tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83247731703619773132024-02-20T09:05:04.472+00:00Insect ramblesWandering around, photographing insects...Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-68248114958944439862019-08-25T15:24:00.000+01:002019-08-25T15:24:50.107+01:00A week on the UistsFrom time to time over the past five years on this blog I've mentioned my other half. Well, after 15 months of planning and organising we got married at our local registry office on Friday 2nd August. The day after we had our reception, with about 80 friends and family in the village hall at the end of our road. On the Sunday we took a somewhat smaller self-selected group on a walk to the lovely <a href="http://stannswell.co.uk/" target="_blank">St Ann's Well</a> for tea, cakes and views across Worcestershire. Then we had a few days to tidy up and relax (organising everything yourselves creates a wonderfully personalised event, but via a lot of work before, during and after!) before we & the dog were off on honeymoon for a week.<br />
<br />
We were headed to South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides - home of eagles, rare bumblebees, huge empty white-sand beaches, and interesting marine mammals. We drove a 9-hour stint to Loch Lomond through some fairly apocalyptic rainstorms, to be greeted by a text from the ferry company warning that our sailing might be cancelled if the weather continued. The following morning the weather had gone and the Loch was a millpond.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWk_YYX6-rzavSX83AUwKTb9bH9m4qJlqOYB8rMpvJO17BTwkBS5vW0UiIWNWF0s_AAJuGNwemOz5sg3q4TP_kRislnXcjEHJtevx4EOrkdTng5PEROkB6uszhqgiawY0NEX82-A16WHI/s1600/20190809_193141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWk_YYX6-rzavSX83AUwKTb9bH9m4qJlqOYB8rMpvJO17BTwkBS5vW0UiIWNWF0s_AAJuGNwemOz5sg3q4TP_kRislnXcjEHJtevx4EOrkdTng5PEROkB6uszhqgiawY0NEX82-A16WHI/s400/20190809_193141.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was usually a road</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlvjMxoJW1P1zqPCfiJV8yzIvBlBjujMpqDhXeZFQlYDC5qeqmGAu6qZks6Kv2RnnHLFcQthuo2qLJQC_5D_0Vi65Wc_AdCBjU2fMmVI3drvgsnRdQpKGlr0jSsVL7rb6vfrBJXiWcOY/s1600/2019-08-10+07.44.35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlvjMxoJW1P1zqPCfiJV8yzIvBlBjujMpqDhXeZFQlYDC5qeqmGAu6qZks6Kv2RnnHLFcQthuo2qLJQC_5D_0Vi65Wc_AdCBjU2fMmVI3drvgsnRdQpKGlr0jSsVL7rb6vfrBJXiWcOY/s400/2019-08-10+07.44.35.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loch Lomond on a calm Saturday morning</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Slightly spooked by the text, we decided not to hang about and pushed on two hours north to Fort William, where we refuelled the car and ourselves, and then another hour to the Mallaig ferry terminal. Finding (in order) that:<br />
1. the ferries were running fine;<br />
2. we were about 4 hours early to get into the terminal;<br />
3. there were no vacant car parking spaces in Mallaig;<br />
we pushed off south to Morar and explored the dunes for a couple of hours (11-spot ladybird the highlight), before returning to Mallaig at a time better suited to getting on the boat.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp6ASDVynthCwB37UvjKiDlhr2nZ3o7hhfQ2IioYGHrK9tHfydOb0NE1KzfTmcZCW8ky2dfMY0zlLeoejoeBDVbFksjiFwUmy5CBdd5CxwwWsLS41drF7GM_uj5vD7f6EZaKlOn91rRZ4/s1600/20190810_144149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp6ASDVynthCwB37UvjKiDlhr2nZ3o7hhfQ2IioYGHrK9tHfydOb0NE1KzfTmcZCW8ky2dfMY0zlLeoejoeBDVbFksjiFwUmy5CBdd5CxwwWsLS41drF7GM_uj5vD7f6EZaKlOn91rRZ4/s400/20190810_144149.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When choosing someone to marry, I recommend picking someone who can find you interesting wildlife</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cZ42FjI17u-wlgqpNbH8DSQqoP3EKySzHReaUG0shTLeddkXfSjl6KbCYtv4C5m12MtNTexsudxlmdxL4S3bOwcd3LZUjWypITCcXotehaeEw_EHr2tty8Gt5JBelv-oz60GtFQO83o/s1600/20190810_172425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cZ42FjI17u-wlgqpNbH8DSQqoP3EKySzHReaUG0shTLeddkXfSjl6KbCYtv4C5m12MtNTexsudxlmdxL4S3bOwcd3LZUjWypITCcXotehaeEw_EHr2tty8Gt5JBelv-oz60GtFQO83o/s400/20190810_172425.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chugging out of Mallaig en route for Lochboisdale</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The storm remnants and resulting white horses made spotting anything in the water difficult - a shame, as the ferries have an enviable record of finding marine mammals and large fish - but there were a decent number of seabirds, including plenty of Manx Shearwaters and one Bonxie. Landing at Lochboisdale at 8.50pm, we trundled north (again) and eventually reached our rented cottage at Stilligarry half an hour later, 518 miles and two day's travel from home.<br />
<br />
We were staying about half a mile from the dunes along the western edge of South Uist, so first thing the following morning we walked down the track through the machair to the beach. Machair - intensely flower-rich wet grassland found around the coasts of northern Scotland - is a fantastic habitat for bumblebees and I couldn't resist having a bit of a look. Sure enough, the first bumblebee we came across was a Moss Carder (<i>Bombus muscorum</i>) - in this case the striking and beautiful island subspecies <i>B. muscorum agricolae</i>. This is a species which is struggling in England and Wales, but in northern Scotland - especially on the machair - it still seems to be thriving.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRsU0bNMmSYbW2axlRY9PuEG3pMevoGtZYPOYThmqa6eZrcl4kGGnjoqiAC1ruCOlfaZf14ykzQZ96TUBFTfYjswm7wK_-lIGowz3uGpa96WuYg1yT_82GCeb2fUaDIFXpHoR9wFvqTT4/s1600/20190811_110226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRsU0bNMmSYbW2axlRY9PuEG3pMevoGtZYPOYThmqa6eZrcl4kGGnjoqiAC1ruCOlfaZf14ykzQZ96TUBFTfYjswm7wK_-lIGowz3uGpa96WuYg1yT_82GCeb2fUaDIFXpHoR9wFvqTT4/s400/20190811_110226.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moss Carder braving the weather </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
There were plenty of bumbles about and we quickly added more species to the tally. Garden bumblebees (<i>B. hortorum</i>: big, white-tailed bees with three yellow bands); Heath bumblebees (<i>B. jonellus</i>: the Scottish island form with a yellow tail (instead of the usual white) to go with three yellow bands); Common Carder bumblebees (<i>B. pascuorum</i>: brown all over and a relatively new addition to the island fauna). Then, sheltering from the drizzle under a knapweed flowerhead, we found the crown jewel of Scottish bumblebees: The Great Yellow. <i>Bombus distinguendus</i> is instantly recognisable - warm golden yellow fur over an elongate frame, broken only by a transverse black band over the top of the thorax. Go back a century, maybe 150 years, and the species was widespread across England, Scotland and Wales, but inexorable habitat loss and degradation means it can now only be found in the extreme north - the Hebrides, Orkneys, and the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccxa6IJnMIObJs3DjR1WeSAGadzSRi91_CMYe5W25T2rGFdaKdwRMHhnM6k-PaArkhvE9Lvh8Y0Q87MlU7k9l5VfDqYmc8Yj0gLngLZZPlyoOQTtE4DFGw0k1hLcLXv6Cj0hq5aCnDHk/s1600/20190811_104500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccxa6IJnMIObJs3DjR1WeSAGadzSRi91_CMYe5W25T2rGFdaKdwRMHhnM6k-PaArkhvE9Lvh8Y0Q87MlU7k9l5VfDqYmc8Yj0gLngLZZPlyoOQTtE4DFGw0k1hLcLXv6Cj0hq5aCnDHk/s400/20190811_104500.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first Great Yellow of the trip. But not the last!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Once we'd calmed down (and stopped the dog trying to eat the bumblebee), we continued down to the beach. Every other bumblebee was a Moss Carder, and a decent proportion of the rest were Great Yellows - it was becoming very clear why this is such an important area for bumblebee conservation!<br />
<br />
We spent the rest of the week in similar fashion. Fabulous machair all over the place, stuffed with rare bumblebees. Fox Moth caterpillars wherever you looked, and one unmistakable, unforgettable Emperor Moth caterpillar at Loch Druidibeag, accompanied by Black Darters (<i>Sympetrum danae</i>), another local speciality. Dolphins offshore from RSPB Balranald on North Uist, Scots Lovage and 11-spot ladybirds on the beach. The remains of Bronze age terraced houses at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladh_Hallan" target="_blank">Cladh Hallan</a>, where the only known British mummies were found. Carnivorous plants - sundews and butterworts. A Golden Eagle looming low over the car. Huge Blue-Rayed Limpets on the strandline. Garden Tigers, Antler Moths, Gold Spots, and the exquisite dark northern form of Dark Arches in the garden moth trap (when it wasn't being blown in the direction of mainland Scotland!).<br />
<br />
And on our last evening, I took the dog for a walk down the track to the beach again. It was trying to rain, and the winds were reaching for gale force, but the bumblebees were still out and I counted at least half a dozen Great Yellows amongst the throng. I looked up and a faint rainbow appeared over the distant hills to the east. As I watched, a huge bird flapped into view - a Sea Eagle!<br />
<br />
It was the first time I'd ever been to the Outer Hebrides. But we're already planning a return trip.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWe8rKGa_dZjxe2OmB_9UUSmeDXbg3PPoJnggheg3fbwikxpHADPAVjTcVxbq47WZUo4EmpoKcEIBmFnL_yrCD14sAEXcFLRhxsRjMV4Y1it6uMeEWtQkYTK2D5ydt6KTj7WUTWYyVZQ/s1600/20190812_114025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWe8rKGa_dZjxe2OmB_9UUSmeDXbg3PPoJnggheg3fbwikxpHADPAVjTcVxbq47WZUo4EmpoKcEIBmFnL_yrCD14sAEXcFLRhxsRjMV4Y1it6uMeEWtQkYTK2D5ydt6KTj7WUTWYyVZQ/s400/20190812_114025.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black Darter, saving energy by riding the dog</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0VD0P_YPze7FrsyReJHrZR05ofpjivzn174tUKRjtFTcachNZWUA5p1Rca2nB_6jqEgrt_dzlwxfLGZmoTT2vk8HI-IvMK1fJL4w-kfhUjlArfu5S-dqM_OBVBA22eHUDigrDAELBec/s1600/20190812_123500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0VD0P_YPze7FrsyReJHrZR05ofpjivzn174tUKRjtFTcachNZWUA5p1Rca2nB_6jqEgrt_dzlwxfLGZmoTT2vk8HI-IvMK1fJL4w-kfhUjlArfu5S-dqM_OBVBA22eHUDigrDAELBec/s400/20190812_123500.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A four-inch-long Emperor Moth caterpillar, wandering off to pupate somewhere</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAPMcOZd9qgkkUubTBh-CQlOw-l0SKkthABSsLNHT0qMj3QW8S0p_Uyop3s4bNQEHmEhO72OPzdHCUL9nWb7mFGe3q_8sw2cVQhM_ftIMw6dlNA1nPyGKJZvEsMegz9Jewk_H9S31dKs/s1600/20190814_082258.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAPMcOZd9qgkkUubTBh-CQlOw-l0SKkthABSsLNHT0qMj3QW8S0p_Uyop3s4bNQEHmEhO72OPzdHCUL9nWb7mFGe3q_8sw2cVQhM_ftIMw6dlNA1nPyGKJZvEsMegz9Jewk_H9S31dKs/s400/20190814_082258.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gold Spot moth in the trap</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnOc2CxvVPE224qjgn2JwIaSrwCOidnBiukKUHb_TOGHB3OaTWU6C9mEdPE8oCvvRDdvQ56qbOPRAZb4MTiL3xp3WoO_DfFaqIw8cMqbyeZP5Dse3hh6gmmOkBRKx99jxJhOn5yrC7gw/s1600/20190814_082308.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnOc2CxvVPE224qjgn2JwIaSrwCOidnBiukKUHb_TOGHB3OaTWU6C9mEdPE8oCvvRDdvQ56qbOPRAZb4MTiL3xp3WoO_DfFaqIw8cMqbyeZP5Dse3hh6gmmOkBRKx99jxJhOn5yrC7gw/s400/20190814_082308.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of four Garden Tigers in pristine condition</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjV-z3sMHkMYMT50QGPpD48JRTo9oeeCGP_uyvRH9rJbK7AkCyqBfAK3gp6jbe4r1RTLYTnCwOXPQsBKRkoV-RLyZ-_Zu8ORR2yIpdVW2T9LUiqGAiciOuhsmSfqxT4XrOLsXr7wuoH7Y/s1600/20190814_120533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjV-z3sMHkMYMT50QGPpD48JRTo9oeeCGP_uyvRH9rJbK7AkCyqBfAK3gp6jbe4r1RTLYTnCwOXPQsBKRkoV-RLyZ-_Zu8ORR2yIpdVW2T9LUiqGAiciOuhsmSfqxT4XrOLsXr7wuoH7Y/s400/20190814_120533.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beautiful Hebridean colour form of <i>Geotrupes stercorarius</i>, a dor beetle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDraFGqmKU1XG0etAQZJ72d8sUxJgW0ARBq9E6cG0j3fbWuDUpejCflx1frcAoVLrPsbbA2Ub_zgOEo1AdK_64gmhc70-fI6s0sxQyxrhxkY28qE-ZBNmEqKKpwJEiApBO3_O6U8kbFk/s1600/2019-08-13+10.41.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDraFGqmKU1XG0etAQZJ72d8sUxJgW0ARBq9E6cG0j3fbWuDUpejCflx1frcAoVLrPsbbA2Ub_zgOEo1AdK_64gmhc70-fI6s0sxQyxrhxkY28qE-ZBNmEqKKpwJEiApBO3_O6U8kbFk/s400/2019-08-13+10.41.15.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cladh Hallan: human mummies were displayed for hundreds of years in the nearest house here</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Cg9vkh_4q5kBMs5n3BbcTwmzROfGW-qsRKwCnBjeAXhGz7x3jcvMxsRhaVHcmkyRnpKuTve3qHcWwmSZMeF6w74Xq_UO1GQvWadvoojOUb4Wv5kMpIFkqErblTvEjGfpYhAFBXS4a1g/s1600/2019-08-13+13.31.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Cg9vkh_4q5kBMs5n3BbcTwmzROfGW-qsRKwCnBjeAXhGz7x3jcvMxsRhaVHcmkyRnpKuTve3qHcWwmSZMeF6w74Xq_UO1GQvWadvoojOUb4Wv5kMpIFkqErblTvEjGfpYhAFBXS4a1g/s400/2019-08-13+13.31.53.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Machair</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2NMpWwh7c0eWu47sAu5jVdheD5whDIOyjHV1KHTgOAwb8ggN-d0wa9IzQdekNVFc5ggTXXS28sPD7N5BQ8PniRnJGOa7vBcUvOw4FZqd-SrLOwd12S2XpUtvURykHFqb9uGQ4-HQWeQ/s1600/2019-08-12+08.57.13-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2NMpWwh7c0eWu47sAu5jVdheD5whDIOyjHV1KHTgOAwb8ggN-d0wa9IzQdekNVFc5ggTXXS28sPD7N5BQ8PniRnJGOa7vBcUvOw4FZqd-SrLOwd12S2XpUtvURykHFqb9uGQ4-HQWeQ/s400/2019-08-12+08.57.13-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sundews in vast profusion</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5I1P7vhKJe-_uhtZdqOsvm_U7DxygC4ZH4rkVDNbue2q98zFbC15NykGxdsETH0i-kAVjMyCRh-iKTKDF-FaUSs5GavKP4_biQMNV1r8D5V8ZLsV7Y1ZQMv6hoWZ7TIkcNmV8eO5gZc/s1600/2019-08-12+09.08.02-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5I1P7vhKJe-_uhtZdqOsvm_U7DxygC4ZH4rkVDNbue2q98zFbC15NykGxdsETH0i-kAVjMyCRh-iKTKDF-FaUSs5GavKP4_biQMNV1r8D5V8ZLsV7Y1ZQMv6hoWZ7TIkcNmV8eO5gZc/s400/2019-08-12+09.08.02-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bee-mimic hoverfly <i>Volucella bombylans</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ug8Z5uxCk2B0YlvOhelOzcsLcODy5uHwuvhkIQZn81Z4VcpKaLoqLovpbJU8AAToI3J9xpjTGi-Zsbcc8XQd-KqE0iGKeuL4iteAQsUVOoYg5GyPZgtvoJXrWsyPbXAPeiH5kRj1lEE/s1600/2019-08-16+17.52.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ug8Z5uxCk2B0YlvOhelOzcsLcODy5uHwuvhkIQZn81Z4VcpKaLoqLovpbJU8AAToI3J9xpjTGi-Zsbcc8XQd-KqE0iGKeuL4iteAQsUVOoYg5GyPZgtvoJXrWsyPbXAPeiH5kRj1lEE/s400/2019-08-16+17.52.40.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even the dog noticed the rainbow</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXZEX2Z33y9bl0tbKMVyfATzthQyaq5zVZliTklY35zrhtuAesUEv72ZalBWAahsb0llyCAK3oBkdJeeR-x45FO38Xc-s9UkXsWuuuOO2-2mAvtXAI5goH8nMnif-tlQF-0R0mxhtyGQ/s1600/2019-08-16+17.55.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXZEX2Z33y9bl0tbKMVyfATzthQyaq5zVZliTklY35zrhtuAesUEv72ZalBWAahsb0llyCAK3oBkdJeeR-x45FO38Xc-s9UkXsWuuuOO2-2mAvtXAI5goH8nMnif-tlQF-0R0mxhtyGQ/s400/2019-08-16+17.55.14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The world's worst picture of a Sea Eagle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-50846207573215402512018-10-11T21:02:00.001+01:002018-10-11T21:02:28.067+01:00Argh! ...Ladybirds!?It's a warm, still day in the first couple of weeks of October, time for... STD-ridden home-invading alien ladybirds migrating in from Asia!?<br />
<br />
Despite the utter drivel vomited up by a range of local and national newspapers this week (e.g. the <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7431016/ladybird-invasion-sti-uk-what-to-do/" target="_blank">Sun</a>), ladybirds are not going to come for you this week. They aren't coming from Asia, they're not all black, they are physically incapable of stinging, and being bitten by one consists of a barely noticeable pinching that doesn't break the skin.<br />
<br />
These are Harlequin ladybirds, <i>Harmonia axyridis</i>. Imported into America and Continental Europe as aphid biocontrol, they were never officially released here, but turned up as accidental imports on flowers, fruit and vegetables as well as flying the Channel when the wind was in the right direction. Like all other ladybirds, they overwinter as adults, and now that the nights are drawing in they are beginning to look for places to sleep away the winter. For Harlequins, this generally means houses. This, combined with the fact that they like to overwinter in big groups, makes them far more visible than our native ladybird species, which mostly disperse into leaf litter in small groups or individually.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtZJs5_sSbrm3Z-fbl7epJ0Iwel3V3mOHOE3WrnhD7dFdy4QrUJwOfGtNb4iAMKTVkXDVGgSg1o5FQiTPl8qMy1D9GUK9G9AAiM9BHoaJyS2APSJ8XF8Z4ruETqOqqH2EkYhggfW8LiU/s1600/6385420043_1c5d92c85a_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="620" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtZJs5_sSbrm3Z-fbl7epJ0Iwel3V3mOHOE3WrnhD7dFdy4QrUJwOfGtNb4iAMKTVkXDVGgSg1o5FQiTPl8qMy1D9GUK9G9AAiM9BHoaJyS2APSJ8XF8Z4ruETqOqqH2EkYhggfW8LiU/s400/6385420043_1c5d92c85a_z.jpg" width="387" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harlequins quietly gathering in the corner of a window. Terrifying.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The middle weeks of October are usually the peak time for records coming into the <a href="http://www.ladybird-survey.org/" target="_blank">UK Ladybird Survey</a>, and this year the weather has been warm and still - ideal for the Harlequins to gather into large swarms and seek out overwintering sites. They preferentially seek out sites which stand out from the background - pale buildings on top of hills, or at the edges of fields often seem to be favourites - and work their way indoors through open windows, lofts, cracks, and air bricks.<br />
<br />
They are, of course, completely harmless. No ladybird is capable of stinging: they simply Do. Not. Have. Stings. Occasionally a particularly hungry individual may try to bite a person: as their jaws are too small and weak to break skin, this is at worst felt as a brief pinch before the ladybird gives up on you as inedible. There are occasionally stories in the tabloids about people suffering terrible wounds from ladybird bites: these are nonsense. Like the ridiculous spider-bite stories that have regrettably become a staple of red-top slow news days, all they prove is that any break in the skin is a possible window for infection.<br />
<br />
