I nipped out this morning to speculatively try a couple of lures. No joy with
those, but whilst out I manged to see a new longhorn completely by chance -
Paracorymbia fulva. I saw one nectaring on a ragwort as I walked past,
and then with a bit of searching and chasing with a camera I saw four in
total. They weren't fussy, stopping on every possible nectar/pollen source in
a weedy patch.
I also had another new beetle in the week to the garden trap, though I had no
idea what it was from a bit of searching. A quick plea on Facebook and John
Lamin quickly gave it a name, and it became immediately clear why I was stumped.
It is Conopalpus testaceus, which has two colour forms but the only
images on Kerbtier and Naturespot are of the dark form.
Last night the garden trap was pretty busy with non-leps, including a few
hoppers with another one new to me ....
Edwardsiana geometrica - perhaps the only easily identifiable one in
this group
Iassus lanio - annual in the garden trap
Oncopsis alni - one I've had in the garden trap before
Allygus modestus - another one I've had in the trap before
A couple more caddisflies too ....
Glyphotaelius pellucidus
Athripsodes cinereus
I've got a few micros being gen detted which will hopefully confirm a couple
and perhaps add to both the garden and my British moth lists.
Tonight, I'm going out into the wilderness and I'll be sat around a moth
sheet. For the first time since June 2019 as far as I can think. It will be
absolutely fantastic whether there are moths or not!
Yesterday was almost ridiculous. And I don't mean the match last night ....
When I set the moth trap on Saturday night, I also left out the LUN pheremone
lure in the vain hope that it would attract one or two Tineid moths (as it has
done for many others). Sunday morning, not quite at the crack of dawn, I
emptied the moth trap and checked the lure - nothing. By the time I'd emptied
the trap it was c06:30 and I intended to get back into bed for another couple
of hours or so. I simply left the pheromone trap hanging. When I was back up
and in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil, I looked out and thought I
saw some movement inside the trap .... surely not .... but I went and checked
....
I couldn't quite believe it, x2 Lunar Hornet Moths in the garden. I'd
never thought of putting the lure out in the garden to target this clearwing.
There is a decent sized sallow in the adjacent garden, but I'm sure these came
from a bit further afield (though clearly not too far). From using this lure
last year, I reckon these don't fly too early in the morning, I had no success
anywhere before c9am.
Buoyed by this inadvertent success, I decided to try another lure that has not
hung in the garden before - mainly because I'd seen a couple of other reports
from around the VC suggesting it might be worth a punt. So out went the VES lure
whilst I nipped out with the LUN lure attempting (but failing) to add another
dot to the VC map.
I got back after around one and a half hours, had a squint at the trap and
could not believe it - more clearwings. The VES lure was initially intended
for Yellow-legged Clearwing which is pretty much a specialist of mature oaks /
oak woodland. But the lure also works for Orange-tailed Clearwing which, until
this year, was thought to be rare in the VC and pretty much restricted to the
east of Rutland. Orange-tailed mainly feeds on Wayfaring Tree which is itself
pretty scarce in VC55. I suspect no-one bothered trying the lure in their
gardens in years gone by as neither clearwing species seemed likely. But Orange-tailed
also feeds on Guelder Rose, and perhaps it is also feeding on cultivated
viburnums. Either way, there were three in my garden and again these can't
have come too from too far away.
Orange-tailed Clearwing
I tried to make it a hat-trick but the FOR lure failed to bring in Red-tipped
Clearwing although the afternoon was pretty dull and cloudy. Still I can't
complain with two garden ticks in rapid succession.
Otherwise, the last couple of times the trap has been out I've lazily pointed
the camera at Torts on the sheet and trap body ....
Had a great walk around a local private fishery on Thursday evening with
fellow recorders Graham Calow and Craig Mabbett. They'd been a few times
previously, and aside from finding some decent and interesting plants they'd
also picked up a trio of conifer-specialist Epinotia spp.
I picked up a number of plant ticks walking around, but having left my phone
in my car (we travelled together in Craig's) I didn't make any real effort to snap
plant life - the phone camera is much better for that stuff. Best of the
bunch, although it had gone over a bit, was some spikes of Pale
Yellow-eyed-grass - a garden escape that is not a grass at all. Other noteworthy plants for me were Musk
Mallow, Caper Spurge, Toad Rush and Upright Hedge-parsley. Also a couple of
dipteran leaf mines on Teasel, a Hemipteran and this weird gall hitting the PSL ....
Pineapple Gall Adelgid [Adelges abietis] on Norway Spruce. Adelgids are
closely related to aphids.
But my main hope was that around the same Norway Spuce belt I'd pick up at
least one of the Epinotia spp. There were plenty of tiny tortrix moths flying
around as soon as the sun had gone down before proper dusk, and I certainly
got one, possibly two:
Epinotia tedella - past its best, but identifiable and new for me
Confirmed via gen det
Epinotia nanana - confirmed via gen det
Epinotia nanana - confirmed via gen det
Also flying around with these were loads of these ....
Zeiraphera ratzburgiana
Now for the freaky luck. Amongst all these tortrix moths, one way or another,
a small beetle ended up in the net which looked quite funky through my eye
glass. I thought I recognised it, not from having seen it but from photos on
the web or similar, but trawling through the usually excellent Kerbtier website
for a clue I was drawing a blank. It looked vaguely similar to Bitoma crenata
in structure, but clearly not that on markings. I grabbed a quick snap and
pleaded for help on Facebook, with Martin Fowlie and Mark Telfer both coming
back almost instantly with the same name - Pycnomerus fuliginosus.
