Orange Underwing - Archiearis parthenias

I'd planned to go out to Pickworth Great Wood today, and that fact that an Orange Underwing was recorded there yesterday didn't put me off. On entering the wood you stand with one foot in VC55 and the other in VC53, and the first thing I saw on the path was an Orange Underwing (definitely on the VC55 side!). Much fumbling with camera and swearing, by which time it had flown off. By the end of the day though we'd seen plenty - I stopped counting at 20. Plus too many Brimstone and Peacock butterflies to count, three Commas and two male Orange Tips.

Mycetophagus multipunctatus

One of the Hairy Fungus Beetles, tapped from a very old bracket fungus.

More spiders

Not to scale. The Tetragnatha are tricky to identify but I'm pretty confident about these two.

How to identify spiders

I'm currently trying to improve my spider identification skills. I can't say it's easy, although many of the species I have been working with are Linyphiids (money spiders) that six months ago I wouldn't have even bothered with (but I'm still not quite brave enough to tackle all the little black ones yet). At a recent conference I went to there were two good talks about spiders. It's reassuring to find that it's not just me who finds spiders not the easiest of groups. The ever-reliable Brian Eversham had some useful advice for identifying spiders. "To learn to identify spiders" he said, "you need to correctly identify 10,000 spiders. Then you can identify spiders." I'm not quite sure where I am on the Eversham Scale, but I am sure his advice is correct.

Diaea dorsata has been turning up quite a bit recently. I beat the above specimen from Ivy at the weekend but I was slightly surprised to see the second specimen wandering across the ceiling of my study yesterday morning. Fortunately, Diaea dorsata is one of the spiders that I can identify :-)

Eremocoris fenestratus

Because I've spent so much time sorting though leaf litter this winter I've had the opportunity to become familiar with the Lygaeidae (Groundbugs), having found them in pretty much every sample I've examined. I like their understatedness, but of them all Eremocoris fenestratus probably has the most interesting story. Historically known only from the Chilterns and associated with juniper, this species was thought to be extinct before reappearing in the London area in 2010. They are usually found under cypresses and are probably the result of horticultural introduction from the continent. I find mine under a large conifer in a churchyard. Known to have reached as far north as Northamptonshire, this is the first record for VC55, albeit only 5 miles north of southamptonsire, as I think of it.

Erigonella hiemalis

I very much admire Australians - the fortitude they display when they know that spider in the bath can kill them - and what the Redback in the dunny is plotting, well that doesn't bear thinking about. In the UK things are different. Adult female Erigonella hiemalis can reach nearly 2 mm in length, although males like this one struggle to reach 1.5 mm. It's a dangerous life being a UK Arachnologist - think of the eye strain.

https://araneae.nmbe.ch/data/566

Common Quaker, Orthosia cerasi

My first moth of the year. It's been hard work getting this one.