Another whip round Ally Pally

Had a very busy insect-free weekend but just before this latest spat of crap weather I did manage a quick loop about Ally Pally after work as a rare sunny evening went by. 

Not an awful lot to report except a couple of botanical lifers in the form of Sheep’s Sorrel and a very pretty grass, Crested Dog’s-tail. And a bug I had thought I’d recorded before – Stenotus binotatus. All achingly common but just another example of how much there is to learn.

  

Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus)

Yeah, it's an awful, blurry photo but it shows the structure quite well.

In one oak I found the predatory mirid bug, Phylus melanocephalus; and a hopper that turned out to be a Ribautiana sp. and therefore pretty much unidentifiable for the likes of me. An alder tree had the dark capsid bug, Capsus ater and quite a lot of a type of bristletail which coils its antennae into a loop. I believe this makes it Pogonognathellus longicornis, the one species of bristletail I’ve previously recorded. In the long grasses in the south-eastern corner of the park came many of the usual characters - lots of the Thick-thighed Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis; the mirid bug Leptopterna dolobrata; and Roesel’s Bush-cricket nymphs.  Also possibly the most richly marked Tortoise Shieldbug I’ve ever seen:

Tortoise Shieldbug (Eurygaster testudinaria)

Lea Valley mooching

Sunday's sojourn was to Cheshunt and the meadows and tracks by the River Lea Navigation. Being pretty much the first non-rainy weekend in a while, it took a bit of wandering before I got beyond the picnic crowds. Depressingly, a lot of the area’s been scalped in advance of the crowds around the Olympic games and so there aren’t as many big swathes of rough grassland as I’ve seen there in previous years. The first small chunk of meadow was still reasonably interesting. I came across 5 different species of vetch(ling) in one spot – Meadow Vetchling, Common Vetch, Grass Vetchling, Hairy Tare and Smooth Tare (another new species for me). Out of this marginal grassy habitat I also pulled out plenty of Thick-thighed Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis; an Orthotylus sp. mirid bug (such a difficult genus!); the soldier beetle, Cantharis nigricans; a Mirid bug, Grypocoris stysi; and a bright white common crab spider, Misumena vatia.

Grypocoris stysi

Misumena vatia waiting for lunch to come to her

A distressed Black-headed Gull brought my attention to a Red Kite floating over the river. There was also a good number of Willow Warblers singing in the area. They’re not the loudest, most variable or most complex of singers but they do my favourite UK birdsong. I picked up another tick upon finding some Cut-leaved Cranesbill and on a Sweet Chestnut found a Red-headed Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis. I wandered about a fair bit, spent way too long confirming that rose identification is hard and that 99% of the time that Hawk’s-beard will turn out to be Rough Hawk’s-beard. Up on some Common Hogweed I also saw this very confiding large hoverfly, Volucella pelluscens.

Volucella pelluscens

Finally I walked back through the ill-planned disc golf area where lack of use has allowed the grasses and clover to grow higher. The odd-looking chain-and-basket goals poking clear of the vetch or hiding behind bramble and hawthorn shrubs say a lot about the council’s aspirations, the extra funding it’s presumably had and how out of touch it must be with the local population. In amongst this derelict recreation ground were a lot of Leptogaster sp. robberflies; far more than I’d found elsewhere. Showing red hind legs, I’m fairly sure these were Leptogaster guttiventris. The final and most surprising find was a small bunch of Bee Orchids! I could almost have stepped on these beauties and I’m really glad I didn’t. I know they’re fairly common but for me they were completely new, completely different and completely self-found. I took way too many photos. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed seeing a wildflower quite like that before.