Ah yes, infection. Apparently these 'foreign invaders' are 'riddled with STDs', in turn causing a tide of people commenting on social media 'Who has sex with ladybirds hur hur'. This is, again, stretching the truth to breaking point... and it's slightly my fault. The best part of a decade ago, I found a Harlequin ladybird with tiny yellow finger-like growths on it - the first British record of a Harlequin infected with the fungus <i>Hesperomyces virescens</i>, one of the Laboulbeniales group. We published the record in 2013 and a friend decided to do some work on it during her PhD: she put out a call for sightings, a newspaper misinterpreted it, and the rest is history.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xE6JydcZzduCmOu-IWnV6QuMGGjCB_HRlioxvLbUJA4rFDTSABiNjRXdzOWfLZ-dmiPn4_0dqqxtJZjhMHz3AzqsO6sgRiEV9gGM_ANiB3_2Dtzr7aARQfgWyae6oVaUpVk6MDU4wRA/s1600/Katie+Murray+%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="631" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xE6JydcZzduCmOu-IWnV6QuMGGjCB_HRlioxvLbUJA4rFDTSABiNjRXdzOWfLZ-dmiPn4_0dqqxtJZjhMHz3AzqsO6sgRiEV9gGM_ANiB3_2Dtzr7aARQfgWyae6oVaUpVk6MDU4wRA/s400/Katie+Murray+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finger-like growths of <i>Hesperomyces virescens</i> on a Harlequin (photo c. Katie Murray)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The fungus isn't really an STD - it's a surface-living disease which is spread between individuals by close contact. It's also pretty much harmless - it potentially causes a slight lowering of egg production but not much else. When you combine those two facts, it becomes clear that <i>Hesperomyces</i> is pretty much the ladybird equivalent of athlete's foot or ringworm - not ideal, but hardly a major threat. It (should) barely need pointing out, but being able to grow on the outside of a ladybird and on human skin are totally different abilities. YOU WILL NOT CATCH AN STD FROM A LADYBIRD.<br />
<br />
Although they are native to temperate regions of Asia, they do not migrate from there to here. The Harlequin was first found in Britain in 2003, establishing in 2004, and all the swarms are of ladybirds born and bred here. Once indoors, they'll generally set up shop somewhere cool - the top corner of a window frame is the classic site - and sleep the winter away until waking up in April. Because houses are warm, they'll sometimes wake up in mid-winter and fly round the light. If they use up too much energy doing that, individuals will start dying and dropping to the floor after Christmas. Like all ladybirds, when disturbed they can produce a yellow fluid ('reflex blood') that tastes horrible and this can sometimes stain soft furnishings. If you need to get them gone, the key is to be either quick (scrape them into a pot and take it outside) or gentle to avoid this.<br />
<br />
Obviously they aren't all black. Their colouring is controlled by several genes so they come in a huge range of different colour forms (up to 109, though most are lumped together nowadays and several have never been found in Britain). Some of these are black - about 20% of the UK population are black with two or four red spots - but most are orange with 0-21 black spots. The orange can vary from pale yellow to deep red-brown, and the spots from barely-there (or not present at all!) to massive blotches overlapping neighboring spots. They're tricky to identify because they're so variable (they can resemble most of our common native ladybird species!) but the large size (5-8.5mm long), brown legs, and two-tone underside, combined with a usual 'M' pattern on top of the thorax makes them distinguishable.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0wRYThUmtbKAuBWYia26GbrmZk_OnaMJUNGSp1WMnRyfm3dXlooG7GShBgspwoVL7DVE7BKZ-9LtXyOw7AsrVP_z6mHIs7HVAL1hUlPbFapJbrNNd3C0AHno-ZHQKrUPnH05i2tC4iI/s1600/Screenshot+2018-10-11+20.52.59.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="811" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0wRYThUmtbKAuBWYia26GbrmZk_OnaMJUNGSp1WMnRyfm3dXlooG7GShBgspwoVL7DVE7BKZ-9LtXyOw7AsrVP_z6mHIs7HVAL1hUlPbFapJbrNNd3C0AHno-ZHQKrUPnH05i2tC4iI/s400/Screenshot+2018-10-11+20.52.59.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the many different colour forms of the Harlequin ladybird</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLXsR7TDCT8BNs4-EPIf0r9kR_Pz0BRXWTiBZdW5Xi2H1TxXPN8zvanLDEdvxiQ8tgHgi-EwRxuxl2MojB9iF48ovmYEKBnjuz_KJIEGTuwSF49KjknN8zBn6Szljtr83CZnfrJLUHcs/s1600/8575472731_210e4ca244_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLXsR7TDCT8BNs4-EPIf0r9kR_Pz0BRXWTiBZdW5Xi2H1TxXPN8zvanLDEdvxiQ8tgHgi-EwRxuxl2MojB9iF48ovmYEKBnjuz_KJIEGTuwSF49KjknN8zBn6Szljtr83CZnfrJLUHcs/s400/8575472731_210e4ca244_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The distinctive two-tone underside and brown legs of a Harlequin ladybird</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you've read this far - thanks! To find out more about ladybirds, don't read the newspapers, for God's sake. Next month the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Ladybirds-Britain-Ireland-Guides/dp/1472935683/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1539287437&sr=8-10&keywords=ladybirds" target="_blank">Field Guide to Ladybirds</a> comes out (written by experts Helen Roy & Pete Brown, beautifully illustrated by Richard Lewington) and next May it will be followed by my own <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/RSPB-Spotlight-Ladybirds-Richard-Comont/dp/1472955854/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539287451&sr=8-1&keywords=spotlight+ladybirds" target="_blank">Spotlight: Ladybirds</a> book - less shouty than this (no caps-lock text about STD misconceptions at all, you'll be sad to hear) but hopefully entertaining and informative with actual facts. I personally find facts so much more satisfying than lies and downright misinformation.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-29213511266746257052017-07-30T20:56:00.001+01:002017-07-30T20:56:45.444+01:00Why is the world's largest bee hotel like Glasgow's postwar regeneration?I was in Scotland last weekend to lead a couple of bumblebee ID training events. As I needed to bring a fair bit of kit with me, I drove, and passed through Glasgow on the M8 motorway on my way to Loch Lomond. The M8 is strange in that it passes through heavily-populated areas: the splitting of communities caused by the massive new road is one of the many reasons cited for the failure of Glasgow's massive post-war regeneration, where entire neighbourhoods of slum tenements in the centre were demolished and the inhabitants moved out to newly-built flats around the edges of the city.<br />
<br />
This, slightly implausibly, came to mind again this morning when I saw a tweet from the <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCSpringwatch/status/891591216474669056" target="_blank">BBC's Springwatch</a> about 'the team' at WWT Martin Mere building 'the world's largest bug hotel'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXB7y2hCRN70-AM_S-9XnGnebTcPafWfioHCQNDDN2Y9AphPCEVAbmcXlk8FbKzm3ul2ouWAXp2Ao2H3jSN_0KPICeHHc10wxIrBDY34GqnaF217AP-Kfzng-EHcjiBV9GWQp1ysUi_kU/s1600/Springwatch+bug+hotel+30072017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="610" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXB7y2hCRN70-AM_S-9XnGnebTcPafWfioHCQNDDN2Y9AphPCEVAbmcXlk8FbKzm3ul2ouWAXp2Ao2H3jSN_0KPICeHHc10wxIrBDY34GqnaF217AP-Kfzng-EHcjiBV9GWQp1ysUi_kU/s400/Springwatch+bug+hotel+30072017.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The thing is huge - 17 cubic metres of bamboo, straw, wood, slate, chicken wire and pine cones that took four weeks to construct. And I'm rather concerned that it - and the general fashion for building ever-bigger edifices of 'insect habitat' - is repeating very similar mistakes to the planners and builders of post-war Glasgow.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The new developments in Glasgow failed largely because they disrupted families & local communities, and they didn't provide amenities - shops, schools, places to work. Huge numbers of people were placed in new flats in the middle of nowhere seemingly almost at random. To see friends or family meant facing long, arduous trips across town; any desire or need to work, visit shops or pubs, or do anything outside their new homes meant difficult trips back to the city centre and their former neighbourhoods.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is almost exactly what happens with these giant bug hotels. Usually unaccompanied by any more favourable management - more flower-rich grassland, say - they are giant blocks of just-about-passable accommodation in the middle of nowhere. Bees - especially the smaller solitary species which are the main targets of 'hotels' - have a fairly limited flight range, especially to forage efficiently and bring back the maximum of pollen & nectar in the minimum time. The area around a giant 'hotel' is unlikely to be able to support the number of bees which could nest in 17 cubic metres of hotel! Thus most will remain empty... which makes things a bit of a waste of time.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Additionally, any large aggregation of host species will inevitably attract parasites, pests & diseases. There is already some <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122126" target="_blank">evidence </a>that 'bee hotels' may potentially do as much harm as good by artificially aggregating solitary bee nests in areas which are <a href="http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol58-2005-141-152krunic.pdf" target="_blank">easy for parasites and parasitoids to spread between nests</a>: one 'hotel' manufacturer even recommends that the <a href="http://nurturing-nature.co.uk/wildlife-garden-videos/beware-is-your-bee-hotel-a-nursery-for-disease-and-pests/" target="_blank">products are cleared out each winter to reduce the parasite load on the bees</a>.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Overall, while these giant 'bug hotels' certainly make a statement to the casual visitor, they almost always remain virtually empty (apart from the inevitable earwigs), and those bees which do set up home are at greater risk of death than those nesting in more natural situations. I haven't visited the Martin Mere 'hotel': I can't comment on whether they have begun managing the site more for pollinators, or whether their showpiece hotel is accompanied by more natural, more dispersed options for nesting or overwintering. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
But I can virtually guarantee that they don't set out to increase bird numbers on the reserve entirely by putting out more nestboxes, which appears to be essentially what they've done here for insects.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">More information on the Glasgow regeneration projects can be found on the University of Warwick <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume1issue1/paice/" target="_blank">website</a> and Buzzfeed has an impressive <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/glasgow-housing-crisis?utm_term=.elNojWOxo#.wllp0jbZp" target="_blank">gallery</a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-82234445426939792632017-06-12T23:25:00.004+01:002017-06-13T12:06:20.748+01:00One day... one thousand species?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Out in the wilds of the Lizard peninsula, the near-full moon was visible past the old windmill. A brisk wind was whipping the grasses back and forth as the final seconds until midnight ticked away. As the clock struck 12, the generator died, and the light of the moth-trap went out. Seconds later, the loose connection in moth trap no. 2 played up and it too went dark. In the distance, the third remaining trap blew over, and it began to rain. Clearly it was going to be one of those days...<br />
<br />
But the story actually begins several months previously. Graeme Lyons, ecologist at the Sussex Wildlife Trust and fellow <a href="http://www.brc.ac.uk/psl" target="_blank">Pan-Species Lister</a>, had suggested a challenge: was it possible to find and identify a full one thousand species in just the 24 hours of one calendar day in the UK? With a few rules (2 people who must stick together as a team, one vehicle, no outside help) and a set date (10th June 2017), the gauntlet was laid down...<br />
<br />
My team would be myself and Sally, a friend and fellow PSL-er based just outside Penzance in Cornwall, so Friday evening saw me piloting a van laden with caffeine, ID guides, site species lists and a sleeping dog down the ever-smaller Cornish lanes en route to our first destination, Windmill Farm. Having to use both the windscreen wipers and the heater didn't bode well, but the site was a Cornwall Wildlife Trust & Cornwall Birdwatching & Preservation Trust Reserve covered with species-rich pools, heathland, mires, trees and grassland, plus a Red-footed Falcon hanging around for the past week - must be good!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMphImZaWnuRGjN93wS5PlL5FMrOndCNs0MuIzS_4Zr5q7Xw6moTR1gmVwmgaG_x0VeedJf5Z-bBkFhkIWG3qgbioqN8uIfXlilmeepktSbfceSA_spd6pWe3-3rqBDyEfBoztihR0SBw/s1600/2017-06-10+05.27.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMphImZaWnuRGjN93wS5PlL5FMrOndCNs0MuIzS_4Zr5q7Xw6moTR1gmVwmgaG_x0VeedJf5Z-bBkFhkIWG3qgbioqN8uIfXlilmeepktSbfceSA_spd6pWe3-3rqBDyEfBoztihR0SBw/s400/2017-06-10+05.27.24.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moth trapping at Windmill Farm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unfortunately, mains power was out: fortunately, the warden Dougy Wright had given us permission to borrow the reserve's generator (thanks Dougy!). We set up my MV trap in as sheltered a place as we could find, put out a couple of small battery-powered traps, test-ran the generator, and then waited for midnight... without the most auspicious start!<br />
<br />
A bit of tweaking and I eventually got the generator running properly, sorted out the dodgy wiring, and moved the other trap to the shelter of the windmill. A couple of hours torchlit searching and moth trap checking and we were up to 95 species - needing 42 new species an hour we were up on the deal! With the wind howling, rain falling, temperature dropping to single figures and both of us shattered from election-watching the previous evening, we decided to get a couple of hours sleep.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQe3-EifuSz8jQV3bp85tn1CifCSGutSSAEP-wY-1roDcHQqBIf2ajlxfAOQ2Tolq0Z0KPSFmxbfyPcpE8GFeJCoDGzxMgVEFuOXFKGhQnA_5LCNomgagh3rZMVMu9fjvLDrVu28eid2k/s1600/2017-06-10+05.08.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQe3-EifuSz8jQV3bp85tn1CifCSGutSSAEP-wY-1roDcHQqBIf2ajlxfAOQ2Tolq0Z0KPSFmxbfyPcpE8GFeJCoDGzxMgVEFuOXFKGhQnA_5LCNomgagh3rZMVMu9fjvLDrVu28eid2k/s400/2017-06-10+05.08.16.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4am is not a time the dog would like to be awake on Saturday mornings. Can't say I blame him!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At 4am, with the dog snoring next to me and the sun, if not breaking through then at least vaguely illuminating things, it was time to get going again. We checked the moth traps (a March-like 13 species in all, though three Eyed Hawks were great to see) and had a good poke around the derelict farm buildings (Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell pupae, banded snails, a very fat toad) before heading out across the heathland. One of the ponds on the farm, Ruan Pool, had loads of high-quality freshwater wildlife as well as rare plants by the bucketload in the trackways leading to it - just the thing to really get our total rocketing.<br />
<br />
After about 45 minutes walking, sweep-netting and tree-beating, it was becoming very clear that we were going to need the aquatics: everything else had buried itself deep down in the undergrowth, away from the ever-more-insistent rain pelting against us. We reached the edge of the Ruan Pool field to find... a large number of large cattle, all very interested in the dog. We beat a hasty retreat and walked over to the dragonfly ponds on the other side of the reserve. A couple of stunned-looking damselflies awaited (Common Blue and Blue-tailed), but there was little sign of life otherwise.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-LR_NVNHbO2Jprh8LkzVWIhVlT8-zq3JNBiapyxTfjznqtSc0pVBYnxKTxzLJJ1DDF6HCM3Ezl3xl-RKOFv_I5z7Xb1qgPr9uV1AUXN5IJlR7nEwlWGQ-8rodlihjb6P6tyuQvhSAv0/s1600/Screenshot+2017-06-12+21.14.56.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="628" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-LR_NVNHbO2Jprh8LkzVWIhVlT8-zq3JNBiapyxTfjznqtSc0pVBYnxKTxzLJJ1DDF6HCM3Ezl3xl-RKOFv_I5z7Xb1qgPr9uV1AUXN5IJlR7nEwlWGQ-8rodlihjb6P6tyuQvhSAv0/s400/Screenshot+2017-06-12+21.14.56.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Windmill Farm records</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
We sought sanctuary in the activity centre with coffee to ID some galls and work out our next move. With about 300 species spotted we were badly behind, and as the weather was even worse on the coast, the exposed clifftops at Lizard Point and Kynance Cove were out. Instead we went round the corner to the more sheltered Predannack Wollas, spotting new species from the van as we went (neither of us had ever been so excited to see a horse-chestnut tree!). A valley pathway out of the wind gave us brief respite with some cold-dazed hoverflies and micromoths added to the tally, but before long we were out on the open grasslands again. On a warm day the fields are alive with dung beetles, butterflies, choughs and rare clovers, but today the mist was closing in, the wind was buffeting, and there was nothing airborne to be seen except raindrops. The route to the clovers was fogbound, wet, slippery and wind-beaten a hundred feet above the pounding sea... so we turned tail and headed back to Sally's for lunch, drying out, and a bit of indoors ID time.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCMIJFro7pdnIBfQR-piR6fT1LirhKutUfjSmdDGzFALeWYsLi6RMOk99CkIajds3lISi6hc4hHgBfTyVgEkgmDcAl1DHUqEBMiGGBfPEEq5fMgAxMqbCT6uZAsugNYsiFI-LyMjts5E/s1600/2017-06-10+11.53.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCMIJFro7pdnIBfQR-piR6fT1LirhKutUfjSmdDGzFALeWYsLi6RMOk99CkIajds3lISi6hc4hHgBfTyVgEkgmDcAl1DHUqEBMiGGBfPEEq5fMgAxMqbCT6uZAsugNYsiFI-LyMjts5E/s400/2017-06-10+11.53.55.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from Predannack Wollas</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We'd only just about managed to scrape together 400 species and it was already 2pm - we knew from Facebook that Graeme had blown past that at about 4am! With rockpooling looking a bad idea even though the rain had (temporarily) slowed, we headed back outside to do Sally's local patch. The first stop was a nicely-untidy garden behind the village hall... but the pub next door had annexed it for the occasion, and the garden's ant nests and assorted other creatures were buried beneath a giant white marquee. <br />
