Hunting for winter inverts

Apologies for the poor upkeep of posts on my blog of late...for one it has been pretty grim weather for the last couple of weeks, which hasn't made it particularly conducive for either birding or photography, and also I am being kept fairly busy with the workload associated with undertaking a university degree! That said, there really is still plenty to look at and fin when you start looking...

I shall start with some moths. My faithful little heath trap has been doing ok just outside the caravan, but catches really have decreased fairly significantly recently. November (slash Autumnal) Moths have been perhaps the most common features, whilst Feathered Thorns have been turning up fairly regularly, which is great! Their bipectinate antenna, presumably from which the name originates, are superb! I have helped out with a couple of the moth-trapping events run on campus by the uni's environmental society 'Ecosoc', and a particular highlight was an Oak Nycteoline, which is a new one for me. Otherwise, the usual suspects such as Beaded Chestnuts, Large Yellow Underwings, Common Marbled Carpets and Black Rustics provide the rest of the entertainment...

Feathered Thorn - a truly superb species which has been a regular moth in the traps recently. This species has just one, relatively short generation, being on the wing from September to November

This smart moth is one of three confusingly similar species, that all occur at this time of year: the November Moth, the Pale November Moth and the Autumnal Moth. It can be very tricky to separate the three species on external characteristics alone, especially in the frequent melanistic individuals

This smart little moth could easily be taken for one of the angular micro moths in the Tortricidae family. It is an Oak Nycteoline. They are on the wing from October through to March, and come in a cool variety of different forms. I have no idea what justifies its name, but it is certainly amongst the more exotically-named lepidoptera species! All online dictionaries have thus far fallen short of defining the meaning of this intriguing name

...onto the other invertebrates then. Scavenging around campus and bush-bashing has revealed a surprising diversity of inverts clinging on despite the grim weather. One of the really cool things has been the discovery of the winter forms of Common Green Shieldbug. As their name suggests, they are for the most part an all-green shieldbug. However, as winter approaches and temperatures cool, individuals loose this green colour and fade into their dark brown form. This re-affirms their camouflage against the increasingly dulled tones associated with autumn and winter. It seems that they may also begin turning green again as temperatures warm in the spring. We have found many of these brown individuals around, and some in-between forms too!

There have also been plenty of other shieldbugs lurking around on plants around the campus- on Friday Will Hawkes and I managed to find three different species in one of the gardens, namely that of Gorse, Hairy and Common Green Shieldbugs. Will also managed to find one of these stunning little Cinnamon Bugs (Corizus hyoscyami). These bright little coleoptera species resemble the Fire Bugs that inhabit the nearby continent, and so it was cool to come across one in the garden. Butterflies and bees are all still very much on the wing, with plenty of fresh Red Admirals and Peacocks still out and about on still days, perhaps looking for somewhere to pitch up overwinter, such as a warm shed. The odd Bombus terrestris passes by still, and Honey Bees are still collecting pollen from the few flowering plants on campus! 

The smart Cinnamon Bug (Corizus hyoscyami). This is a species spreading northwards in the UK, with no records further than Liverpool as yet. It is most often encountered in the south, and is relatively common across Europe, having been recorded as far north as Finland! Its common name originates from the insect's apparent cinnamon fragrance if sniffed closely!

An interesting little beetle, with finely-indented elytra. This is the Cereal Leaf Beetle (Oulema rufocyanea), which can be a pest species on cereal crops

Just one example of the amazing difference between Common Green Shieldbugs at the moment! Very cool. Here are some more...

Common Green Shieldbugs

A Hairy Shieldbug

Gorse Shieldbug

Red Admiral

A trip to Portland Bird Observatory Part II - the Invertebrates

For this blog post I will detail a few of the cool invertebrate species that we came across whilst staying in Portland Bird Observatory. Being located at one of the most southerly points in the UK, Portland is ideally placed to receive a whole host of impressive migrant invertebrate species from the continent, in particularly moths. The have recorded well over 1000 lepidoptera species around Portland, and regularly find nationally rare species- indeed, there are several species found almost exclusively on Portland, such as Eudonia mercurella f. portlandica (which is also named after the isle).

 

A Dark Bush-cricket lurking on the edge of the obs porch wall

It was therefore very exciting to be based at the observatory for a few days, where skinner and robinson traps were placed out in the garden (I use the plural here...nine traps were out most nights!) every night to attract in any interesting moths. Although the time of year wasn't quite ideal for large numbers, we did have a couple of good nights in terms of weather conditions, with perhaps over 200 moths attracted to the traps on the night of the 27th, and then around 100 on the night of the 29th. 

Moth Trapping

28th October

The first morning of my stay saw some good numbers of moths in the traps, with the particular highlights for us coming in the form of Clancy's Rustics, L-album Wainscots, Flame Brocade, Pearly Underwing, Delicate, Grey Shoulder-knots, Feathered Brindle, Vestal, White Speck, Palpita vitrealis and Croicidosema plebejana. This brilliant selection was accompanied with good numbers of commoner species like Feathered Ranunculuses, Beaded Chestnuts and Black Rustics. This was a great start to our stay, with many of the above species being scarce species restricted to the south of the UK.

30th October 

After something of a wash-out moth-wise overnight into the 29th, there was very little to be seen in the traps in the morning. However, conditions improved hugely into the night of the 29th, which made for another great catch. There wasn't quite as much interesting diversity, but just under 100 moths were trapped. This included a lovely micro moth called Spindle Knot-horn, or Nephopterix angustella, along with macro moths such as Shuttle-shaped Dart, more Clancy's Rustics, L-album Wainscots, Chestnut, Diamond-back Moth, Green-brindled Crescent, Scarce Bordered Straw and Silver Y. Another great selection, if a little less diverse than our first trapping experience. 

This is one of my favourite micro moth species, which is commonly found on the continent, but occurs more scarcely as a migrant in the UK. The translucent wings give it the common name of Olive-tree Pearl

Perhaps one of the prettiest wainscots? The L-album Wainscot is again restricted to the southern counties of the UK

Flame Brocade- one of those holy grail moths for an aspiring lepidopterist!! This species used to inhabit Sussex, but has since become extinct and is now thought only to occur as a migrant in the UK. It is resident in the Channel Islands, however

Grey Shoulder-knot

The Delicate (top) and White-speck (lower)- both migrant species to the UK, which are relatively common at Portland

There were commoner UK species like this November/Autumnal Moth, which are just emerging all over the country at the moment (as per the name!). It is virtually impossible to tell November and Autumnal Moths apart aside dissection & genitalia examination

Clancy's Rustic- this species was not recorded in the UK until as recently as 2002, although it has since established itself as a fairly regular moth in the southern parts of the UK

A head shot of the Scarce Bordered Straw (another migrant species)

Nephopterix angustella, or the Spindle Knot-horn

Angle shades

A few of the many different forms of Beaded Chestnut that can be encountered- they can look superficially similar to the Lunar Underwing if you are not careful, but the upper kidney mark is a downward-pointing 'slit' in the Breaded Chesnut, compared to being a rounder oval in the Lunar UW

Bush-crickets

Aside the moths, there were a few other interesting invertebrate species to look at, including bush-crickets. I was surprised to see four different species of bush-crickets whilst at the observatory, three of which turned up almost exclusively in the obs porch! This selection included the rare Southern Oak Bush-cricket (Meconema meridionale), which is a very recent colonist of the UK, and is only present in the far south of the UK. Dark Bush-crickets (Pholidoptera griseoaptera) and Long-winged Coneheads (Conocephalus discolor) were also cool to see...

Southern Oak Bush-cricket (Meconema meridionale)