Entomology Journal - January 2024

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January has been a quiet month entomologically. The weather suggested staying indoors and reading. I have cleared and submitted all my 2023 records. 

Cryptic Confusion
I get a lot of Rhyzobius litura ("Meadow Ladybird") in vacuum samples and a fair number of Rhyzobius chrysomeloides ("Epaulet Ladybird") from beating evergreens. As with so many species, "typical" specimens are easy to recognize, but many are poorly marked and in my experience the dorsal pigmentation patterns of the two species overlap. Apart from habitat (terrestrial versus arboreal) I had been relying on the shape of the prosternal keel to separate them, but I recently learned that this is unreliable. Andrew Jewels has an excellent web page on these species and suggests using pronotum shape as well as pigmentation to identify them. Thank you Andrew! See: https://www.andrewjewels.com/pointed-v-round

Warning: Not Arthropod-related, but seasonal: Killing with kindness: should we be feeding birds?
Some eye-opening facts: Providing wildlife with food, water, shelter and manufactured nesting sites is multi-billion-dollar industry - follow the money; over 17 million UK households spend a combined £250 million on more than 150,000 tonnes of bird food annually, sufficient to feed three times the entire breeding populations of the ten commonest feeder-using bird species year-round if they consumed nothing else; there is an average of 100 bird feeders per square kilometre equating to one feeder per nine feeder-using birds nationally.
Killing with kindness: Does widespread generalised provisioning of wildlife help or hinder biodiversity conservation efforts? (2021) Biological Conservation, 261, 109295: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/628250/1/Wildlife_provisioning_BiolCon_R2_tracked_acl.pdf

Reading Matter

The weather has encouraged me to do a lot of reading this month. Roy, H. & Brown, P. (2018) Field guide to the ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland, has been very useful and I recommend it, even though I have not done as much ladybird-biothering as I would have like to this month.
I finally got around to reading Kim Stanley Robinson (2020) The ministry for the future. Science fiction is not everyone's taste but Kim Stanley Robinson is arguably not a sci-fi writer, having a track record in cli-fi. I'm growing increasingly irritable about the lack of action on the climate crisis and KSR's call to (radical) action has made me think. Recommended. 

My Journal, January 2024

01.i.2024

A welcome sunny morning to start the year. Went to look for Leiobunum sp. A - unsuccessfully. Not surprising as it is late in the year and after the recent weather. One to return to in the autumn.

02.i.2024

Latest month was the wettest ever December in Leicestershire and today Storm Henk is dropping more rain. River levels along the Soar corridor at record highs. Both of my ponds have overflowed and the garden is flooded across the entire width. In 35 years I have never seen this before. It will take some years to understand the impact it two wet winters on insect populations. At lunchtime a disconsolate looking fox turned up and splashed around in the puddles before eventually managed to get over the slimy fence, an obstacle they normally clear at a single leap.

03.i.2024

My first talk of the year (on bugs) to Leicester Lit & Phil. Good audience and very enjoyable.

04.i.2034

The garden flood has abated but the ground is saturated. In the afternoon a Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Committee meeting - planning for the future.

05.i.2024

Walked round Knighton Park to see the filled flood basins. I'm always sad that these could not be permanent wetland basins rather than football pitches. Lots of springtails and hats off to the aeronauts! It stops raining for 5 minutes and Erigone are everywhere trying to balloon. Mostly E. atra with the odd E. dentipalpis.

06.i.2024

Worked on a few samples that were sent to me. Good to be active.

07.i.2024

Walked to Ingarsby. The lane is in a terrible state with water and traffic damage. A male Bullfinch sunlit against a dark sky. A variety of Arthropods in the Ivy, but giving a feeling of scarcity rather than abundance.

08.i.2024

The Met office Published rainfall figures for last year. 2023 was 11% wetter than average for the UK, but not in the top ten wettest on record. However, October-December was more than 50% wetter than the average in Leicestershire. Does this justify me writing about the weather *again*?

10.i.2024

Things still very slow entomologically. Two Wooly Jumpers (Pseudeuophrys lanigera) on the bedroom ceiling.

12.i.2024

Treated myself to a copy of Helen Roy's Field Guide to Ladybirds of Britain & Ireland. I can justify this by regarding them as honourary Hemiptera rather than Coleoptera!

13.i.2024

A nice sunny walk at Ulverscroft. Entomology was a bit sparse but plenty of Gorse Shieldbugs. Ladybirds limited to 7 Spot and Orange. Tephritis bardanae in the Gorse was a new species for me. Should I become a dipterist? Nah!

15.i.2024

Spent a very cold day revisiting Croft spiders from June. One of the pleasures of winter is preserving summer in 70% alcohol. CEH published December river flow surveys, Soar at 210% of 1991-2000 average. There will be major impacts on insects but what will they be? Inconsistency for year to year is a major issue.

16.i.2024

Revisited spider specimens from Rocky Plantation in May. At the time I wasn't over impressed with the total, but in the depths of January they look much better.

18.i.2024

Still frozen solid outside so I revisited spiders from the ancient Oaks in Bradgate Park last May.

20.i.2024

Neriene montana in the kitchen first thing. Always good to get the first spider of the day under your belt before breakfast. Finally a slight thaw so time for tree planting. Several years ago we planted a mixed native hedge which is slowly establishing, surviving droughts, record heatwaves and flooding. All except the Alder Buckthorn, which grew backwards and finally died (soil not acid enough?). The other problem was a Goat Willow which turned out not to be - very strappy leaves. So Alder Buckthorn has been replaced by a new Goat Willow from a different supplier. Fingers crossed.

21.i.1024

Another named storm, so I sorted out the bug samples from the Allerton Project Rothamstead trap. Mostly Red-legged Shieldbugs.

26.i.2024

A week of meetings. Finally a dry day with no named storm so up the ladder to clear out the nestboxes. Pleased to find the Great Tit nest I feared failed had in fact fledged. Not sure what they lined it with, coarse wool-like stuff with long fibres. No sheep around here! Nest was entomologically disappointing, one Lace Weaver, Amaurobis similis, was all.

27.i.2024

An unproductive walk around Martinshaw. Admired. The new lake (blocked culvert). Skylark nearly drowned out by the motorway.

28.i.2024

Worked on samples from Wardley Wood last May. The 2023 backlog is nearly gone, which poses a problem for February.

29.i.2024

All 2024 records processed and submitted. Just managed to squeeze past 100 spider species for the year. What am I going to do now?

31.i.2024

Accepted my first talk booking for 2025! Also poked around in the churchyard Ivy, finding the expected cryptic ladybirds and lots of Microterys seyon, a stunning but tiny parasitic wasp.