Bright-line Brown-eye

I'm really having a very lucky year for new breeding macros in the garden. Here's another one that I just noticed resting on a wall as I went to plug in the lawn mower on Sunday. I've had it boxed up feeding well on common weeds (dock, dandelion etc) and I've finally got around to working out what it is. Undoubtedly not the first time it has bred in the garden but the first time I've noticed and identified it.

Bright-line Brown-eye

Buff-tip

Yesterday morning, after I'd parked my car further down the driveway than usual, I noticed that the car roof had been showered with frass overnight. Sure enough, a quick glance up to the cherry tree showed some heavy defoliation high up in the canopy. Later when I got home from work, a quick search with bins revealed a large number of larvae in several groups. I got the ladders out and lopped off a branch with some larvae to check them out and rear through. Turned out to be Buff-tip - another new breeding species for the garden list.

Catch up

Haven't been getting out too much, and when I have I've not had a chance to post anything so here's brief catch up ....

First, a couple of nice beetles, butterflies and a moth from Ketton Quarry on 23/05/2015.

Cryptocephalus bipunctatus - only the 4th VC55 record, first since 1987

Agrilus angustulus (per Graham Finch) - 11 previous records

Dingy Skipper - was lucky to find a pair in cop

Grizzled Skipper

Burnet Companion

The new car had it's debut mothing night out on Friday 05/06/2015 to a group session at Charnwood Lodge; nothing too arduous on the chassis, just some woodland rides. I was pleased to fit 6x traps, 2x gennies and 7x cable reels easily into the boot space with room to spare.

The mothing itself was a little poor, as has been the whole spring! My traps managed a total of 46sp.

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Total
131	Incurvaria oehlmanniella		2
140	Nematopogon swammerdamella		2
227	Monopis laevigella	Skin Moth	1
485	Schreckensteinia festaliella		2
602	Elachista apicipunctella		1
636	Denisia similella		1
649	Esperia sulphurella		1
770	Carpatolechia proximella		2
797	Neofaculta ericetella		1
1174	Epiblema cynosbatella		1
1497	Amblyptilia acanthadactyla		1
1645	Falcaria lacertinaria	Scalloped Hook-tip	1
1680	Cyclophora punctaria	Maiden's Blush	1
1722	Xanthorhoe designata	Flame Carpet	1
1759	Ecliptopera silaceata	Small Phoenix	1
1764	Chloroclysta truncata	Common Marbled Carpet	4
1768	Thera obeliscata	Grey Pine Carpet	2
1776	Colostygia pectinataria	Green Carpet	10
1834	Eupithecia vulgata	Common Pug	2
1844	Eupithecia indigata	Ochreous Pug	1
1857	Eupithecia tantillaria	Dwarf Pug	1
1902	Petrophora chlorosata	Brown Silver-line	63
1906	Opisthograptis luteolata	Brimstone Moth	2
1920	Odontopera bidentata	Scalloped Hazel	4
1931	Biston betularia	Peppered Moth	2
1947	Ectropis bistortata	Engrailed	1
1951	Aethalura punctulata	Grey Birch	12
1955	Cabera pusaria	Common White Wave	2
1957	Lomographa bimaculata	White-pinion Spotted	3
1981	Laothoe populi	Poplar Hawk-moth	1
2006	Pheosia gnoma	Lesser Swallow Prominent	2
2008	Ptilodon capucina	Coxcomb Prominent	2
2014	Drymonia dodonaea	Marbled Brown	14
2028	Calliteara pudibunda	Pale Tussock	5
2043	Eilema sororcula	Orange Footman	16
2060	Spilosoma lubricipeda	White Ermine	1
2061	Spilosoma luteum	Buff Ermine	1
2063	Diaphora mendica	Muslin Moth	3
2102	Ochropleura plecta	Flame Shoulder	4
2123	Diarsia rubi	Small Square-spot	7
2160	Lacanobia oleracea	Bright-line Brown-eye	1
2163	Melanchra pisi	Broom Moth	6
2190	Orthosia gothica	Hebrew Character	1
2289	Acronicta rumicis	Knot Grass	1
2302	Rusina ferruginea	Brown Rustic	5
2326	Apamea crenata	Clouded-bordered Brindle	1
		Total species	46
		Total individuals	199

Grey Birch

Scalloped Hook-tip

Whilst I'm on here, may as well post a couple of bird photos from Greece back in April.

Crested Lark

Stonechat

Stonechat fledglings

LRP

Another Car

Doesn't seem that long ago that I was preparing to handover my car for a new one, but it's almost four years since the Vectra went and this arrived ........