This is an adventive species that is usually found further south. This one
fits the Pycnomerus key in Duff as P. fuliginosus (versus P. angulatus),
however there is apparently one other recently discovered Pycnomerus sp. in
the UK so it's now safely with Graham Finch for carding, as a VC55 first and
future reference if pertinent.
This morning I nipped out to Narborough Bog with the Lunar Hornet Moth lure and managed
to add another dot.
Whilst trying the lure at Everards Meadows, I noticed a distinctly dark-looking cranefly and netted it. With
nothing else to hand, I shovelled it into the same large glass tube that I'd
temporarily housed the above Lunar - hence the yellow moth scales all over it in the
following shots. It turned out to be not only new to me, but scarce in VC55 - more jammy luck.
Every few years I make a point of saving one or two likely individuals to
confirm the Minors, Daggers and Common Rustics, rather than continually
aggregating them. I have managed to do these myself in the past, but I have to
say it's been a while. With the rainy week forecast I thought I might have a
go, but it appears my chemicals may not be up to it - my bottle of Potassium
Hydroxide 10% is looking very cloudy indeed. I'm not surprised, I've had it
for years and barely have any use for it as aside from these few aggs. I don't
really need to gen det any macros and regardless I'm not up to micros. But it
is time to re-stock on chemicals and then I can boil up these four ....
Clockwise: Marbled Minor / Tawny Marbled Minor / Lesser Common Rustic / Grey
Dagger
Probably.
Here's a brief update on my square listing. You may recall that up to the end
of April things appeared to be going well and I was ahead of my 2013 score.
Well, May was pants and through June I've not had as much time to get out. But
it's not all bad. As at 31/05/2021 the total was 486sp, and at the end of June the total was
710sp. Here's the respective breakdowns:
It should be pretty clear from these that a big part of the jump between end
of May and end of June is that the moth trap kicked into life.
Here's the totals vs 2013:
But the overall totals don't tell the whole story. For example: by the end of
June in 2013 I had recorded 122 vascular plants (vs 140 in 2021), 81 beetles
(vs 91 in 2021) and 36 hemipterans (vs 38 in 2021). But perhaps most
surprisingly, given that 2013 was a great year overall for moths in the
garden/square and this year has seemed rubbish, by the end of June I had recorded 196 species vs 207 in 2021.
I
never set out to beat the 2013 total, and probably still will not as I'm not
making any effort on some groups, just picking bits up casually. But on the
stated aim of improving the totals in some orders I think I'll get there - I
just need some decent weather and time this month.
As for the 5MR birding, there hasn't been any. I'll probably pick that back up
again in a few weeks when things start moving again.
Here's four static blokes in front of a graphics display making their machines create a superb racket ....
July already; heading into what should be the absolute peak for the garden
trap and as I type the garden and roadways are absolutely sodden from some
almighty thundery rains late this afternoon. I have managed to get the moth trap
out over the last few days though, and on Friday night I managed 101sp. before
packing the trap up at c01:30 with heavy rains forecast (that didn't arrive
until today). I've not done a lot else since my last walk into the
square so just as well the trap is ticking over.
It has brought some decent interest with a new moth and beetle in the
mix ....
This is one that was only recognised as a species in 2017, and the timing of
that has been coincidentally good with what seems to be a quick range
expansion. It was first picked up in VC55 in 2019 with a couple more last
year, and already this year a handful have been recorded. I was very hopeful
that one would turn up here and so it did, last night in an otherwise mediocre
catch:
Anarsia innoxiella - a full British moth tick for me.
The name is derived from the Latin 'innoxia' meaning harmless or innocuous, a
reference to it's non-destructive behaviour feeding on Acer spp., unlike
Anarsia lineatella, from which it was split, which can be a pest of Prunus sp.
crops.
Also one that I'd been expecting, this beetle was tucked up on the house wall
behind the trap on Thursday night. I had the camera to hand but no pots, so I
grabbed a couple of not so great shots, nipped indoors for a glass tube and by the time I
got back out it had moved/scarpered never to be seen again. Never approach a light trap with no pot/tube!
Soronia grisea
Otherwise a few nice moths and other bits to the trap:
Oncopsis subangulata - lacking prominent discoidal spots, and
intraocular band weak and does not reach eyes (cf Oncopsis flavicollis)
Leptocerus tineiformis
Zygina flammigera
No ID for this wasp, but it looks funky!
Eucosma conterminana - c20years to the day since it was added to the
VC55 list from my garden
Batia lunaris
Carpatolechia fugitivella - second garden record
Small Ranunculus
Scarce Silver Lines - first here since 2013
Burnished Brass - always a pleasure to see these in the trap. This is
f. aurea: there was talk of a potential split involving individuals with a
proper thick bar joining the two brassy bands [Cryptic Burnished Brass D.
stenochrysis], which will make assessment of the intermediate forms with more
sender bars (f. tutti) a bit subjective!
Also in the garden, this was loafing on my sallow sapling in sunshine ....
Dichrorampha vancouverana - second for garden after the first VC55
record in 2002
I found this larva munching on the flowers of Smooth Hawk's-beard. I couldn't identify it so I've tried to rear it through and it has now pupated; not sure if I'll be waiting
weeks or months to find out what it is ....
I didn't post an update on the SP5595ish yearlist at the end of May, so I'll
get around to that in the next post.
I'm not having to try too hard to avoid being overexcited by the Euro Championships, but
if there is a victory on Wednesday night it's definitely going to be hard
not to get swept away with it next weekend!
