Wednesday wanderings

There were only five moths in the moth trap this morning, but two of them were new to the garden and Andy & Melissa, our moth recorders, reckon that they're both good records:

This Frosted Green had settled down on the outside of the trap.

This is the May Highflyer, the larvae of which feed on Alder.

It's great when you can combine work with a walk in the countryside. Liz and I explored a few gravel pits this afternoon in a search for damselflies. At one spot we found large numbers of Large Red Damselflies....and a single Blue-tailed Damselfly! On the track to Rookery Pit we came across this young Bank Vole - it spent most of the time with its eyes closed, though they seemed to be ok when they were open.

When this moth flies past your line of vision it's like an avant garde fashion icon, flashing its garish colours! It's a Cinnabar Moth and is the adult version of the caterpillars mentioned in a previous post here. It's pumped full of poisonous pyrrolidizine alkaloids imbibed from the Ragwort plants it feeds on. Those colours are like a big neon sign to any potential predators: "I don't taste good!!"

Duck End Nature Reserve

These are a few photos of yesterday's lunchtime walk around Duck End NR - it's amazing what you can find in a short time!

This is the first time I've come across this Shieldbug - Troilus luridus. I love the metallic colours and the way in which they blend together...and the antennae headlights are pretty impressive!

Beautiful or what!! Male Orange-tip Butterfly.

Soon after hearing a real clamour of various alarmed birds, I came across this Song Thrush egg at the base of a bramble. It was at the entrance of a small mammal run, so I wondered whether I'd disturbed a Stoat or Weasel, but a Magpie also flew off as I turned the corner - the more likely culprit, I feel!

The Adder's Tongue Fern is one of Duck End's special plants. You can see the two rows of reproductive spores on the spike, which gives the plant its name. The 'Green Oil of Charity' was the name of a poultice of this plant's leaves and rhizomes which was applied to wounds. A leaf tea of this plant was also given to people who were vomiting!

I should have posted this on Friday: April 23rd, St George's Day. This is the St George's Day mushroom - it was fruiting in Galler's Pasture.

Bigger bugs, like the Shieldbug above, can be very dramatic in appearance, but I find the smaller ones fascinating, too. Thanks to Bernard Nau & Sheila Brooke for helping me to identify this as Anthocoris nemoralis.

Thanks to our new Weevil Recorder, Wilf Powell, for identifying this Weevil as Rhynchites aequatus. It was swept from an apple tree by the entrance to the Reserve, and Wilf remarks that this species sometimes becomes a pest of cultivated apple trees.

Here's something I'm still working on which I thought would be straightforward - is this Ladybird a Cream-streaked Ladybird or a 10-spot Ladybird? The diagrams and photos I've come across look remarkably similar. The Cream-streaked Ladybird is more of a conifer specialist which would make it less likely, but I'm not a 100% convinced yet...I guess this is the best way of learning!

Update: Thanks to Helen from The Ladybird Survey, who has confirmed that this is a 10-spot Ladybird (colour form: decempunctata). Helen says that 10-spots are smaller and less domed than the Cream-streaked, but they are tricky to tell apart.

Id section

Friday 21st May - Back garden

Thursday 20th May, Ampthill Park: Tiny white micro.

Wednesday 20th May, Ampthill Park: Aethes smeathmanniana (947)???

Tuesday 18th May - Unknown Weevil at Jone's Pit.
Confirmed: Cionus scrophulariae (L.). Wilf, our Weevil Recorder comments, 'There are 6 Cionus species found in Britain; an attractive and fairly distinctive genus. Four species are particularly associated with figworts (Scrophularia spp.), including this one as you can tell by the name. It is widely distributed and fairly common, sometimes also occurring on Buddleia.'







14th May 2010 - A few bugs for id: found whilst surveying for hoverflies at Duck End this morning.

This was on hemp agrimony. CONFIRMED AS Harpocera thoracica by B.Nau.

This is one weird beastie! CONFIRMED AS: Miris striatus nymph by B.Nau.

I think this is a young Troilus luridus? CONFIRMED AS: Elasmucha grisea (Parent Bug) by S.Brooke.

