Friday, 1 November 2024

Entomology Journal - October 2024

A month of variable weather and troublesome Hymenoptera...


VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording and Checklist

LESOPS 63-64
After a great deal of work - mostly by my colleagues with a shamingly small contribution from me - we were finally able to publish the first two parts of our documentation of VC55 Bug Recording: 

LESOPS 63: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 1: Recorders and Recording. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 63, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019. Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS63TerrestrialHeteroptera.pdf

LESOPS 64: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 2: Provisional Checklist. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 64, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019 Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS64TerrestrialHeteropteraChecklist.pdf 

The plan is for more to follow in future, covering the other major groups. 


My Journal, October 2024

03.x.2024 

Worked on a range of Lygus specimens. I finally feel confident about these tricky bugs (as long as I can find a male!). 


04.x.2024

After the rain of the past week it was good to spend a day out at Melton Country Park. I was surprised to realise that I hadn't actually been there for nine years. I found a very good range of insects the highlights of which were Micronecta scholtzi, lots of Anthocoris limbatus and my favourite ladybird, Hippodamia variegata, the Adonis Ladybird.

Adonis Ladybird

05.x.2024

A friend dropped some specimens off for me to identify. The highlight was a male Anyphena numida. This is the first record of this spider for Leicestershire and Rutland. It was first identified in the UK in 2017 and is spreading rapidly from the southeast. 

Anyphena numida

10.x.2024

After much prevarication I finally cleaned the sensors on the microscope cameras. I don't like doing this because of the risk of damage but it seems to have worked well - far fewer annoying spots in the images now. 


11.x.2024

Quite a good frost, giving me hope for good autumn colour in the days to come took a trip to Cossington Meadows mostly targeting the pools with the dipnet. This produced some good records, including Corixia dentipes.


13.x.2024

Lots of fungi around but I'm very rusty on my ID skills. I'm aware that AI identification divides opinion, but it you think it's going to go away, you've lost the plot. The latest AI incarnation I've become aware of is the beta version of automated picture recognition on the Danish Fungal Atlas website. Seems pretty good to me, with the obvious limitations - https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/10/more-on-unstoppable-rise-of-ai.html


15.x.2024

Took a trip down to Blaby and Countesthorpe. Pond dipping produced a good range of species. 


17.x.2024

Enjoyed a very good LRES meeting at which Ray Morris discussed gall midges, even though galls and Diptera are not my area! Good to have face to face discussions. 


18.x.2024

After a misty start, took a trip to Shady Lane Arboretum on a sunny but windy afternoon before Storm Ashley hits over the weekend. 


21.x.2024

Visited a private estate at Osbaston to do some recording. In the walled garden we found the best growth of Mistletoe that I have ever seen on one of the old apple trees. Even better was the fact that it was only a few feet off the ground. Gently beating this produced a possible single specimen of Anthocoris visci, a Mistletoe-dependent species I have been looking for for two years. Unfortunately this turned out to be a female so we have been unable to confirm the species by dissection. However, a nearby Box hedge also produced Anthocoris butleri, also a good record.  Unfortunately I didn't spot a wasp nest I was standing next to (while trying not to fall in a stream) and managed to get stung on the hand by a wasp, but carried on recording after making a very swift exit, pursued by wasps. 


22.x.2024

Very pleased to have a flying visit from Jon Daws, dropping off some old record material. 

The hand which was stung by the wasp yesterday is now very swollen and painful making it difficult to do anything. I'm becoming increasingly annoyed that I didn't identify the wasp that stung me so that I could record it, and I regard an arm covered in very angry wasps as a rather poor excuse (even though running away as fast as possible was the smart thing to do under the circumstances). 


27.x.2024

Took Jon Daw's tuning fork (in D) to the Botanical Gardens to bother a few spiders in their webs. Moderately successful although there doesn't seem to be that much around at present. 


30.x.2024

A return visit to Osbaston to try to confirm the Anthocoris visci record from a week ago. Sadly we were unsuccessful. 



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Sunday, 13 October 2024

More on the unstoppable rise of AI

I'm aware that AI identification divides opinion, but it you think it's going to go away, you've lost the plot. 

