A brief Ally Pally whip round

Not an awful lot done natural history-wise this weekend. Made a quick loop round Ally Pally and still found a few interesting creatures: Bruchus rufimanus – a bean weevil (although actually in the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae, not Curculionidae) was a totally new find to me. They have oddly faceted femora and tibiae which made me think of the Pill Beetles (Byrrhidae) at first especially as they fold perfectly into place against a round body. But the antennae weren’t right and the eyes were oddly shaped into bulged ‘V’s around the antennae. This isn’t an easy group to ID even with a microscope and it’s entirely possible I got it wrong.

Lots of familiar common stuff was about too with 7, 14, 16 and 24 spot ladybirds, a Cantharis sp. beetle, an odd small Empis sp. fly, an Altica sp. beetle, what I assume was the grass-bug Stenodema laevigata (I need to stop being so lazy and get this and the several other similar-ish species sorted), nymphs of a grass bug - Leptopterna dolobrata, Speckled Bush-cricket & Roesel’s Bush-cricket.

I also found a large ground beetle under a piece of roof felt which I also took home to ID. I was amazed at how docile it became under the light of my microscope. Most ground beetles are photophobic and will run frantically looking for darkness. This fellow sat fairly still and gave me excellent views, allowing me to ID it rapidly to Pterostichus madidus. A very common species that I’d suspected due to the red legs but not one I’d keyed out properly before. I feel confident enough now that I could field ID this species as it’s relatively distinctive as carabids go. The thing I found most interesting was being able to see the structure of the cleaning notch on its front tibia in full detail. It uses this notch to wipe clean the antennae, palps and to an extent the other limbs. It's equipped with a ring of recurved bristles and one oddly curved spine that looks like it may function like a spring clip: holding an antenna in place in the notch. I released him back into the rough grassland outside my flats; the Stygian-winged little eating machine is probably working his way through woodlice and grubs right now.

Hartslock

I finally made the trip to Hartslock after trying to make it there for a sunny May day 2 years in a row. It was definitely worth the wait. For such a relatively small site it has an absolute abundance of rare and interesting organisms upon it. I started out by walking by the railway sidings to the Thames and ended up stopping along the way to ID some plants I didn’t recognise. All fairly common stuff but ones I either hadn’t figured out before or hadn’t found yet. Sticky Mouse-ear, Field Madder, Field Pansy, even Common Storksbill and Field Forget-Me-Not were all new to me. In this one little area bordering the railway lines and with intensively farmed land to either side I still found 20ish species. While hunched down and looking at the ground and a flower key I must have been fairly inconspicuous (or looked like future carrion) as I heard a gentle woosh sound and looked up to see a Red Kite about 10 feet over my head. It circled about nearby and slowly rose up on a thermal until it presumably had enough height to track off wherever it was going.

Field Madder

Common Storksbill

Field Forget-me-not

Walking down the Thames, I didn’t see any of the Club-tailed Dragonflies or Beautiful Demoiselles I’d seen the year before. It was probably a bit early given the cold spring we’ve had but a few club-tails have been seen in the area already. The Thames-side path had the usual thick banks of vegetation with lots of broad-nosed weevils (species in the sub-family Entiminae), alderflies, 24-spot ladybird, a few mayflies and my  first cantharid of the year with Cantharis rustica (how this large soldier beetle with a heart shaped mark on the pronotum managed not to earn a common name I’ll never know). Running around on the muddy track was a ground beetle – Notiophilus biguttatus. These small (~5mm) beetles have enormous eyes on them much like the more charismatic tiger beetles and fill a similar niche as an active sight-and-chase predator. Also the most photogenic Lords n Ladies I’ve ever seen:

The Hartslock Nature Reserve sits up on one of the chalk hills that the Thames sidles by on its way out of Oxford. It consists of 5 small compartments of downland in different grades of scrubbiness. The presence of lady and monkey orchids draws in a lot of photographers and botanists in the spring so the warden and volunteers cordon off the most “orchidy” section of the hillside. There were quite a lot of people with cameras at the top as I came in so I took a more circuitous route, the long way around the cordon. Chris Raper, the site warden was there with his volunteers, mapping the orchids. He kindly pointed out one of the first flowering Monkey Orchids on the site which was quite diminutive and actually on the opposite side of the track from the cordon.

