Liquorice

On Friday we headed down to that there London, not just any old bit of London either - the swanky expensive more money than sense bit. We travelled down in bright sunshine, parked up at Stanmore and jumped on a tube straight to Sloane Square station, and then tootled into the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. We had a great day; I've fancied going there for some time and we absolutely struck lucky with it being such a glorious day too. I could share loads of photos, but really it's kind of 'you had to be there' to properly appreciate it. And anyway, if you're interested you'll seen Monty present it all last week.

I'd already planned to head to Ketton Quarry on Saturday to look for a load of Wild Liquorice and check it out for Grapholita pallifrontana - no previous VC55 records. It's one that I'd looked for before about a decade ago on a small plant at Croft Hill, but I'd not realised the plant was now well established at Ketton until last week. Sadly I was beaten to it, albeit the recorder on Friday failed to get any photos or a specimen so I still needed to head over and have a look anyway. I got details for the area and soon realised that I must have walked past his substantial clump on many occasions previously and not noticed - it's not the most attractive plant when not in flower.

It was a bit overcast with brief sunny spells, and luckily just as I got there the sun was out and I saw a couple of the moths immediately. As soon as the sun went in, the moths disappeared under leaves and over an hour or so I only saw one more and managed to net one with a bit of very light sweeping (the plant is not substantial enough to take a proper sweep!). This really seems to be an easy moth to overlook, as they were completely inactive and hidden away with no sunshine. 

Whilst mooching about and around the Liquorice, I pointed the camera at a few bits - by far the best of the bunch being this ....

The is the second time I've recorded Cryptocephalus bipunctatus at Ketton Quarry, and this is the sixth VC55 record. The fifth was also from Ketton Quarry a little earlier this May. Aside from this, the flowering plants and foliage around the area were busy with the usual suspects for the site - all metallic green ....

Cryptocephalus aureolus

Swollen-thighed Beetle

Ischnomera cyanea

Also flitting about the Liquorice was a trio of beefy-looking hoverflies that I recognised having seen them here before. I netted one for an in-hand shot for the record ....

Crysotoxum cautum

A small moth that I netted in flight turned out to be a male Psyche casta, and to be fair the twig-cloaked larval case is perhaps more visually appealing ....

Amongst the other day-flying moths seen was Burnet Companion, but the lack of sunshine and warmth made it feel generally quiet and there were very few butterflies knocking about.

Keith Tailby rocked up after I'd been there a while, and after a natter and such like I left him to it, and as I headed home the sun came out ....

I felt sure there would be some obscure but listenable track with Liquorice in the title, not that one sprung to mind at all. A quick internet search brought up a few tracks, and I found them all to be a bit shite. And then I found this quirky and pleasant acoustic tune on Youtube which somehow sounds like a perfect accompaniment for searching for inverts in the field in spring ....

Something Good

It's been a great weekend weather-wise, with a good few insects finding their way onto my square list.

I stuck out a pheromone lure in the garden yesterday afternoon (MOL lure for Grapholita molesta). I was hoping that one of the Pammene sp. that are coming to this lure would turn up, more in vain hope than expectation, but literally within a minute of putting it out a small moth was flittering about the trap before going in. I secured it in a pot and was pretty sure it was Pammene suspectana, with rapid confirmation from a FB posting. There are no previous VC55 records, although I've since picked up that Keith Tailby had a few to a lure on Friday. I'll get it gen detted to support the record, but I have no doubts personally. The weird thing about this though is that it turned up very quickly, but I left the lure out and in the subsequent 24hrs it attracted one aphid.

The garden trap has also livened up a bit, although overall numbers are still low. There have been a few NFY species over the last three nights including these:

Campion

Sandy Carpet

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Pale Tussock

Flame Shoulder

Today I grabbed a couple of hours in the square sweeping and swiping my nets. I've ended up with a fair few pots to work through, and I grabbed some very quick photos of a couple of beetles, with the first being a tick ....

Plateumaris sericea

Anthonomus pedicularius

Hylesinus varius

And always good to see a few of these whilst out and about ....

Swollen-thighed Beetle

Daily Disco

I swear too much. Generally. The ongoing farce at No. 10 is just a minor catalyst. It may be Toryrettes.

After a few windy days, and then settling out to warmth and sunshine I should have been out somewhere, but for various reasons I've not had a chance. This afternoon I loitered in the garden with intent though.

I noticed a yesterday that occasional small bees, wasps and sawflies were sort of searching holes, albeit in competely the wrong place. We have concrete posts between the fence panels, and the concrete cast has left all sort of sized 'craters' which are not deep enough for anything to nest in, but the prospective nesters and parasites don't know until they check. Today I noticed a couple again, and once armed with camera I pointed it at one to see if there was any discernible details ....

