Dalgety Bay, Fife - 550

550 up with one new fungus last night. Spent a bit of time identifying another fungus only to notice this morning that I recorded it in March!

Sphaeropsis sapinea on Scots pine cone

immature spores growing

mature spores

Microsphaeria viburni

Microsphaeria viburni

Yesterday lunchtime I found a dead mouse on the patch but only attended by Calliphoras vicina and vomitoria at that time. I'll revisit it today and see if it's (a) still there and (b) attended by anything more interesting (i.e. Silphidae). Have to improve my measly record of one!

Numbers bit:

542	Bibio marci	St Marks Fly
543	Beris chalybata	Murky-legged Black Legionnaire
544	Acyrthosiphon pisum	Pea aphid
545	Cantharis decipiens	A soldier beetle
546	Liocoris tripustulatus	A mirid bug
547	Heliophanus cupreus	A jumping spider
548	Gastrophysa polygoni	A leaf beetle
549	Catops nigricans	A beetle
550	Microsphaeria viburni	A powdery mildew

Skye - Lord of the Flies

Made a small dent into the world of diptera today, after taking a mere 45 years to identify my first ever Gymnocheta viridis last week, today I saw three together, followed by a coupla singletons and then a pair! 

Gymnocheta viridis - one very smart Tachinid indeed

Also sunning themselves on a tree trunk were two of these beauties

Mesembrina meridiana - has the largest maggot of the dung community apparently!

I nipped into the local shop for lunch and found this fella watching me as I blitzed my way through a Mars bar/Red Bull combo. Coz no, I'm not sweet enough already...

Rhagio scolopaceus, known as the Downlooker Snipe Fly

Back in the woods again I realised my camera lens was dirty (hence the less-than-sharp pics above) which was a tad annoying seeing as this Lucilia let me shove the camera pretty much up it's nose

Lucilia sp - it's not L.caesar, but that's about all I can say from this pic.

Moving onto scary beasts, a large wasp zoomed past me at knee level, I gave chase and caught it in my net. Then the fun started! Eventually it was in a pot (and then on a pin) wherupon I could confirm it as my first ever Red Wasp Vespula rufa. Soon after I potted up a Common Carder Bee (to rule out a local lookalike) and had the same issue all over again. Meh, I'm not a huge fan of things that can sting me.

I feel pretty bad for taking a queen, though I suppose I've reduced my chances of being stung later this summer.

Last notable addition came to me courtesy of Ali. Following his lead I swept a load of nettles and eventually struck gold with a net full of small, hump-backed weevils. I knocked a few out in the jar to microscopically check various features but let them go afterwards once the identity was confirmed

Nedyus quadrimaculatus - mega cute and a lifer for me!

Additions since the last update are

556 - Common Figwort (plant)

557 - Mesembrina meridiana (fly)

558 - Gastrophysa viridula (beetle)

559 - Mother of Pearl Pleuroptya ruralis (microlep - larva)

560 - Sedge Warbler (bird)

561 - Red Wasp Vespula rufa (aculeate) - Lifer

562 - Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum (aculeate)

563 - Nedyus quadrimaculatus (beetle) - Lifer

564 - Downlooker Snipefly Rhagio scolopaceus (fly)

565 - Ramularia didyma (microfungus on buttercup)

566 - Phragmidium mucronatum (microfungus on Dog-rose)

567 - Eristalis pertinax (hoverfly missed off from earlier)

568 - Bibio marci (fly)

Dalgety Bay, Fife - bee aggressive, bee bee aggressive

This year my two surprise groups have been Collembola and Molluscs, but coming up on the rails has been the Hymenoptera. I surprised myself by being able to identify two sawflies but even more so probably by managing to find four species of Andrena (almost half the known county fauna!). In large part this is due to this book:

I bought it two years ago now, having been getting solitary bees in my hoverfly bye-catch. Naturally last year I caught fairly few. Yesterday, though, I keyed out my fourth Andrena species and I'm expecting to continue to add bees to my list which I wouldn't have bothered trying before. Of course the illustrations are nicely done too. This combination of author and illustrator on this subject matter made it almost inevitable it would be fantastic. There are many awesome books out there but generally their awesomeness is in line with their cost. This book is one of those rare bargains which manages to be both awesome and very affordable at the same time. This is Andrena haemorhhoa

Anyway, in other news birds are trolling me now as a Whitethroat started singing beside my office. I have heard not a peep from all my coastal scrub. Also I embraced the ecology yesterday and swept some nettles for Nedyus quadrimaculatus. It was there in spades.

