I've been away on a long weekend up on the north west coast of Cumbria. Doing
nothing remotely to do with natural history, just getting some fresh air,
peace and rest. It was a great and much needed break with some superb scenery,
and we managed to avoid the wet weather by heading wherever the rain maps said
it was dry. I'll perhaps post some scenic shots another time.
I'm aware that I've had a number of new moths for the garden that I never
rounded up, but I think I have a few more pending gen
det so will do a fuller round up on those later in the autumn.
The trap was on last night for the first time in a week and it was again
pretty good for Hemiptera. Here's a selection, starting with a few new species for
me ....
Idiocerus herrichi. This one looked quite funky by the trap so I potted
it up for a proper look. Note the banding on costal edge of forewing,
scutellum pattern and funky moustache on the genae.
Lamprotettix nitidulus - another distinctive scutellum pattern, looks
like a sad owl drawn by a child
Orthotylus flavosparsus. Usually has six legs.
The following are also new, though I know they'll need chopping to convince
record verifiers ....
Macrosteles laevis
Ribautiana debilis
These are also from last night ....
Balclutha punctata
Another Ledra aurita
Phytocoris varipes
Stenagostus rhombeus (not Hemipteran ....)
And this is one from the previous trap outing on 4th August ....
Blepharidopterus angulatus
Some may recall
this blog post from 2012, where I reasoned that there was no justification for advocating the 'new'
vernacular names for micros if the book by Sterling/Parsons/Lewington did not
use them. Well the best part of a decade has passed since then. The book was
duly published and made no reference to the vernaculars. A new checklist was
published the following year, again no vernaculars. MapMate still avoids them,
and so does the well-used UK Moths website. A recording guideline for micros
was published by Butterfly Conservation in 2016, and - surprise surprise,
makes no use of the ill-fated vernaculars.
All good then? Well it should be, but for some unfathomable reason there are
people trying to get them in use, with several county moth websites listing
them. Worse still, this bloke is now inviting people to make their own up ....
'Common names' are just that - names that are in widespread, regular common
use. Many insects don't have them at all. Some have them though the usage is
not widespread and regular enough for them to stick, and some have names that
are widely accepted.
The standard argument that everything should have a common name is that it
somehow makes insect recording more accessible and conservation more
achievable. I reckon this is complete bollocks, and I fully expect this latest
venture to be a total failure with experienced moth recorders. The new
recorders of today should be more than capable of learning a name, regardless
of whether it is some English words or not, like the rest of us have done in
previous years/decades. I strongly suspect that those who are unable to
rationale a string of Latin characters are the same people who post a picture
of a Spectacle asking for confirmation that it is a Pebble Prominent.
Still, if new common names are the way to go then Stubbs has missed a trick
here with his new book, which clearly should have been published as British
Leggy Twats. I'm not a fan of this group, and yet feel compelled to get a copy
....
A couple of new-for-me species worked through last night.
First up, the long, thin & small (and frankly quite funky) sawfly I mentioned from Huncote Embankment. Turns out to be exactly in the right habitat, as the larvae feed on phragmites. It's Calameuta filiformis, with the entirely black hind tibia being key. The pictures are not pretty. Soz.
And the yellow-faced bee from the garden turned out to be exactly as expected, Common Yellow-face Bee (Hylaeus communis).
Yellow facial markings hugging the eye and not extended beyong antennae
Tergite 1 sparsely punctured and shiny, and without a pronounced fringe of white hairs along hind margin at the sides
Late this afternoon I enjoyed very peaceful walk today with Nichola. We headed to Cossington Meadows, and although there were a few cars parked up we headed on the longer circuit rather than the main path and met few people. All very nice and summery. Lots of warblers singing, Common Terns and Little Egret noted.
Of course the default position for such a walk was to head out completely net-less, pot-less and strictly no poking about for insects (apart from happening to find more Rhinocyllus conicus). So no ento-photos, but long-zoom bird photos fine apparently .....
A few Lapwings around and paired up, nice.
Sunning itself for parasite control? Or just simply drying itself?
Oystercatchers on one of the pools
Meh.
Although not my usual taste for music, for the last few weeks whilst working from home I've been listening to Radio 2 during the day - a bit mellow and sort of in the background. Apart from the pop master quiz which I've always enjoyed but rarely hear in normal times. I don't like the Jeremy Vine slot though (typical antagonistic 'debate' set-ups) and usually flip over to Absolute Radio 60s for something different. After flicking through You Tube last night for yesterday's clip, today I have been blasting lots of KMFDM loudly through my Galaxy Bud+ ear-hearers (a family thing, Isabelle coined that term for headphones when she was about four). Most of it has been a bit brash and angry sounding, the polar opposite of our walk but equally enjoyable.
KMFDM = Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid which roughly translates to 'No Pity for the Majority'.
KMFDM = Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode is not what it means, though that's often played on.
Their cover artwork is one of the best continual themed works out there. So here's some more - if you've never listed to KMFDM I can recommend them.
A couple of catch-up bits first. I've managed to sort another of the sawflies from Ketton Quarry on 17/05 - or rather confirm from the key that the suggested ID on UK Sawflies was right. It is Cytisogaster chambersi, based on the facial markings which separate it from two other spp.
And I've also sorted a couple of small black hoverflies from the garden on Monday: one was another Pipizella viduata, but the other was new for me - Eumerus funeralis. It's not much of a looker, and only c5mm long so not exactly the most exciting hoverfly but good to sort it properly based on ocelli position and underside of hind femora.
Rear pair of ocelli positioned close to the 'baseline' of the eyes than E. ornatus
Shiny bare patch on hind femora
Another new one for the garden was a surprise, given that the one I swept at Countesthorpe Meadows on 16/05 was on the fourth or so record for the county ....
Empis scutellata - just about to escape from the moth trap it came to
I've got a few bits to pin and check later tonight, including a yello-faced bee from the garden today and a weird shaped small thin sawfly.
Here's a couple more from Huncote Embankment yesterday:
Graphomya macualata - female
Graphomya maculata - male
Helophilus pendulus
A here's a few more from the garden trap ...
Campion - only second garden record
Buff-tip
Coxcomb Prominent
"I made a god out of blood, not superiority,
I killed the king of deceit, now I sleep in anarchy"
Much less than 24hrs after posting a photo of a caterpillar that had me scuppered, and my pre-ordered copy of the new caterpillars field guide turned up from Atropos. Brilliant timing, as it didn't take long to flick through the plates and find the match - Green Carpet. The book looks pretty good on first flick through too, looking forward to putting it to a few more tests this year.
Meanwhile, this evening I am listening to whatever I like as loud as I like as the rest of the family have all buggered off out to separate destinations. I am self isolating by default!