Well, blow me it's one of the yellow-faced bees. Absolutely no idea which one from these shots, so I decided to try and pot the next one I saw. I did. It was a small wasp. Next one, a small bee with no yellow markings. Next one was bigger, and knowing what it probably was I got the camera on it before managing to secure it ....

Gasteruption jaculator sl

I'll keep my eye on this new-found source of interest this week.

Also in the garden today, briefly, were two gaudy beetles. The Wasp Beetle got away, this one sat on the fence for a few seconds ..

Swollen-thighed Beetle

I've also got a couple of sawflies and small hoverflies to look at, plus the garden was again a bit of a hot-spot for Merodon equestris, with at least four invovled (three males, one female - on mating noted).

Female left

Two similar males, note differences in wing-wear

The moth trap has been ticking along, though nothing stand-out.

Lychnis

Vine's Rustic

White-spotted Pug

Annoying the the right antennae was stuck under the forewing

Silver Y

Another annoying moth-photo result - wonky foreleg

Middle-barred Minor

May Highflyer

Peppered Moth

Finally, we've been getting one or two Hedgehogs in the garden, seen infrequently. This evening, well before it was even dusky, this one came trundling up the side of the shed and tried to hide behind a plant pot when it heard me coming ....

Whilst roasting our chicken this evening, I was listening to Sophie Ellis-Bextor on Radio 2 doing a kitchen disco for an hour. Nothing too cheesy, proper 70's club stuff in the main. I am not ashamed to say it was just what was needed - something bouncy and airy and free of the immense weight of bullshit I'd listened to in the preceding couple of hours.

Outside

I've had a great day.

It started with a moth trap catch that on any other day would be a poor result, but when you step out the back door and immediately see a stonking Puss Moth on the patio then all is good. I took a quick phone snap and potted it for later. It's a male so no joy of rearing (for now).

After a bit of breakfast and sorting myself out, I headed out in the car for a day in the field. Which felt distinctly wierd, since the lockdwn the furthest I've driven was to the hospital and back a couple of times as our supermarkets are not too far away. I headed to Ketton Quarry where I expected to find more than enough open space to maintain social distancing whilst enjoying some entomology.

I managed to get around just about the whole reserve in three circuits with the car park providing a nice start-end point and coffee stop.

I'm not going to pretend that I was alone in sweet solitude though. I met Andy Neilson immediately on arrival, so nice to have a chat, and throughout my time there I saw a few couples and even three families. I've seen far more people there today than I think I have over all visits cumulatively in the last five years. Perhaps the lockdown has forced more locals, not just dogwalkers, to have a better look around their own areas? Still, there was more than enough space to create masses of free-space and I still saw less people than I have on every walk out of the estate in the last few weeks.

With strong sunshine in the morning and odd cloudy spells in the afternoon, it was one of those days where there was so much going on it was easy to actually miss more than see. I didn't know whether to sweep, swish or just point the camera, and more often than not whatever I chose was the wrong option for that insect. But I managed to see a lot of stuff, far more than I've potted or photographed (which gives me an idea for a future posting about recording).

I deliberately limited what came home at I've got more than enough to keep me busy, but I'll share a mixed bag starting with this ....

Recognise it? No, neither did I other than it was a butterfly. I saw two, both were wandering swiftly across pathways and neither would sit for a photo so I bunged them inside the sweep net to get a shot for later ID. Nearly spluttered my coffee when browsing the new book I quickly worked out that this is Dark Green Fritillary. No way! Wish I'd made more effort on the photo.

Another crap by necessity photo was this unexpected beast ...

Oiceoptoma thoracicum

I noticed it crawling up a grass stem and looking like it might fly as I got the camera ready. And it did fly, but luckily I was ready with the net. I grabbed this shot, let it out onto the path for another photo and it immediately starting a stuttering scuttle before flying off again, so this ended up being the best shot. I've only seen one before, and this is my first in VC55.

I saw a lot of stuff that either wouldn't sit or no point netting, like both Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Tiger Beetle, Burnet Companion, Pancalia leuwenhoekella, Chrysotoxum bicinctum, Leucozona leucorum, Centrosus corntus, Scarce Fungus Beetle Again, Common Lizard, Cuckoo ....

Other stuff that I did point the camera at, but nice to see again, included:

Cardinal Beetle - we'll be sick of them in a week or so, like the cantharids ...

Eurygaster testudinaria - the best shieldbug seen today, but not the best bug as I have a Denticulated Leatherbug to try and photograph.

Large Red Damselfly

Azure Damselfly

Swollen-thighed Beetle - love these

Best hoverfly was this, one of two seen ..

Chrysotoxum cautum

And the thing that put the biggest smile on my face was seeing hundreds of these glistening like little jewels on almost every yellow flower ..

Cryptocephalus aureolus

It was good to get out into big space again.