Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.
Showing posts with label Zacladus geranii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zacladus geranii. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 June 2021

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.

Monday, 22 June 2020

Yeah, Right!

I managed to look at a couple of small beetles last night; a weevil that I'd not got around to and a flea beetle that I'd forgotten about.

The weevil was, in the end, straightforward. It always helps when you manage to sweep them from a particular plant, and this one came from Meadow Crane's-bill. Imagine my joy when Googling 'weevil on meadow crane's-bill' brought up identical black weevils with a small raised 'neck' called Meadow Crane's-bill Weevil ....

Zacladus geranii

The flea beetle was not straightforward. I actually had four in a pot that all came from sweeping Viper's Bugloss at Ketton Quarry. I was checking for Mogulones geographicus but ended up with a net absolutely heaving with lots of what appeared to be the same flea beetle. As far as I can tell they're one of the Longitarsus spp., and a bit of trawling shows up a species pair that could well be in eastern VC55 on Viper's Bugloss - L. aeneicollis and L. nasturtii, either of which would I think be new to VC55 ....

I can hear you shouting from here: 'Longitarsus - yeah, right!'. I could be way off in all respects - either not Longitarsus, or just one of the polyphageous spp. Internet images of the Longitarsus spp. seem to be all over the place which does not help. Anyway I got a couple over to Graham Finch today who is hopefully much better placed to get an ID one way or another.