<br />
We headed back up the hill into the intensifying rain. Both of us wear glasses and it wasn't long before neither of us could see much of anything, peering Magoo-like at leaf mines and aphids sheltering beneath leaves. My boots had reached the fully-saturated stage where they actually worked like tiny wetsuits, and I was regretting not bringing my waterproof notebook. The only way I was managing to record things now was by hunching over my phone to put records directly into the iRecord app: my notebook was long-saturated.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIOn2xdJfHHoATyyMlo3YNeeN2EqB-rN2asu5hywfiWnOZY6NKuDTNi7GVfiVL0cIlD_U7vnKu_PWsTsddJqwztE7gSAiOFazJ8CcGBHFaShF9Vu_ou9O7zHoGix6yjw_IwFFsQBsLFSU/s1600/2017-06-11+10.14.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIOn2xdJfHHoATyyMlo3YNeeN2EqB-rN2asu5hywfiWnOZY6NKuDTNi7GVfiVL0cIlD_U7vnKu_PWsTsddJqwztE7gSAiOFazJ8CcGBHFaShF9Vu_ou9O7zHoGix6yjw_IwFFsQBsLFSU/s400/2017-06-11+10.14.44.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting for the rain to clear slightly</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Another indoor spell to ID specimens, dry out and eat tea beckoned before, about 8.30 pm, the rain finally took the hint and sodded off. We piled back into the van and headed for Marazion: ponds, sand dunes and coast! Getting there, we pulled over and scanned the ponds for wildfowl... one mute swan. We parked properly and scanned the sea for birdlife... a mixed flock of Dunlin and Sanderling scuttled around by the waves, but everything else had gone to bed for the night. Closer at hand, Sally spotted Mullein plants - a bit of poking around and Mullein moth caterpillars were added to the list. Across the car park (Mossy Stonecrop) and into the dunes, where everything seemed to begin with 'Sea-' - we added Sea-holly, Sea-beet, Sea-bindweed, Sea-rocket, Sea-spurge and the mighty Sea-daffodil in a matter of minutes. <br />
<br />
Running out of things prefixed by the word 'sea', we headed back to the van and onwards to the north coast and Upton Towans, another Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve. It was beyond dimpsey by the time we arrived, needing some 450 species in the final two hours of the day. The Towans were clearly a brilliant site: we quickly stumbled across Soapwort, Portland Spurge, Brown Chafers by the bucketload, a Garden Tiger caterpillar. Further into the dunes, dozens of <i>Amara</i> ground beetles criss-crossed the path with tiny ants, and we cursed the lack of time for microscopy. <br />
<br />
The species kept coming - Thyme broomrape, Devil's Coach-horse beetles, galls of the mite Aceria thomasi on wild Thyme - but it was clearly going to be too little, too late. The sand of time were trickling away too fast, and when a Tawny owl hooted in the trees by the van it proved to be our final species of the day: number 657.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxynJ9qMAHYnBcSC20_76Bu3OgKvJAHBCDTyTfmUucp_zaHpU5AW9HvMvQdOlyzWUk1VMW-oHxfNbV2A6xRiifxLyZ6Qp4Jv9DeBNGFli7ETAvTzcizhqqOolZLuHyPrEYerZf2nkTNQY/s1600/Screenshot+2017-06-12+21.37.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="434" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxynJ9qMAHYnBcSC20_76Bu3OgKvJAHBCDTyTfmUucp_zaHpU5AW9HvMvQdOlyzWUk1VMW-oHxfNbV2A6xRiifxLyZ6Qp4Jv9DeBNGFli7ETAvTzcizhqqOolZLuHyPrEYerZf2nkTNQY/s400/Screenshot+2017-06-12+21.37.39.png" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final scores</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So we failed by 343 species in the end, though we were both pretty pleased with the score given the conditions. A bit of sunshine and I reckon we'd have picked up enough insect life to get there or thereabouts (we finished on 50 moth species (13 of them in the traps), 3 butterflies (all caterpillars/pupae), 38 true bugs, 32 beetles and 1 grasshopper). I saw more bee species when walking the dog for 25 minutes the next morning in sunshine than in the full 24 hours! Add in a bit of rockpooling and a few more birds (our 25 bird species didn't include a single blue tit, great tit, starling, black-headed gull, or many others) and a few more plants from the exposed sites, and we'd have reached the target. After all, in sunshine up the coast in Sussex, <a href="http://analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/we-did-it.html" target="_blank">Graeme had reached the magic 1k</a> by 7.30pm, so it was definitely possible!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCIxynM6mQ24-cANy2veUHvAskWmcO5ql_qydaSDW65yI4qP9ca_IGoGp6ecG1_3hI08oVyqaFsNu0HBPqmFbiaJCNPrHTIkR8maFzii2wTnSE-BQXxnT7AQpRIqUlOnn0ZJx_WmqEIc/s1600/2017-06-11+12.08.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCIxynM6mQ24-cANy2veUHvAskWmcO5ql_qydaSDW65yI4qP9ca_IGoGp6ecG1_3hI08oVyqaFsNu0HBPqmFbiaJCNPrHTIkR8maFzii2wTnSE-BQXxnT7AQpRIqUlOnn0ZJx_WmqEIc/s400/2017-06-11+12.08.59.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dog on his way home, channelling both of us</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you fancy sponsoring us, please visit <a href="https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SallyandRichard" target="_blank">our JustGiving page</a> - all donations go to Cornwall Wildlife Trust to help them maintain the sites we squelched roundRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-42907341624516170192016-10-02T22:24:00.003+01:002016-10-02T22:24:34.585+01:00A while in the makingMy last blog seems a very long time ago now - and that's because it was, almost 20 months ago! That particular blog was all about a trip to Worcestershire Wildlife Trust's Knapp and Papermill reserve, where we mostly looked at fungi, and I was reminded of it (and the heinous gap between blog posts) as this afternoon has been spent on a fungal foray at that very same reserve.<br />
<br />
I never actually meant to stop blogging - life just happened to get slightly in the way! In the time between my last blog post and writing this one we've moved house again - this time to a house we actually own! I'm still not entirely sure how we managed to buy, but we now live on the Malvern Hills, and can be out onto the hillside in minutes from our new front door. The lack of a landlord also means we're finally allowed pets, and so in June we adopted a dog from the local animal rescue centre... and now I have even more excuses for wandering the hills on a daily basis!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1iyj3mY8zDtaAjFHTwOfshxnc0a0oVxBEnqr4v4MFYYdRhpyz-8dCg1ezUW0QDCFW-OMANRuUFFTqKkP86bpP4Dui1WwzmL2WaiyxIUEONE7u5ABeIT9i4rky-yPqn0NiirKv0OWkJM/s1600/2016-10-02+18.31.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1iyj3mY8zDtaAjFHTwOfshxnc0a0oVxBEnqr4v4MFYYdRhpyz-8dCg1ezUW0QDCFW-OMANRuUFFTqKkP86bpP4Dui1WwzmL2WaiyxIUEONE7u5ABeIT9i4rky-yPqn0NiirKv0OWkJM/s400/2016-10-02+18.31.39.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our view, out across the valley to the Cotswolds</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5B0HJVk2l9igvbpkmXsymNqsdsFMHtVPQ4niz1Fv-o1vihlE2wP8HFKZFbfJuNsP5hRrbEGaGg07_PBaWRuPiuV9JfTrpo3Nbyp7-FEAZ-51MMaKvrkaXxwwfBNZ15JSLU4Y4Ky-8lpg/s1600/2016-08-27+14.05.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5B0HJVk2l9igvbpkmXsymNqsdsFMHtVPQ4niz1Fv-o1vihlE2wP8HFKZFbfJuNsP5hRrbEGaGg07_PBaWRuPiuV9JfTrpo3Nbyp7-FEAZ-51MMaKvrkaXxwwfBNZ15JSLU4Y4Ky-8lpg/s400/2016-08-27+14.05.39.png" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dog, enjoying camping</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We moved in April, interrupted only by a quick trip north to take part in Sally-Ann Spence's brilliant <a href="https://cdn.harper-adams.ac.uk/document/event/160107-EntoSci16-Flyer612515.pdf" target="_blank">EntoSci </a>event - spending the day talking insects and fieldwork misadventures with Andy Salisbury (RHS), Darren Mann (OUMNH), Simon Leather (Harper-Adams), George McGavin (TV), and Max Barclay & Erica McAlister (both NHM) to (try to) inspire the 300 attending school children into taking up entomology as a career. Seemed to go over well on the day at least!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2UXyB8Rd08rasHX8COyylyNqNpDaHOOqn4Up91O5z_uz65smuk7_OzY_56gmaITw6euwymkWuHaGMgSNR2BI302m2htWYVvCqn43HW5T467QUWd1JmxeiJn1yPrJjPV2tFYSKX5lGQQ/s1600/IMG_20160413_091301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2UXyB8Rd08rasHX8COyylyNqNpDaHOOqn4Up91O5z_uz65smuk7_OzY_56gmaITw6euwymkWuHaGMgSNR2BI302m2htWYVvCqn43HW5T467QUWd1JmxeiJn1yPrJjPV2tFYSKX5lGQQ/s400/IMG_20160413_091301.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before: a stria of coleopterists drinking coffee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIPGBN2TLQhB_fkcAREygtWRYVe7-lG_9x-8mLfSvVQtPv-fAUfTbmEpao_Cxsu9nY7YpgAJZNXGt1Aub4eTYYArZRLEBNpVRwO4Y22zrTdoGkiNDh99R9Y-KswtHktAT20dbd-p5l2M/s1600/IMG_20160413_132435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIPGBN2TLQhB_fkcAREygtWRYVe7-lG_9x-8mLfSvVQtPv-fAUfTbmEpao_Cxsu9nY7YpgAJZNXGt1Aub4eTYYArZRLEBNpVRwO4Y22zrTdoGkiNDh99R9Y-KswtHktAT20dbd-p5l2M/s400/IMG_20160413_132435.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caught in the act</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Not long after, the year's travel began in earnest with a week on Jersey. Visiting the Channel Islands has been on my to-do list for a very long time, so when Paul Chambers of the Jersey Government invited me over to talk at their recording conference, I leapt at the opportunity! The weather wasn't ideal for bees but it was great to meet up with some of the amazing local entomologists and recorders. As well as Paul, several others - notably Simon Robson, Tim Ransom, Roger Long & Richard Perchard - all gave up their time to show me around and were great company!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7FCIUq1c_YmdfXYFvKmhlcMU6gzm6VXCF3x_F3hIMatrvj3xeS8LrETQoEU5_mT3wXQam4pSY-IsGGTRe6u3BhQWc5M5r0rO3vVYEzIMCICUNhclQqkFwHCQ8M_BIfPaBjE7QCW6Qrg/s1600/2016-04-24+18.44.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7FCIUq1c_YmdfXYFvKmhlcMU6gzm6VXCF3x_F3hIMatrvj3xeS8LrETQoEU5_mT3wXQam4pSY-IsGGTRe6u3BhQWc5M5r0rO3vVYEzIMCICUNhclQqkFwHCQ8M_BIfPaBjE7QCW6Qrg/s400/2016-04-24+18.44.00.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jersey, shortly before the snow started...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHL5OUnhv-0bZEqyzLZXPqleHCY0wEvZUEExhfK1daLs9WtYfH95RefIAGxLYWLE21T7lmHehSsIZ4a8bxHPWIXV20xjKxQmqlidhCWnZFKPMlNbFp1gy2tzqNNnR2fgeoZY6IzCbFY2U/s1600/2016-04-25+12.21.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHL5OUnhv-0bZEqyzLZXPqleHCY0wEvZUEExhfK1daLs9WtYfH95RefIAGxLYWLE21T7lmHehSsIZ4a8bxHPWIXV20xjKxQmqlidhCWnZFKPMlNbFp1gy2tzqNNnR2fgeoZY6IzCbFY2U/s320/2016-04-25+12.21.54.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Jersey (and Continental European) subspecies of the Buff-tailed bumblebee, <i>Bombus terrestris terrestris</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Work has taken over much of both the summers since I last wrote, but we did manage a week away in June. Starting with my brother's wedding in south Wales, we drove up to Ardnamurchan in the far west of Scotland for a week or two's walking. Unfortunately, in the evening of our first full day in Kilchoan, I managed to empty an entire kettle of boiling water over my left foot. Consequently, we spent much of our week sitting in the van or the tent, looking out at the rain. Far from all bad - we saw sea eagles and dolphins, red deer by the hundred, and a couple of new gall species - but with the scald and a couple of other minor disasters the holiday has now been christened 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR1y8i5hfiBrHOt2dV8RSvUkIudyAD0jT89ueVwCY_-lPRoWU1CAeS9KtwmgTxVbjOnM3T5c3g8v9OIQKiCJL3N1-8mwt-MVgfL5kpdousYsd8KAOVzZXVqX-fAeM5CzZEWN1cWLpOXHA/s1600/2016-06-27+19.25.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR1y8i5hfiBrHOt2dV8RSvUkIudyAD0jT89ueVwCY_-lPRoWU1CAeS9KtwmgTxVbjOnM3T5c3g8v9OIQKiCJL3N1-8mwt-MVgfL5kpdousYsd8KAOVzZXVqX-fAeM5CzZEWN1cWLpOXHA/s400/2016-06-27+19.25.56.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campervanning it in Kilchoan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our previous holiday, to the New Forest in November, hadn't featured any injuries but was enlivened by the sight of the beginnings of an alien invasion, with hundreds of foul-smelling tentacles hatching from pale, gelatinous eggs on the ground.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje20Xza0chhGhmef6dpOSZPbf24pCdk8RhWkFwp5QTcWPiI_HQiNNksNT7Pn9vt4r3Q_c6b6DTyODD-IUYAuP1xddC9_NCp82CWvvo8CFCqYUXMVfmgfXu4EEEgSe6Of4KvuD_5r5FquU/s1600/20151115_110358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje20Xza0chhGhmef6dpOSZPbf24pCdk8RhWkFwp5QTcWPiI_HQiNNksNT7Pn9vt4r3Q_c6b6DTyODD-IUYAuP1xddC9_NCp82CWvvo8CFCqYUXMVfmgfXu4EEEgSe6Of4KvuD_5r5FquU/s400/20151115_110358.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mysterious eggs in the grass</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit49NtwC2jU7QmCOVNGqmAivfvszD0pAJoV6H61B0Ct9ras38VMr_ZSWVLlRbjd4gG1HLIocXqugUqlfrc8jAsmu0ymTzMy_e-WAJxukNToo6AE_CO-WR37RVyNKOq_xOFXjvAX6OJSlE/s1600/20151115_110635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit49NtwC2jU7QmCOVNGqmAivfvszD0pAJoV6H61B0Ct9ras38VMr_ZSWVLlRbjd4gG1HLIocXqugUqlfrc8jAsmu0ymTzMy_e-WAJxukNToo6AE_CO-WR37RVyNKOq_xOFXjvAX6OJSlE/s400/20151115_110635.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't look directly into it! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-tgdUXoGT88Nt6ghgE-hednmCbpcHeepCcrQNzRULNcZ6JGSPbDu6UJTeOCqZyw4ivP_uQ774gfdlBTz4mz033nh-jdbigoGujrfaM5R3aQQfOsAMmpp26pRL8Z_KNIZNAYLEV0PkIU/s1600/20151115_111013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-tgdUXoGT88Nt6ghgE-hednmCbpcHeepCcrQNzRULNcZ6JGSPbDu6UJTeOCqZyw4ivP_uQ774gfdlBTz4mz033nh-jdbigoGujrfaM5R3aQQfOsAMmpp26pRL8Z_KNIZNAYLEV0PkIU/s400/20151115_111013.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one had narrowly missed grabbing someone's face</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Luckily it turned out that they were the fungus <i>Clathrus archeri</i>, Devil's Fingers, and they're from Australia rather than outer space (accidentally imported with Australian troops during WW2). I'm told they're yet to cause any mysterious disappearances. Thanks to Dan Hoare for the location!<br />
<br />
My other main activity over the past winter was writing a book! Over the past few years, Bloomsbury have teamed up with the RSPB to produce a series of 'Spotlight Guide to...'. These are relatively short (c. 115 pages) but informative, fun and with plenty of pictures. Having published the Spotlight Guide to... Robins, Foxes, Otters and Puffins, Bloomsbury offered me (and I accepted) the chance to write the 'Spotlight Guide to Bumblebees'. This will be the first in the series to cover an insect, and the first to cover a group rather than an individual species, and it will hit the shelves in spring next year - can't wait to see it!Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-15120710587665972622015-02-14T17:11:00.003+00:002015-02-14T17:16:18.162+00:00A month in MalvernSix weeks into the new year, and things have finally calmed down enough to go for a wander around our new local area. Having moved to Malvern on the 10th January, the time since the Christmas break has been a whirlwind of packing, unpacking, and flat-pack furniture construction. Now, though, the boxes have (almost) gone, the birds are singing in the front garden, and we've been adopted by a neighbourhood cat with a Hitler moustache.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCDpZtCXQjAbhAppAOYJoDNhFidw-PuKVHfcATCunD5El0Tvpl7yt2Phg1w45iZnrPdAx19GdqIKE3atsG81azCo_H5vuxdK4dq1JT4j_ivE3UFmfCiDGxAd8la0vE6ytd-b3hRvhd24/s1600/20150211_133853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCDpZtCXQjAbhAppAOYJoDNhFidw-PuKVHfcATCunD5El0Tvpl7yt2Phg1w45iZnrPdAx19GdqIKE3atsG81azCo_H5vuxdK4dq1JT4j_ivE3UFmfCiDGxAd8la0vE6ytd-b3hRvhd24/s1600/20150211_133853.jpg" height="320" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kitler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
More or less the first thing we did once we'd unpacked was join the local Wildlife Trust, so with the Malvern Hills themselves blanketed in fog, we had a flick through the membership pack and found that there was a 'flagship reserve' just round the corner - <a href="http://www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/reserves/knapp-and-papermill">Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve</a>.<br />
<br />
The reserve is set in a valley, bordering the Leigh Brook, a small river bolstered by yesterday's inch of rain. The information boards promised kingfishers (<i>Alcedo atthis</i>) and occasional otters (<i>Lutra lutra</i>), but neither was in evidence today, and invertebrates were in short supply too - just a few woodlice (<i>Oniscus asellus</i> & <i>Trichoniscus pusillus</i> agg.) and centipedes (<i>Lithobius forficatus </i>& a smaller <i>Lithobius</i> sp.) in the log piles. <br />
<br />
It was clear that spring has nearly sprung, however - hazel (<i>Corylus avellana</i>) and snowdrops (<i>Galanthus nivalis</i>) were in full flower throughout the reserve, and in the hedges and on the banks daffodils, ramsons (<i>Allium ursinum</i>) and cuckoo-pint (<i>Arum maculatum</i>) were showing strongly, bright green patches against the dead-leaf background. Winter was still hanging on, primarily in the form of fungi - Kate found a good crop of candlesnuff (<i>Xylaria hypoxylon</i>) on a tree stump, black witches-butter (<i>Exidia glandulosa</i>) was smeared across a few trees by the riverside, and hairy bracket (<i>Stereum hirsutum</i>) was on pretty much every dead log we looked at.<br />
<br />
Probably the most interesting fungus of the day, however, were the neon-pink blobs I found on a lichen-encrusted twig. These were <i>Illosporiopsis christiansenii - </i>a tiny fungus which parasitises the lichens <i>Physcia tenella </i>and <i>Xanthoria parietina</i>. Certainly the brightest thing we found all afternoon!<br />
<br />
