Rushing

Yesterday I followed up on a tip-off from Graham Finch and headed out to look for some larval life that would provide a lepidopteran tick. What I didn't realise until checking afterwards was that I was getting a vascular plant tick in the process. I headed out to Kinchley Lane that runs along the side of Swithland Reservoir, the site that I usually go and look for Psychidae early in the year.

See all that green stuff on the bank around the birch trees and at the base of the wall, well it's not just grass - it's Great Wood-rush. Clearly I have seen this many times whilst on that lane, but I've never taken any notice of it and it wasn't on my list. Here's some shots of the general appearance, hairy-edged wide leaves (for a wood-rush) and flower spike ....

Anyway, what I was looking for on this plant was leaf mines like this one ....

A creased blister causing the leaf to fold in on itself on older mines. I found a few, and collected what I thought was two tenanted mines and one old vacated mine ....

It was then that I noticed that what I thought was an older mine was going in the opposite direction to the others: this one had a frass collection nearer to the tip of the leaf with the mine heading basally. And, despite appearances all three mines were tenanted.

I needed to open the mines to check the larva to be sure on the ID. This larva was clearly not impressed as it constantly shuffled up and down the leaf so I had to whack up the ISO to get a clear enough shot.

So, mines on Great Wood-rush tenanted by a greenish larva with a brown head and prothoracic plate which is darker at the outer margins (as opposed to whitish-grey with black prothoracic plate) confirm this is Elachista regificella (and not Elachista gleichenella which may also mine this plant). Sweet. Highly unlikely that I'll get one reared through but it has to be worth sweeping the plants in late June - mid July. Great Wood-rush seems to be localised in VC55, mainly around the Charnwood area including Swithland Wood.

Whilst I was there I had a quick look for Psychidae. Every year there seem to be fewer cases, or perhaps my eyesight is getting crapper.

A couple of Dahlica sp. above (probably D. lichenella based on size and lack of obvious insect fragments), Narycia duplicella below.

I also found a few Dyseriocrania subpurpurella loafing about including this pair in-cop.

And there were loads of Alder Flies, none of which I bothered collecting to check exactly which one.

It was pretty nippy whilst I was out and certainly not inspiring enough to spend a lot of time looking around. I headed to Ulverscroft to have another look at the Infucitinea argentimaculella colony, and found absolutely loads of tubes. None that I collected last year were successful, so I think his year I'll go and collect a few in late June by which time they'll have pupated.

Tawny Out

Yesterday was my second chemo IV session. It took 7 hours or so, including waiting time and a reduced rate/increased time administering of the cytotoxic chemical. My left arm was no less painful, and I've only started to get the use of it back this morning. PICC line being planned for the remaining x6 sessions which will alleviate this arm numbing discomfort.

As it took so long, it was properly dark and around 7:15pm as I left the building to be picked up. Just as I was between the building and car park I could hear a Tawny Owl calling, apparently from the roof of the building I'd just left. I looked around but saw nothing whilst the calls continued. The calls then seemed to drift off south-east of where I was. And where I was was here, just c100meters north of my 5MR area boundary. Still, even if the bird was in it, or flew into it, I was out of it.

That stadium is where the Tigers chase the wrong-shaped ball. Badly in recent seasons.

On the face of it, a built up hospital on the outskirts of the City is not the place for a Tawny Owl, but pulling back on the zoom shows a few places it could roost and feed ....

Left - right: Nelson Mandela Park, Welford Cemetery, Victoria Park

Actually it was good to realise that a decent chunk of the cemetery and the best birding bit of Victoria Park are in the 5MR area.

Later this afternoon, after trying my best to get some work done one-handed before gradually getting both arms back, I had a half hour potter on the front garden. I couldn't last much longer, as the chemo I'm on also makes you sensitive to cold for a few days. Even though it was mild and I had gloves on the tingling sensation increased and the inside of my nose was stinging.

I found a couple of Psychidae cases on the front garden wall - which I've not found on here before. I think one has to be Narycia duplicella, certainly the most likely species though it doesn't look quite right and actually looks a bit like a Dahlica sp. so I I'll try and pot it up to check/rear. The other was probably Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella, but it was clearly a damaged or old case. So neither added to the list as yet.

I also remembered that I'd noticed a Vapourer egg batch earlier in Jan but forgot to snap and add. Actually today I found four more. As this species overwinters as the egg, and most of these look intact, it should be okay to add to the list.

A number of lichens that I haven't ever tried to sort out are on that wall, I've snapped some to ponder over for another day. I expect all are common and being on walls and mortar limits the candidates.

Having found one on the window ledge, I found a number of globular Dicyrtomina saundersi today on the underside of stones - never seen them in the garden before this week, which is either down to not looking hard enough or they have genuinely moved in recently.

I also snapped an Orchesella cincta that was on the wall ....

Nothing else identifiable, and it was probably a few hours too late in the day - I'll have another look around earlier tomorrow.

This small spider appeared to be carting a parasitic wasp larvae around ....

.... and there were a couple of Dipterans that would need properly keying and checking.

A Chironomid, quite possibly Chironomus plumosus.

And I believe one of the Mycetophilidae 'Fungus Gnats', possibly a Dynatosoma sp. I did try to pot this but it evaded the cack-handed effort.

Here's some proper nostalgic breakbeat stuff from before the enforced name change ....