six legs.
The following are also new, though I know they'll need chopping to convince
record verifiers ....
Macrosteles laevis
Ribautiana debilis
These are also from last night ....
Balclutha punctata
Another Ledra aurita
Phytocoris varipes
Stenagostus rhombeus (not Hemipteran ....)
And this is one from the previous trap outing on 4th August ....
Blepharidopterus angulatus
Some may recall
this blog post from 2012, where I reasoned that there was no justification for advocating the 'new'
vernacular names for micros if the book by Sterling/Parsons/Lewington did not
use them. Well the best part of a decade has passed since then. The book was
duly published and made no reference to the vernaculars. A new checklist was
published the following year, again no vernaculars. MapMate still avoids them,
and so does the well-used UK Moths website. A recording guideline for micros
was published by Butterfly Conservation in 2016, and - surprise surprise,
makes no use of the ill-fated vernaculars.
All good then? Well it should be, but for some unfathomable reason there are
people trying to get them in use, with several county moth websites listing
them. Worse still, this bloke is now inviting people to make their own up ....
'Common names' are just that - names that are in widespread, regular common
use. Many insects don't have them at all. Some have them though the usage is
not widespread and regular enough for them to stick, and some have names that
are widely accepted.
The standard argument that everything should have a common name is that it
somehow makes insect recording more accessible and conservation more
achievable. I reckon this is complete bollocks, and I fully expect this latest
venture to be a total failure with experienced moth recorders. The new
recorders of today should be more than capable of learning a name, regardless
of whether it is some English words or not, like the rest of us have done in
previous years/decades. I strongly suspect that those who are unable to
rationale a string of Latin characters are the same people who post a picture
of a Spectacle asking for confirmation that it is a Pebble Prominent.
Still, if new common names are the way to go then Stubbs has missed a trick
here with his new book, which clearly should have been published as British
Leggy Twats. I'm not a fan of this group, and yet feel compelled to get a copy
....
First up, I joined a small gathering of moth recorders at Rutland Water last
week in the hope of picking up a couple of reedbed wainscots that I'm yet to
see (Obscure & Webb's). Sadly no joy on that front, and the conditions
were not ideal with it cooling quite quickly and rain due in the early hours, but
nonetheless another great session - so good to be out by a mothing sheet
again. The group split up into three areas, and I joined Adrian Russell in
what seemed to be a perfect spot immediately alongside Lagoon 3 and close to
Shoveler Hide. We ran a sheet and I walked a trap out along the edge of the
reedbed. The constant chattering of Common Terns, Oystercatchers and Lapwings
was a great backdrop as we set up.
There was plenty of activity at the sheet and over the trap, though it all
seemed to die down a little as the night wore on.
Still, great to see a few species again that I don't generally get in the
garden and haven't seen for a while, including Chilo phragmitella, Slender
Brindle and these three:
Southern Wainscot
Brown-veined Wainscots
Eudonia pallida
But the first moth of the night was a Gelechiid on the sheet that may yet turn
out to be one of the most interesting of the c73sp. once checked ....
Probably Caryocolum fraternella
More recently, last night I headed out for a couple of hours to again walk
around a site near Dunton Bassett with Graham Calow and Craig Mabbett.
Another peaceful and productive walk, with a fair number of leaf mines
collected. The site really is unusual, with very rough scrub at the back of
an industrial estate with HGV parking, leading down to managed carp fishing
lakes. The site seems to be a magnet for unusual, and often escaped, flora -
perhaps dragged in on the wheels of lorries etc.
I'll leave out leaf mines for the moment, though a few were new for me.
Instead here's a couple of damselflies (all were a bit sluggish loafing on
waterside vegetation after rain) and a spanking sawfly larva ....
White-legged Damselfly
Common Blue Damselfly
Craesus septentrionalis - a good number defoliating a small Alder
sapling
A new one for me
The peak period for leaf-mining and galls will be upon us before long ....
