At last, some warmth (still not great at night though) and the insects are responding accordingly. It's amazing how quickly one goes from staring at ANY insect to suddenly having to prioritise to things I might have a chance of doing in a reasonable amount of time. Time is always a limiting factor, and I just can't bring home stacks of things that will take 3 hours apiece. However, some good progress this week. One particular help was welcoming fellow 1000lister Rob Yaxley to the square, where he incredibly generously gave up an evening to introduce me to the art of looking for newts. And we found one, and more besides. I owe you a few in return Rob! Here's the new ones for the week then:
Late additions:
Andrena clarkella, A. dorsata, A. nigroaenea, A. haemorrhoa - been storing a few of this genus up and had a concerted effort one night. Pleasing progress, and more to come hopefully...
Disciotis venosa - a cup fungus from a few weeks back that turned out not to be Peziza after all - thanks to Tony Leech for this one
Curculio glandium - groovy weevil named by Mark Telfer from last week's photo - great!
Carnation Sedge - on the common
Smooth Meadow-grass - road verge, grasses cause me trouble
Tuesday 30th April
Nomada goodeniana - a relatively easy one of this genus, I expect them to get harder!
Sheep's Sorrel - on my nice dry flower bank at the top of the common
Bulbous Buttercup - lots
Wednesday 1st May
Angelica - leaves only
Reed Warbler - bit of a surprise, one singing from a hedge - one-day bird only.
Friday 3rd May
Esperia sulphurella - distinctive micro-moth in garden
Small White - front verge
Great Crested Newt - in ephemeral pond on the common in Rob's torchlight (Rob glimpsed a Smooth Newt too but I missed it!)
Common Duckweed - in same pond, forget about these - thanks Rob
Ivy-leaved Duckweed - ditto
False-brome - Rob pointed out clumps of this in small piece of woodland, one to watch as it develops
Fissidens taxifolius - cool little moss that Rob found down a rabbit hole, bizarrely!
Common Pipistrelle - seen and confirmed on Rob's detector. We also detected Soprano later but by then it was too dark to see them
Hairy Sedge - pointed out by Rob (and I've since found more of my own - good to learn!)
Wild Carrot - leaves only
Wall Lettuce - leaves only
Brimstone Moth - trap
Saturday 4th May
Black Knapweed - leaves and dead heads
Soft-brome - road verge
Lady's Bedstraw - leaves only on my nice flower verge
Melanostoma mellinum - common small hoverfly netted
Alder-fly - on common, det to Sialis lutarea
Cheilosia fraterna - a new hoverfly for me
Thyme-leaved Speedwell - dry areas on common
Lesser Pond Sedge - long acute ligules
Red Currant - a bush I've been walking past
Large Red Damselfly - along main stream of the common
Bugle - on a verge
Lunar Marbled Brown - trap
Muslin Moth - trap
Sunday 5th May
Eriocrania subpurpurella - micro found near a couple of oaks
Helophilus pendulus - hoverfly
Hedge Mustard - first in flower
Orange-tip - at last!
Plenty more still to look at, but have been out for the rest of the day, so they'll have to be announced later. 441 the score as it stands.
Eriocrania subpurpurella - a very common micro-moth at this time of year, anywhere with oaks. It's very small though - net anything that looks like a bit of flickering dust!
Nomada goodeniana - appears to be an easy one to name from the genus - if the abdomen looks like this, then it's goodeniana. It does get harder with others!
Disciotis venosa (Black Cup) - an uninspiring cup that is apparently closely related to Morels.
No comments:
Post a Comment