It's done some miles, got me from A to B without missing a beat, taken the family to far flung places and carried some stuff around. It's basically been a car. I can't really fault it, and the electric everything with huge bass bins in the boot and low-pro black anodised wheels were somewhat more upmarket than the old Vectra estate. It was particularly good a blasting out drum and bass at anti-socially loud volume. But after nearly four years I am now fed up of the rattling from the slightly cheap interior build quality (although that may be linked to the aforementioned bass bins being utilised liberally).

It never really got abused as much as the old Vectra, and I slept in it a lot less, but it has been where no other Laguna sport tourer has .......

So tomorrow I drive it to work for (hopefully) the last time, and I'll be driving home in something altogether different. I needed something even more economical than a diesel and more environmentally friendly (with a lower cost taxable benefit). So, I'll be having one of these ......

A fully loaded hybrid hatchback. Doubt I'll get as much mothing gear in it, but perhaps I won't need to. Although I'm sure the seats will fold down, and I used to manage with a much smaller white car than this .....

Larval Life

Found a couple larvae in the garden yesterday, a very gaudy one that I get annually (usually helping themsleves to the flowering cherry) and a more subtly smart one that is another new breeding record for the garden ......

Lackey

Green-brindled Crescent

Greek Weevils

Here's another batch of bits from Greece last week - this time a bunch of weevils which for the sake of presentation I've uploaded in size order from smallest to largest. No idea what any of them are ......

Greek Bugs

I've was working away in Greece last week, staying in a coastal hotel west of Patras in a small town called Kaminia. We have a factory c5km inland from there where I spent most of the week, and as usual I didn't get much of a chance to have a look around the area. All I did manage was to poke the camera at a few inverts that were all pretty easily found over a few half-hour searches of roadside scrub and weeds. Most photos are not great, limited chances whilst trying to cope with either bright sunshine or dusky conditions, but you get the gist. I'll post a few groups, starting with this black and red themed collection of hemiptera.

Possibly Graphosoma italicum

Possibly Ornate Shieldbug (Eurydema ornatum)

Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)

Not sure, apart from it's not a Firebug

No idea on this one either so far

Think this one is Cercopis arcuata

Terrible photo - think this one is Spilostethus equestris

Moschatel and Random Bits

I'm off to Greece in the morning - working away for a week in Patras. I doubt there will be any time for having a look around but I'll take my camera anyway. Before I go, here's a few random shots from Devon.

 Moschatel - one of the 'faces' with a five-petal flower

Moschatel - the four-petal top flower

Woolacombe Beach - it was rammed on the main sands but quiet around the rocky pools

This rock caught my eye - a bit like looking for images in clouds, this one looks to me like a sunken fossilised mammoth. And I hadn't been drinking.

This is actually a lot smarter than it looks here - a Sea Hare, my first sea slug

Sea Slater - a large maritime woodlouse

Some funky 'script' lichens

Garden Mothing

I've had both garden traps out every night this week so far - but no great catches, all a bit slow compared to Devon last week. Highlights were these .....

Acleris cristana

Red-green Carpet

Brindled Beauty

Least Black Arches

I also found this larva near my MV trap on Wednesday evening. It looked vaguely familiar, but I just bunged it in a tub with some weeds and grass to check it out later.

Usually any moth larvae I find in the garden are either generalists that I can rear on pretty much anything, or I find them on a particular plant anyway and use that to rear. This one though was not touching anything. I checked it in Porter this evening and remembered what it is, one that I have seen before but a new breeding record for the garden - Centre-barred Sallow. It must have fallen or got blown out of the ash tree in my garden as it should be feeding on the buds at the moment. I've released it back on to the tree to fend for itself.

Return to 1980

The Housing Act 1980 brought into effect the Right to Buy scheme that was a central policy for Thatcher's government. It was the scheme that completely fucked up social housing, promoted escalating house prices through the 80s and generated a whole new 'industry' in buying to let pushing up private rental prices too.

It was so bad, that the Tories under Camoron are now pledging to extend the scheme further to housing association tenants. And they are looking to cover some of the costs of subsidising the prices for those tenants by forcing councils to sell off their most highly valued properties.

And how will this help to resolve the massive void in social housing? It won't.

I hate this party and their feed the rich, grow the wealth-gap, privatise or sell the assets, slimey bastard policies.

'Anything that Dear Mrs Thatcher did, I will certainly do my utmost to replicate.'

'Yes, I really am a mealy-mouthed clueless Etonian twat with only the wealth of my friends, colleagues and party donors in mind.'

'I would do anything to gain a few votes from the people that are too blind to see what a complete capital C on casters I really am.'