Debris / Garbage

A few days ago, I posted a couple of shots from Jubilee Park and Seth suggested I should be sieving what appeared to be prime flood debris. Yesterday I nipped back there with a couple of large 6 litre ziplock bags; I'm not quite up to spending time constantly crouching/bending as yet but I figured that with a bit of effort I could get something bagged up to sieve at height at home.

Here's the photo that Seth mentioned with some arrows on it ....

The red arrow is pointing at what may appear to be a good place to start looking for some debris to bag up, but actually this is virtually all mud with a few bits of laying reed. The blue arrows pointing to the edges of shrubs and bushes further 'inland' from the river are actually still short of the where the flood line was, but the bushes act as a dam and catch all sorts of natural debris and man-made garbage. I searched out a couple of different types and got some bagged up .....

The first lot looks like wood chippings, but it's a pile of reed fragments and twigs. I dug below the top layer and bagged a load of wet mulch.

The second area was longer/larger fragments of reed held together by a load of mud and not so easy to bag up, but I grabbed some anyway ....

Whilst grabbing these, there was a bit of drizzle and it felt a bit nippy. I had a quick look around with bins but nothing unexpected - Little Egrets still lording it up around the place, and that drake Tufted still alone on the pit.

This afternoon I had a quick go at sieving some of the looser mulch. I've only done about a quarter of what I collected. As expected, there were some tiny collembola and some tiny Staphs. I've ignored these, I just haven't got the time and patience for tiny stuff at the moment. There were also lots of common Tachyporus / Tachinus spp. - none of which looked remotely interesting. What I was hoping for were Carabids, and although a modest result so far I got two - both of which are common, typical of this habitat and species I've not seen before.

I (just about) carded the larger beetle, Pterostichus vernalis. No scutellar striae, pitted single pronotal fovae and a furrow along the top of the tarsi. c6.5mm long

The smaller beetle was Bembidion biguttatum, which came out of the ethyl acetate fumes with it's legs wrapped up beneath it. Seven elytral striae, rounded pronotum sinuate at the base, pale elytral sub-apical spots, pale basal antennal segment and red/brown legs. Some of which you can just about discern from this rubbish shot.

I'll keep going through the bags and see what else pops up.

This evening, despite some potential for rain the temps looked great and I thought I'd get the trap out. although it was already dark by that point. But, on opening the door the mild temps are being moderated by a strong wind so I've not bothered, I'm unlikely to be missing anything that won't turn up on a better night in the next week or so. I did have a look along the fence with a torch though and found a couple of Walnut Orb Weavers, the first I've seen this year. So I grabbed the TG-6 and though I'd see what a hand-held stack with no other illumination than the LED light guide attached. Not too shabby considering. It's not been brightened or anything like that in editing.

Here's some more good garbage ....

Under Staphed

My beetle list doesn't include many members of the Staphylinidae, especially the very tiny and generally unfathomable ones. I can't go on ignoring them, but to be honest it's not often that I find one that at least has some sort of colouration or feature that might make it worth trying.

One of the few that I do recognise on sight is this one, and only because it's a big ugly brute which is as likely to attack you and rip your throat out. I found two in/under logs at Ketton Quarry yesterday ...

Ocypus olens - Devil's Coach Horse

However I also found a couple of smaller species that appeared to be worth taking to have a look, both turned out to be reasonably okay to key through - but the caveat is that with nothing to compare to you always have a doubt so these were sense checked on the Leics. Coleoptera facebook group.

The larger of the two was found under a log, and turned out to be another Ocypus sp., with the pronotal puncturing being the difference between it and another similar species.

Ocypus brunnipes

'Pronotum with a mix of larger and smaller punctures with the larger punctures outnumbering the smaller ones – the gaps between the punctures are comparatively wider, being much more than the diameter of the punctures.' Tasgius morsitans has course, close punctures with less gaps between them. Which is fine if you have a comparison!

The other one was actually in rotting wood, and quite a bit smaller but distinctly coloured. This one was actually easy to key through.

Atrecus affinis

I also potted another from sieved leaf litter, but having keyed it to genus I can't get any further at the minute with on-line keys.

Philonthus sp.

Other beetles included more Silpha atrata and Notiophilus biguttatus, a couple of Pterostichus madidus, and - I'm pleased to report - my ongoing luck/skill with finding this species at this site ....

(Really not very) Scarce Fungus Weevil

The only other thing I snapped was this bug, also sieved from leaf litter ..

Drymus brunneus - full house now for this group in the last few weeks!

Today has been dry and sunny, but cold and windy. Usually around this time of year I give the bird feeders one last clean and then put them away, but with the ongoing uncertainly about life in general I though I'd clean and re-stock them - staring at these may the only sanity I get on some days.

However as I nestled into a garden chair for half an hour with camera in hand, I had company and the game was up ...

