Dros

The moth trap was poor last night, but that's not the root of this post title.

As it was warming up a bit yesterday, and the sun looked like it might stay out for a while, I deployed a lure in the garden .... this one ....

I'd been studiously avoiding eating this last banana on the premise that it was starting to look a bit overripe, but with the ulterior motive that at any point soon it could become attractive to diptera and possibly other insects. I stuck it out on my moth trapping slab using a large flora lid as a tray. But after couple of hours it was still bare, and then I went out for my walk.

When I got back it had at least attracted something ....

A load of Drosophilidae (I presume, otherwise this blog title was also dross)

By the early, the banana remained intact and relatively ignored. At some point before dusk though something had tried to lift and carry it. And failed. The skin was completely gone, but there were lumps of banana strewn over a line in the garden. Magpie? Squirrel? Who knows, but either way I imagine they were a bit pissed when their effort resulted in soggy lumps of potassium dropping away as they scarpered. I collected up the remnants and re-deployed, but today has been overcast with very little activity.

Other unidentified diptera in the garden yesterday included ....

One of the Chloropidae, most likely Thaumatomyia notata

Think this one is a West Ham fan with that bubble blowing

Quite funky looking. For a fly.

Also this one ...

I'm sure this is Empis trigramma

And whilst I'm posting flies, I may aswell include this one from the walk ..

Psila sp. - I have one pinned to check again, but probably Psila fimetaria

Still Around

Not had a chance to do much lately; busy at work, back into hospital for another op (last one I hope) and then some indifferent weather. So not a lot to report, but I have managed to pull in some new for garden moths ... although only one of them looked nice!

Tree-lichen Beauty - 29/07/2019

Still a good rarity in VC55, first was recorded last year and there was one this year prior to mine in Rutland. First time I've recorded it anywhere, though I have seen one before when we trapped in Suffolk and one was taken up the road.

Also a couple of NFG micros, but neither were very attractive!

A moribund Small China-mark - 16/07/2019

A worn Eana incanana - 16/07/2019, with one even less well marked the night before

Aside from running the moth trap, I've been attracting a range of species to rotting fruit and sugar, as well as to my pathetically small garden buddleija. But mainly I've been luring Old Ladies.

17/07/2019

22/07/2019

03/08/2019

A walk down the lane on Sunday brought a few expected larvae, and an unexpected orthopterid .....

Various instar Small Ranunculus on Prickly Lettuce

A load of Cinnabar on one Common Ragwort plant that they'd stripped

Never seen Roesel's Bush-cricket anywhere near here before

Aside from all that I've been setting up and getting to grips with a new family PC, almost exactly nine years since the last time I went through this. Of course that means having to accept the inevitable Windows 10, but so far all good and I've got all my software working (including MapMate, a new version of Photoshop Elements, my USB microscope, and I've got all my music and synth software working). It's not the best on the market but the best for a reasonable price; 2.9GHz hex-core 9th gen i5 chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2TB HDD, more USB ports than I know what to do with. Should last the best part of another decade ..... perhaps!

Anyway. I'm back up to full physical functionality just in time for a beer n balti night at the T20 blast cricket tomorrow and the start of the Premier League at the weekend.

More Banana-ing

I can't quite believe how simple and effective this 'hanging a banana off a bush' technique (banana-ing) is - certainly feels more immediately successful than sugaring in my garden at least.

First night up : a just-ripe banana
Old Lady x1

Second Night up : now a sun-ripened and fly/wasp chewed banana
Old Lady x1
Copper Underwing agg. x2
Dun-bar x1
Blastobasis adustella x4
Red-barred Tortrix x4
Endotricha flammealis x1

Third night (tonight so far) :  banana getting quite brown now
Old Lady x1
Copper Underwing agg. x5
Dark Arches x2
Mother of Pearl x1

Not to mention the numerous flies and wasps that I'm only seeing a fraction of late in the day - wonder what else has been on it! I'm going to leave it up as long as it seems to be working.