Definitely somewhere worth revisiting...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGl-EcbU2jaarU5Elmed4tpAt2dl-c53pDKmTkd9SBZQUcshsdMehyphenhyphenwClKkcuQHB6GlLPZIGtc03p-vJtipSjxoBnP_nLCcIJqLgwovvN35fpfQuJ5TzbTvm7erVxE-6KfrIr6_VSPw8/s1600/IMGP7955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGl-EcbU2jaarU5Elmed4tpAt2dl-c53pDKmTkd9SBZQUcshsdMehyphenhyphenwClKkcuQHB6GlLPZIGtc03p-vJtipSjxoBnP_nLCcIJqLgwovvN35fpfQuJ5TzbTvm7erVxE-6KfrIr6_VSPw8/s1600/IMGP7955.JPG" height="276" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Candlesnuff fungus (this and all photos below by Kate Ashbrook)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gy-lkgt7W3ZOlY0ROHklluuN-mLk21nncRInTmHwhwveEjlfnDNehpk5qBf3oOKTff2BR-_H_WxhKE82AHfv8iLtuOQoqIzOb8CN0WfygW6_HlGSSobrTZ85_zV-2q5fceW3gb5T8hw/s1600/IMGP7962.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gy-lkgt7W3ZOlY0ROHklluuN-mLk21nncRInTmHwhwveEjlfnDNehpk5qBf3oOKTff2BR-_H_WxhKE82AHfv8iLtuOQoqIzOb8CN0WfygW6_HlGSSobrTZ85_zV-2q5fceW3gb5T8hw/s1600/IMGP7962.JPG" height="277" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Illosporiopsis christiansenii </i>parasitising a <i>Physcia </i>lichen. Much brighter in real life!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4-rLPgM1znuDgHitnO8TZIittTBp2y8Rm3WSJwKAkuPGSTJIAsxR3Z7HxmxWwVk9EwNe20CfmLdbVwDjx5m7Jv2fm9L8fGSOfby7Q5237FqNUxXqfuOdrrI_r8OV7rnvKhyrwkGnJKM/s1600/IMGP7968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4-rLPgM1znuDgHitnO8TZIittTBp2y8Rm3WSJwKAkuPGSTJIAsxR3Z7HxmxWwVk9EwNe20CfmLdbVwDjx5m7Jv2fm9L8fGSOfby7Q5237FqNUxXqfuOdrrI_r8OV7rnvKhyrwkGnJKM/s1600/IMGP7968.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hairy bracket</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3qFHsOqi8GMFofAnuY5BJWr7LwYmH1Vb4RBTTs50LogAfD9OdzF1-JDutha6HvZgXw7YyWQ1Deu67daAL_oWHu95IrypPri7_G4b_fq_CyEXgoxxtYP7FGDIwz_4VCiKNQmzzNya9Pk/s1600/IMGP7975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3qFHsOqi8GMFofAnuY5BJWr7LwYmH1Vb4RBTTs50LogAfD9OdzF1-JDutha6HvZgXw7YyWQ1Deu67daAL_oWHu95IrypPri7_G4b_fq_CyEXgoxxtYP7FGDIwz_4VCiKNQmzzNya9Pk/s1600/IMGP7975.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not sure what this is yet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPcK3yxMDhLLSF3taS874lDeriMoaGtYuux57xgOEAClxWj7Xdn_EjjOonrb72I-2jaG3Y_7Ct-NR0lXBJoAtXT88sfjdPpXHBlnEJWGjzDO-O-0jCLHsJlbTk1oh06uG0rm3Rgh8Q-U/s1600/IMGP7989.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPcK3yxMDhLLSF3taS874lDeriMoaGtYuux57xgOEAClxWj7Xdn_EjjOonrb72I-2jaG3Y_7Ct-NR0lXBJoAtXT88sfjdPpXHBlnEJWGjzDO-O-0jCLHsJlbTk1oh06uG0rm3Rgh8Q-U/s1600/IMGP7989.JPG" height="276" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young jews-ear fungus from below</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-38790601167580940612014-12-22T17:13:00.001+00:002014-12-22T17:13:03.959+00:00The End<div dir="ltr">
Way back at Christmas 2013, I decided on a couple of wildlife challenges for the forthcoming year. Being a pan-species lister interested in the amazing variety of wildlife to be found in gardens (check out the <a href="http://www.gardenbioblitz.org/" target="_blank">Garden Bioblitz!</a>), the obvious starting point was Andy Musgrove's <a href="http://1000for1ksq.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">1000 species in a 1km square challenge</a>. As the name suggests, this was an attempt to find one thousand different wild species (plants, fungi, invertebrates - even the tiny handful of vertebrates that call Britain home can contribute) - in a single square kilometre. As a further challenge, I wanted to see if I could reach the magic four figures just in my own rented house and garden - <a href="http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm?showarea=13048&verify=af8c6a3aabf4b50432ee0bfb8831974d" target="_blank">971 square metres of landlord-controlled standard suburbanity in rural Oxfordshire</a>.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tc-QBzJYmNc/VJhEzPH93KI/AAAAAAAAv3I/u-Bidmt8WRY/s1600/Chernes%2Bcimicoides%2B19012014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tc-QBzJYmNc/VJhEzPH93KI/AAAAAAAAv3I/u-Bidmt8WRY/s1600/Chernes%2Bcimicoides%2B19012014.jpg" height="257" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Species #273: The pseudoscorpion <i>Chernes cimicoides</i> from January</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
Fast-forward a year to now, and that's pretty much it for 2014. As I write, it's the evening of the 20th December, and the newly-decorated Christmas tree is twinkling gently in the corner of the room. The year panned out a bit differently to how I envisioned it back in 2013: primarily, I spent a lot less time at home! Partly because work was a lot busier than planned: more importantly, I met a girl and so began spending a lot of my spare time in Bath.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
But the species list continued to grow whenever I was back in Oxfordshire. The warm summer meant the moth trap was particularly productive - not just moths, but plenty of beetles, flies, woodlice and more. The drought wasn't entirely helpful though - it was noticeable how few invertebrates were to be found beneath rocks and logs, having dispersed to find damper microhabitats.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
The year's final wander around my local patch was Thursday, and having gone back to my parents for Christmas, it's time to tot up the final scores...</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73j8x2sabUA/VJhO1H1gufI/AAAAAAAAv3Y/C6WnwdvQs4s/s1600/2014-12-15%2B11.15.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73j8x2sabUA/VJhO1H1gufI/AAAAAAAAv3Y/C6WnwdvQs4s/s1600/2014-12-15%2B11.15.57.jpg" height="247" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">December Moth on 15/12/2014 - one of the last species of the year, but what number was it?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
The most ambitious first: the garden list fell short in the end, with 756 species. This actually ended up lower than last year (796 species identified in 2013), mainly because I did a lot less summer moth-trapping in 2014. It was enough to push the all-time garden list into four figures though, ending on 1185, so half a point there...</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
For my local 1km square as a whole, the target was reached - species number 1000 for the year (the Batman hoverfly <i>Myathropa florea</i>) turned up in mid-August, and although effort slackened somewhat in the autumn, a few days' work with the microscope dealt with most of the specimen backlog. The final count: <b>1,422 species</b>!<br /><br />Unsurprisingly, insects dominated the final count - 830 species were recorded in total, with a respectable showing for plants (295 species). Breaking down the insect score, moths were the single largest contributor (343 species), followed by the beetles (173 species, including the last additions to the list - two individuals of the dung beetle <i>Aphodius obliteratus </i>which turned up in the moth trap on the 19th December).</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j53aG2wguIY/VJhBL3eD-MI/AAAAAAAAv28/_B1ILAxmUlU/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B15.55.37.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j53aG2wguIY/VJhBL3eD-MI/AAAAAAAAv28/_B1ILAxmUlU/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B15.55.37.png" height="345" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakdown of the species groups found in my Sutton Courtenay 1km square during 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hn5IkKSJvDU/VJhBMDB2NNI/AAAAAAAAv20/krM8SR3UHHM/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B16.04.00.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hn5IkKSJvDU/VJhBMDB2NNI/AAAAAAAAv20/krM8SR3UHHM/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B16.04.00.png" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakdown of the insects in my 1km square</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've been recording as I go along, so it's easy to see the area covered. My two main walks - round the lakes in the centre and up to the river and across the weirs - show up well, with a few different excursions. The only real gaps are the housing estates in the north-east and south-west, and the rank flood meadows in the north-east.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vynMVoXpwZM/VJhBMBYq3PI/AAAAAAAAv24/oOsAwlF9Fzg/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B15.25.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vynMVoXpwZM/VJhBMBYq3PI/AAAAAAAAv24/oOsAwlF9Fzg/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-22%2B15.25.39.png" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recorded squares, 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Taxonomically, what's been really striking is how much more there is to find! The 1422 species I found includes barely any mosses (1100-ish potential species), lichens (1300 species), flies (8500 species), spiders (650 species), or hymenoptera other than bumblebees (8000 species), not because they're not there, but purely because of my taxonomic limitations!</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
But I won't get the chance to find out what the upper limit for this particular square is. In January, I'm moving to Malvern in Worcestershire, on the edge of the Malvern Hills AONB. Lots of exploring to do!</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-12500600522660490112014-07-19T20:48:00.000+01:002014-07-19T20:52:30.300+01:00Bees on the balconyBees are getting a lot of press at the moment, much of it focused on the decline of the honeybee and the various reasons behind it. But there's a lot more to bees than the honeybee - around 270 species are recorded in Britain, 1 honeybee, 27 bumblebees (3 of them extinct, although one is currently being reintroduced), and the rest are all solitary bees (currently 225 surviving species).<br />
<br />
Recently (yesterday as I type this, in fact), Defra, guided by several wildlife organisations, have launched a '<a href="http://www.government-world.com/press-release-bees-needs-public-urged-to-support-pollinators/">Call to Action</a>' highlighting ways for the general public to help bees as part of the National Pollinator Strategy. While several of these suggestions (particularly 'leave patches of land to grow wild', 'think carefully about whether to use pesticides', and 'cut grass less often') should perhaps be aimed more at national and local government as per <a href="http://insectrambles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/just-leave-it-alone.html">my last blog</a>, they're aimed at the rest of us and the entire call to action can be boiled down to one sentence: bees need food and a home.<br />
<br />
I work for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT), one of the main organisations guiding Defra on the NPS, so I'd known the content of the Call to Action for quite a while. It was evident that several of the suggestions were aimed at people with land to spare (particularly 'leave patches of land to grow wild' and 'grow more trees'!), but there are plenty of us for whom owning any land is just a distant dream. My garden is actually my landlady's garden: I can get away with rummaging in the plants for interesting invertebrates but tree-planting would see me out on my ear in short order! My girlfriend lives in a first-floor flat with no garden, in an urban area of Bath - what could we do there to make things bee-friendly?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xkz5iAiihc0/U8qz_iUMedI/AAAAAAAAf4g/pv4Z3lXtWds/s1600/2014-05-25+10.33.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xkz5iAiihc0/U8qz_iUMedI/AAAAAAAAf4g/pv4Z3lXtWds/s1600/2014-05-25+10.33.59.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bath 'garden': before...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well, as the picture shows, you get to the flat up some exterior stairs with a small landing at the top - space for a few pot-plants and a windowbox! Helpfully, BBCT have an advice tool called <a href="http://beekind.bumblebeeconservation.org/finder">BeeKind</a> which gives your garden a bee-friendliness score, and suggests extra flower species based on what you've already got, to fill in the gaps of flowering times and flower shapes (bees need nectar throughout their March-October flight season & different species visit some different flowers). We knew that lavender would be one of the plants - it's Kate's favourite flower as well as being brilliant for bees - and were guided by the BeeKind tool for (most!) of the rest. We ended up with a French lavender in a pot, along with red clover, coriander, and an ox-eye daisy, recently replaced by a flowering thistle, while the windowbox was stocked with a strawberry, meadow clary, sweet pea and an <i>Osteospermum</i>, topped off with a scattering of 'seeds for bees' which have germinated but remain as yet unidentified.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oUHMvE4dz6w/U8qz_D8pEII/AAAAAAAAf4k/SWzidlRs7S8/s1600/2014-05-25+10.33.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oUHMvE4dz6w/U8qz_D8pEII/AAAAAAAAf4k/SWzidlRs7S8/s1600/2014-05-25+10.33.32.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and after! Windowbox as first planted</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p9VAfXi_mpU/U8q0Jt3A72I/AAAAAAAAf5A/j_vP7hGTJow/s1600/2014-06-10+08.08.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p9VAfXi_mpU/U8q0Jt3A72I/AAAAAAAAf5A/j_vP7hGTJow/s1600/2014-06-10+08.08.51.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pot plants, directly beneath the windowbox (note photobombing strawberry!)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That little lot gave us a BeeKind score of 457 - not far off the 500 given as 'excellent' on the website, even without laying claim to the great swathes of yellow corydalis growing from the base of the house wall, or the poppies, hedge mustard, dandelion and buddleia (since cut down - grrr!) growing from the concrete just outside. That was the food sorted - what about the home? Well, there's no room for a hive of honeybees, or mouse burrows for bumblebees, but solitary bees are a lot easier! We hung a 'bee hotel' (basically a bundle of canes stuffed into a tube) beneath the windowbox, and left it for the bees to find.<br />
<br />
And find it they did! Less than 24 hours later a bumblebee had arrived: within a week three species of bumblebee had been seen on the flowers (common carder <i>Bombus pascuorum</i>, buff-tailed <i>B. terrestris</i>, white-tailed <i>B. lucorum</i>), as well as a tiny <i>Lasioglossum </i>solitary bee and several hoverflies (the marmalade hoverfly <i>Episyrphus balteatus</i> and a couple of <i>Syrphus</i> species). More recently a tree bumblebee (<i>B. hypnorum</i>) had circled without settling and a couple of spiders (the garden spider <i>Araneus diadematus </i>and the jumping spider <i>Salticus scenicus</i>) had made the windowbox home, while an tortrix micro-moth caterpillar of some sort had munched its way through several of the lavender flowerheads (just this weekend Kate found the hatched pupa sticking out of the stitched-together flowerheads so it will remain, alas, unidentified). Sadly none of June's impressive hatch of scarlet tiger moths could be persuaded to land on the flowers!<br />
<br />
Most exciting of all, the 'bee hotel' was colonised almost instantaneously by red mason bees (<i>Osmia bicornis (=O. rufa</i>)), so next spring the garden will be able to supply its own home-grown wildlife. Food and a home - it's really not that hard to help the bees...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJ29wXoTuZc/U8qz0ED6mpI/AAAAAAAAf4Q/WUG80WGee08/s1600/2014-05-25+10.32.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJ29wXoTuZc/U8qz0ED6mpI/AAAAAAAAf4Q/WUG80WGee08/s1600/2014-05-25+10.32.37.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bee hotel in position</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-codQw1tXnog/U8q0CApPaWI/AAAAAAAAf4w/rcn7gjv_XP8/s1600/2014-06-09+11.47.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-codQw1tXnog/U8q0CApPaWI/AAAAAAAAf4w/rcn7gjv_XP8/s1600/2014-06-09+11.47.17.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tree bumblebee on Osteospermum. After several flypasts, this one finally settled!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AKZix3u4k8c/U8rJof8jLtI/AAAAAAAAf5s/Fn9a2K4dJ3c/s1600/BofeqhMIcAAZIGC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AKZix3u4k8c/U8rJof8jLtI/AAAAAAAAf5s/Fn9a2K4dJ3c/s1600/BofeqhMIcAAZIGC.jpg" height="275" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The female red mason bee constructing her nest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VcvgtejRZlo/U8rJoMv8xfI/AAAAAAAAf5o/mp7v2E8U9LE/s1600/BoBQrOGCUAcN0gw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VcvgtejRZlo/U8rJoMv8xfI/AAAAAAAAf5o/mp7v2E8U9LE/s1600/BoBQrOGCUAcN0gw.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The completed mud nest of the red mason bee, ready to sit out the winter</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-30334609497496610392014-07-01T02:52:00.000+01:002014-07-01T02:52:12.588+01:00Just leave it alone!<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><i>“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his busines</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><i>s, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”</i> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Aldo Leopold</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A few months ago I wrote about the <a href="http://insectrambles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/whats-lurking-in-oxfordshire-undergrowth.html">pseudoscorpions</a> that lived beneath the bark of a dead tree in my village. Having only seen them immobile in winter, and finally having a bit of free time, I decided on an early-evening wander round the village, to </span>catch up with my pincered friends and <span style="font-family: inherit;">see what else was about now summer's here. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rounding the corner I stopped in my tracks: </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a5ZisPjHPRw/U7H-h3jG2XI/AAAAAAAAfcs/Tn7KwTVIPdk/s1600/2014-06-10+19.51.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a5ZisPjHPRw/U7H-h3jG2XI/AAAAAAAAfcs/Tn7KwTVIPdk/s1600/2014-06-10+19.51.58.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yesterday: habitat. Today: firewood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The tree - a branchless Eucalyptus tower - had been reduced to a stump less than a foot high, the rest laid on the floor and taken away the next day. The tree had been sound enough, had no branches to drop off or catch the wind, and was tucked well out of the way down a quiet dead end in a small rural village, so what had possessed someone to chop it down - to destroy an entire ecosystem of pseudoscorpions and wood-boring beetles, springtails and spiders? As far as I can tell, it's just because the tree was dead, and obviously so - it made the place look 'untidy', so down it had to come.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dtnaWulmrFU/U7H-o_V70YI/AAAAAAAAfc4/HGEKlnT5lO0/s1600/2014-05-22+19.28.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dtnaWulmrFU/U7H-o_V70YI/AAAAAAAAfc4/HGEKlnT5lO0/s1600/2014-05-22+19.28.45.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lesser stag beetle, <i>Dorcus parallelepipedus</i>: a dead-wood species that's just lost its home</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My village is far from being alone in this fetish for tidiness: for treating the outdoors as an extension of the living room, somewhere that should be neat and clean and hygienic. Just today a friend was evicted from his Landshare garden for the crime of letting parts of it 'grow wild' (aka leaving some weeds as flowers for pollinators and cover for pest-munching ground beetles). Another friend turned her tiny front lawn into a miniature wildflower meadow: she arrived home one day to find a neighbour 'helpfully' mowing it. <br />
