I nipped to Swithland Reservoir yesterday afternoon before nipping into work for a brief search of the walls along the causeway, Kinchley Lane and the dam looking for Psychidae. I like this group of micros, simply for their bizarre life cycles and the parthenogenetic breeding strategies of some species (reproducing with no males). Swithland Reservoir is by far the best known site in VC55 at present for this group, though I expect that some species are more common than the current records suggest.
I found the expected
Luffia ferchaultella in good numbers on the causeway wall still, but couldn't find any
Taleporia tubulosa or
Psyche casta along Kinchley Lane - more time needed for a thorough search. Plenty of
Dahlica spp. on the dam wall (both
triquetrella and
lichenella present in these colonies, breeding through from larvae required to positively confirm) but no
Narycia duplicella on this occasion.
Dahlica sp. - larval case attached to dam wall
These larval cases are c12mm long - easy to find if you are specifically looking
On the birds front, little of interest as the main water was frozen over. Good numbers of gulls though, loitering about waiting for the duck feeders - mainly
Black-headed Gulls with a few Common and one or two of the larger gulls further out.
First-winter Black-headed Gull
Adult winter Black-headed Gull
Dahlica sp. - larval case attached to dam wall
These larval cases are c12mm long - easy to find if you are specifically looking
On the birds front, little of interest as the main water was frozen over. Good numbers of gulls though, loitering about waiting for the duck feeders - mainly Black-headed Gulls with a few Common and one or two of the larger gulls further out.
First-winter Black-headed Gull
Adult winter Black-headed Gull
4 comments:
I haven't been looking for these since 2006 but recorded both Taleporia tubulosa and Psyche casta in fair numbers. I seem to recall that both were on the dam wall nearer to Kinchley Lane but can't be 100%. When did Narycia monilifera become Duplicella monilifera?? I'm e mailing you something that may interest you!
Thanks for pointing out the typo in the scientific name Russ - must stop blogging late in the evening! I think monilifera became duplicella in 2005/2006 - I tend to adopt once included in MapMate.
Yes - I've seen Trevor's Eakring website before and the Psychidae article. He put this togther some time after I'd done the one on Swithland Reservoir Psychidae in 2006 - see:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/VC55Moths/files/Reports/
I was only commenting on the name change. I hadn't spotted a typo!! But thanks anyway......
I meant that I'd typed a completely wrong taxon name. Narycia monilifera became Narycia duplicella - not Duplicella monilifera .....
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