Trapped! A silly blog

During the summer months the windows of our conservatory tend to remain open all day. Insects flit in and out, arriving full of enthusiasm and leaving a few minutes later looking confused and disgruntled.


Chris and I have just had a short break in Devon and, of course, prior to leaving, secured all the windows inevitably leaving insects trapped inside. They died in the heat and naturally I couldn't resist having a look at them, but they were predictably common and unspectacular.


The most obvious of the corpses was a Silver Y Moth, Autographa gamma. It is an ubiquitous insect and most people are probably familiar with it. Large numbers arrive here each year from central Europe, but whether some are resident in Britain I am not qualified to say.

The Silver Y moth is common all over Britain at this time of the year.

Stefen Hill, Daventry. 8 August, 2019

Another, less welcome moth, was Hoffmannophila pseudospretella, the Brown House-moth. With so much of our clothing now consisting largely synthetic materials, has it become slightly less common? Perhaps not. In natural conditions it is attracted to sheep wool, feathers, birds' nests and so on.

Episyrphus balteatus was there too. It is one of our few two-winged flies to have a common name, being known as the Marmalade Fly. It was accompanied by Scaeva pyrastri, another common migrant. Both these species are hoverflies and are 'gardeners' friends', as the horticulturists put it.

A migrant hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri, was among the fallen in our

conservatory. Stefen Hill, 8 August, 2019

Most people are familiar with flesh flies. These are feeders on carrion and other waste animal material (the flies that is, not the people) and are generally not welcome in our homes. Often large and with a loud buzz they are members of the Sarcophagidae family, and the name (Greek: sarkos, flesh, and fagein, eat) says it all.

Sarcophaga carnaria, the flesh-eating flesh fly! Stefen Hill, Daaventry.

8 August, 2019

The particular species on our mortuary slab of a window sill was Sarcophaga carnaria. 'Carnaria' also refers to flesh so we have yet another of these very common tautological scientific names.

A tiny bug, Anthocoris nemorum, was among the bodies together with Musca autumnalis. This Musca is a very common relative of the house-fly, Musca domestica but, despite its name, is by no means confined to autumn and may be found from March to November.

Strange to think that all over Britain during the next few weeks, an army of people will be returning from holidays and feverishly sorting through the dead insects on their window ledges.

Or perhaps not...

The Old Mill, Jacobstowe

Chris and I have just returned from a short but delightful break at Jacobstowe, near Okehampton (not to be confused with the Jacobstow, between Bude and Tintagel, in Cornwall).


Our visit was in response to an invitation from Linda and Kevin, the owners of The Old Mill, to pay them a visit. Chris and Linda are firm friends, having frequently walked together in the Byfield area. For my part I knew Linda, but not well, and I had only met Kevin once before. As it turned out, they were excellent hosts and very pleasant company. Our old friends Lynda and Damien Moran were also visiting The Old Mill but we had travelled down separately.




Chris and Damien chat on the steps of The Old Mill.

5 August, 2019

Linda and Kevin have worked incredibly hard to create this B and B and can be very proud of their efforts, for it really is a lovely property, impeccably neat and full of interesting features. Among these features is the original mill whose innards we examined. It is hoped that the mill, whose power originally came from the River Okement, will eventually be restored to full working order.



The restoration of the mill will involve a great deal of hard work

but many of the original parts are still in place. 4 August, 2019

The Okement in an interesting river. Originally called the River Ock, its two main sources, the East And West Ock, rise on Dartmoor. They meet near Okehampton and as the River Okement, flow north via Jacobstowe to join the River Torridge.

The River Okement looking downstream. The gardens of The Old Mill are to

the left, with the sitting-out area where we enjoyed a lovely barbecue.

4 August, 2019

Linda and Kevin have filmed otters, deer and dippers beside the water and even as we watched on our first evening a kingfisher flashed past. The river contains trout, so the otters and the occasional grey heron probably feed well. Apparently the river once supported salmon and Kevin hopes that, with suitable management, they will make a return.

On our first day there we took a stroll through meadows beside the river. The shrubs beside the river included wild privet and spindle; hops wound their way through the shrubs, together with Black Bryony (our only native representative of the yam family).