<br />
A month ago some friends and I ran the national <a href="http://www.gardenbioblitz.org/">Garden BioBlitz</a>, which saw hundreds of people up and down the country go out and connect with the wildlife that can be found in virtually any garden. Amongst them were <a href="https://twitter.com/saddlebagbob">Andrew</a> and his <a href="https://twitter.com/BeetleboyJacob">11-yr-old son Jacob</a> from Hull, whose 50+ species saw Jacob mentioned on Springwatch. Unfortunately it drew the wrong kind of attention as well, and the next week the council delivered a warning: there had been a complaint about 'the presence of weeds and overgrown vegetation on the land' and as 'the tackling of land causing defacement, adversely affecting neighbourhoods, or causing a nuisance' was 'a key priority', the wildlife had to go within 10 days or legal action would be taken.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Kq8TfEp4-A/U7IHvmfUxhI/AAAAAAAAfdE/yUvCkY2Fnbw/s1600/BqpAhWNCIAAx1Xa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Kq8TfEp4-A/U7IHvmfUxhI/AAAAAAAAfdE/yUvCkY2Fnbw/s1600/BqpAhWNCIAAx1Xa.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The offending garden (photo Andrew Jackson / https://twitter.com/saddlebagbob/status/480267252831629312/photo/1)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This kind of small-minded pettiness is also a major reason why many verges and parks are mown to within an inch of their lives all summer: despite the obvious wild life benefits and cost savings of mowing less frequently, councils receive too many ill-informed letters of complaint whenever wildflowers dare rear their heads in public. There are other reasons, sure - unrealistic health and safety concerns are a standard, for instance - but it all seems to come from the same root cause - the feeling that the outside should be a mere extension of the inside; controllable, tamed, idiotproofed, with wildlife safely confined to nature reserves.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This ignorance is symptomatic of the disconnect between people and nature: a country where the management of one of the best sites in the country for rare wood-boring insects can encourage people to take dead branches home for firewood (aka the 'burn our endangered insects initiative'); where universities mow down bee orchids to have undisturbed green lawns; where magnificent stag beetles are stamped on in the street. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
This excessive 'tidying' is a significant part of the decline of British wildlife over the past century. Our wildlife is dying the death by a thousand cuts: they can't survive without those scruffy areas - the brownfield sites, meandering hedges, riverbanks, patches of scrub - are where they live, their highways through the landscape, bridges between eating and sleeping sites, where they take refuge.<br />
<br />
Don't be a part of it. <a href="http://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/say_no_to_the_mow/">Leave the mower in the shed for a change</a>: congratulate the council when they do the same, or complain when they do decide everything would be better as a half-inch stump. Publicise the wildlife on your university campus - make it a <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/cornwall/undergraduate/profiles/2014profiles/">feature</a>, not something to be buried at the back of the world's driest 'environmental strategy' document! Take a bit of time to open your eyes to the wildlife that can be present in even the tiniest of spaces and soon you'll learn to appreciate it and - like me last week - get angry when it's taken away from you.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-54348907411084552982014-05-25T17:52:00.003+01:002014-05-25T17:52:27.665+01:00The first bioblitz of the year!Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday was the first ever <a href="http://www.shotover-wildlife.org.uk/conference">Shotover Conference</a>, celebrating almost 200 years of biological recording at Shotover Country Park, a fantastic SSSI to the northeast of Oxford (and the setting for a previous <a href="http://insectrambles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/oil-be-back.html">blog post!</a>). Then it was over to south Northamptonshire for my first BioBlitz of the year, an invitation-only event at Halse Copse, run by the <a href="http://www.northantsbrc.org.uk/">Northamptonshire Biological Records Centre</a>. For those who haven't yet encountered a BioBlitz, the best way to think of it is like Time Team for wildlife - the aim is to find as many species as possible in (roughly) 24 hours, and generally showing the general public just what natural riches can be found on their doorstep.<br />
<br />
There was a reason we were at Halse Copse in particular: the two patches of ancient woodland and associated meadows are right in the path of the projected route of <a href="http://www.wildlifebcn.org/hs2">HS2</a>. Historically under-studied, the record centre held records for just 171 species in the Local Wildlife Sites, making them (apparently) much less biodiverse than my garden - which just goes to show the value of surveying thoroughly! The BioBlitz was an attempt to get a better picture of the diversity in line to be destroyed.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1FnvH8FwpoE/U4IN97r7K5I/AAAAAAAAepo/sdmATKpt8hg/s1600/IMGP3608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1FnvH8FwpoE/U4IN97r7K5I/AAAAAAAAepo/sdmATKpt8hg/s1600/IMGP3608.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard at work adding to the insect numbers...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Once we got to the site, it was immediately clear that the 171 species so far were a massive understatement. A couple of hours (before lunch!) surveying the first meadow generated 105 species records in my notebook, plus a good number of beetles and bugs as yet unidentified. Being slightly biased, my favourite was the inconspicuous ladybird <i>Scymnus haemorhoidalis</i>, swept from the grassland by my girlfriend Kate. We also found a rather pretty wood-boring beetle (<i><a href="http://www.coleoptera.org.uk/species/hedobia-imperialis">Hedobia imperialis</a></i>) in the woodworm family, and the first Small Copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) ever recorded on site!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F5wEVqqu0G0/U4IRG-y9wlI/AAAAAAAAep0/5rmac2iNh8o/s1600/1_Scymnus+haemorrhoidalis_8247_JoBogaert.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F5wEVqqu0G0/U4IRG-y9wlI/AAAAAAAAep0/5rmac2iNh8o/s1600/1_Scymnus+haemorrhoidalis_8247_JoBogaert.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Scymnus haemorhoidalis</i>, a 2mm hairy ladybird (pic Jo Bogaert)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ac-al2UFchQ/U4IUi45eZCI/AAAAAAAAeqI/XJL09t8GbVs/s1600/IMGP3642.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ac-al2UFchQ/U4IUi45eZCI/AAAAAAAAeqI/XJL09t8GbVs/s1600/IMGP3642.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first Small Copper ever recorded at Halse Copse!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After a quick lunch consisting mainly of cake and tea (the essential food groups for any naturalist in the field!), we decided to try our luck in the more southerly of the two woodlands (which had contributed just 68 species to the grand total pre-BioBlitz, and just 3 insects). The woodland was definitely less diverse (or at least the wildlife more elusive) than the meadow, but in a few hours surveying we had a list of 71 species identified there and then, with another series of beetles and bugs that needed checking under the microscope. The afternoon highlights included several Brown Hares (<i>Lepus europaeus</i>) lounging around just outside the wood, and a beautiful orange-striped millipede, <i>Ommatoiulus sabulosus</i>, which were the first of their respective groups to be found at the site. Also present in large numbers was another new species to me, the stripy brown click beetle <i>Agriotes linearis</i>, present in big numbers on hazel leaves<i>.</i> This group of beetles has an impressive trick: when threatened, they first tuck in all their legs and appendages to look like a seed; then, if that doesn't work, they use a special joint between the thorax and abdomen to fire themselves skywards and out of reach. The effect, particularly on a hard surface, can be quite impressive!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nNaYyhXPNIg/U4IUjh7dRII/AAAAAAAAeqE/4GSAKli8rbY/s1600/IMGP3631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nNaYyhXPNIg/U4IUjh7dRII/AAAAAAAAeqE/4GSAKli8rbY/s1600/IMGP3631.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="text-align: start;">Ommatoiulus sabulosus</i><span style="text-align: start;">, beaten from gorse</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cOi-4oplyfs/U4IUzVJ4oMI/AAAAAAAAeqY/aqu8_9T1BiI/s1600/IMGP3780.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cOi-4oplyfs/U4IUzVJ4oMI/AAAAAAAAeqY/aqu8_9T1BiI/s1600/IMGP3780.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The click beetle <i>Agriotes linearis</i>, here in walking mode rather than catapulting itself through the air</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As we stopped off in the meadow for one last look, a rather special hoverfly presented itself. Recognisable from the dark abdominal stripe and the huge snout, this was the hoverfly <i>Rhingia campestris </i>(also known as the Heineken fly, because it can reach the parts other flies can't reach (<a href="http://www.adslogans.co.uk/site/pages/gallery/heineken-refreshes-the-parts-other-beers-cannot-reach.8402.php">if you don't remember beer adverts from days gone by, that probably won't make any sense..</a>.)). This species, by virtue of mounting its tongue on the end of a very elongated face, can reach deeper into flowers than most other fly species and consequently can feed on complex flowers that are otherwise mostly reliant on long-tongued bumblebee species for pollination,<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ShSiNEnzVyA/U4IUj8ZETuI/AAAAAAAAeqM/lTmQbazYQCg/s1600/IMGP3757.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ShSiNEnzVyA/U4IUj8ZETuI/AAAAAAAAeqM/lTmQbazYQCg/s1600/IMGP3757.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Heineken Fly, busy reaching further</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Waiting for me to finish poking around in the heap of dead wood, Kate had wandered off to photograph areas containing fewer spiders, when photography of a vetch flower was interrupted by the red ants (<i>Myrmeca</i> sp.) running up and down the stems. On closer inspection the ants were raiding the extra-floral nectaries (glands on non-flower bits of the plant which secrete nectar) and passing the nectar to each other. Most plants produce nectar as a sweet treat to entice pollinating insects to visit their flowers: these extra-floral nectaries, by contrast, are nothing to do with pollination, but are instead a sneaky way for the plant to avoid being eaten - they ensure a good supply of ants across the plant, ready to evict or eat any small herbivores like caterpillars, while even big herbivores like rabbits aren't keen on a faceful of biting, stinging ants at every mouthful!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TDF7Pk60JVA/U4IU4klGc4I/AAAAAAAAeqg/8lY2fHutx8Q/s1600/IMGP3692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TDF7Pk60JVA/U4IU4klGc4I/AAAAAAAAeqg/8lY2fHutx8Q/s1600/IMGP3692.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A red ant nose-deep in an extra-floral nectary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In a single afternoon, we at least doubled, if not trebled, the number of species known to occur in Halse Coppice: with a variety of other excellent naturalists also present, the site should be well on its way to 1000 species. Just goes to show the value of recording!Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-42153557886449348312014-04-30T00:51:00.000+01:002014-04-30T00:51:09.359+01:00Minor taxonomical curiosities in the north<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
The weekend before Easter was a bit of a change - for once, the main targets for sightseeing weren't some of the UK's 40,000 invertebrates, but a few of those minor taxonomical curiosities, the vertebrates.<br /><br />
The back end of the week was the National Forum for Biological Recording's annual conference, held this year in Derby. These conferences always include a day in the field, as befits an organisation whose entire reason for existence is the promotion of biological recording. Seriously, recording your wildlife sightings somewhere like birdtrack or iRecord is one of the best (and easiest!) things you can do to help wildlife - the records are the only window in the world of wildlife for policymakers, planners, etc, and if you don't record your sightings no-one will ever know that species was there.<br /><br />
So on Saturday 5 of us headed northwards from Derby to the Derwent Valley for a day out with the Sorby Natural History Society, guided by local naturalist Derek Whitely. Scrambling up a precipitous hillside, we stumbled almost immediately across a pair of red grouse, then a couple of violet oil beetles, <i>Meloe violaceus</i>. Normally these are huge, with great big fat abdomens, but that's the result of a couple of week's solid eating - these were tiny, freshly emerged individuals with elytra longer than the small, pointed abdomen.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V32ME7Qaq3A/U2A5yMbaqTI/AAAAAAAAebM/Xp45N6ezopY/s1600/1979292_10152414776143628_5733288932297247291_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V32ME7Qaq3A/U2A5yMbaqTI/AAAAAAAAebM/Xp45N6ezopY/s1600/1979292_10152414776143628_5733288932297247291_o.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A freshly-emerged oil beetle, photographed by Paula Lightfoot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Continuing up the path, we were stopped in our tracks by a grey bird quartering low over the moor - a male hen harrier! These beautiful raptors are virtually extinct in England now, with continuing persecution of nesting pairs, so it was fantastic to get good views as it soared lazily by, less than twenty metres away.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
Later in the day we began to see tufts of white fur caught up in the heather. In spring, in the Peak District, that can only mean one thing - moulting mountain hares! The theory was quickly proved correct - a strange pale lump moved, revealing itself to be a <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlstewart/13805925085/in/pool-sorby">piebald hare</a>, still mostly white on top, but with plenty of brown fur low down on the sides. These animals - <i>Lepus timidus</i>, the only native British member of the rabbit family - live up in the mountains in Scotland, the Peak District, and the Isle of Man, and they change colour seasonally, white in the winter to hide in the snow, and brown in the summer. One hare quickly became several - half a dozen in the end, all caught mid-change in their seasonal uncertainty.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ILL-nW4k3Cw/U2A5wpXZ35I/AAAAAAAAebI/nYImJPfxOtU/s1600/10271427_10152414775878628_8030959582034393458_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ILL-nW4k3Cw/U2A5wpXZ35I/AAAAAAAAebI/nYImJPfxOtU/s1600/10271427_10152414775878628_8030959582034393458_o.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard at work recording by Derwent Water: curlew above, oil beetles below. Photo: Paula Lightfoot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">On the way back down I was distracted from whistling Golden Plovers and posing Wheatears by a couple of bumblebees - both stranded on the ground wondering what happened to the sun, both new to me - </span><i style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Bombus sylvestris</i><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> and the beautiful </span><i style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Bombus monticola</i><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">, my new favourite bee. Clearly I can't spend too long ignoring invertebrates!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uoAB_f4EBaw/U2A5uk4JODI/AAAAAAAAebA/-cxl7vhXBkA/s1600/10257446_10152414776963628_2777578644928987064_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uoAB_f4EBaw/U2A5uk4JODI/AAAAAAAAebA/-cxl7vhXBkA/s1600/10257446_10152414776963628_2777578644928987064_o.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The excellent <i>Bombus monticola</i>. Photo Paula Lightfoot, hand my own</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-76057166846987490482014-04-11T01:07:00.000+01:002014-04-11T01:07:28.715+01:00Species galore!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I've had a productive couple
of weeks for wildlife-spotting - spring is properly here and the insects in
particular are responding to the change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As the buds burst and flowers
begin to appear, insects too are emerging from their winter dormancy. The new
leaves are covered with leafhoppers and caterpillars, and the flowers with
pollen beetles and bees. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you go by the media
reports you might be forgiven for thinking there's just one British bee, the
honeybee <i>Apis mellifera</i>. In fact, it's a bit more complicated than that - we
have 1 honeybee, 25(ish) bumblebees and 230-250 species of solitary bees.
