Complete F Up

I headed out late this afternoon for a long walk locally with my sweep net. I'd not even got off the estate before I made my first sweep at this large thistle, one of several growing along Springwell Lane ....

Mild euphoria as nestled in the net was a superb weevil that I've been expecting to see, Rhinocyllus conicus. Weevil safely potted, I headed off down the lane where I noticed a few more large accessible thistles. Another swipe, another weevil. I quickly surmised that I can't be that lucky, and there must be loads of them around. I fumbled this one and dropped it whilst fannying about with the camera, but given that there would be others and I had my camera out now I decided to place the potted weevil on the thistle for a better shot. What a stupid idea that was .....

Needles to say, no weevil, no photo and despite my early luck no further weevils swept. There will be others, but there's nothing like getting a nice shot of yer ticks!

Anyway I carried on and headed to the place I refer to as Countesthorpe Meadow. In the past I've got my timings completely wrong and arrived just after the farmer has mowed the meadow. It's left to grow initially, cut for silage (I assume) and then probably again in the late summer/autumn. So in spring before mowing there's plenty of long grasses, umblifers and buttercups but not much in the way of interesting wildflowers (probably the land gets fertilised in the late winter).

I spent a happy couple of hours sweeping, and brought home a few potted beetles and flies. The beetles will have to wait (maybe something new when I get a chance to check them through) but I've pinned a few flies including these ..

Empis opaca - red femora and thoracic pattern differentiate from E. tesselata

I thought these were both Empids too. I thought I recognised the one on the left, but looking at E. stercorea the thoracic colouration and markings, and the antennal colour are not quite right. Not sure if the darker one actually is an Empid. Call it homework.

This one was sat still enough for a shot.

Mesembrina meridiana

I also swept down the lane. All the usual expected bits, but a tortoise beetle always makes for a good outing I reckon.

A fairly plain Cassida rubiginosa (pronotum rear angles vs rounded in C. viridis)

I am planning to get out tomorrow for more ......

Croft Hill Bits

I nipped over to Croft Hill for a brief walk around yesterday afternoon. It was good to get out and have a look at a few bits for a change, seems like I've had another busy period where time flies by. Nothing too out of the ordinary, with larval life being the most notable things I pointed the lens at.

Pretty sure this is Diurnea fagella - has those odd enlarged third thoracic legs. Found this feeding in a spun tent on hazel.

This is a hoverfly larva, and probably a Syrphus/Eupoedes sp.

Harlequin Ladybird larva - found loads of these.

Myathropa florea

Mesembrina meridiana

And this spectacular thing is a powdery mildew on oak - Erysiphe alphitoides

Mothing Update +

I think it is clear that the mothing conditions for most of April were shite, and I've resisted doing a comparison to previous years up to now. The impetus for having a look was that the dreadful April conditions have continued into May and it's still dire. During May 2011, including all out of garden mothing and casual records, I had already recorded 118 species by 12/05/2011. So far this May I have recorded just 15 species. This is of course entirely due to the lack of decent trapping opportunities both in and out of the garden.

Particularly in the spring I avoid running the garden traps on what I consider poor or marginal nights (save power, save MV bulb, save me getting up and emptying empty traps on cold/wet mornings and prevent demoralisation!). Comparison from one year to the next is therefore always a little unscientific as there will be variance in the number of trap nights. There are also other factors such as being away at Easter or, perversely, not running garden traps as conditions very good and I'm out trapping elsewhere overnight. Nevertheless, a basic comparison is possible. So, excluding any blank nights (as up until about 10 minutes ago I'd never even thought about how to record these in MapMate) here is a comparison of 2012 garden moths in April verses the previous 10 years. The species total includes any to lit windows or seen in the daytime as well.

And here is my total current May 2012 mothing record:

Garden 125W MV trap:

04/05/2012
2190  Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)  1

08/05/2012
0464  Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella)  1 (NFY)
0998  Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)  1
1497  Amblyptilia acanthadactyla  1
1524  Emmelina monodactyla  1
1906  Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)  1 (NFY)
2243  Early Grey (Xylocampa areola)  2

10/05/2012
2243  Early Grey (Xylocampa areola)  1

11/05/2012
FA!

12/05/2012
FA again!!