The river looking upstream. Alders, oaks, willows, ash and sycamore line

the banks. 4 August, 2019

Although I am no mycologist I did photograph this interesting fungus in the meadow. Once home, a check through my books (why do I have four books on fungi?) suggested that it was the Saffron Bolete, Leccinum crocipodium.

Saffron Bolete? Seems likely, but what do I know?

It is not a particularly common toadstool but is associated with oak, some specimens of which stood nearby. It is sometimes called the Yellow-cracking Bolete, and the cracks on the cap are certainly of a lemon-yellow colour.

Same specimen. Underside of cap, showing the yellowish pores. Meadow

beside the River Okement. 4 August, 2019

The area in general seems to have a rich and varied fauna and flora. But am I jealous? You bet!

Mines and galls

There were insects a-plenty in Stefen Hill Pocket Park earlier today. I'll be looking at the specimens taken when time allows but for now I am going to examine the galls and leaf mines noted on my walk.


First up was a clump of Red Valerian with the distinctive mine of Liriomyza strigata. Although it is polyphagous, attacking a range of plants, the mine caused by the larva always tends to follow the midrib of a leaf.

Leaves of Red Valerian had been mined by Liriomyza strigata.
Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 2 August, 2019

The insect in question is a member of the Agromyzidae, a family of insects responsible for many a mine throughout the civilised world (plus the states of Georgia and Mississippi).

This long, sinuous gallery mine was on oak and is the work of a moth, Stigmella basiguttella. Common on oaks everywhere it has been called the Base-spotted Pigmy but of course no one uses the name.

Looking like a meandering river, this mine is the work of  a moth,

Stigmella basiguttella. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 2 August, 2019

Mines are now to be seen on leaves everywhere but galls are appearing too. A distinctive one is Alder Tongue, Taphrina alni. I have mentioned this species before but I couldn't resist photographing a nice specimen today.

Protruding from an alder catkin is the visible part of the fungus,

Taphrina alni. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 2 August, 2019

Unusually it is a fungus and causes a distortion of the female catkins. Currently it is quite brightly coloured but withered brown-black specimens often remain on the catkins for months.

I examined the some oaks in the expectation that I would find knopper galls, Andricus quercuscalicis, present. Instead some of the acorn cups had been galled by Andricus grossulariae, a new wasp for the pocket park.




A shaft of sunlight through the trees highlights the gall on an acorn cup.

Andricus grossulariae is the culprit. Stefen Hill Pocket Park,

August, 2019

Interesting (well, interesting to me) mines were found on Coltsfoot and Cinquefoil but I will not try the patience of my readers (over 70 logged on yesterday to peruse my ramblings). Instead I'll put the kettle on - far more important than blogging!





Ramshorns and bellflowers

The flora of Byfield Pocket Park is well-known and rarely presents a surprise. Today however I found a flower which was not just a surprise but a rather spectacular one.


I was checking over some St John's Wort when, among a clump of weedy growth nearby a splash of blue caught my eye.  Closer examination showed that the plant in question was Nettle-leaved Bellflower, Campanula trachelium, a tall and vigorous relation of the Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia, which grows about half a mile away on Solden Hill.


The Nettle-leaved Bellflower is new to Byfield Pocket Park.
31 July, 2019

Several spikes of the bellflower were present, attracting numerous insects, particularly small beetles. It could be a throw-out from a garden but I have not noticed it being grown in Byfield and it is a native plant. The leaves are distinctive and are more important to identification than the flowers.

The form of the leaves is helpful in distinguishing it from other

bellflowers.

Interestingly, the latest flora for Northamptonshire states: 'There are no records of garden escapes in this county'. (Reference 1). The specific name trachelium is also interesting. Basically it means 'neck' and indeed comes from the Greek trachylos, the neck (think trachea). The plant was once reputed to be good for throat ailments and one of its old names is Throatwort.

An oak tree stood nearby and I made a cursory check (I couldn't be too long as I had an appointment at the hairdressers) for galls. Rather pleasingly I found a few specimens of Ramshorn Gall, caused by the wasp Andricus aries. This insect and its gall were unknown in Britain before 1997, when it was found in Berkshire. Since then its spread has been rapid and is well established as far north as Perthshire.