Various bumbles and the honeybee visit my garden, but I'm lucky enough to have
some of the solitaries call it home. In particular two species live in the back
wall of my house. One of the signs of early spring is the colony of
Hairy-footed flower bees (<i>Anthophora plumipes</i>) waking up, darting at high speed
between flowers and zipping in and out of the holes in the wall. Zipping is
really the word too - electrifyingly fast, the males in particular seem to move
flower to flower without occupying the intervening space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5623293184" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="April 2011 007 by Richard Comont, on Flickr"><img alt="April 2011 007" height="397" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5061/5623293184_9cc9f6595a.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A male Hairy-footed flower bee, <i>Anthophora plumipes</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The other species hasn't
shown itself just yet - the Red mason bee, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Osmia bicornis</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> (formerly </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">O. rufa</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, a
much more appropriate name for this bright red bundle of energy!). It's about -
I found one in Oxford city centre last week, and several in Winchester cathedral close on Tuesday - but my garden colony are
clearly having something of a lie-in!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The best indicator of the
changing seasons though is the moth trap in my back garden. A 125-Watt
mercury-vapour bulb perched on top of a box of moth bedding (aka egg boxes), it
attracts in a sample of the moths flying past, ready to be identified and
released the following morning. You never get the same mix of species and
individuals twice running, so it's a great way to measure the changing of the
seasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hQcC5iL8fGc/U0cuszKQx0I/AAAAAAAAeLw/v4yMzrKBii8/s1600/2014-03-09+22.24.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hQcC5iL8fGc/U0cuszKQx0I/AAAAAAAAeLw/v4yMzrKBii8/s1600/2014-03-09+22.24.58.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The moth trap, doing its thing in the back garden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I started trapping for the
year in early March, catching small numbers of the early-spring species.
Gradually as the year wore on, the numbers got bigger (60 moths of 11 species on the 2nd April the
best to date) and the species changed - </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Orthosia</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> (Quakers and the Hebrew Character) began to dominate, Common
Quaker in particular. In the last week what I think of as the 'late spring'
species have begun to appear - the furry Muslin moth (<i>Diaphora mendica</i>) and an early Bee moth (<i>Aphomia sociella</i>) -
reinforcing that the world is moving forwards, and summer is shimmering on the
horizon...</span></div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-53699893757140782912014-03-24T20:15:00.000+00:002014-03-24T20:18:08.691+00:00The NorthAnother expedition this week, venturing further north than I've ever been before - to Wick, Caithness, in the very top right corner of Scotland. Being mainly from the southwest, I'm always taken aback by the sheer size of Scotland, and even after flying into Inverness there was still a two-hour drive north to get to Wick itself.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2tnMIg30KLE/UzCIrhwlUEI/AAAAAAAAd_w/0Uo0BWjmD0k/s1600/Screenshot+2014-02-18+20.24.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2tnMIg30KLE/UzCIrhwlUEI/AAAAAAAAd_w/0Uo0BWjmD0k/s1600/Screenshot+2014-02-18+20.24.46.jpg" height="400" width="307" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My recording footprint, up to the 20/3/2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
The reason for this long-haul trip was, as ever, insect-related, though again it was more concerned with talking about them than spotting them. My day job is running the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's bumblebee-monitoring schemes (check out <a href="http://www.beewalk.org.uk/">www.beewalk.org.uk</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/beewatch">http://bit.ly/beewatch</a> to take part!) and I was in town to give an hour's talk about bumblebees, their current decline, and how monitoring them can help, for the <a href="http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/events/nsew/caithness-international-science-festival">Caithness International Science Festival</a>. Caithness and the Scottish islands are the last remaining refuge of the Great Yellow bumblebee, <i>Bombus distinguendis</i>, and thus are a priority area for BBCT's conservation efforts - hence my invitation to talk.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As it's around six weeks into the bumblebee season at home in Oxfordshire, before I set off I'd been hopeful that there might be the chance of spotting an early queen - unmistakeably huge, yellow and fuzzy, the general effect is like a flying tennis ball. However, my hopes of seeing the species for the first time ever were quickly dashed as I drove north through heavy rain and snow showers: despite the 18C temperatures in the south, March is clearly still winter in Scotland!</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-urAmFSvNxnQ/UzCKulPoPBI/AAAAAAAAd_8/Yypk0x5o7Lk/s1600/2014-03-23+15.48.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-urAmFSvNxnQ/UzCKulPoPBI/AAAAAAAAd_8/Yypk0x5o7Lk/s1600/2014-03-23+15.48.16.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured: the view a few minutes flight time south of Inverness. Not pictured: spring, giant furry bumblebees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
After a long Saturday of talking and manning the stand, followed by a wander along the seafront in the teeth of the wind, I gradually defrosted my face and fingers and wondered what to do with myself. I had a couple of hours free on Sunday morning between breakfast and having to leave for Inverness and the long trip south, but clearly there would be no bees: even sheltered spots by the shoreline had only turned up a couple of chilly-looking carabids.</div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tGir_zj7R-U/UzCS1GLw7-I/AAAAAAAAeAY/lB_xk2WblwE/s1600/2014-03-22+14.42.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tGir_zj7R-U/UzCS1GLw7-I/AAAAAAAAeAY/lB_xk2WblwE/s1600/2014-03-22+14.42.30.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society caused some serious stand envy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The name Wick was ringing a distant bell marked 'rare species', and a quick search revealed the existence of Wick Sedge, <i>Carex recta</i>. With only three British populations, this unassuming plant was one of Britain's rarest species - and it had a huge population less than a mile from me! That was Sunday morning sorted...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sunday dawned bright and clear, but -3C and blowing a gale. I checked out and headed over to the Lower Wick River SSSI. I had been expecting a struggle - this was a very rare plant, after all - but as soon as I reached the river, the mudflats were covered in sedge shoots - this must have been the vast single-species stand mentioned in the site description! Sure enough, the grid references matched and the remains of last year's plants checked out. I'd utterly failed in my first attempt to find a vanishingly rare bee, but vast numbers of an even rarer plant made a pretty satisfactory substitute! I walked back to the car, and started the long, long trip south.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i9J2zgiDfsU/UzCRIpTQREI/AAAAAAAAeAM/D1y9rRNPpi8/s1600/2014-03-23+10.52.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i9J2zgiDfsU/UzCRIpTQREI/AAAAAAAAeAM/D1y9rRNPpi8/s1600/2014-03-23+10.52.39.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mudflats: Unprepossessing </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-16068416866882294742014-03-12T22:31:00.000+00:002014-03-12T22:31:06.477+00:00Oil be back...<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">A slight diversion this week, and a step back in time to one of my former local patches. When I first moved to Oxfordshire, in 2008, I lived in Headington, north-east Oxford, and spent a lot of time in Shotover Country Park, then ably managed by Shotover Wildlife. I now live further away, in south Oxfordshire, but still visit Shotover from time to time to see Black Hairstreaks and other specialities.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Sunday evening was one such time. On my way home from Savernake forest, as it got dark, I decided to go and see if I could find any Minotaur beetles – nocturnal big, black horned dung beetles found in great profusion on Shotover. </span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Well, despite much searching, there were no Minotaurs to be found. What I did spot, in the light of a fading headtorch, was a great big bulbous black thing - an oil beetle! There used to be eight species of oil beetle (<i>Meloe</i> sp.) in Britain: three are now presumed extinct, two were thought to be extinct before being rediscovered in south Devon (and now survive in one and two sites respectively), two are widespread, if uncommon, and one is relatively widespread but even less common. </span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This one was relatively small, out at night, with a wide (not square) thorax and a groove in the middle of the pronotum – that made it <i>Meloe rugosus</i>, the Rugged oil beetle! Not only was it a species I’d never seen before, despite looking, but really quite a rare species in Britain with only a handful of Oxfordshire records. When I got home I checked the records – one previous record from the site, in 1927, and astonishingly, in exactly the same 100x100m square! After going missing for 87 years, the Rugged oil beetle was back on Shotover… and it had barely moved an inch!</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fhjZ8O0Eyuo/UyDeZP4tVCI/AAAAAAAAdvE/S_G_WyOpozg/s1600/2014-03-12+19.16.362.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fhjZ8O0Eyuo/UyDeZP4tVCI/AAAAAAAAdvE/S_G_WyOpozg/s1600/2014-03-12+19.16.362.jpg" height="302" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Meloe rugosus</i> - note the distinctive pronotal shape and groove<br /><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">All the oil beetles share an amazing life-history. Adult females – like my find – emerge, feed up, mate, and dig a hole in bare ground in sandy soils which they fill with thousands of eggs. These emerge in spring, tunnelling up to the surface and climbing up onto flowers. Here the larvae (known as triungulins, after their three-clawed toes) lie in wait for solitary bees. When a bee arrives, the triungulins grab a hold, and hitchhike their way back to the bee’s nest, where they secrete themselves away in a brood chamber, eating their way through the stored pollen and the bee larvae themselves, before pupating and then emerging the following year, ready to start the process all over again.</span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OrcTu70a1xk/UyDeXFUN_0I/AAAAAAAAdvA/p15AUniB0hs/s1600/2014-03-12+19.19.452.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OrcTu70a1xk/UyDeXFUN_0I/AAAAAAAAdvA/p15AUniB0hs/s1600/2014-03-12+19.19.452.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-41311612846340389402014-03-03T23:26:00.000+00:002014-03-03T23:26:09.471+00:00Seen through a window<div>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">Last week turned out to be more a week for talking about wildlife, rather than spotting it. A talk on bumblebees at the Cricklade Meadow monitoring conference on Monday was followed by leading an hour's workshop on ladybird identification at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on Saturday. Wandering round the museum is always interesting: I'm pretty sure I've never given a talk in a room filled with taxidermied animals and a skeleton before!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-03CWL7LSL0c/UxT91HD2IpI/AAAAAAAAddk/n3AqSerMDro/s1600/2014-03-01+14.45.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-03CWL7LSL0c/UxT91HD2IpI/AAAAAAAAddk/n3AqSerMDro/s1600/2014-03-01+14.45.46.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clearly, someone missed lunch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A later wander round the (excellent) displays did reveal this interestingly-labelled exhibit...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LFRVs8_B8dM/UxUAhSbvyRI/AAAAAAAAdd8/sK1XRPDoMHY/s1600/2014-03-02+14.25.312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LFRVs8_B8dM/UxUAhSbvyRI/AAAAAAAAdd8/sK1XRPDoMHY/s1600/2014-03-02+14.25.312.jpg" height="400" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neither of these moths is actually a Fur beetle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In between giving talks, writing talks, and troubleshooting databases, I did manage to peer out of the window at the bright spring sunshine, and even pop out briefly at lunchtime, in search of movement. <br />
<br />
Then, on Wednesday, something happened for the first time this year. That's right: I had a shave. But after that, sitting at my desk editing grid references, I spotted another first for the year speed past the window. Peering out, something dark was buzzing at the bottom of the garden: finally, a bumblebee! Nipping out, cup of tea in hand, I saw it was a huge queen red-tailed bumblebee, <i>Bombus lapidarius</i>. After prospecting around the garden wall and my car for a nest site for a couple of minutes she flew away: the first but hopefully far from the last.<br />
<br />
While watching the bumble quartering the base of the wall, I noticed something else new. Several of the comfrey plants were looking distinctly ragged: a closer look revealed dozens (36!) of inch-long, yellow and black hairy caterpillars - Scarlet Tigers!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1u1TOCS-5jo/UxULyQZfIXI/AAAAAAAAdeM/2dbPyu8BcRs/s1600/2014-03-01+17.02.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1u1TOCS-5jo/UxULyQZfIXI/AAAAAAAAdeM/2dbPyu8BcRs/s1600/2014-03-01+17.02.36.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is just one of many...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A spectacular big red, black and white moth with a distinctive green sheen, the Scarlet Tiger, <i>Callimorpha dominula</i>, is something of a speciality of the Thames valley and the south-west. Flying by both day and night in June and July, it's one of my favourite moths - great to see that it's on course for a good year!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-2210898562536932482014-02-23T23:11:00.000+00:002014-02-23T23:11:15.593+00:00Beetling about in flood debrisAnyone who's not been living under a rock for the past two months can't fail to have noticed that the country is slightly damp at the moment. Large chunks of Somerset, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and others have been underwater as rivers reclaim their flood plains, while the sheer volume of water has saturated the soil, leaving rainwater pools on the surface.<br /><br />Of course, floods are horrendous when they affect your property, family or livelihood, but if you're interested in insects and other invertebrates, they can also provide something of a bonanza. Huge numbers of invertebrates - snails, harvestmen, beetles, and more - live in the soil, amongst roots, in leaf litter or at the bases of grass tussocks, and at this time of year they're joined by a whole load of extra species that go there to spend the winter. When the water rises, these invertebrates are flooded out and washed downstream with all the other flotsam and jetsam - litter, sticks, etc. This all accumulates in heaps of debris around obstructions, and picking through these mounds can turn up all kinds of species.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok6jAA7Vsac/UwpyrVmN4mI/AAAAAAAAdUo/k20-jkUaoQg/s1600/2014-02-10+15.57.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok6jAA7Vsac/UwpyrVmN4mI/AAAAAAAAdUo/k20-jkUaoQg/s1600/2014-02-10+15.57.17.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flood debris collecting between the bank and a narrowboat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My local river, the Thames, has been flooded to varying degrees since Christmas, and I've been out a few times to see what's been washed up. The main groups have been beetles and snails, both terrestrial and freshwater. Probably the pick of the 27 species of snails that have turned up so far has been the ribbed grass snail, <i>Vallonia costata - </i>a species I'd only ever seen once before, at last year's Bristol bioblitz. Although it's only 3mm long, the ribbing combined with Mick Jagger lips makes it both distinctive and (for a snail), really rather attractive.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OcSxEG0EBOU/Uwp1sq0EKrI/AAAAAAAAdVc/AnVeZ6F8mOg/s1600/2014-02-15+16.03.521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OcSxEG0EBOU/Uwp1sq0EKrI/AAAAAAAAdVc/AnVeZ6F8mOg/s1600/2014-02-15+16.03.521.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Vallonia costata, </i>photographed down the microscope</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Something I hadn't ever seen before was a tiny but very smart harvestman, <i>Nemastoma bimaculatum</i> - black and leggy with two white flashes (hence bi-maculatum). By far the biggest fraction in the debris has been beetles, particularly carabids (ground beetles) and staphs (rove beetles), but some smaller stuff has turned up as well. Some has been impressively small - one that I've yet to do anything with is a featherwing beetle, family Ptiliidae, well under 1mm long! Because there's so many beetles they're a bit on the back burner until my PhD corrections are finished, but all the other species, plus a bit of judicious lichen-spotting in the back garden, have taken my 1km square list up past 300 for the year - well on track for four figures by year's end!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eLxcrRNS8Q/Uwp1o7SJO6I/AAAAAAAAdVM/7NCIrkxeDMg/s1600/2014-02-14+17.26.091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eLxcrRNS8Q/Uwp1o7SJO6I/AAAAAAAAdVM/7NCIrkxeDMg/s1600/2014-02-14+17.26.091.jpg" height="338" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nemastoma bimaculatum </i>from flood debris</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BX0sQND3W8E/Uwp1rtxIEZI/AAAAAAAAdVU/e3NcI6xjOSg/s1600/2014-02-15+18.12.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BX0sQND3W8E/Uwp1rtxIEZI/AAAAAAAAdVU/e3NcI6xjOSg/s1600/2014-02-15+18.12.01.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still-mysterious featherwing beetle, Ptiliidae sp. Image width approx. 1.5mm!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WdbAKKQrZV0/Uwpy5zFs2MI/AAAAAAAAdVA/dpFMVuIVOqc/s1600/2014-02-15+20.01.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WdbAKKQrZV0/Uwpy5zFs2MI/AAAAAAAAdVA/dpFMVuIVOqc/s1600/2014-02-15+20.01.37.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flood debris beetles waiting to be identified - mostly carabids, particularly <i>Bembidion</i> spp., but also Heteroceridae, <i>Aphodius, </i>Hydrophilidae, mostly <i>Cercyon </i>spp., and some Chrysomelidae in tribe Alticini</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-20260778664005642352014-02-17T22:26:00.002+00:002014-02-17T22:26:23.848+00:00Slightly further afield...A slightly busy week last week - my PhD viva, two days of a bumblebee meeting in Southampton, and some filthy weather meant I didn't get out into my local patch, other than running to and from the car in the pouring rain. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-208jFWhoGtQ/UwJuh7SUseI/AAAAAAAAdNs/5skvb4DCvZA/s1600/2014-02-10+15.49.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-208jFWhoGtQ/UwJuh7SUseI/AAAAAAAAdNs/5skvb4DCvZA/s1600/2014-02-10+15.49.50.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My local patch, currently. Not pictured: dry land</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Come Sunday though, I'd arranged to brave the floods and meet up with some friends down in Somerset. Despite the non-stop news pictures, most of Somerset is well above the current high-water mark and we all made it to Shapwick in time for for the sun to come out. After a quick sit-down for coffee and cake, watching small birds on the feeders - Coal tits and Reed buntings new for the year, Collared doves clumsy as ever - we headed down the road to the Hawk and Owl Trust's new reserve at Shapwick Moor<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5SP684EDvPc/UwJ3G-Jw8FI/AAAAAAAAdN8/Fetl3-cPg2Y/s1600/2014-02-16+13.10.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5SP684EDvPc/UwJ3G-Jw8FI/AAAAAAAAdN8/Fetl3-cPg2Y/s1600/2014-02-16+13.10.23.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glastonbury Tor from Shapwick Moor, looking across the grazing pasture and rhynes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Not many birds about, but some nice snails in the rhyne dredgings, notably the Viviparous snail (<i>Viviparous viviparous</i>) and the Greater ramshorn (<i>Planorbarius corneus</i>), and, in the sandbanks, marine bivalves dating back to the last ice age. A quick lunch stop later, and we were off again, walking down past the route of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Track">Sweet Track</a>, a 2 km wooden walkway built in 3806 BCE and abandoned after less than a decade due to rising water levels, a fate it was suffering all over again with the last month's rain. It wasn't the only casualty we saw - once ensconced in the hide at the far end of the track, we could see three or four fresh scars in the peat where trees had been blown over that week. <br />
<br />