Lumino machinalis - Dall-E 3

The latest AI incarnation I've become aware of is the beta version of automated picture recognition on the Danish Fungal Atlas website - https://svampe.databasen.org/en/imagevision

Denmark's mushroom atlas, Danmarks svampeatlas, is home to the well-known MycoKey software. The image recognition system is a logical extension of MycoKey. Trained on a Danish dataset of 250,000 images, this is pretty useful for UK users. Allowing people to identify fungi via AI - what could possibly go wrong? The software includes the disclaimer: 

Note that the system should be used with great care, and not as tool to identify edible fungi without involving knowledgeable humans with experience in fungal recognition. So please explore with curiosity and sanity.

It also flags when the ID results contain poisonous species. Beyond that, if people choose to ignore the warnings, well that's an argument in favour of natural selection as far as I'm concerned (although I'm pretty sure there are lawyers out there who would see it profitably differently). I've been playing with the AI, and as far as I can see it's pretty good. Although it lacks a probability score for search results that Obsidentify helpfully incorporates, it does have an unlabelled "confidence bar" for each hit. Each species returned does link to a useful guide text which includes spore details, etc. Obviously, if you think you'll be able to identify Cortinarius or Russulas from a mobile phone photo, you're probably not safe to be let out on your own. In future, it would be good if such apps could incorporate key ID information into the results returned, eg "check spore size" or "look for hairs on hind tibia". Even without that, unless you're a conspiracy theorist who thinks that this is all part of the great AI plot to take over, things can only get better. Because they're certainly not going to go away...


Thursday, 3 October 2024

Lygus Identification for Dummies (like me)

For some time I have been unhappy about my ability to determine the species of certain Lygus specimens. A typical Lygus pratensis is easy - based on "shinyness" (pubescence) of the elytra and markings on the scutellum. (Having said which, the extent of seasonal colour variation in L. pratensis has only just dawned on me - not quite as extreme as Palomena prasina but not far off.) Likewise, a typical Lygus rugulipennis is easy - dull (pubescent) appearance. However, not all specimens are typical. A short time ago I found an atypical Lygus - quite shiny with Lygus wagneri-like markings on the scutellum: 
"Lygus mysteriosus"

Such specimens are a problem. I find Nau's illustrations of the pubescence of the corium unhelpful (and he acknowledges the difficulty in distinguishing between certain specimens of L. pratensis and L. wagneri - Nau, B. (2004) Identification of plantbugs of the genus Lygus in Britain. Het News Issue 3, p11). 

Namyatova et al (2022) published a study of Lygus species including both habitus characters and male reproductive anatomy (Namyatova, A.A. Tyts, V.D. & Bolshakova, D.S. (2022) Identification and delimitation of the trans-Palearctic Lygus species (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae) using integrative approach. Insect Systematics & Evolution, 54(2), 146-192). According to Namyatova et al the overlap between L. pratensis and L. wagneri is explained by the fact that they are synonymous based on DNA homology, something which fits with observations of habitus. Leaving taxonomy issues to one side, the drawings of the spicule and the presence or absence of teeth on the right side of the small lobe of the vesica make distinguishing Lygus species (backed up by habitus) relatively straightforward. Although only males can be determined and dissection is required, this is at least a definite way of identifying atypical specimens with certainty. 
Lygus vesica

The issue now is that I have yet to encounter L. wagneri! Although we do have one record of this species in VC55 I am not convinced that it occurs here. However I am confident that if I do ever find a male L. wagneri I will be able to identify it with certainty! 
 
 
 

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

Entomology Journal - September 2024

Limited opportunities for entomology this month, and further truncated by bad weather later. 

 

My Journal, September 2024

10.ix.2024 

Finally managed to run the moth trap after missing the whole of August. 13/7 not too bad considering the trap blew over! The highlight was a nice Small Ranunculus, Hecatera dysodea. Followed on with more seasonal garden wrangling before the rain. 

Small Ranunculus

12.ix.2024 

A very enjoyable evening at the first LRES meeting of the new season. I was able to pick up specimens from several people to check. 

13.ix.2024 

Another very cold night, the coldest September night for five years according to the Met Office. Spent some time checking the contents of a flight interceptor trap I was asked to look at. 

16.ix.2024 

A lovely autumn day, sat in the garden and watched a successful mating of Garden Spiders. Identified some of the bugs I had been given at LRES. 