Numbers bit:

537	Nedyus quadrimaculatus	A weevil
538	Lotus corniculatus	Common Bird's-foot-trefoil
539	Andrena haemorrhoa	A mining bee
540	Tetragnatha montana	A spider
541	Anthocoris confusus	A flower bug

Skye - 555, the number of the beast('s little brother)

Haven't been out as much as I'd like of late, and not many additions since the last post either but I'm gaining a small collection of pinned flies and carded beetles that I shall attempt when I'm reunited with my books once more. 

Caloptilia syringella, or whatever the heck it's called nowadays...

 

 

 

Red-green Carpet displaying some truly amazing camouflage skillz

Botryotinia globosa on Ramsons leaf , stunner eh?

No idea, but it's very pretty for a caddis!

Identified additions since last time are

548 - Gracillaria syringella (microlep)

549 - Red Admiral (butterfly)

550 - Field Wood-rush (plant)

551 - Gymnocheta viridis (amazing green tachinid!) - Lifer

552 - Botryotinia globosa (decidedly unamazing microfungus) - Lifer

553 - Epinotia immundana (microlep)

554 - Common Bird's-foot Trefoil (plant)

555 - Red-green Carpet (moff)

Kinda waiting with baited breath for Christian's next update, I reckon he's holding out until he's comfortably over 600. Either that or his shingles have got worse?

Sand Point VC6

Still progressing nicely despite the regular difficult species to key out. Weevils and Grasses are my pet hates at the moment. I have 3 books on grasses which has only served the purpose of confusing me even more. Keying out is followed by a fail, then I get annoyed and throw it in the bin. After half an hour when calmed down I remove from bin and repeat the cycle. On the plus side I'm enjoying the diptera at the moment and getting the odd new species.

Algae 7
Slime Mould 1
Lichen 49
Fungi 12
Bryophytes 64
Vascular Plants 126
Cnidarians 1
Molluscs 7
Arachnids 3

Myriapods 1

Crustaceans 3

Springtails 3

Orthopteroids 1

Hemipteroids 3

Hymenoptera 15
Coleoptera 30
Diptera 81

Butterflies 8

Moths 19
Remaining small orders 1

Birds 63

Mammals 5
Others 1
Total 504

Nyctia halterata

Schwenckfeldina carbonaria

Docosia moravica

Hilara clypeata

Dalgety Bay, Fife - Scorpion Fly (and germanica at that!)

First of the year and a collection of other nice goodies over the weekend (but mostly Friday!)

This hover threw me in the (dirty!) pot when I assumed it was a female. Immediately out the pot and obviously a male I followed the trail to Dasysyprhus pinastri after using three hover books. Not often that happens! The European one (van Veen) was the one that did the trick best.

Numbers bit:

525	Dasysyrphus pinastri	A hoverfly
526	Brachycaudus lychnidis	black campion aphid
527	Ranunculus repens	Creeping Buttercup
528	Microchrysa polita	Black-horned Gem
529	Esperia sulphurella	Sulphur Tubic
530	Glyphipterix simpliciella	Cocksfoot Moth
531	Dolerus gonager	A sawfly
532	Elachista argentella	Swan-feather Dwarf
533	Nemopoda nitidula	A Sepsid Fly
534	Siphona geniculata	A tachinid fly
535	Panorpa germanica	A scorpion fly

Dalgety Bay, Fife - Greater of two weevils

Decided to switch courses and run through a couple of weevils I had relaxing. Turned out to be remarkably easy. Also a nice "coincidence" was keying out a Ribwort Plantain specialist which I had swept on the day I recorded the plant. If I'm not careful I'll start to learn something about ecology but hopefully I can keep moving swiftly enough for such knowledge to slip off.

The Trichosirocalus troglodytes I liked a lot, especially the front of the pronotum which is elevated like a Galapagos turtle, and probably for the same reason.