We weren't the only ones to have noticed: a flash of orange and electric blue announced a kingfisher, eagerly prospecting the new earth banks for a nest site. Overhead a marsh harrier drifted slowly, wheeling effortlessly in the blue sky. As dusk fell, four lapwings flapped lazily by; one of Britain's handful of great white egrets swooped low over the reedbeds; swans slid smoothly across the reflection of the setting sun; several thousand starlings buzzed us, hurtling low overhead with a susurration of wings, as if the reedbed had taken to the skies. Summer's great, but winter has plenty to recommend it if you know what to look for!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l6HlIvlQCCo/UwKI5XTxHZI/AAAAAAAAdOc/yMGL_jzOSxg/s1600/2014-02-16+16.23.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l6HlIvlQCCo/UwKI5XTxHZI/AAAAAAAAdOc/yMGL_jzOSxg/s1600/2014-02-16+16.23.43.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Casualties of the storm. Somewhere in this picture is a kingfisher, but it was a long way away...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jK5-XsFRDYY/UwKH0gzRGrI/AAAAAAAAdOM/z7dVL2aKPb0/s1600/2014-02-16+16.29.43-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jK5-XsFRDYY/UwKH0gzRGrI/AAAAAAAAdOM/z7dVL2aKPb0/s1600/2014-02-16+16.29.43-1.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glastonbury Tor, from Shapwick heath</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X78CjsALv9E/UwKICam6V7I/AAAAAAAAdOU/257j2WwevpI/s1600/2014-02-16+18.12.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X78CjsALv9E/UwKICam6V7I/AAAAAAAAdOU/257j2WwevpI/s1600/2014-02-16+18.12.04.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reedbeds at Shapwick heath</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XghTdH3Njq8/UwKK3XVG5VI/AAAAAAAAdOw/UwcaFg9Iu3E/s1600/2014-02-16+18.32.47-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XghTdH3Njq8/UwKK3XVG5VI/AAAAAAAAdOw/UwcaFg9Iu3E/s1600/2014-02-16+18.32.47-1.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's important to have all your ducks in a row</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DCxXjWr_-mY/UwKKzVsbQUI/AAAAAAAAdOo/v2htZwreP0Y/s1600/2014-02-16+18.33.43-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DCxXjWr_-mY/UwKKzVsbQUI/AAAAAAAAdOo/v2htZwreP0Y/s1600/2014-02-16+18.33.43-1.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reedmace, <i>Phragmites </i>and ducks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkAWGEuUuII/UwKK_D36bzI/AAAAAAAAdO4/QWsK9vWoF4I/s1600/2014-02-16+18.35.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkAWGEuUuII/UwKK_D36bzI/AAAAAAAAdO4/QWsK9vWoF4I/s1600/2014-02-16+18.35.01.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Settling down for the night</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-16222438259783538132014-02-11T08:13:00.004+00:002014-02-11T08:13:52.329+00:00What's lurking in the Oxfordshire undergrowth?<i>The prey shifts nervously, raising its head from grazing under the hunter's multifaceted gaze. Sensing oncoming eight-legged movement, the would-be prey item strikes out with its forked tail, catapulting itself backwards and spinning head-over-heels through the sky as the pincers of the wannabe-predator close on empty air.</i> This is the seriously weird world of the British microfauna, and it's at least the equal of the charismatic macrofauna you can see on TV.<br />
<br />
Pseudoscorpions - the thwarted predator from the scene above - are symptomatic of how this miniature jungle is overlooked. They look amazingly similar to 'real' scorpions, complete with huge pincers, but lack a sting at the back end. Although they look far too exotic to be British, in fact we've got at least 27 species and many are quite widespread, particularly in moss, leaf litter, and under bark. I found this one - <i>Chernes cimicoides - </i>under the bark of a dead Eucalyptus around the corner from my house last weekend.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q4uy3pLzjZc/UvmdQKBJOxI/AAAAAAAAc7A/h_1oWPk20c8/s1600/Chernes+cimicoides+19012014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q4uy3pLzjZc/UvmdQKBJOxI/AAAAAAAAc7A/h_1oWPk20c8/s1600/Chernes+cimicoides+19012014.jpg" height="257" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Chernes cimicoides</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Having wandered down to the river Thames to see how high the floods were getting (answer: worryingly high), I spotted that the dead tree had some loose bark and had a bit of a poke around underneath. These kind of sheltered spots are some of the best places to find insects over the winter, and there were plenty here - woodlice (<i>Porcellio scaber</i> and <i>Androniscus dentiger</i>) scuttled in all directions when exposed to the light, while bean weevils (<i>Bruchus rufimanus</i>) tried the opposite tack and froze, pretending to be lumps of misshapen wood. Ladybirds (Harlequin <i>Harmonia axyridis </i>and 2-spot <i>Adalia bipunctata</i>) trusted in their defensive chemicals and warning colouration to repel me, sitting in obvious groups, and it was when peering at these (I'm very fond of ladybirds after studying them for four years for my PhD!) that I noticed a 3mm flattened, rounded blob tucked in nearby. Spotting the pincers I almost jumped for joy - my second ever pseudoscorpion!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dhadn0-_JEU/Uvmd61nvGTI/AAAAAAAAc7I/acz2UKvjmHM/s1600/2014-01-19+13.45.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dhadn0-_JEU/Uvmd61nvGTI/AAAAAAAAc7I/acz2UKvjmHM/s1600/2014-01-19+13.45.56.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Chernes cimicoides </i>in its overwintering cell underneath bark</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Reaching 3mm long in Britain and only up to 12mm in the largest species yet found worldwide, these tiny arachnids are close cousins of spiders, harvestmen, scorpions, mites and ticks in Britain, and of whip-scorpions, vinegarroons and camel spiders overseas. They may not be cute and fluffy but they are amazing to look at, and in their habits - the first I ever saw was in a photo that a friend had sent me to identify a beetle. When you looked closely, an odd bulge on the antennae was clearly a pseudoscorpion, clinging on for grim death as the beetle unwittingly flew it to pastures new. And when was the last time you saw a lion do that?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W_9V3vezfCc/UvmXV_RbynI/AAAAAAAAc6s/N-sF4N7qpL0/s1600/DSCF9490.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W_9V3vezfCc/UvmXV_RbynI/AAAAAAAAc6s/N-sF4N7qpL0/s1600/DSCF9490.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pseudoscorpion on the antennae of a Black-headed Cardinal beetle (pic courtesy of Jo Cartmell)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-51370388950874609222014-01-26T02:44:00.000+00:002014-02-09T20:22:42.688+00:00Patch listing 2014This time last year I started properly paying attention to the wildlife in my local area, particularly in the 1km square centred roughly on my house. Then at Easter I got a job monitoring insects in oilseed rape fields in Wiltshire that meant I barely visited the square for four months, and most of the rest of my spare time went to finishing writing up my PhD, so it ended up with a fairly small-scale effort, though I did eventually reach 4,609 records of 1,059 species (with a load more stuff in pots awaiting a spare minute!). <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ufi_Ot9pskM/UuRmjio-_oI/AAAAAAAAZl0/NicOVoSM-lE/s1600/Screenshot+2014-01-26+00.54.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ufi_Ot9pskM/UuRmjio-_oI/AAAAAAAAZl0/NicOVoSM-lE/s1600/Screenshot+2014-01-26+00.54.38.jpg" height="187" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n8S7tfShDcY/UuRnRlDBMSI/AAAAAAAAZl8/uma2sPsMSFc/s1600/Screenshot+2014-01-26+00.55.07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n8S7tfShDcY/UuRnRlDBMSI/AAAAAAAAZl8/uma2sPsMSFc/s1600/Screenshot+2014-01-26+00.55.07.jpg" height="188" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This year, with just one full-time job and a few side projects, I've got the chance to try it properly. In addition, I start as one of BBC Wildlife's local patch reporters on the 10th February, so I'll be documenting everything I find over the next year.<br />
<br />
So far,I've taken advantage of the warm January weather to wander round a few of the local paths, checking on the progress of the floods (most of the top half of the map has been underwater for much of the year so far) and poking through the flood debris. So far, I've found and identified 221 species in my square: the full list is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnHCIn7ZT3T3dDZkX2xTekhja0sxRVFub2NyVURMRVE&output=html but the highlights include four pairs of goosanders and two kingfishers on the lake at bottom right, 16-spot ladybirds in the flood debris, and a water scorpion:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fFCo0MjJpDI/UuR2GG45HrI/AAAAAAAAZmM/5EpB8XJwWfo/s1600/2014-01-19+15.11.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fFCo0MjJpDI/UuR2GG45HrI/AAAAAAAAZmM/5EpB8XJwWfo/s1600/2014-01-19+15.11.41.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
(cross-posted at Insect rambles and 1000 species for 1km)Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-27125947917504368892013-11-10T22:52:00.000+00:002013-11-10T23:41:10.342+00:00What’s in a name?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
How something is named colours our perception, even our experiences
with it – they’re the same thing but the Killer Shrimp is perceived very
differently to <i>Dikerogammerus villosus</i>!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
In wildlife, common names have generally been given to those species
which people care about enough to talk about.
Species or groups which are big and colourful, or useful, or dangerous,
or just those which are common enough around people to be seen every day, get
common names – more obscure species get left with just a scientific
binomial. Ladybirds get the common name
treatment: in fact, they’ve got a lot of common names in the British Isles
alone! </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gewWw2krvYs/UoALX4HZnkI/AAAAAAAAYtY/wb-c7qs2SHI/s1600/Ladybird+names+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gewWw2krvYs/UoALX4HZnkI/AAAAAAAAYtY/wb-c7qs2SHI/s640/Ladybird+names+(2).jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ladybird common names in the British Isles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
The now-standard common name – ‘ladybird’ – is an odd one: they’re
definitely not birds, and they’re not all female. ‘Birds’ is the easy one to explain. If you go back far enough, pre-Linnaeus,
names didn’t have quite the zoological precision of today. Anything that lived in water was a fish (have
you ever wondered about crayfish & shellfish?), and everything that flew
was a bird. The little shiny red beetles
did a lot of flying: hence, they were birds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
‘Lady’ is the more interesting bit, and a look at the names for
ladybirds from around Europe shed a bit more light on the reason why. In the pre-insecticide era, infestations of
pests were hugely damaging, and so when aphids were spotted accumulating in the
crops, farmers would pray for help (alongside taking more useful action like
squashing as many as possible). Shortly
afterwards, as the aphid colonies hit their peak, hordes of ladybirds would
descend on the crops, devouring the pests, seemingly in answer to the farmers’
prayers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A9_Yz4zUOC8/UoAMn-YSFoI/AAAAAAAAYtk/1lX5iAl7H28/s1600/Europe+ladybird+names+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="380" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A9_Yz4zUOC8/UoAMn-YSFoI/AAAAAAAAYtk/1lX5iAl7H28/s400/Europe+ladybird+names+(2).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ladybird names across Europe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
By far the commonest species would be the 7-spot ladybird, <i>Coccinella septempunctata</i>. Each beetle bore seven black spots, signifying the seven sorrows and
seven joys of Mary, and each was bright orange-red, the colour that Mary was
often depicted wearing (before the Vatican banned her being shown wearing red,
and use of lapis lazuli blue as a high-status colour became standard). Therefore, the tiny predators were thought to
have been a gift sent from the Virgin Mary, and many of the local names
reflected this - ‘The Virgin’s beast’, ‘Mary’s beetle’, ‘Marygold’, ‘Lady-clock’. Others reflected the luck implicit in
receiving a gift from the gods – ‘Lucky beetle’ and the ‘Good luck bug’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/4538572283/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="CEH 080410 309 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><img alt="CEH 080410 309" height="332" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2702/4538572283_dbc4695991.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A seven-spot ladybird, <i>Coccinella septempunctata</i>, featuring 7 spots and a red background</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-3458817739823169332013-09-05T00:34:00.001+01:002013-09-05T00:34:22.942+01:00Where are all the ladybirds?'Where have all the ladybirds gone? I've hardly seen any this year.' In this case the question is relayed, second-hand, via a friend and through Twitter, but it's becoming a worryingly frequent refrain this year. As a professional ladybird-fancier (my very-nearly-finished PhD is on ladybirds and in my spare time (what spare time?!) I'm part of the <a href="http://www.ladybird-survey.org/">UK Ladybird Survey</a> team) I probably hear it more than most, but a lot of people seem to be missing the gardener's little spotty friends this summer. Rather than just repeating it to everyone, I thought I'd blog the answer here.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/7396916656/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Open Farm Sunday 18062012 151 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><img alt="Open Farm Sunday 18062012 151" height="333" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7396916656_b90b93cddb.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The British summer, 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are many threats to ladybirds in Britain. The Harlequin ladybird (<i>Harmonia axyridis</i>) is causing declines in native species (open-access paper <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2012.00883.x/abstract">here</a>), while others are suffering from habitat destruction. However, the 2013 ladybird-lack is down to a natural phenomenon: the British weather.<br />
<br />
In essence, it's because of what this picture shows: summer 2012 for most of the UK was a washout. It started raining about Easter and basically never really stopped. In general, rain is pretty bad news for insects;as cold-blooded animals wet, cold conditions stop them flying, which in turn prevents feeding, dispersing, breeding, and so on. Many insects, including several species of ladybird, are on the edge of their range in Britain, as far north as they can go before conditions get too cold, so damp, dark summers don't do them any favours!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T_kEXs_Ywjs/Uievj_uWozI/AAAAAAAAYXY/6lqTiY2pYQg/s1600/S24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T_kEXs_Ywjs/Uievj_uWozI/AAAAAAAAYXY/6lqTiY2pYQg/s320/S24.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">Southerly bias in the distribution of the 24-spot ladybird, <i>Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata</i>, in Britain. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">© Crown copyright and database rights 2011 Ordnance Survey. Mapping from the </span><a href="http://data.nbn.org.uk/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">NBN Gateway</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The timing of the rain was particularly bad in 2012. Ladybirds usually only have one generation a year, breeding between May and August (though a few species are later), and they spend the winter as adults, tucking themselves in for the winter in October and not feeding until the following spring. Emerging from their overwintering lairs in March and April, they desperately need to feed, and they can usually stuff their faces on aphids, which emerge from overwintering and set up new colonies at roughly the same time. In 2012, however, April was a near-unrelenting monsoon of torrential rain - the ladybirds couldn't disperse looking for food, or mates, or egg-laying sites, and in any case the aphids were gone, washed from the leaves before colonies could be established. Numbers of winged aphids - the dispersive stage - wouldn't reach normal levels in <a href="http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/insect-survey/STAphidBulletin.html">Rothamsted Research's aphid-monitoring traps</a> until October.<br />
<br />
That meant that the 2012 generation of ladybirds - the ones that would try to survive the winter and appear in spring 2013 - was very poor. Numbers were lower than normal, especially of species that lived mainly in trees (it's much harder to climb back up a tree than a small flower once you've been washed off it), and many of the individuals were smaller than normal, a sign of a lack of nutrition as a larva. <br />
<br />
Once they emerge as adults in late summer, ladybirds have one job - to eat as much as possible to have the best possible chance of surviving six months asleep. Hamstrung by the lack of aphids to eat, it's likely that the majority went into the winter underweight, only to be faced by a winter that went on and on - personally I was still wearing two coats and a woolly hat for <a href="http://www.brc.ac.uk/wessexbess/crop_production">pollinator surveys</a> into June! That meant that a lot of the ladybirds that went into dormancy last autumn simply ran out of energy and never woke up again, further lowering numbers. I spent almost every day in the field (well, in several fields) this spring, and only saw a ladybird on 29 occasions between New Year and the end of May, far fewer than normal. I did see several hundred Orange ladybirds (<i>Halyzia sedecimguttata</i>) at the Kings Weston BioBlitz in Bristol, but this is a mildew-feeding species at home in wet weather, and they were still in their overwintering aggregation in early May!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5867874018/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="June ladybirds 03062011 082 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><img alt="June ladybirds 03062011 082" height="333" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5312/5867874018_f54305d60f.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 7-spot ladybird larva (<i>Coccinella septempunctata</i>), snapped at dinnertime.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The cold spring held back the aphids as well, but once they finally appeared, they really went for it, and, with very few predators about, big numbers began appearing. The summer heatwave provided ideal conditions climatic conditions for sun-loving insects, and ladybirds began the recovery process. I only found my first ladybird larvae of the year on the 9th of June, about six weeks later than normal, but over the last six weeks or so ladybirds have made a welcome return to my village, with larvae and new adults abundant on limes and sycamores in the local churchyard. Hopefully they'll be able to keep feeding and - weather permitting - next year's generation will start from a much better position than did this year's!<br />
<br />
<i>If you see a ladybird, please do send us a picture record at the <a href="http://www.ladybird-survey.org/">UK Ladybird Survey website</a> or using the iRecord Ladybird app from <a href="http://www.ceh.ac.uk/">CEH</a> and <a href="http://naturelocator.org/">Naturelocator</a> (<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.ac.bris.ilrt.ladybird&hl=en_GB">Android</a> or <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/irecord-ladybirds/id634591099?mt=8">Apple</a>) - without records we have no idea what's going on anywhere else!</i>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-48355794186045181422013-06-19T01:10:00.002+01:002013-06-19T01:14:53.298+01:00The 2013 Garden Bioblitz, #GBB13<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">On the weekend of the 1-2 June 2013, hordes of people all over the UK went out into their gardens and scoured them for wildlife - birds in the trees, ants in the lawn, bees on flowers, the trees and flowers themselves were all spotted and logged. Two weeks after the event, 495 people have submitted </span><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">22,632 </span><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">records of 2,424 taxa, 1,743 of which have been identified to species. </span><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">On average, each and every recorder submitted 46 sightings - an amazing effort from everyone! </span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3>
<div>
</div>
</h3>
<h3 style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The reason for this burst of activity? </span>The first national G</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">arden Bioblitz!</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: auto;">With 29 million trees and 5 million bird boxes in 23 million gardens across Britain, there's a lot of private habitat tucked away nationwide. While hedges and fences parcel up the area in human terms, they're a trifling obstacle to most (although not all) wildlife - birds, butterflies and the like can happily soar or flutter up and down entire streets or more, taking advantage of the fragmented mosaic of different plantings. At the small end of the scale, springtails and snails may never reach the distant hedges, and scrubby corners of the lawn can host entire populations, undisturbed by the outside world. </span><span style="orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: auto;">Although the more obvious wildlife - the</span><span style="orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: auto;"> deer, otters, peregrine falcons – may be more often associated with wilder areas, they can all appear in gardens if you look at the right time, and smaller species – butterflies & bees, frogs and toads – are year-round residents. Once you start looking – and especially if you have a pond, or leave an outside light on – you’ll be amazed by the diversity of life living alongside you.</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: auto;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">As digital cameras get better and cheaper, more people are using them to take pictures of the weird and wonderful wildlife around them, and getting sucked into natural history. Luckily, w</span><span style="orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: auto;">ith the rise of the internet, m</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">ore ID resources - keys, photo galleries, discussion threads - are more widely available now than ever before (self-serving plug: check out my <a href="http://insectrambles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/web-id-resources.html">previous blog post</a> for a list of what's where!), and </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">more experts are easily contactable to check what you've found.</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The most important thing you can do with your sighting is to record it, and turn your sighting into a biological record. These records build into data, which can be used in myriad different ways - scientifically, to indicate the general health of the countryside, to determine the effects of an invasive species on native populations, or just to prove that this particular field is a wildlife haven that shouldn't be built on. None of it is possible unless you write down what you've seen and when!</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Garden wildlife refuges, biological recording and the internet come together in the form of the Garden Bioblitz, the brainchild of Liz Shaw and brought to life by <a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/meet-the-team.html#sthash.fwqiKOTY.dpbs">Liz, John van Breda, Jane Adams, Ryan Clark & myself.</a> After a small trial event in 2012, 2013 was the first national event - even BBC TV's Springwatch <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0214fhh">got involved!</a></span></h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">A huge range of wildlife was encapsulated in the 1,743 species identified to date. Plants were the biggest group (687 species), possibly reflecting the uncertain weather (and the comparative ease of working on something that doesn't fly off as soon as it sees you!), but insects were close behind on 605. Birds didn't quite reach three figures, ending on 92.</span></h3>