Monkey Orchid

Chris is also an entomologist specialising in Tachinid flies. He seemed quite proud of his site and rightfully so. They have both grizzled and dingy skippers on site as well as common blue, small heath, peacock and brimstone. They’ve got Bastard Toadflax growing on site (not in flower at the moment and not one I know vegetatively) and the Down Shieldbug, Canthophorus impressus – a quite rare species associated with this plant and only found in a few sites in southern England. There’s also Lady Orchid, hybrid Lady/Monkey orchids, Pasqueflower, Chalk and Common milkworts, Common Rock-rose, Salad Burnet and other chalk downland plants. This is also a site for the rare mining bee, Andrena hattorfiana.

Cryptocephalus aureolus

Up the hill I noticed an awful lot of distinctive orange and black bees, Osmia bicolor. This species will use snail shells to nest in and I even found one provisioning one of its cells. Two Dandelion-a-likes kept me confused for a little while. One of them was Lesser Hawkbit but the other was difficult to determine.

Osmia bicolor

Bee butt

At the very top I found out what had the photographers there in such numbers – the main patch of lady orchids and hybrid monkey/lady orchids.

Lady Orchid

Lady/Monkey Orchid hybrid

Garden Chafer

The rest of the reserve sees less foot traffic and is more open with a solitary large beech tree watching over the Thames as the reserve rounds into a dry valley tributary. This was a truly gorgeous spot for lunch. The first garden chafers of the year were in the beech tree alongside several arboreal carabids and a large entimine weevil species I’d been seeing everywhere (I have some microscope time ahead of me). In the short grass here I found my first ever (confusingly six-petalled) Common Rock-rose. Down in the dry valley, the very short sward was peppered with blues and purples of various hues with common and chalk milkworts, common green field speedwell, bugle, mauve depigmented common milkwort and in one small area: Pasqueflower!

What beauties! And so hairy! Well I’ll let them speak for themselves:

Pasqueflowers

These flowers are very picky about the kind of habitat they can use – the current issue of British Wildlife has a large article on the difficulties in conserving land suitable for this species. Hartslock truly is a special place.

Logging species from the logs at Bookham

Scaphidium quadrimaculatum

Woop! Finally we had some good weather at the weekend.

I joined the LNHS at Bookham Common to help with the ongoing surveying they’ve been doing there for 60-something years. Bookham is largely ancient woodland with a good patchwork of glades, a few large ponds with decent marsh beds and a small area planted with a few exotic tree species in an area called the Arboretum that has been largely subsumed into the main woods. Combine that with the well-used tracks creating a good amount of bare ground, horse-riding and cattle grazing contributing dung and a regular coppicing regime producing decent sized logs for deadwood and you have a good variety of niches available for wildlife.

I’ve been to this site before but I’d never seen it so wet. Much of the first meadow we entered was barely above the water table with each step making a disconcerting squelch noise. We started on our first log pile with gusto; sitting on a slightly raised area that had previously had a bonfire, it  represented an island of unflooded dead-wood on a soft substrate. Peeling bark off these old logs mostly revealed woodlice and the odd unidentifiable grub but this changed from one log to the next. Under one was some sort of Leistus sp. (I think it’s L. rufomarginatus) of ground beetle recognised by the heart-shaped pronotum and “cage” of bristles under the head used to trap springtails. Another had lots of Scaphidium quadrimaculatum under the bark. This is a beautiful rove beetle that looks quite unlike any I’ve seen before. The neat line of punctures along the back edge of the pronotum reminds me of the stitching on a smart shoe. Also found on these logs was an Uleiota sp. which is incredibly flat, a tiny Bembidion sp. with golden, almost translucent legs, Pyrochroa coccinea, a probable Harpalus sp., Polydrusus millipedes, a single Forget-Me-Not Shieldbug, the beautiful Mycetophagus quadripustulatus and a short-winged Xylocoris sp. All over the ash-strewn ground in this area was a mat of Bonfire Moss, Funaria hygrometrica, and running over some of that ash we also found a Notiophilus biguttatus.