The garden trap was busy last night with warm humid conditions and the threat of thundery downpours. In the end we got the downpour at around 03:30 but no thunder and lightning show. I'd constructed an additional rain cover over the trap which worked well - no apparent impact on trap effectiveness and no rain-soaked egg trays. Another Gelechia rhombella plus a few new for year species - all safely recorded on my dictaphone, but I do need to work on catching up on my record entries for the last couple of weeks.

No trapping tonight - too knackered!

Ruby Tiger

Banana smeller / G. rhombella

Well that didn't take long. Barely an hour after dark last night I found this .....

Old Lady sucking my banana ...... sorry.

When I got home after work today, there were lots of flies and a couple of wasps on it, and it's looking a lot mushier. This would be a good recording technique for dipterists! This evening there were at least four Red-barred Tortrixes on it, so early evening tonight could see a banana bonanza.

Not so much in the garden trap though, but I almost missed by far the best moth. In the early morning light and with tired eyes I almost dimissed this as a worn Brown House Moth, but it isn't. It's actually a completely new moth for me, of course therefore another garden tick and looks like it could also be effectively a VC55 first (in so far as there are no other modern/documented records - it's not VCH listed, and there is just a paper record with no voucher/photo/credence from an unknown recorder).

Gelechia rhombella - 677th moth and 361st micro for the garden

A few other recent micros ...

Gelechia senticetella

Catoptria pinella

Donacaula forficella

Done well for wandering 'reedbed' Crambids this year, with this, Calamatropha paludella, Ringed China-mark and Anania perlucidalis all re-appearing. Only this one managed to avoid completely flapping itself useless in a pot before photography .......

Rhodophaea formosa - another name change  .....

Banana Republic

We've not got any viable fruit trees in our gardens. The flowering cherry on the front does just that, flowers with no end product. We also have a small grown-from-a-pip apple tree that is currently way too small to fruit, and maybe never will anyway. However, we do now have a banana tree .......

I saw a post on a facebook group showing just such a fruit dangling from a tree with openings cut in the side. The only difference was their photo showed the banana with four Old Ladies and a Large Yellow Underwing hanging off it. I've seen ripe bananas being used in tropical butterfly houses, and I'm sure a long while ago I mashed up a banana into a sugar mix, so I though I'd give it a go.

It will go one of three ways: roaring success, pathetic failure, or wife notices and protests about an errant banana hanging at head height from the lilac bush before the trial has concluded. This actual banana may not be ripe enough yet, but let's see what a happens after a day in the sun tomorrow.

ps: just had a quick peek and the fruity drug has attracted a large number of small fruit flies and one large fly before dusk, so patently it has potential!

We've also cleared a load of redundant crap from behind our shed and it's created quite a big space, albeit one that useless for anything practical. Or so the wife thinks. I've relocated my 'log pile' to one corner - I say logs but in reality they are just quite thick twigs from a silver birch sapling, an old conifer, the flowering cherry and next doors huge buddleia (not that there were any neighbours there when I cut lots of it down ......).

Whilst not exactly logs fit for saproxylic beetles, it does create a nice retreat for all sorts of inverts. I'm also thinking that starting from next year I'm going to run one of the traps from this area. I've run my MV in the same spot since 2000, but this year it seems to be struggling more than usual and I think that's partly due to it now being competely overshadowed by the lilac, birch and a big sallow growing from the neighbours garden. But I'm reluctant to start experimenting now - I'll wait for a complete new season and give it a proper go.

Otherwise, some of my bamboo tubes (over 50%) have been eagerly tenanted by Willughby's Leafcutter Bees. I really need to get my act together and make more homes for these and other solitary bees next spring.

And here's a couple of obligatory recent moths to sign off .....

Brimstone Moth

Riband Wave

Foxglove Pug

Scalloped Oak

Phoenix