17.ix.2024 

18/9 in the moth trap, not bad for a full moon, and while it was warm when the trap went on it got down to 6C in the early hours. Spent the rest of the day tackling the wildwood in the garden. The evening was the AGM for the local wildlife group, with a talk on urban botany in Leicester from Russell Parry - whose thought-provoking talk made me dream of electric sheep: https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/09/dreaming-of-electric-sheep.html

18.ix.2024 

A short local walk on what turned into a nice afternoon. Lots of Common Darters ovipositing in the Washbrook, and plenty of Ivy Bees - the numbers are going up steadily year by year. 

21.ix.2024 

A lovely morning which I used to play dodge the cows along the Soar at Croft Pasture. Using the vacuum sampler turned up a good range of invertebrates. Fortunately home again before the apocalyptic thunderstorms in the afternoon. 

22.ix.2024 

A biblical deluge to greet the Autumn Equinox brought the local frogs out, and with them the first "star jelly" of the season. 

23.ix.2024 

Spent a very wet day indoors working on Lygus specimens. Some progress made but I need more specimens! 

Lygus rugulipennis

25.ix.2024 

Only 10/5 moths in the trap after a chilly night, so the highlight was a rather lovely Caddisfly, the Cinnamon Sedge, Limnephilus marmoratus, a new species for me. Attempted to hack back the vegetation in the garden ponds to restore some order. 

Cinnamon Sedge

28.ix.2024 

Took advantage of a sunny afternoon to spend half an hour in Knighton Park beating trees for insects. My finds were down no doubt because of the recent heavy rain but it was good to get back out again in the sunshine for an hour. In the garden a Hawker dragonfly was interested in the newly cleared pond.

29.ix.2024 

A rather chilly outing to Billesdon with the dipnet and the beating tray. The pool produced a range of Corixids and I found more insects on the trees. Home before the rain started again. Looking at a few days on the microscope now until the rain stops. 



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Friday, 20 September 2024

Dreaming of Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep/Dall-E 3

Earlier this week at our local wildlife group Russell Parry gave an excellent talk on urban botany in Leicester. As part of this he discussed the frightening loss of plant species from the countryside and the concomitant(?) rise in urban species. As with all such changes, the causes are multifactorial, but one of the big drivers are management practices. In particular, one thing that Russell mentioned is the impossibility of replicating the Lammas system without appropriate winter grazing. No mowing regime can replicate the effect of light grazing over winter as this removes over-vigorous thugs, allowing delicate species to survive. Mechanical mowing is not a substitute as it cannot be carried out regularly through winter due to increasing rainfall, meaning the land is unavailable through flooding, or machinery cannot go on it without causing compaction (and loss of delicate species). 

This has given me much cause for thought since I listened to Russell's talk. We struggle with our small urban perennial meadow, where the thugs take over in the blink of an eye and winter flooding (and compaction) is an ever increasing problem. My first thought was around Rentasheep - for a monthly subscription would-be meadowers take delivery of a sheep (and portable fencing, presumably an electronic system with a collar on the sheep) for a few hours a month. Leaving aside issues of animal welfare, it didn't take long to figure out that this would be prohibitively expensive, and to be honest I can't see a tribe of itinerant door to door shepherds arising anytime pre-apocalypse. 

But there is a solution. Robot lawn mowers are all the rage and it wouldn't be that difficult for someone much cleverer than me to incorporate a slot for a mobile phone, so that with an AI image recognition appropriate app, a lawnmower with a suitable blade becomes an electric sheep (lightweight, although you could of course dial in the desired degree of poaching for optimum biodiversity in the same way that you set the cut height on a lawnmower). All the hardware and the software for this already exists, it's just a question of someone who cares enough stitching it all together. Surely it can't be long before I can pop into my local B&Q for a electric ovine (or mini-bovine)? 

Electric sheep are not limited to my urban pocket handkerchief meadow - it's also a practical and affordable management solution for rural landowners, not to mention hard pressed Wildlife Trusts. Of course, with rural crime what it is, there will need to be a second generation or robot guard dogs to prevent the electric sheep being nicked ... or do I mean rustled? Electric lamb chops anyone? 



