Going Out

I nipped out this morning to speculatively try a couple of lures. No joy with those, but whilst out I manged to see a new longhorn completely by chance - Paracorymbia fulva. I saw one nectaring on a ragwort as I walked past, and then with a bit of searching and chasing with a camera I saw four in total. They weren't fussy, stopping on every possible nectar/pollen source in a weedy patch.

I also had another new beetle in the week to the garden trap, though I had no idea what it was from a bit of searching. A quick plea on Facebook and John Lamin quickly gave it a name, and it became immediately clear why I was stumped. It is Conopalpus testaceus, which has two colour forms but the only images on Kerbtier and Naturespot are of the dark form.

Last night the garden trap was pretty busy with non-leps, including a few hoppers with another one new to me ....

Edwardsiana geometrica - perhaps the only easily identifiable one in this group

Iassus lanio - annual in the garden trap

Oncopsis alni - one I've had in the garden trap before

Allygus modestus - another one I've had in the trap before

A couple more caddisflies too ....

Glyphotaelius pellucidus

Athripsodes cinereus

I've got a few micros being gen detted which will hopefully confirm a couple and perhaps add to both the garden and my British moth lists.

Tonight, I'm going out into the wilderness and I'll be sat around a moth sheet. For the first time since June 2019 as far as I can think. It will be absolutely fantastic whether there are moths or not!

Retro Rockpooling + More Bugs

I bought some books at the Birdfair on Friday: the new macro moth guide by Sean Clancy, the Collins Fungi guide, the Beetles Checklist by Duff and one of the very generalised Collins guides - this one:

I know that these generalised guides are sometimes a bit limited and are often berated by proper naturalists, but after thumbing through a few times this is my new current favourite book (ie the one I tend to pick up and idly flick through at some point during the day rather than having a need to check something). The photos throughout are brilliant, and it does exactly what I wanted - highlights the commonest coastal wildlife across many different groups. I decided to check out a few photos from previous visits to the beach and suchlike, and managed to quickly identify four new species including these two grainy blown-up extracts from other shots:

Montagu's Stellate Barnacle

Snakelocks Anemone

Looking forward to visting beaches and rockpools sometime soon.

Meanwhile, more bugs. The first two are from a quick walk down the lane yesterday afternoon, the latter two are from the garden MV last night.

Common Froghopper - very variable

Dock Bug - early instar nymph

Allygus modestus - makes the pair for the garden.

Note the dark black line on the vertex (like a pencil moustache).

Field Damsel Bug - on natural eggbox habitat

Also lots of these flies around at the moment ...

Eriothrix rufomaculata