But when I went to tick off Liophloeus tessulatus on my county beetle list that's when something interesting happened. What I thought was a routine find, having seen other people post pics of them before, turned out to be not only new for the county but also the most northerly record in Britain (normal NBN caveats apply).

A couple of easy species were added this morning and a good few more were taken for examination, including another tachinid and my first soldierfly of the year

Liophloeus tessulatus

Liophloeus tessulatus

Liophloeus tessulatus on NBN

Trichosirocalus troglodytes

Trichosirocalus troglodytes with "collar"

Numbers:

520	Trichosirocalus troglodytes	A weevil
521	Liophloeus tessulatus	A weevil
522	Fannia lustrator	A lesser house fly
523	Pieris napi	Green-veined White
524	Puccinia urticata	Nettle rust

Lack of admin from Waldridge

I've been plodding on the past few weeks but have seriously neglected to keep the list up to date apart from my scribbles in my notebook. 
Have just gone through and updated the list and this will be it for a few weeks until I return from my holiday in Greece.

 Good Luck everyone, though I'll probably be way behind by the time I return.

Keith Robson
Waldridge (VC66)

Skye - Getting lively at last

Been gorgeous weather here the past few days, and set to remain pretty pleasant for the next few days too. Insects have finally properly woken up and I'm keenly regretting having the bulk of my books in a loft-space in Southampton some 600+ miles away. I'm gonna have to get them somehow! 

The Ramsons Hoverfly Portevinia maculata, seen here on it's foodplant

Also on Ramsons was this lovely wee microfungus, one I've been looking out for ever since I learned of it's existence (ie since last week...)

Puccinia sessilis Ramsons Rust - simply stunning huh?

Ramsons - my absolute favourite member of the garlic family!

Water Carpet on the wall beneath a security light a couple of nights back

Hylobius abietis doing a prancing pony impression

If you're squeamish look away about five seconds ago...

This is a lamb carcass that I found on stones in the river bed. Not going to waste though, for amongst the clouds of blowflies I found this rather smart carrion beetle. This is Oiceoptoma thoracicum and a lifer for me, though I'm certain I've seen it before. 

Back to pretty things...

Male Green-veined White ssp thomsoni - FINALLY managed a pic!

Darn that annoying blade of grass (though it's probably a lifer whatever it is...) Note how the veins are actually a cunning mix of yelow and black presenting a 'green' impression. Green is actually a genuinely rare colour amongst our lepidoptera - Green Hairstreak being the sole butterfly with green scales and, rather surprisingly, only a handful of moffs exhibit green colouration. Though clearly the larval stages realise that being green has its advantages.

Anyway, the numbers as Ali would say

531 - Thyme-leaved Speedwell (plant)

532 - Ramsons Hoverfly Portevinia maculata (hoverfly)

533 - Water Mint (plant)

534 - Water Carpet (moff) - Lifer

535 - Depressaria radiella (another moff) - Lifer

536 - Pholcus phalangioides (spider)

537 - Cuckoo (bird)

538 - Whimbrel (bird)

539 - Whitethroat (bird)

540 - Small Tortoiseshell (butterfly)

541 - Cuckooflower (plant)

542 - Hylobius abietis (beetle) - Lifer

543 - Oiceoptera thoracicum (beetle) - Lifer

544 - Brown Trout (fish)

545 - Eristalis pertinax (hoverfly)

546 - Wood Anemone (plant)

547 - Ramsons Rust Puccinia sessilis (fungus) - Lifer

Dalgety Bay, Fife - Marbled Coronet

An absolute belter of a moth on the square on Friday night - Marbled Coronet. The first one was netted on the coastal path directly where its food plant is - Sea Campion. Another was found in the trap that we ran for a couple of hours - the only thing in it! There's certainly no shortage of the food plant oin the area so probably a decent population here. A few other bits and bobs added over the weekend but nothing to set the heather on fire and Sunday was spent bothering fungi somewhere else. All ticking along nicely though.

506	Criorhina floccosa	A hoverfly
507	Hadena confusa	Marbled Coronet
508	Earophila badiata	Shoulder Stripe
509	Drepanosiphum platanoidis	Sycamore aphid
510	Dilophus febrilis	Fever Fly
511	Erisyphe galleopsidis	A mildew on Lamium leaves