Sunday, 1 September 2024

Entomology Journal - August 2024

August has been a busy month for me with limited time for entomology. At last there are plenty of insects about although the season seems out of joint, weeks behind where it should be. 

Time for Harvestmen

This month I've been spending some time working on Harvestmen (Opliones), a group I've tended to shy away from as I found them very difficult to identify. Paul Richards Harvestmen of the British Isles (WildID) has been a great help and is highly recommended. As I haven't been able to get out as much as I would have liked, I've been playing with Opiliotrays (video) in the garden. 

Opiliotray

More long-legged adventures here: Whole Notta Love (In the Opiliorium): https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/08/whole-notta-love-in-opiliorium.html


My Journal, August 2024



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Sunday, 25 August 2024

Whole Notta Love (In the Opiliorium)

I recently collected some Harvestman from a site I visited in order to identify them. Because I didn't have time to look at them immediately I knocked up an impromptu temporary Opiliorium (noun, a naturalist enclosure for the observation of Opiliones) (well it's a word now) consisting of a ventilated plastic box, a piece of wet kitchen roll and some apple peel on the bottom, and an arrangement of shoots for climbing on (being able to choose their own level is important in helping them to choose their own humidity level, from damp at bottom to drier at the top where the vents are). Because this was temporary housing I didn't add any substrate other than the paper towel or any food other than the apple. 

Opiliorium

Immediately on introduction most of the inhabitants made themselves fairly scarce, but the pair (well, a male and a female) of Opilio canestrinii were very active, climbing around and doing laps of the enclosure. After an hour, they had settled down in the upper reaches of the enclosure, snuggled up with the second leg of the male resting on the female's abdomen. And so they remained until it got dark. 

Opiliorium

I checked on them a few times after dark and the male was enthusiastically pursuing the female around the enclosure; she was equally enthusiastically running away, and that was the pattern each time I looked at them. The Dicranopalpus in there skittered around trying to keep out of the way and the Oligolophus hanseni hunkered down in the lower reaches and tried to get some sleep. I suspect they were unsuccessful in this, as was the male in his endeavours. 

The next day I examined and identified the specimens and released them. The downside of the translucent plastic box was limited visibility and I'm very tempted to set up a more long term Opiliorium in a glass aquarium for observation. From my limited experience I'd say the enclosure needs to be as big as possible in order to observe more natural behaviour. These fascinating Arachnids are surprisingly active given the chance. 

 


Tuesday, 20 August 2024

Entomological Forceps

 

Entomological Forceps

As I tend to work on very small insects I normally dissect using stainless steel pins, but on occasion, a pair of forceps are useful too. For my purposes they need to have superfine tips and that means they have a limited lifespan, however careful you try to be with them. (Pro-tip: you can carefully regrind the tips with a fine carborundum stone, but they're never as good as when they're new.) The universal recommendation is to get Swiss-made Dumont forceps, but averaging around 30 quid a pair and bearing in mind the lifespan I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Watkins and Doncaster will sell you a cheap pair for 11 quid, but in the end I picked up a Japanese-made set of five for the same price on eBay. 

I still have and occasionally use a few of my grandfather's woodworking tools, which given that penny pinching runs in my family were probably not new when he acquired them, are something like something like 150 years old. I hate the idea of disposable tools and appliances, but the economy gene is dominant in my phenotype. 

 

Thursday, 1 August 2024

Entomology Journal - July 2024

A very busy month of entomology - summer has finally arrived.

What happened to the insects?

Chris Raper addresses the question - where are they? And the answer is: it's complicated - a combination of factors rather than a single clause:

  • Weather: the wet/cold start to the year
  • Climate: a decade of extreme weather
  • Habitat: 
    • Habitat loss
    • Habitat degradation
    • Habitat fragmentation

Thankfully, he also has the solutions, which are do-able, although unfortunately, the powers that be seem uninterested...

My Journal, July 2024

02.vii.2024 
A short walk to the Washbrook yielded a Water Scorpion nymph, which I was aware were there, half a dozen species of water beetle, and what appear to be Water Cricket nymphs, which were a surprise. Must go back in a month and check for adults. 