The Ramshorn Gall was in interesting find in the pocket park today

31 July, 2019

In many specimens the 'horns' can become long and rather curved - very ramshorn-shaped. The specimens I photographed were hardly spectacular but interesting nevertheless.

This is a good times of the year to be finding flea beetles. Of course they are completely unrelated to true fleas  but have powerful muscles in their 'thighs', enabling them to jump considerable distances. Often very tiny, (and tricky to identify, Ref. 2) they are a challenge to my little camera and this is the best I could manage.

This metallic-bronze beetle on aspen proved to be Crepidodera aurea.

It is one of the many species of flea beetle in the U.K. 31 July 2019

The specimen shown is Crepidodera aurea, and was on Aspen, Populus tremula. This small (3.5 mm) beetle is widespread in England but was a 'first' for the pocket park, even so it only raises the total to a meagre 117 species. Lots to be done!


References


1. Gent, G. and Wilson, R. (2012) The Flora of Northamptonshire and the Soke of    Peterborough.


2. Hubble, D. (2012) Keys to the adults of seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland.
    Field Studies Council Publications.





In praise of ragwort

It is that time of the year again, when irate farmers rage against neighbours who fail to control Ragwort, allowing the fruits to drift wherever the wind takes them. It is undeniably true that he plant does contain a toxin, pyrillozine, which can be fatal to cattle, but there are no reliable statistics which can be referred to. Informed opinion suggests that the number of fatalities is very small. I'm told that the taste is foul but I rely on the opinions of others for that. Certainly it appears to repel most livestock.


Certainly ragwort is much loved by entomologists and a small clump of the plant, known nowadays as Jacobaea vulgaris (previously Senecio jacobaea), was proving a magnet for insects when I visited Stefen Hill Pocket Park earlier today.


One of the most abundant was Eriothrix rufomaculata. I always find this insect on ragwort at this time of the year, but what the connection is I don't know. My photograph is poor but it does show the rust-red markings on the side of the abdomen which give the insect its specific name, for rufomaculata means, of course, red-spotted. Although in the adult stage it is a nectar feeder, the larvae are parasites of certain moths,  probably pyralids, although evidence is surprisingly limited.

Eriothrix rufomaculata, a tachinid fly very common on ragwort.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 29 July, 2019

I took about a dozen photographs and aborted several more at the last second. But every time I had an insect nicely lined up a butterfly would arrive and disturb my subject. How often this year have butterflies been such a problem!

A marginally better view of Eriothrix rufomaculata:

same plant, same place

The butterflies causing the trouble were, for the most part, Gatekeepers, Pyronia tithonus.

Gatekeeper butterflies are currently abundant in the pocket park.

29 July, 2019

I saw dozens of these pretty insects around; over the pocket park as a whole there must have been several hundreds.

The caterpillars of Cinnabars were present, chomping away at the leaves and stems. Its association with ragwort is reflected in its Latin name, Tyria jacobaeae. I saw none of the adults around, but the next generation appears to be secure.

Cinnabar caterpillars are toxic and thus avoided by most birds. The warning

colours say it all. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 29 July, 2019

This moth, being day-flying and brightly coloured, is often mistaken for a butterfly. There were lots around last month on, for example,  Drayton Fields allotments, where I took this photograph. It is visiting Groundsel, Senecio vulgaris, a close relative of ragwort, no doubt about to place its eggs on the slightly succulent leaves.

I have given the impression that most of my time today was spent peering at ragwort plants. In fact I spent more time looking at leaf miners and galls in trees and shrubs - not that anything rare or exciting was found. And galls are hardly exciting features for most people unless it is something like mistletoe, technically also classed as a gall.

But who could fail to be thrilled by this example of Aceria macrochela on the leaf of a Field Maple?


Exactly!

Galls cause by the mite, Aceria macrochela. Stefen Hill Pocket Park

29 July, 2019

 

Bumblebees and butterflies

With rain forecast I popped over to Stefen Hill Pocket Park, keen to record a few species whilst the going was good.

