One Liz Out / One Liz In

As a mark of self-respect, I've managed since 08/09/2022 to avoid the onslaught of the televised mourn-hub. I've also avoided posting anything remotely related to it all on Facebook or Twitter, as well as here. Until today, when my Mum came around for Sunday dinner. It's fair to say that my Mum does not share any of my political beliefs, thinks GB News is better than the BBC because it's 'not biased', and thinks the Royals are fascinating. The TV inevitably ended up showing the endless stream of 'mourners' filing past a flag-draped box, along with hilariously dressed military changing guard every twenty minutes or so in a clockwork Trumpton fashion. Whilst this was on, we naturally ended up in some debates of no consequence. Like, for example, "what period are we in now the 'Elizabethan era' has ended?". I pointed out that we had not just exited the Elizabethan era, in the sense that such things are generally used with historical perspective - a longer perspective than a week or so. Whilst Googling 'Elizabethan era', amongst the default questions was "What was life like in the Elizabethan era". The answer: "It included a small but powerful population of wealthy nobles, a prospering middle class, and a large and impoverished lower class living in miserable conditions". At which point I conceded that we certainly had been living in the Elizabethan era.

Meanwhile, Less Trust has had the easiest week of no-scrutiny imaginable after being voted in as PM by a tiny fraction of the population. When we come out of this cloud of public woe, perhaps later this month, I expect she will make Thatcher look like a 'woke lefty' and Johnson look competent.

On my way home from buying the components for our roast dinner today, I took a very quick detour to a side road into an industrial estate in Whetstone alongside the M1. I knew there were a few Sycamores along there, and I was looking for a leaf mine I'd not seen yet. It didn't take long to find a few, including one tenanted on the same leaf as a vacated mine:

Stigmella speciosa - tenanted mine on Sycamore

Amongst a few other leaf miners recorded, and also on Sycamore, I found Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner (Cameraria ohridella). I've found this on Sycamore before at Croft Hill, but there it is amongst plenty of Horse-chestnut whereas the mine found today is in a stand-alone area with no Horse-chestnut present.

The garden trap has not yielded too much lately, with low numbers and classic autumnal species appearing ....

Sallow

Brown-spot Pinion

Frosted Orange

Beaded Chestnut

Lunar Underwing

A Really Tiny Ladybird

One of the bits I potted yesterday was a tiny speck that despite it's size appeared to be a ladybird. A really tiny one, c1.2mm in length! There was no way I was going to get a proper photo of it alive, even using the USB microscope to get a snap of it deceased was a bit futile but for the sake of it, here is what I believe is Stethorus pusillus. It's heading to Graham Finch (VC55 Coleoptera Recorder) where I anticipate it will be confirmed as the second VC55 record.

Here's a couple of Gracillaridae from Croft Hill ....

Phyllonorycter harrisella - a couple netted flying around oak

Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner - 1000s on tree trunks around Horse Chestnut

I also netted a Phyllonorycter quercifoliella around oak, but it wouldn't play ball for the camera. One that was more amenable, though not looking as smart as a fresh one, was this from the garden today:

Esperia sulphurella

Bee, Bits

Had a very lazy morning, slouching in bed watching the Grand Prix whilst the sun shone outside. I could've been out looking for chats and ouzels, but frankly I couldn't be arsed. It's back to work tomorrow after a week off and I wanted a lie-in. Much later in the day, after Josh's now-regular Sunday football match, I had a couple of hours out dodging showers and enjoying a bit of P&Q.

I headed over to Croft Hill and pottered about in the woodland fringe looking at anything and everything. One such thing was this very nice new mining bee for me ....

A check of books and tinterweb when I got home brought the ID - Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria). I also noted this Orange-tip sitting stock still on top of Red Dead-nettle ..

.. and this Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner resting on the trunk of the usual host - I reckon this had not long emerged from the over-wintering pupa and was looking forward to starting the whole cycle again ..

Conquered Tree

The invasive alien Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner was first recorded in VC55 in late 2005 at one site. During 2006, it started to appear at further widespread sites in the county but still at a fairly low level - you had to look but once you found an infested area the local trees were all affected. This year it seems more likely that you would have to search for somewhere that doesn't have infested trees. I've seen them everywhere. This particular tree on the edge of our estate is heavily infested - yet there are plenty of conkers so maybe the moths are not too destructive. Every leaf affected Multiple mines on each lobe - some merging into each other It's only 7 years since the species was first detected in the UK - it won't be too long before it reaches the far south-west and north. It's been suggested that on the continent some populations have stabilised c10 years after colonisation. However it has also started mining Sycamore and Norway Maple so maybe it will just keep jumping hosts!

Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner

I collected a tenanted leaf with c100 mines from an infested horse chestnut at Loughborough on 21/06/2008, and managed to rear the them through to a mass emergence on 02/07/2008. I've done this before but never managed to get a shot of the adults for one reason or another, but this year I at least got something recognisable:


Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner

This is a rapidly spreading recent colonist that is a major pest of horse chestnut (so in reality an alien species attacking an introduced species - poetic justice?). There is a load of info. here about this moth.