05.vii.2024 
Another local trip to sample the Washbrook further upstream. In spite of the damage done by the Environment Agency, I found quite a good range of invertebrates. It was also good to see Meadow Brown and Ringlet in the garden after the winds of the last few days. 

08.vii.2024 
A visit to Holwell with the intention of targeting the ponds, but I couldn't resist a trawl through the quarry en route. This was the right decision as it turned up a specimen of Hoplomachus thunbergii, the second record for VC55. Later, the ponds along the mineral line proved productive for beetles, although less so for bugs. 
Hoplomachus thunbergii

11.vii.2024
Spent the afternoon working on some water beetles. When I was done, I looked at a small bug found on the kitchen windowsill in the morning. This turned out to be Psallus flavellus, only the second record for VC55 (the first being three days ago). 

12.vii.2024
Following a recent conversation I knocked together a rain shield for the moth trap out of a piece of polycarbonate twinwall and bungee cords. The rain shield worked great, the only problem was the moths - 13/6 on a warm, wet, cloudy night in July. Worse still, the bycatch was zero - not a single beetle, bug, caddis or midge. Desperate times.
Rain shield

14.vii.2024 
A morning trip to Launde. Mostly cloudy but quite a lot of butterflies if nothing exotic. A good range of bugs although there are still plenty of nymphs around for later. 

17.vii.2024 
Flying ant day. In the face of repeated kitchen invasions and the absence of my hypothetical pet anteater, I've resorted to nematodes. 

18.vii.2024 
Finally, moths - 105/31, which is my best total for a couple of years. Emptying the trap felt like the good old days. Most notable were two female Ringed China-mark, Parapoynx stratiotata, new for the garden. 

19.vii.2024 
An early morning trip to Croft Hill to beat the heat. Not up before the Lark, but up before the Small Skippers, giving good opportunities for close inspection of the roosting sleepy-heads. The number of butterflies was delightful, in particular lots of Marbled Whites, and 9 species in total. 

22.vii.2024 
A cooler, slightly windy night so I wasn't too unhappy with 28/12 in the moth trap. Now the new government is easing relations with Europe it's good to see Diamond Backs and Silver Y return. 
Rather belatedly I have started doing garden FIT Counts as a nice low carbon way of recording. https://ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts - a bit breezy but only scored 3 today. 

23.vii.2024 
A trip to Narborough Bog, where dipping in the Soar proved very unproductive, but sweep netting turned up a few nice specimens, including Pilophorus clavatus and Psallus haematodes

24.vii.2024 
I'm really annoyed! Sorting through the bugs from Narborough Bog yesterday I found a nice red Anthocoris, and moreover it was a male. After some mental gymnastics (discarding all the exotic possibilities) I realised it had to be A. confusus or A. simulans, so I dissected it. A quick glance at the aedeagus confirmed this but then... When I was transferring it to a slide to check, it simply disappeared. For once, I didn't manage to ping it off the needle across the room, it simply vanished somewhere between picking it up and putting it on the slide. This really annoyed me, so I spent an hour looking for it - without success. 

26.vii.2024 
47/21 in the moth trap, not too bad. Limited by-catch but some interesting looking Caddis. 

27.vii.2024 
Sorting through some samples I was sent to identify it was good to find Orthotylus ochrotrichus. We have essentially no records for this, but only because no-one bothers to disentangle the green Mirids. 

28.vii.2024 
A very pleasant trip to Great Merrible (after a failed attempt in the spring when it was simply too wet to get there). I found an excellent range of insects, of which the pick were Halticus luteicollis, only one previous record, from Ketton, and even better was Dicyphus pallidus, swept from Enchanter's Nightshade. It took a bit of detective work to confirm this one, but this is undoubtedly the first record for VC55 (although Dicyphus in general are hugely under-recorded). Orius laticollis was also the first record for VC55. 
Dicyphus pallidus


30.vii.2034 
FIT count on Knapweed scored 19, a few too many Honeybees but a steady procession of leafcutters. 
FIT Count

31.vii.2024 
74/26 in the moth trap, and for the first time this year, lots of micros. I think the thing I like best about moths is the names: Burnished Copper, Clover Case-bearer, Holly Tortrix, Lettuce Tortrix, Thistle Marble - all new for the garden. 
The squirrels have discovered the cob nuts so we've had to pick them all green. 


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