<h3>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 233px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 6180; mso-width-source: userset; width: 127pt;" width="169"></col>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 127pt;" width="169"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taxon
Group</span></b></td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Species</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plants</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">687</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Insects</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">605</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other inverts</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">185</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Birds</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">92</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lichens</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fungi</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">49</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mosses and liverworts</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">35</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mammals</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">27</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amphibians and reptiles</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fish</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bacteria</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Within the insects, moths came out best, on 159 species. Almost half the UK's butterflies were seen, while more exotic creatures like scorpionflies also put in an appearance. It was striking how few bees, moths, and particularly ladybirds were seen, despite many people looking out for them specially - last year's washout summer and a long, cold winter, on top of the existing long-term declines, seem to have done nasty things to the populations of these most charismatic insects.</span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 290px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 8265; mso-width-source: userset; width: 170pt;" width="226"></col>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 170pt;" width="226"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Insect
group</span></b></td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Species</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moths</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">159</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beetles</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">124</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">97</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bugs</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">77</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bees, wasps & ants</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">71</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Butterflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">25</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Springtails</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">18</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dragonflies and damselflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Barkflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lacewings</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earwigs</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fleas</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grasshoppers and crickets</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mayflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bristletails</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scorpionflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Silverfish</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stoneflies</span></td>
<td class="xl66"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">David Fenwick's Penzance garden was particularly striking, a 10-metre by 10-metre square producing 189 species, including a springtail and flatworm currently unnamed by science, and another half-dozen flatworm species more at home in Australia than Cornwall - clearly an amazing site! </span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><br />After rushing around Cornwall to bioblitz three separate gardens, Sally Luker spotted just under 300 species, and several people made it over the 200-species barrier. Natural history is alive and well in modern Britain!</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">With a virtually non-stop 24-hours of searching and then identifying, I managed to find 301 species (and lose a lot of sleep!). Loads of species new to me for the year, even a couple of species I've never seen before, despite having spent a lot of time poking around the garden in the three years I've been in the same house - just shows how much there is to see once you start looking properly! My personal favourite sighting of the weekend was a tiny ladybird, <i>Scymnus interruptus</i> - there's fewer than 20 sightings in the national database for this 2mm-long, black-and-red species, but it seems to be on the increase over the last couple of years. </span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Elsewhere, there were garden Pine Martens (<i>Martes martes</i>) in Scotland, a P</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">eregrine Falcon (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Falco peregrinus</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">) in Norwich, and six records of Ravens (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Corvus corax</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">). Roe (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Capreolus capreolus</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">), Fallow (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Dama dama</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">) and Muntjac Deer (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Muntiacus reevesi</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">) all made appearances, along with the bright pink Rosy Woodlouse (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Androniscus dentiger</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">) and yellow Brimstone moth (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Opisthograptis luteola</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">). </span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Maybugs (<i>Melolontha melolontha</i>) were spotted bumbling around lights; cat fleas (<i>Ctenocephalides felis</i>) were spotted on, then removed from, pet cats. For the full list and more, check out the <a href="http://www.brc.ac.uk/iRecord/garden-bioblitz-info">Garden BioBlitz info centre</a>.</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Same time next year? :)</span></span></h3>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-59657741679870077842013-05-23T23:39:00.003+01:002013-05-26T16:23:07.352+01:00Brimstone moth<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">This post is the latest in a series covering the ID of a selection of species which are likely to be in and around everyone's gardens, parks, etc, created for the 2013 Garden Bioblitz (details at </span><a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html" style="background-color: white; color: #6699cc; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> - everyone join in!)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Brimstone moth, <i>Opisthograptis luteola</i>, appears to be on a one-moth mission to disprove the fallacy that moths are dull, brown, clothes-munching things:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/4682813433/" title="General 132 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><img alt="General 132" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4042/4682813433_b486151525.jpg" width="500" /></a>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bright yellow flattened triangle with brown and white markings, the Brimstone has a wingspan of about 35mm. With multiple overlapping generations, adults are continuously on the wing from April to October in the south, gradually declining to a single mid-summer generation in Scotland. It is widespread and abundant almost everywhere, and frequently comes to light, though it does occasionally fly during the day. No other British species is this size and colour - the only similar species likely to be encountered is the Swallowtailed moth, Ourapteryx sambucaria, but this is much larger, paler, and flies for a short period in July.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Brimstone caterpillar is a twig mimic, and like most caterpillars of the Geometridae family they're loopers, or inchworms. They have two colour forms, brown and green, and have a hump halfway along their body. Dietary generalists, they can be found feeding on a wide range of trees and shrubs, including hawthorn, blackthorn and rowan. Pupae (the 'chrysalis') are formed in a loosely-spun cocoon between leaves, and both can be found in any month of the year, including throughout the winter - the Brimstone is one of the few moth species to overwinter in two different stages, both caterpillar and pupa</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more info on British moths, check out the excellent UK Moths site: <a href="http://ukmoths.org.uk/">http://ukmoths.org.uk/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Additionally, there's a network of county moth groups all over the country, usually with notes on what moths are flying at the time, local distribution maps, hints on any local variations to look out for, and much more - the best way to find a group nearby is to google '(your county) moths'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">And of course, don't forget to join in with the Garden Bioblitz on the 1st/2nd June 2013! </span><a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html" style="background-color: white; color: #6699cc; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> for more details</span></span>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-72413979823240631612013-03-17T22:11:00.002+00:002013-03-17T22:11:23.811+00:00#GBB13 - The Green Shieldbug<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">This post is the latest in a series covering the ID of a selection of species which are likely to be in and around everyone's gardens, parks, etc, created for the 2013 Garden Bioblitz (details at </span><a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html" style="background-color: white; color: #6699cc; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> - everyone join in!)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>The Green Shieldbug, <i>Palomena prasina</i> has got one of those really functional names. It's a green, shield-shaped bug, around 13mm long:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5738166342/" title="Cornwall May 11 060 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><img alt="Cornwall May 11 060" height="471" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5222/5738166342_cee3c8a83c.jpg" width="500" /></a>It does have a few bits that aren't green though: reddish antennae and tarsi (feet) stand out from the background, and puncture marks and the exposed wing membranes at the back are darker. This splits the Green Shieldbug from the only similar species in the UK, the introduced Southern Green Shieldbug (<i>Nezara viridis</i>) - that species is a uniform green as an adult, with light green wing membranes, few to none dark puncture marks, and 3-5 indistinct white marks on the front of the scutellum. Native to Africa but a regular find in Britain since 2003, it has a much smaller distribution (mainly in the south-east) than the widespread and common native species.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />In autumn, the adult shieldbug changes from green to a bronzey, purpley colouration to be camouflaged through the winter, which is spent lurking in leaf litter and low vegetation. They're still purpleish when they begin reappearing in April-May, but quickly regain their green colouration in time for summer. Come June, the first eggs appear: batches of 20-30 barrel-shaped, bright green eggs laid with geometric precision in a hexagonal pattern on leaves. As sap-feeders on a range of deciduous trees and shrubs, especially hazel, the nymphs can begin feeding straight away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Unlike the familiar 4-stage life cycle of butterflies, with a pupal stage where the larva changes to an adult, shieldbugs only have 3 stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The nymph sheds its skin several times, gradually looking more and more like the adult, before shedding its skin one last time to reveal the adult, recognisable from the full wings - nymphs aren't capable of flight.<br />Nymphs of the Green Shieldbug are green, red or orange when they first hatch, but soon darken to green, often with a darker head, thorax and wing buds, like a smaller, rounder version of the adult. They're easily distinguished from the Southern Green Shieldbug at this stage, as the introduced species has black nymphs, speckled with patches of bright yellow and red. Although it does have a green form, this too is speckled with yellow, red and black</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />More information on the Green Shieldbug, including illustrations of the nymphal stages, can be found at the excellent British Bugs website: <a href="http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Pentatomidae/palomena_prasina.html">http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Pentatomidae/palomena_prasina.html</a> and there's also a Field Studies Council fold-out chart available to buy at <a href="http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/shieldbugs-of-the-british-isles.aspx">http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/shieldbugs-of-the-british-isles.aspx</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/shieldbugs-of-the-british-isles.aspx"><br /></a>Any sightings should be sent to the Heteroptera recording scheme, or recorded online at <a href="http://www.brc.ac.uk/iRecord/">http://www.brc.ac.uk/iRecord/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.brc.ac.uk/iRecord/"><br /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">And of course, don't forget to join in with the Garden Bioblitz on the 1st/2nd June 2013! </span><a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html" style="background-color: white; color: #6699cc; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> for more details</span></span>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324773170361977313.post-87170026053201076852013-02-25T23:05:00.000+00:002013-02-26T12:53:59.062+00:00#GBB13 - The 7-spot ladybird<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This post is the first in a series covering the ID of a selection of species which are likely to be in and around everyone's gardens, parks, etc, created for the 2013 Garden Bioblitz (details at <a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a> - everyone join in!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 7-spot ladybird, <i>Coccinella septempunctata</i>, is the archetypal ladybird. Featured in toys, games and company logos, this is one of the very few insect species with a positive public image - in fact, it's nicknamed 'the gardener's friend' for its habit of devouring pest insects such as aphids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/4538572283/" title="CEH 080410 309 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="CEH 080410 309" height="332" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2702/4538572283_dbc4695991.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An adult 7-spot ladybird, sunbathing to warm up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The adults are amongst the easiest insects to identify - big (5-8mm long) and bright orange, they make no effort to hide (their bright colours are a warning to predators of their foul taste), and they only come in one colour form, unlike species such as the 2-spot or Harlequin ladybirds (the snowflakes of the insect world, with no two individuals alike).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">99.9% of the 7-spots you'll ever see will look almost exactly like the one pictured above - the wing cases (elytra) a bright orange/red, with a pyramid of three roundish black spots on each, and a 7th stretched across both elytra at the front, just behind the black-and-white head and thorax. Occasionally specimens miss spots, or have tiny extra ones, but in general, the picture is what they'll look like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a double-check, the 7-spot is one of the largest ladybirds in Britain - most of our 47 species are less than 5mm long. The only species which can look similar, and is a similar size, is the Harlequin (<i>Harmonia axyridis</i>), which can sometimes have very few spots, but the orange colour form of the Harlequin always has a black 'M' on the thorax, which is never present in the 7-spot.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/4539208724/" title="Ladybirds 090410 128 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Ladybirds 090410 128" height="330" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4056/4539208724_cd221899b7.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Definitely not a 7-spot ladybird</b>. The spotless form of the Harlequin ladybird - note the 'M' marking</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ladybirds, like most insects, have the 4-stage life cycle familiar from butterflies - egg, larva, pupa, adult. In butterflies and moths the stages can have different names - caterpillar for the larva and chrysalis for the pupa, for example - but with ladybirds, it's just egg, larva, pupa, adult. Although not as easy as the adult, it's still entirely possible to successfully identify pupae and fully-grown larvae of the 7-spot.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5737619977/" title="Cornwall May 11 092 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Cornwall May 11 092" height="436" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5028/5737619977_f8ebcd6786.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Pupa of a 7-spot ladybird</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of people will have seen a ladybird pupa without realising what the strange, blob-like creature on the leaf actually was, and it's true, they do look a bit odd - especially when they feel threatened and rear up and down like a globular hinge! Only found in the vicinity of aphids, 7-spot pupae are rounded, orange-and-black, and big enough to fit an adult ladybird inside them (again, much larger than most of the other ladybird species), and with the shed skin of the larva at the back end, where it's attached to the leaf. The shed skin is an important feature for distinguishing 7-spot pupae from Harlequins, which are brighter orange and have a very spiky shed larval skin. </span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/4777184113/" title="Harmonia axyridis pupa RC(2) by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Harmonia axyridis pupa RC(2)" height="404" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4073/4777184113_970eb4586b.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Not a 7-spot.</b> A Harlequin ladybird pupa, note the brighter orange and obvious spines on the shed larval skin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The combination of size and lack of spines is a good pointer for the larvae, too. Again, they're big, and covered in warts (not spines), and they have a couple of orange flashes on either side, each made up of two warts, one on top of the other. There are a few fairly similar species, but none of them have the combination of large size and the 4 orange patches. They have a voracious appetite for aphids, and you won't find them far from an aphid colony (or underneath one).</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5737633297/" title="Cornwall May 11 153 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Cornwall May 11 153" height="272" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2641/5737633297_91fb088ec0.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/5867874018/" title="June ladybirds 03062011 082 by RComont2010, on Flickr"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="June ladybirds 03062011 082" height="333" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5312/5867874018_f54305d60f.jpg" width="500" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Two views of 7-spot ladybird larvae</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any ladybirds you see should be recorded at the UK Ladybird Survey website (<a href="http://www.ladybird-survey.org/">http://www.ladybird-survey.org/</a>), which is also well worth looking at for the other species, and for lots more information besides. There are also plenty of ladybird photos on the web - my Flickr sets are below:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adult ladybirds - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157623774877905/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157623774877905/</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pupae - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157626283897399/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157626283897399/</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Larvae - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157626283897399/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcomont/sets/72157626283897399/</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you prefer paper, the Field Studies Council also publish ID charts for the ID of adult (<a href="http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/guide-to-ladybirds-of-the-british-isles.aspx">http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/guide-to-ladybirds-of-the-british-isles.aspx</a>) and larval ladybirds (<a href="http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/ladybird-larvae.aspx">http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/ladybird-larvae.aspx</a>)</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And of course, don't forget to join in with the Garden Bioblitz on the 1st/2nd June 2013! <a href="http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html">http://www.naturewatched.org/gbb.html</a> for more details</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746907626748250044noreply@blogger.com0