Uleiota sp.

These are incredibly flat beetles!

In the woods themselves  we came across congregations of tiny moths in the Micropterix genus huddled together on Greater Stitchwort flowers. This group of moths are part of a primitive, mandibulate group of moths that have function mandibles rather than just a proboscis, allowing them to eat solid food such as pollen. Many of these flowers were also being fed upon by Byturus ochraceus. 

Byturus ochraceus - only 2 UK species in this family

The grasses were full of Bibio marci flies, Empis flies (probably E. tesselata), adult forms of Tachycixius pilosus, plenty of Phyllobius weevils, Malachius bipustulatus and a new click beetle for me: Dalopius marginatus. Sweeping a hazel brought out what looked a bit like a tiny Byctiscus weevil minus the shoulder spikes. This was Deporaus betulae; one of the leaf-rolling weevils. Over the course of the day we looped through the woods turning up amongst other things, a Grass Snake, Yellow Pimpernel, Wood Speedwell and a tortoise beetle (Cassida rubiginosa).

Cassida rubiginosa

 All in all a great day - good company, the sun on my skin and interesting critters.

Down by Denbies

Finally the field season is upon us again! But it wouldn’t be England if the weather didn’t change constantly and threaten awful conditions all the time.

I made a couple of trips out over the weekend in Surrey and south west London with the intention of finally getting to use my sweep net. Saturday was spent at Denbies hillside which was a bit of a wash-out considering the intention had been to look for butterflies. Still we retreated into the woods at first and did a bit of botany in the rain. There were some visually interesting patches of native bluebells and wild Yellow Archangel (definitely not the same story in many London woods I know). A local in our group putting us onto a patch of at least 100 Early Purple Orchids was really neat. They’re in top condition at the moment which is a bit late season but not unexpected with the cold spring. A large kind of bedstraw I had assumed before were large individuals of goosegrass was pointed out to be Sweet Woodruff. On the insect front, the only thing of note in the woods was a male Bibio sp. fly on a rotting stump.

Early Purple Orchid in fine form

We peered out from the edge of the woodland onto the open chalk downland just as the rain started to die away. Lots of Common Milkwort in flower here already amongst the short grass. A smattering of Cowslip in bloom in the lush fields at the bottom. Wayfaring Tree (another new plant for me) in bloom in a few spots of scrub with dogwood growing around it. A single male longhorn moth - Adela reaumurella was found on low vegetation – a little disappointing as, on a sunny day, you can expect to see small clouds of these pretty moths dancing just over head height by the trees. Some rather damp sweep-netting in the scrubby bits brought out a single female Dilophus fly and a lot of small green Phyllobius weevils. I took one home and keyed it out to P. roboretanus which I think I may be able to ID in the field in future (I’ve left notes at the bottom if anyone’s interested). Roman Snails turned up a lot around the many rabbit holes on this hillside; I’m guessing the soil is looser here which aids the snail’s own burrowing. This was the first time I’d seen live individuals, they’ve got a an almost pebbly surface texture to them and seemed to react to relatively distant movement (perhaps a function of their larger eye in comparison to the rest of our very small species?).

Funny how these are a protected species here and food across the channel. Does this mean if we eat them there'll be more of them? Have I solved world hunger?

Some log-rolling turned up a couple of other snail species all of which was new stuff to me: Rounded Snail (Discus rotundatus – best Latin name ever!) and what I believe is Plaited Door Snail, Cochlodina laminata (it was a long, “left-handed” snail without any obvious surface striations, which I think makes it a Cochlodina sp. of which there’s only one that’s found in the UK). The birds also put in a good show with Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Yellowhammer flying through or over the valley.

