On Saturday night I headed out with a couple of light traps, something of a
rarity in recent years for all the obvious reasons (cancer / chemo / surgeries
/ covid restrictions ....). Checking back, I managed four nights out in 2019,
none in 2020, two in 2021 and just the one last year. Most pertinently, only
two of these were nights out on my own setting up and recording and they were
in 2019. I am absolutely going to be out a bit more this year.
Aside from the paucity of nights out around a light, it has just occurred to
me that in all that time my current car has been the most under-utilised
vehicle I've ever had. Weeks parked up whilst I was unable to drive, long
periods off road during lock-downs, and we've not been up and down to Devon
with any regularity either. Coincidentally: it very much looks like the this
outing will be the last mothing effort in this car anyway, as I'm expecting a
changeover in the next week or so (though dealership delays may scupper that),
and the last mothing trip I made in the previous car was to the same site -
Fox Covert at Ulverscroft.
My next car will not be mistaken for an Uber everywhere I go.
Even more under-utilised than the car, good to know it still runs.
I ran a 125W MV over a sheet ....
.... and a couple of 125W MV traps along the main track.
I really wasn't expecting a lot, as garden catches have continued to be poor
and anecdotally the mothing up and down the country has been relatively poor.
There really does seem to have been a major entomological crash, perhaps more
due to the prolonged drought and searingly hot period last summer. Time will
tell if anything picks up or recovers. So it was no surprise really that
things were a bit slow, at least for the first hour. I ended up with a pretty
respectable total of 174 of 50sp. running the lights from dusk until 00:30.
Most pleasingly though I saw quite a few species that I haven't seen for a
long while, and some that are either rare or have never turned up in my
garden.
I had the TG-6 to hand, which meant I was able to snap quite a lot on the
sheet rather than bringing stuff home. Very serviceable snaps, albeit not the
most aesthetically pleasing background! I did take a few micros to check. So
in no particular order, here's a load of moth photos from the night ....
There were numerous Netelia/Ophion type Ichneumons on the sheet, a number of
Melanotus sp. click beetles, but by far the most numerous thing were
Cockchafers. Loads of them. Initially, the first ten or so were
unceremoniously chucked away, only to come bumbling back like six-legged
boomerangs. I then started collecting them in the plastic tub that the light
bulb goes in, more successful but I can assure you that two hours or so of
writhing incarcerated Cockchafers stinks.
There were at least 80 or so spread across the lights. I rarely get these at
home - thankfully - and had forgotten how much I loathe these getting in the
way. I thought I'd done a great job of containing them and then getting shot
of them all. However, much to my surprise given that I cleared out the gear
yesterday and used the car, today there was one sitting on the parcel shelf.
How the hell it avoided setting off the alarm for two nights I'll never know.
It prompted a further check, during which I found a much less offensive weevil
which I can only assume came home on Saturday as well ....
Bumbling hairy twatCockchafer
Strophosoma melanogrammum
The outing yesterday was to go and watch LCFC win majestically whilst being
relegated. Wow, it's been a ridiculous few seasons that we could never have
imagined possible, and which makes this drop even tougher than any we've
suffered previously. We played shite all season, were badly managed and the
Club made decisions too late. Totally avoidable. Back to a 46-game season
in the toughest league to get out of. If we don't bounce straight back up (and
I'm not sure we will) I suspect a long period of frustrating play offs. Still, we won more in our short stint than some other clubs (Spurs, Everton
....).
All your hopes and dreams, all you need to know, joy ride ....
I've certainly not completely given up on the idea of PSL, but with various
bouts of hospitalisation over the past few years, and now having CMR duties on
top of work, it is far from something I will be prioritising in the next
couple of years.
Still, even when not trying there is always the chance of new stuff
popping up under your nose, it's more about whether there is the impetus or
motivation to make the effort to sort it out. Like this gawdy cranefly from a couple of weeks ago that was almost impossible to
ignore ....
Ctenophora pectinicornis - found this loafing on a nettle in
Elmesthorpe Plantation whilst looking for moths and larvae. It's not exactly
cryptic, and there are not too many such colourful craneflies. Apparently the
first record in the south of Leicestershire.
And then just this last week, three new things have appeared in front of me whilst pottering about in the garden and home ....
I've knocked up a rudimentary 'bee hotel' this year using some 4x4 timber that
the old garden shed used to stand on. I drilled lots of various sized holes
from 4mm to 10mm, and it very quickly attracted Osmia bicornis and one or two
other smaller spp. During the week I've seen several female kleptoparasitic
wasps hanging around and entering holes, readily identified as
Sapyga quinquepunctata.
Yesterday evening I noticed a very small and hairy weevil on the timber
sleepers around one of our raised beds, again quickly sorted - it's
Exomias pellucidus, also known as Hairy Spider Weevil.
And today, whilst nice to add a new beetle to my PSL and garden lists, not so
pleased to find this one indoors. It's Dermestes lardarius,
otherwise known as Larder Beetle and potentially a household pest. Never seen
one before, and hopefully it flew in through the open back door.
Meanwhile the garden moth trap remains very quiet considering we're nearly
into June. Diversity picking up a little, but number still feel very low.
There has been one potential tick though, with this drab looking most that I
reckon is Bryotropha basaltinella (pending dissection to confirm).
Just over a week or so ago, Andy Rourke sadly passed. He was the bass player in The Smiths, and massively underrated I think. Seems a shame that him and Mike Joyce were screwed over by Morrisey and Johnny Marr over royalties though it seems Andy didn't let it affect him. This track exemplifies how he was pivotal to the sound of the band.
As a mark of how poor the mothing has been, the only interesting stuff I've
enjoyed have been avian. A horse paddock not too far from home was home to a
passage Whinchat for a few days, and on the last day of April when I nipped
out to see it there had been a good passage of Wheatears too with at least
seven seen across four sites.
And then in the middle of the week two Black-winged Stilts turned up at
Cossington Meadows, so I nipped over in the early evening after work for good
views albeit not quite a close as I'd have hoped. Just as well I had a look as
they buggered off overnight.
I grabbed a snippet of video whilst there ....
I was sure they were a pair, with one distinctly blacker and the other with brownish tones. Later in the evening there were photos shared of them copulating so no doubt.
Today I headed to Croft Hill for a walk with Nichola, getting great views of a
Wood Warbler (though no attempt to point a camera at it). It was only doing
the 'spinning plate' part of the song though for the whole time.
Whilst out in Croft, I stopped to have a good look over a clump of Green
Alkanet and found a handful of Scarlet Tiger caterpillars.
Surely the garden trap can't continue to be generally quiet and low on numbers
and diversity for much longer!
