A Little Bit of This and That

Here's a mixed bag to use up a few photos ....

First up, these are a few casual sightings from a nice relaxed walk around Coombe Abbey Park with Nichola last weekend, just over the border in Warks. I had nothing but a camera; it was never going to be a net-swishing walk!

Volucella pellucens - one of many hoverflies on umbelifers

Gastrophysa viridula - gravid female on dock

Morophaga choragella - spotted by chance on a stump

Zacladus geranii - 100s on flowers of Meadow Crane's-bill

On Wednesday evening, I managed a walk out down the lane after eating - though by then it was already a bit late. Swishing the sweep net was productive, lighting for photos was poor! I spent a good couple of hours walking a very short distance, poking about in the grasses looking for new plants as well as filling pots.

Liriomyza strigata - mines on Prickly Lettuce

A big clump of Feverfew has appeared since the last walk

Biting Stonecrop in flower, White Stonecrop just in bud. Big swathes of both have persisted in the same area since I first found them in 2012, despite the strip being encroached on more each year by bramble.

I found a big clump of cultivated Dutch Iris (Iris hollandica 'Alaska') along the lane. I'd noted the iris-like leaves earlier in the year but had no idea what they'd turn out to be. Clearly not planted, but also clearly from a dump of garden waste with bulbs in it.

Sunset

Moonrise

Orchestes alni - targeted on Ulmus, in the same place as the only other time I've seen it (2013)

I ended up adding a good number of plants and Hemiptera from this walk, including Stenotus binotatus which I then realised I'd omitted from my PSL when I had it to the garden trap in 2017. Also a good number of leafhoppers on Ulmus that turned out to be new for me Ribautiana ulmi, and some sawfly mines also in Ulmus of Kaliofenusa altenhoferi.

Another plant found in the square last weekend was Cat's-ear, which somehow I'd not recorded before.

And finally, one from the garden trap on Wednesday night ....

Luquetia lobella - second garden record

Meanwhile I don't know where to start with that oily fucker Matt Hancock. Am I surprised that's he's a hypocritical and self-serving liar - no. Am I surprised that he's not been immediately sacked by his boss (a hypocritical, lying, self-serving philanderer) - no. Am I surprised that at least two women have found him worthy of gum-sucking and more - hell yes.

(Not) Boxing Clever

Last night was excellent conditions for garden moth trapping; mild, slightly overcast and fairly still. I had big hopes. These were boosted further when I gave the traps a quick check just an hour or so after darkness fell, and immediately spotted a new moth:

Luquetia lobella
New for both me and the garden (670th species, 358th micro)

There were a few other bits, nothing too exciting, but I headed off to bed thinking I'd be inundated with moths in the morning. As it happened I was a little later emptying the traps than I'd hoped, but there were plenty of moths on the walls, fences and outside the trap so probably nothing lost. And then before I started looking properly I was immediately aware that there was a stonking black and white thing on the outside of the Synergetic trap. I can't remember the last time I saw a moth and had absolutely no idea what it could be - must be well over a decade! I couldn't mess about, and quickly boxed it up in one of my large carboard pots. It was quite a size, pretty much same as a Willow Beauty, and was certainly a pyralid. But a quick check in all my guides brought a blank. The only remotely similar thing was Diaphania hyalinata (Melon-worm Moth) - but it didn't look right with extra black markings and being too big. I grabbed a quick snap on my phone and posted onto Facebook, then got on with emptying the traps. Half an hour later it had been sorted ......

'Box Tree Moth' Cydalima perspectalis
New for me and the garden (671st species, 359th micro)

This is an adventive species from Asia that was first recorded in Kent in 2007, then in Surrey in 2008 and with increasing frequency in the south-east and London since then. It's been spreading steadily and is already a concern that it could be a major pest. A bit like Light Brown Apple Moth, only much bigger!

Sadly, the good news ends there for the above individual - I had expectations of getting a better / proper photo this evening after work only to find that it has flapped itself stupid so it has a bald thorax and has ost the tip of its right forewing. It also refuses to sit nicely on anything so I gave up. I can't knowingly let it go (non-native, potential pest etc). It was going to go to the VC55 reference collection but probably won't be worth bothering now. It is almost certain that this will be breeding in the county within the decade and likely to be become a regular garden moth anyway, so I'm sure I'll get another chance to photograph one properly.

Catching two species that are not only new for the garden but also full British ticks for me is pretty spectacular these days. And both are also good in a vice-county context. My Luquetia lobella is only the fourth VC55 record, and the Cydalima perspectalis is a VC55 first.

The rest of the trap was relatively mundane, but there were two Acleris sp. that will need gen det. I think they are both schalleriana, but one is much bigger than the other so worth checking them out. (post-script - confirmed as Acleris hastiana and Acleris schalleriana by gen. det.)

Acleris hastiana

Acleris schalleriana