Down the bottom of the hill we looked under a couple of tins and saw a Common Shrew, one Adder, 3 Slow-worms and several ground beetles. Around this much scrubbier area we also found a female Scorpionfly and I was shown yet another new plant, Glaucous Sedge, which I believe I should be able to ID in future. Breaking open a small piece of rotten wood revealed none of the hoped-for beetles but the tunnel of some sort of leaf-cutter bee. While fascinating to look at the individual cells wrapped up in leaf matter, I felt rather guilty for potentially ruining several future bees at once. I placed the two halves back together and propped a log on top to hold it in one piece. Hopefully they’ll make it through. Finally, before heading home to dry, I found a large Empid fly that I suspect is Empis tessellata but I'm going to have to plead ignorance on this one:

2 days later I headed off with some friends with a rough itinerary of Hounslow Heath (for adders), a bluebell wood on the North Downs and maybe Denbies again to show them the orchids.

Once again, the weather gods saw fit to tease us. The morning’s sunshine shifting to overcast then drizzle as we arrived at Hounslow. Despite this the insects were still about in good numbers although it did make looking for adders difficult. Nomada and Andrena bees were seen along the concrete track.

Andrena something. Bees are a really difficult group but I really should know better

Large male Bibio flies seemed to be everywhere on the vegetation and when the sun finally peeped out again, boy did they dance! Clouds of them went up; ridiculous, lazily dangling legs floating behind each fly. As it dried out a little under still-grey skies, the sweep net found more Phyllobius weevils, a Rhynchitid weevil - Neocoenorrhinus aequatus, an impressive looking Caloptilia moth in orange and gold, a 14-spot ladybird and an odd black moth which I think may have been Epichnopterix plumella (would be the first Psychid moth I’ve seen if true). Eventually the others also found an adder after a lot of staring carefully at gorse and bramble clumps.

The bluebell wood was, well, a wood full of bluebells. I don’t really understand the British obsession with it. It’s certainly pretty but once you’re over the initial spectacle of the sea-of-blue effect there’s often not a lot else to look at; especially in a wood like this one with an otherwise poor ground flora. I think the others had a similar feeling as, after taking the obligatory photos, the conversation turned to the poor weather and our empty bellies. Half an hour later we were in a country pub.

Denbies was also looking dreary as we arrived; Leith Hill across the Mole valley was lost in cloud. I led our small group into the woods and showed them the orchids to much oohing and aahing. Out onto the open hillside again we found crows mobbing something. “Very dark for a buzzard.” “Surely it shouldn’t be that silhouetted?” “It’s a raven!”. And there was the closest to London I’ve ever seen a wild raven. Apparently there are two in the area, and although we only ever saw the same one with a missing primary on one wing each time, it was certainly showing some loyalty to the site, coming back again and again. Fingers crossed for some breeding attempts. The sun started to break through and many more insects began to make themselves known including two lifers: Dingy Skipper and Lesser Bloody-nosed Beetle (They looked almost exactly the same as T. tenebricosa but about 2/3rds the size and with a metallic blue sheen –reasonably abundant across the hillside). At a pond at the bottom of the valley we found plenty of Bugle and Cuckoo Flower. Orange-tip and Speckled Wood butterflies flew by, the first Large Red Damselfly I’ve seen this year and the pond itself was chocka with tadpoles.

Lesser Bloody Nosed Beetle being a generally awesome creature. Check out those feet!

We’re forecasts sunny weather this weekend so hopefully I’ll have more and better photos to share soon!

Ever notice how permanently sad slow-worms look?

Beetling nerdcore:
antennal insertion visible from above (separating Phyllobius from Polydrusus) and no teeth on any of the femora (this reduces your list of Phyllobius sp. to just 3 – P. viridicollis, P. virideaeris & P. roboretanus). P. viridicollis is a generally northern species and almost bald of scales so easily eliminated. P. virideaeris and P. roboretanus are separated on several features which can seem a bit vague at first. P. roboretanus is meant to have a “hatchback” profile to its abdomen with the elytra whereas virideaeris has a gentler slope to the tip of the elytra. More details can be found here: http://www.thewcg.org.uk/idaids/roboretanusvirideaeris.htm although a feature I found useful in the key I used (Morris, 1997) was down to the degree to which the distal end of the front tibia flares before meeting the tarsal segments.