Other records:

08/05/2012 : 0608  Elachista rufocinerea  1 (NFY) daytime
08/05/2012 : 0697  Agonopterix arenella  2 to lit windows
11/05/2012 : 0649  Esperia sulphurella  1 (NFY) daytime

Out of garden:

Croft Hill 06/05/2012
0150  Adela reaumurella  1 (NFY)
0366a  Cameraria ohridella  Many

Springwell Lane 06/05/2012
0303  Parornix anglicella  Many (NFY)

Misterton Marsh 12/05/2012
0150  Adela reaumurella  Many
0986  Syndemis musculana  1 (NFY)

Blaby Village 12/05/2012
0648  White-shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella)  1 (NFY)

Is it any wonder that I've been happily looking at other inverts and stuff for the last few weeks!

Yesterday morning I dropped off Isabelle in Lutterworth and went to Misterton Marsh on the way back for a couple of hours saunter around. Last time I walked around there is was a small marshy area with a big conifer plantation in the middle. Now it's a small marshy area with a big clearing in the middle which looks very promising and I wondered what the long-term plan was. A quick tinternet search and I found this.

Buzzards, Green Woodpecker, Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and a couple of Whitethroats were all noted whilst walking around, but in truth I had my head down and focussed on low vegetation, flowers and shrubbery looking for anything interesting to point the camera at or coax into a pot. I found lots, including at one point a small hawthorn that was absolutely awash with various flies and also a loads of Adela reaumurella. Amongst the various bits I saw were these:

Empis tessellata

 Bibio johannis

 Dusona sp.

Celery Fly with Common Flower Bug on White Dead Nettle flower

St Mark's Fly

Mesembrina meridiana

I've also got some photos to post from a walk down the lane on Friday late afternoon, and a couple of unexpected ticks from the garden.

Down the lane

I decided to pull up down the lane after work and have a mooch along the hedgerow. Nothing particular in mind, I just felt compelled to do it. As it happens, I found a few interesting bits. It was very dull light so I had to rely on flash to get a few record shots, but here-goes anyway.

First up - I found a pair of bush-crickets which I am sure are my first ever Long-winged Cone-head (or at least first I've bothered to try and ID). Here's a shot of the female - let me know if I've screwed up the ID!

I also found a couple of larvae:

Dot Moth

Drinker

Sticking with moths, I found numerous leaf-mines on hawthorn. Not really sure on species as yet, but I found examples of 3 different types of mines.

In fact on this leaf you can see all 3 types: a blister mine on the left, a blotch mine on the right and a gallery mine at the top leading to a small blister.

Blister mine with frass clearly visible

This gallery mine on bramble is, I'm fairly sure, Stigmella aurella

This fly was happily foraging on various plants that I can't identify:

Mesembrina meridiana

Otherwise, here's a bit of colour:

Hawthorn berries

Prickly Sow-thistle ??

Creeping Thistle flower

Creeping Thistle seeds

Breakthrough

Brocks Hill 09/05/2009

With it being Nichola's Saturday in work, it fell to me to take the boys to a birthday party in the middle of the day. The party was at the Parkland Leisure Centre in Oadby, so I decided to spend a couple of hours wandering around the LRWT Brocks Hill visitor centre reserve which is literally at the other end of the same car park. I haven't walked around here before and I was quite surprised as to how promising a lot of the habitat is, and will become in the future as there are a lot of plantations of native broad-leaved trees. There are plenty of wide open rides, decent hawthorn dominated hedgerows and open grassy areas around the plantations. Just at the entrance, there are a couple of large ponds. I noted a lot of (presumably) Sticklebacks in there and had a go at getting some shots - not easy with the effect of the water but you get the gist. A gathering of females? I don't know much about fish, but this looks like a breeding plumaged male Three-spined Stickleback to me? The hawthorn blossom and Cow Parsley was attracting a lot of flies, hoverflies and the odd bee. Mesembrina meridiana Nothing unusual on the butterfly front (Orange-tip, Large, Small and Green-veined White, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock). Nothing too exciting on the bird front either, but plenty of singing Willow Warblers and a Green Woodpecker at a nest hole. Willow Warbler Green Woodpecker Ribwort Plantain and Dandelions were abundant! Two O'Clock - pick the kids up from the party