Stewartby Lake - southern clay area.

I can't believe that this is my first record of Green Hairsteak butterfly in Bedfordshire, though it has to be said that they're not common. The closest location I've seen them before is La Brenne in France! This was one of at least five that I came across. It's a male and it was holding territory on this particular patch of Hawthorn, setting off now and again in pursuit of suitors encroaching on his territory, and engaging in spectacular dogfights, before returning to his perch, characteristically angling his wings to catch the full benefit of the sunshine! I love his stripey socks and the orange tips to his antennae, apart from his dramatic green livery!

The stance of this one reminds me of one of those famous Viennese Lipizzaner stallions! Incredibly, this individual most probably hatched from deep within an ants' nest. Like all members of this particular family, the Green Hairstreak chrysalis attracts ants in the Autumn, indeed it seems they can't resist it. As one source says, 'Not only do the ants lick the secretions that ooze over the hairy, brown cuticle, but they also appear to be attracted, or at least appeased, by the cluckings and churring made by the chrysalis's sound organ...the loudness of these stridulations are clearly audible to the human ear as a series of squeaks. Indeed, it was in this species that the extraordinary phenomenon was first noted, over 200 years ago.'

So, if you're in Green Hairstreak territory in the Autumn, and hear curious squeaking noises at your feet, you know what you're looking for! But what I want to know is how they manage to get out of the ants' nest??

This is a male Eupeodes luniger Hoverfly - they are very common at the moment, and probably will be throughout the year...notice the lunules on the abdomen which give this fly its name.

Duck End Nature Reserve

The 2010 Dragonfly season began for me today when I stopped off at Duck End Nature Reserve on the way home from a meeting and eventually encountered this female Large Red Damselfly. The Latin name is Pyrrhosoma nymphula...in English, the 'Flame-bodied Water Nymph' - says it all, really!

Chicksands Wood

Following a sighting by Andy & Melissa Banthorpe, I couldn’t resist visiting Chicksands Wood this afternoon in order to experience a plant that I’ve always wanted to see, and yet always failed to locate before now.

But it was a mammal that got me excited first of all. I made my way southwards from Appley Corner and past the monument to George Montague Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax. Suddenly a Weasel ran onto the ride about 25m in front of me before noticing me, stopping dead, and then bounding back in the direction it had come from. I waited and tried to squeak it back, and was rewarded a few moments later as it reappeared, pausing once again in the centre of the track, before disappearing into the scrub on the other side. After having spent several hours waiting in prime Weasel habitat and following up Weasel leads in recent weeks, I should have known that I would finally see one via a chance sighting!!

I continued southwards before coming to this spot:

You can see the a number of pale plant spikes on the right-hand side of this photo, with a further spike just visible amongst the vegetation on the left-hand side...

It’s Toothwort, a strange plant that lacks any green chlorophyll and parasitizes the roots of several tree-types, tapping into the plumbing of the host plant and diverting the sap for its own benefit. Hazel is the plant that it is principally identified with, but I think that these spikes may very well be parasitizing Elm or Willow roots. Another old country name is the 'Corpse Flower'...look at its ghostly appearance and you understand why some folk in a former age believed that it wasn't roots that this scarey plant grew from.....!!

Why 'Toothwort' then? Look at the scales below the flowers...just like a set of molars - I really didn’t need to be reminded of my up-and-coming dental appointment!!

I’ve looked this strange plant up in my various reference books and can’t find one instance of it being used in past herbal remedies, which is unusual for such a distinct species. I counted 15 spikes in total.

Beauty parade!

A few weeks ago, on 22nd March, I uploaded a photo of a newcomer to my garden patch: a stunning Oak Beauty moth.

Yesterday, this species visited my little garden for the first time: a Brindled Beauty.

Then, this morning, I looked into the trap to find yet another first for the garden....and another beauty, this time the Pine Beauty. The photo's a bit blurred because the moth is in the process of shivering its wings, warming up the flight muscles prior to taking off, which it did a few moments after this picture was taken!