I headed out down the late yesterday afternoon, with butterfly net in hand, a bag full of pots and camera, and a happy disposition. Occasional sun, light breeze, Skylarks a-singing etc. I'd barely got more than a few meters onto the actual lane when I could hear something mechanical approaching - and my fears turned into reality minutes later as a tractor came past and then a couple of minutes afterwards had turned around and headed back down the lane ....
In the end, to be fair, the destruction was not quite as bad as it could have
been. Whoever it was driving that tractor-mower (and I don't think it was the
farmer as he carried on around other lanes in the square, so likely arranged
by the County Council as some unnecessary road-safety bollocks) they did not
cut the full width of the verge and they stepped the mowing from one side to
the other.
Despite this activity, I managed a decent haul of c30 additions for the
square yearlist including a handful of plants, 22 insects and a couple of
mines/galls. I also said hello to some recently introduced tenants in one of
the fields - potentially bringing in a few more insects later in the year.
Immediately in front of the gates holding back this raging hoard of
shite-covered menaces was a couple of plants close together that I was pleased
to see ....
One significantly bigger and better established than the other ....
Greater Celandine
Green Alkanet
Nearby, I found galls on hawthorn ....
Taphrina cataegi
Further down the lane I was more intent on netting stuff from umbelifers and
suchlike and ended up with a decent range of species. Later in the evening I
set about pinning the some of the Diptera and a few other bits. I clearly need
to take more care and time over this as I made a bit of a hash of one or two
of them with pins coming out under the scutellum. I should have got the
microscope out to see properly what I was doing but I was rushing. Anyway, it
was sufficient to get them identified ....
This shows the diptera I (badly) pinned, clockwise from top right:
Empis opaca, Melangyna lasiopthalma, Melanostoma mellinum, Platycheirus
albimanus, Eumerus funestralis
and - best of all - Phania funesta, a new fly for me.
That small Tachinid was only netted by chance, when I saw it saw on a Garlic
Mustard leaf it was sat with wings held out a bit like a Sepsis sp. It was
only when I peered into the glass tube with my eyeglass that I could see the
distinctive back-end bristles sticking out like a porcupine.
Otherwise I didn't point the camera at much whilst out, though this Cardinal
Beetle was still enough to invite an effort.
