Bugs and Buds

I've finally managed to crack a couple of hemipteran puzzlers that I've been mulling over all week. Both were swept and potted at Ketton Quarry on Monday, and both popped their clogs in respective pots before I could even attempt a photo. Luckily there were both big enough that they were not going to shrivel away to nothing in a couple of days. It's not often now that I find a bug and can't resolve it having gone through the British Bugs galleries, but both of these stubbornly refused to be identified until I had a lucky moment last night and a eureka moment this evening.

First up, this dark Mirid with bright red cuneus, bright green underneath and (although they fell off) longish 'Phytocoris like' hind legs. I could not pick out anything similar in the British Bugs galleries, then last night whilst flicking through Facebook I noticed a photo of the exact same bug on the UK Hemiptera group. Here's a lazy photo of my dead hind-legless bug ....

It's a male Closterotomus trivialis, which currently isn't featured on the British Bugs gallery. It was added to the British list as recently as 2008, when adults were found on a small number of cultivated Hypericum plants in a north London garden. They still don't seem to have spread; the NBN atlas maps is pretty devoid of dots - except there is one for Leics., a 2018 record from a garden. It must be spreading, and whilst info seems a bit sparse I wonder if the abundance of native Hypericum spp. at Ketton Quarry is relevant. Needless to say, it's a new one for me.

The other bug that has been bugging me is this; a smallish, entirely all dark and quite hairy thing ....

Earlier this evening I had one more trawl through British Bugs and realised why I was missing it: this is a macropterous form of Orthocephalus coriaceus, a widespread but local bug of grasslands. No VC55 dots on the NBN maps, and no previous records as far as I can tell. And again, new for me.

Great stuff. I seem to be quite lucky lately in that although I'm limiting the number of specimens collected to check out quite a good percentage of them have been new for me and significant for VC55.

Here's a few flower buds from the same visit to fill the page a bit ...

Yellow Bird's-nest

Deadly Nightshade

Hedge Woundwort

Bladder Campion

Common Spotted Orchid

And because I can, another Stenurella melanura - Ketton Quarry seems to be a good site for this longhorn in VC55 .....

Lost Jewel

So yesterday after filling me boots with Small Eggar larvae, I ventured over the border into Cambs. (or at least into the Peterborough District). I went to Bedford Purlieus, a site I only recall going to once before which was almost exactly six years ago. Immediately on getting there I had doubts; the small car park was full and there was a group of youths loitering around, though to be fair they did not exactly look like snarky yoofs. I reversed into to make a U turn and depart, when I noticed that one of them had a large refuse sack filled with litter and a pick-up stick. Fair play. Even better, they each got into their own car and fecked off, leaving just a couple of cars behind. If I'd turned up a few minutes earlier I'd have not seen this and just gone somewhere else.

Anyway, boots on and almost immediately after walking through a couple of gates I was confronted by a couple of chasers in a sunny corner just in front of woodland, next to a sun-lit flowering shrub (dog wood?). I carefully laid down my nets, got my camera out and starting getting a couple of shots.

The sun-lit shrub in question

Broad-boded Chaser - nice.

All the time as I stood still watching it, I was aware that the shrub was quite busy with hoverflies, Grammoptera and other bits. And then something flew right past my face onto the bush and got my attention. My nets were on the floor some five meters away, the camera was on zoom macro to shoot a chaser that was five meters away, and this thing was sitting at face height about half a meter from me. I could see what it was, the identification was not in any doubt, but my joy was immediately dampened by the realisation that the chance of capturing the event in any way was slim. I turned, fucked about with the camera and it was gone. My first Agrilus biguttatus, in all it's shiny and spotted-elytral glory. Arse. I loitered around the bush for at least half an hour, switching between net and camera but not joy with the jewel. Best hoverfly during this interlude was this monster ..

Volucella inflata

Once it was clear it was gone for good, I set off for a look around the place. It was nothing like I remembered it. In my mind it was a lush flower-rich and slightly damp meadow with a bit of surrounding woodland. Yesterday it was a parched grassland with too much bracken and loads of woodland with long open rides.

I had a good walk around, though the heat was already rising and ento-action was a bit sporadic. Apart from the wood ants that were absolutely everywhere. Along one of the more shaded rides I spotted this scuttling across the path ...

Glow Worm larva

I also got to one particular patch of bracken that was alive with longhorns dance flighting all over the place. Lots of Alosterna tabacicolor that wouldn't sit still (one netted to check) and a handful of these .....

Rutpela maculata

I saw a fair bit flying about in places, but shrubs and bushes on the woodland edge were better for more hoverflies and other stuff, though the only one sitting still long enough for a photo was these ..

Xylota segnis

Tenthredo mesomela

After a couple of hours I headed off, dropping into Ketton Quarry on the way back as it would be daft not too. Immediately on entering the reserve I saw this on a dog rose flower ...

Stenurella melanura

Another Tenthredo mesomela hit the camera sensor, whilst actively eating another sawfly ....

Whilst walking around I was being buzzed by clegs - I'd already netted one that escaped, but I could see it was probably Chrysops relictus from the wing markings. I managed to net it with a chance sweep over my head that just managed to catch it out. Further into the reserve the same happened again, but on checking the net it was something a lot bigger and I managed to get it into a pot. I had no qualms about processing this one, nasty biting bastards that they are.

Anyway, it was a female with three-striped eyes and a sort of pimple on the top of the head ....

This immediately takes it to Hybomitra. Following the key in Stubbs and Drake was fine, Facial dusting, abdominal markings and mid-tibial hairs made it Hybomitra bimaculata.

I'm not a fan of flies that actively try to bite you, but those eyes really are funky. Here's an artist with funky eyes and a jewel-theme.

Grey Lane / Bright Beetles

This morning was mild, calm and dry (well, not raining but still damp underfoot). It was also very grey. Still, despite this I had an urge to take a stroll down the lane towards the PYO and around the Countesthorpe Meadow with my bins at hand. It was too grey to bother trying to photograph anything, other than the lanes I walked, and it seems appropriate to accentuate the greyness ...

Very pleasant and relaxing it was too. In particular I was pleased to be able to point my glass at Yellowhammers, Jays, Skylarks, Stock Doves, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and plenty of Redwings and Fieldfares.

Nothing too exciting, and only 26 species in total but this is pretty sterile arable farmland around here with flailed hedgerows and no stubble.

The building works around the back of my housing estate seem to have finished, for now at least, and the service road that was built parallel with the main lane I walk is gone. You'd never know it had been there.

As an anthithesis to the greyness, here's a few more beetles that I've not posted previously from the PSL meet in June 2015.

Stenurella melanura, Beaulieu Heath, New Forest 14/06/2015

Cassida vittata - Ferrybridge, Portland 12/06/2015

Omophlus pubescens - Ferrybridge, Portland 13/06/2015

This one is a real rarity, and was a key target for the trip. We found several all on the same morning around a relatively small area of Thrift clumps ... appeared to be a brief and co-ordinated emergence.

Elaphrus cupreus - Beaulieu Heath, New Forest 14/06/2015

Dicheirotrichus gustavii - Ferrybridge, Portland 13/06/2015

Mononychus punctumalbum - Portland Bill Obs 11/06/2015