Bee Orchid

It doesn't look anything like a bee to me but then I don't view life in ultraviolet through hundreds of ommatidia

Hidden jewels in Ashtead Common

The forecast for the weekend slowly transformed from torrential downpours into a vaguely amenable “overcast and breezy”. This was t’girl’s first weekend post-exams and she wanted to go walk somewhere outdoors and green. And so Friday’s inebriation led to Saturday’s gentle bimble around Ashtead Common. We first popped over to the small green on the other side of the railway which looked surprisingly decent for 2 acres of hemmed-in common. Under the large oaks I swept a few things out of the grasses including a jewel beetle (my first in the UK – hot on the heels of my first ever in France earlier in the month), which I think is Agrilus sinuatus – the Hawthorn Jewel Beetle and a Notable A species. There was also the attractive Rhabdomiris striatellus which I still managed to mentally confuse with Miris striatus for a little bit. Back into Ashtead Common we hastily crossed the open field due to the strong wind – stopping briefly for some Yellow Rattle and Roesel’s Bush-cricket nymphs. The wind all but died away as we entered the domain of the trees and, when the sun came out, previously invisible damselflies rose out of the long grass and Speckled Wood butterflies chased each other under the canopy. Abbie got some nice sightings of blackcap, jay and wren; and a chiffchaff that seemed to be varying its song in interesting ways. In the fenced off area amongst some recently hacked pollards we found the one orchid of the day - a quite robust Common Spotted Orchid. Abbie and I had a go at the Cantharid key with a fairly small individual swept from woodland margin. It turned out to be a Rhagonycha for once and keyed out to Rhagonycha lutea which is Notable A. Taking it home I was able to confirm the ID under a microscope.

Rhabdomiris striatellus

A particularly interesting spot consisted of several veteran oaks in an otherwise open area with an abundance of bracken mixed with grassy patches. Out of one of these grassy bits came an odd looking ground bug with a very clear corium which keyed out to Nysius senecionis (see Issue 2 of HetNews for a key) – this is a relative newcomer (first recorded in the UK in 1992) but is now widespread in the southern half of the country. Also in this open area I found a new species of plant for me – Smooth Hawk’s-beard.

Green Oak Tortrix moth

The way back to the station brought us Hedge Woundwort and a Green Oak Tortrix moth (another lifer!). A little later on our journey brought the undoubted highlight of the day (on the tube of all places!): the large violet ground beetle, Carabus problematicus. Rescued from slightly panicky stamping he was quite the sight under the microscope. A little feistier than Pterostichus madidus was, it still stopped for long periods allowing me to comfortably ID it and drink in the details. The nasty looking mandibles only get worse when you can see the sharp, bristle-like serrations on the inner jaws!

Carabus problematicus

Natural History with a French accent

Still about, just been busy. Also had a stonking trip to the south of France. Saw 155 species of bird for a start! We moved about between the Camargue, La Crau, the Alps, the Gorges du Verdon and Marquenterre.

Anyway, I won't bore you with loads of pics of vertebrates. Have a photo dump:

This is the first Jewel beetle I'd ever seen. Think it's Ptosima undecimmaculata

Firebug!

A very pretty crambid moth. Many species in this group are plain sandy/grassy coloured things.

Wild flamingoes!

Yellow Wagtail (the SW European race with a blue head)

Melodious warbler. The song on this bird is really impressive. It sounds like more than one bird singing at times, sings complex songs with mimicry of other species throne in and manages to repeat it over almost exactly the same a couple of times. Examples can be heard here: http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Hippolais-polyglotta

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Adult female Glow-worm

Alpine Marmot

One of the Green Tiger Beetles. Always find these in the warmest & sandiest places in the UK so a bit surprising to find running around at 2500m altitude.

Ibex! None of the fancy big-horned males though

Mr. & Mrs. Common Crossbill

A leaf beetle - Clytra quadripunctata. They've got a neat life-cycle. The females lay eggs near ants nests which are carried inside by the ants where they presumably feed on the detritus inside before emerging as adults to feed on plants like normal leaf beetles.

This is part of the Gorges du Verdon and it's the roosting place for these guys:

Griffon Vulture! Apologies for the crap light but it was only a few feet over my head. They really don't seem to mind the people on the cliff-tops. Flippin' big birds but small compared to the black vulture that was also hanging around. It's got a 2.5 - 3m wingspan!

Some species of Rose Chafer

Some sort of Owlfly (relatives of Ant-lions). They fly in a style halfway between dragonfly and butterfly and some were very colourful. Really wish we had these in blighty.

A surprisingly obliging Chamois

And Cockchafers banging each other for once rather than into inanimate objects.

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.