Git

Bug Eyed

Been through most of the bits I collected at Altar Stones, and have IDs. The 'Sitona' type weevil with massive eyes that I mentioned yesterday turned out to be a new one for me ....

Neliocarus nebulosus

I also ended up with another Anthobium type, though this one looks good for A. unicolor.

And a small Carabid proved to be Bradycellus verbasci - nice to see one out in the wild rather than piled up in the moth trap. I decided to have another go at carding, seeing as I had the specimens albeit they were all significantly smaller than the first lot I tried. I'd had a read on Mark Telfer's website and decided in for a pound ....

Slightly better attempts I reckon, aside from the badly snipped card (which I can re-snip a bit) and the keen-eyed will note a blob of glue on the Bradycellus that I hope I can remove - it doesn't look so obvious without flash. I've ordered some proper mounting boards and think with a few more goes I can get somewhere near presentable!

Also amongst the specimens was this ladybird.

Rhyzobius litura

The bugs proved to be Nabis ferus, more Drymus sylvaticus and Peritrechus lundii nubilus.

One that I can't ID at all so far is this moth caterpillar - proleg arrangements suggests Geometridae but no idea which, and it's not eating the grass I found it in so it's a catch-22 - need to rear to ID, can't rear without ID ....

At the Altar

I left work late this afternoon but still with enough daylight to do something. It was dry, but overcast and likely to get duller, mild but very gusty. I ended up at Altar Stones - more by default than design. The route from work to my intended site, Warren Hills, took me past Markfield and I decided to change venue for expediency. Turned out to be a fair twist of fate, as with only around half an hour of actual activity this site was perfect - straight out of the car and into habitat rather than walking for five or ten minutes.

I ended up sieving grassy clumps, which has so far seemed to be far more productive for a range of stuff than sieving leaf litter (unless you are specifically looking for collembola!). I've potted up a few beetles (including a Sitona type weevil with massive bulging eyes) and ground bugs to check, plus a moth caterpillar to rear and check. I took a couple of quick snaps, and noticed something on this one that completely bypassed me whilst looking through the tray in life.

Heads Gone?

I'll work through the dets tomorrow. In the meantime, another beetle from yesterday .....

Keyed to Calathus rotundicollis - look at the claw-teeth on that. A new one for me.

I also printed some labels for the (dodgily) carded specimens. Think I'll have to re-think that one, even the stiffest paper we have at work is not sturdy enough. I'll maybe laminate them.

Think the data label content should be okay though. Top label has collection detail (date, who, site name and grid ref), and bottom label has determination detail (date, who, order|family, species). I used a background colour cos I can; probably completely against some sort of proper science protocol but hey.

The garden moth trap got an outing last night, only the second or third this year: 13 Common Quakers, 1 Clouded Drab, 1 March Moth, 3 Emmelina monodactyla. Thrilling.

Playing Cards

Got home from work late this afternoon and realised that there was probably at least an hour's worth of daylight left for a change. I'd already clocked some evidence of spring awakening on the front garden daffs, with this Hairy Shieldbug in dull overwinter colours loitering on a flower head ....

So I quickly got changed, got me boots on and strode off down the lane. I had nothing with me other than camera and a few pots, and all I was intending to do was roll a few stones etc looking for carabids. I eventually got over to a small wooded copse at the back of the fields that is completely wild and unloved. I did get permission to go in there from the farmer a few years ago, though I'm sure he'd have forgotten by now. When I used to go down there, there was a bit of a track and the wood was quite open but with a dense canopy - mainly young ash and birch. That was a few years so, today it seems like most of the trees have blown or fallen over, with broken branches and trunks all over the place and almost more deadwood than live. Access not easy either. Still, I had a quick poke around the rotting logs and soon potted up a few Pterostichus spp. and others to work through.

The first one I checked through was Pterostichus madidus - predictably. Up until now I've never retained specimens in any structured way, as I prefer a photographic record, but it's something that I know I need to do eventually if I'm ever going to focus on coleoptera properly. So, I had a go my first carding attempt. A bit of a cack handed effort, slightly wonky on the hastily cut bit of card, but I'll work on it. I need to sort out how to minimise the glue and work out how to better arrange the legs and bits. This one is carded, but has a gobful of PVA and in reality it's not possible to re-work it through the key.

Slightly weird striae on left elytron

The next one was Nebria brevicollis, a slightly better effort (less glue!) - but only just.

Fine setae on dorsal surface of hind tarsi

I'll print labels tomorrow and add to the pinned cards in the storebox.

I'll key the others out, and I also found another Drymus-type ground bug to check.

Whilst in the dark deadwood, I noted a couple of fungi too ...

Common Eyelash sl

Lemon Disco sl

I'll have to have another poke around there sometime when there is a bit more light and warmth.