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

Another evening sweep round Alexandra Park

I met up with a new-found friend at Alexandra Park this evening to see if the kestrels would return and also to show his niece some of the insect life in the park. They'd already had a good time; finding common blue damselfly, comma butterfly, small copper butterfly and a few other things.

Moving over to the "bulrushy bit" we got to a decent patch of long-grasses, umbellifers, bramble, nettle and willow-herb. I pulled out a green shieldbug, Palomena prasina, quite rapidly and followed it up with an adult Dock bug, Coreus marginatus. Further sweeping of the area revealed there were also lots of nymphs of this species in different instars in the area. The others swept up a nice male speckled bush-cricket and a blood vein moth for which I really wish I'd brought my camera. Nothing particularly special, but having laypeople asking me questions was interesting and I realise now how much I need to learn my mirid bugs; there's loads of them out at the moment and they're all quite distinctively marked. We returned to the kestrel area and still nothing. The others had been watching the area for 4 hours with no sign of them.

I found a few more groundhoppers and ladybirds which entertained the others but I think I've gone over the same spots a little too much now. Perhaps I'll start taking the northbound train straight after work with my net!

Obligatory end post photo:

Coriomerus denticulatus (Like the dock bug but hairier)
It feeds on black medick which I have found locally so I'm still hoping to find it here in London