As is often the case I made a bee-line for the little pond, with its edging of Purple Loosestrife. The whorls of flowers in their spike-like inflorescence were attracting many insects. Here I made my first mistake.

I am loth to capture bumblebees and I decided that a decent photograph would suffice for the purposes of identification. In any case, I was fairly certain that the species I was interested in was a Vestal Cuckoo Bee, Bombus vestalis. Wrong! (But see footnote)

Vestal Cuckoo Bee on Purple Loosestrife. Stefen Hill, Daventry.

26 July, 2019

On arriving home I found that, according to my books, it could indeed be a Vestal Cuckoo Bee but that species usually has sulphur-yellow patches on the sides of the abdomen in front of the white areas. On the evidence of the photograph it could equally be as Gypsy Cuckoo Bee, Bombus bohemicus, although this has a more northerly distribution.

So I don't know what I had photographed. Moral: a cobbler should stick to his last - which in my case means spiders.

A solitary Buddleia, Buddleja davidii, is present in the pocket park and hitherto I've been dismayed at how few butterflies it has attracted. Today saw a far better display with Commas, Peacocks, Tortoiseshells, Large Whites and Red Admirals tucking in to the nectar. The latter was the largest and gaudiest species present but was clearly feeling grumpy and refused to settle in a convenient spot. I did my best.

Red Admirals were busy on buddleia. Stefen Hill Pocket Park.

26 July, 2019

Benjamin Wilkes, in his book The English Moths and Butterflies, published in 1749, called the species The Red Admirable but other authors went with 'Admiral'. Peter Marren, in his book Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweeps, provides compelling evidence that Wilkes was correct and that 'Admirable' should take precedent, being an already established name.

Elsewhere, but not on the buddleia, Gatekeepers were abundant. The common name may have derived from its habit of going back and forth along a particular stretch of hedgerow from gate to gate, as though doing a security check.

Gatekeepers are lively butterflies, but this one stayed put long enough for

a photograph. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 26 July, 2019

Cherry trees are visited by Lyonetia clerkella in order to lay its eggs on the leaves. Not exciting I know, but I mention it because it is so ubiquitous, and the swirly or squiggly mines left by the larvae so obvious. Down the centre of the mine is a dark line of frass, or poo if you prefer the technical term.

The larvae of Lyonetia clerkella leave distinctive mines in cherry leaves.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 26 July, 2019

It will attack the relatives of cherries and is called (by almost no one, as serious lepidopterists use the Latin name) the Apple Leaf Miner.

Footnote   I put the photograph on Facebook for the experts to examine and they agreed that it was a Vestal Cuckoo Bee. I now feel quite smug!

You can't make an omelette...

...without breaking an egg, or so the saying goes (an excuse for many an act of political malfeasance). In this case the context was Byfield's pocket park, for when I arrived there this morning I had something of a shock.

Drastic control measures in Byfield Pocket Park. 24 July, 2019

About 150 square metres of vegetation had been cut down, leaving around half a doves young trees standing. But to be fair the rampant growth of hogweed, nettles and rose-bay willow herb did need clearing and the work has been done sympathetically and the most valuable patch in terms of wild flowers had been saved. This consisted of a strip of land on the south of the patch containing black knapweed, St John's wort, medick and some hogweed.

The most floriferous area has been spared.

Certainly lots of insect life remained. It consisted of, for the most part, commonplace species but I gathered a few specimens which, for the most part, I suspected would be new records for the site.

The Swollen-thighed Beetle, Oedemera nobilis, was common, and if the thighs (femorae)

look slim it's because this is a female.

The females of Oedemera nobilis lack the swollen thighs of the male.

Byfield Pocket Park, 24 July, 2019

Bugs were common too, almost to the point of abundance. Most people are probably not familiar with bugs but some are stunning insects. They differ from beetles in several respects but perhaps most distinctively in their mouthparts, a bug having a syringe-like mouth for piercing a plant (or animal) and extracting fluids. The species shown below seems to be Closterotomus norwegicus, strangely called the Potato Capsid Bug, though with no obvious links to taters.

Potato Capsid Bug on Black Knapweed. Byfield Pocket Park.

24 July, 2019

So, drastic management measures have been taken but the consequences should, given time, be beneficial.