Liquorice

On Friday we headed down to that there London, not just any old bit of London either - the swanky expensive more money than sense bit. We travelled down in bright sunshine, parked up at Stanmore and jumped on a tube straight to Sloane Square station, and then tootled into the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. We had a great day; I've fancied going there for some time and we absolutely struck lucky with it being such a glorious day too. I could share loads of photos, but really it's kind of 'you had to be there' to properly appreciate it. And anyway, if you're interested you'll seen Monty present it all last week.

I'd already planned to head to Ketton Quarry on Saturday to look for a load of Wild Liquorice and check it out for Grapholita pallifrontana - no previous VC55 records. It's one that I'd looked for before about a decade ago on a small plant at Croft Hill, but I'd not realised the plant was now well established at Ketton until last week. Sadly I was beaten to it, albeit the recorder on Friday failed to get any photos or a specimen so I still needed to head over and have a look anyway. I got details for the area and soon realised that I must have walked past his substantial clump on many occasions previously and not noticed - it's not the most attractive plant when not in flower.

It was a bit overcast with brief sunny spells, and luckily just as I got there the sun was out and I saw a couple of the moths immediately. As soon as the sun went in, the moths disappeared under leaves and over an hour or so I only saw one more and managed to net one with a bit of very light sweeping (the plant is not substantial enough to take a proper sweep!). This really seems to be an easy moth to overlook, as they were completely inactive and hidden away with no sunshine. 

Whilst mooching about and around the Liquorice, I pointed the camera at a few bits - by far the best of the bunch being this ....

The is the second time I've recorded Cryptocephalus bipunctatus at Ketton Quarry, and this is the sixth VC55 record. The fifth was also from Ketton Quarry a little earlier this May. Aside from this, the flowering plants and foliage around the area were busy with the usual suspects for the site - all metallic green ....

Cryptocephalus aureolus

Swollen-thighed Beetle

Ischnomera cyanea

Also flitting about the Liquorice was a trio of beefy-looking hoverflies that I recognised having seen them here before. I netted one for an in-hand shot for the record ....

Crysotoxum cautum

A small moth that I netted in flight turned out to be a male Psyche casta, and to be fair the twig-cloaked larval case is perhaps more visually appealing ....

Amongst the other day-flying moths seen was Burnet Companion, but the lack of sunshine and warmth made it feel generally quiet and there were very few butterflies knocking about.

Keith Tailby rocked up after I'd been there a while, and after a natter and such like I left him to it, and as I headed home the sun came out ....

I felt sure there would be some obscure but listenable track with Liquorice in the title, not that one sprung to mind at all. A quick internet search brought up a few tracks, and I found them all to be a bit shite. And then I found this quirky and pleasant acoustic tune on Youtube which somehow sounds like a perfect accompaniment for searching for inverts in the field in spring ....