What the well-dressed entomologist is wearing this season

I dropped and broke my ancient over the counter magnifying glasses, and even SuperGlue couldn't rescue them, so this cheapo eBay visor is on trial. Definite Blade Runner vibe. 

 

Hawthorns Ahoy!

The Hawthorns in Leicestershire are just at the bud burst stage, and frankly looking a bit sparse still. Nevertheless, beating the emerging foliage is a good source for some interesting insects. 

First is the charming little Lacebug Physatocheila dumetorum. 

This favours Hawthorn but I have previously taken it from lichen-covered Larch, although the overwintering Larch specimen was very tatty. The Hawthorn this week was alive with these bugs, but the species is seriously under recorded, mostly because of the small size (2-3mm) I suspect. 

If you spend some time on the Hawthorns, you'll also come across the Hawthorn Leaf Beetle, Lochmaea crataegi - an attractive bonus species! 

 

Entomology Journal - March 2024

March brought a few days when the birdsong and the warmth of the sun on my back felt like spring. Unfortunately, it also brought, in the words of Gilbert White "vast rain". 

 

Solace from Gilbert White

March 9th 1775: Sad season for the sowing of spring-corn. Just such weather this time twelvemonths. 

March 11th 1775: Vast rain. This rain must occasion great floods. The trufle-hunter came this morning, & took a few trufles: he complains that those fungi never abound in wet winters, & springs. 

March 29th 1775: Ground covered with snow. 

Stuck inside on many days when I would have liked to be out, I have taken solace from Gilbert White's diaries. While current climate change is absolutely unprecedented, I have been enjoying a "traditional" English spring, where the blossom and frogspawn appear on time, not weirdly early as they have in the subtropical, worryingly dry springs we have had in recent years. What will the summer bring? 

There Is No Planet B

This was recommended to me in a discussion during a car share (I'd like to pretend I am that virtuous but for practical reasons I don't car share as much as I should). The first four chapters are life changing, or should be. I'm still digesting all the implications from this. Unfortunately this is a book of two halves; the second half wanders off into economics, ethics and politics and doesn't really contribute much as far as I was concerned. Still a must-read for those first four chapters.
Berners-Lee, M. (2021). There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make Or Break Years-Updated Edition. Cambridge University Press.

My Journal, March 2024

01.iii.2024

Meteorological spring? Looked out of the window (wearing two fleeces) at the hail I think I'll wait for equinoctial spring. This comes on the day the Met Office announced February 2024 as the wettest on record. Things can only get wetter?

Quite a lot of the day spent discussing LNRS species lists. I wonder how LRNS will be regarded in 100 years time...

02.iii.2024

March weather continues to be meh, so more hibernation over the microscope, punctuated by LNRS pondering.

03.iii.2024

Now that "spring" is here, it's good to welcome the return of winter, with significant frost for two nights now. Sunny and dry. Viburnum Cushion Scale larvae - Lichtensia viburni - very abundant on Ivy.

04.iii.2024

Another good frost. After the thaw, a chilly visit to Shady Lane to tickle the conifers, serenaded by flocks of Goldcrests. Lots of ladybirds and some very nice leafhoppers, the highlight being Viridicerus ustulatus, the first record for VC55.

05.iii.2024

Today we ran a live NatureSpot Zoom session, the first time since the Recorder's Meeting last year. Judging by the email feedback it was popular. Felt a bit like being back in lockdown - am I getting sentimental? :-)

07.iii.2024

An Anthocoris afternoon, sorting the butleri from the nemoralis.

08.iii.2024

Spent the morning tackling the overgrown section of hedge before the birds start nesting. Ivy and Dogrose has great wildlife value but it's a potent combination when it comes to pruning. Found one old nest (Blackbird I think), Common Plume and Nigma walckeneri. In the afternoon, dentist. I preferred tackling the Dogrose.

09.iii.2024

A muddy slog up Bardon Hill to try out my new beating umbrella. The yield was underwhelming after overnight rain, with the exception of a single Tephritis matricariae, beaten from conifers (the third record for VC55, my first).

Returning home, things got better. On 26th January 2022 I was refurbishing a pond in my garden when I found a single female spider which, after investigation, turned out to be Megalepthyphantes sp. near collinus. Quite a mouthful (because it still lacks a formal description and naming), so Megalegs for short. This record was a big range expansion for this new spider. And ... that was it. I have not found any more specimens, and neither has anyone else in VC55. Until, that is, opening my dustbin I found another female on the inside of the lid. To find one spider may be regarded as fortunate; to find two looks like there is a colony in my garden. The bin was crammed with hedge prunings from the previous day, which is where the spider must have come from. I look forward to future sightings.

11.iii.2024

Wet. Microscope. Anthocoris.

12.iii.2024

Wet. Microscope. Anthocoris. First frogspawn in the garden for years, since Ranavirus wiped my garden population out. Will they survive the newt attack?

14.iii.2024

Finished the last of the Anthocoris archive samples with a whole load of A. confusus. Great to be able to work through plenty of specimens and build confidence.

16.iii.2024

Took advantage of the sunny start to go up Billa Barra and beat the pines and Gorse. Lots of bird song. Not too much found except for thrips in the Gorse. So many thrips! When I opened my glasses case it was full of them. They found body cavities I didn't know I had, but the ears were the worse.

17.iii.2024

After an atrocious start to the day the afternoon felt the most springlike yet, with many insects sunning themselves and the first garden Brimstone.

Sorting through the samples from yesterday I found three more Acampociris alpinus. So far I have found this wherever I have looked on Scots Pine. It would be so easy to attribute this flush of records to climate change but the truth is that the season is taxonism - you can bet those pines have been gone over for beetles and moths, but no-one cared much about bugs.

19.iii.2024

Attended the first 2024 field meeting of the Leicestershire & Rutland Hemiptera Society at Moira Furnace. A few bugs found, the highlight of which was Physatocheila dumetorum on lichen-covered Larch, followed by a meeting of the Publications Committee and the Anthocoridae Subcommittee. Felt very spring-like.

20.iii.2024

To celebrate the vernal equinox the garden Robin started belting it out in pitch dark at 4.35am. Hormones are running high.

23.iii.2024

For some time I have been working on an aquatic macro photography setup. My first two efforts crashed and burned, or to be more accurate, leaked. The third attempt is functional but not perfect. Fished a Large Red Damselfly nymph out of one of my ponds to test it. Now to find some aquatic bugs! More details here: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Duckweed

26.iii.2024

Out early to Billesdon in the sunshine. Beyond the ravaged hedges struggling to green up, a Skylark sang. First pond dipping session of the year. Aquatic Homoptera a bit limited but I was able to refresh my memory of a few species.

 

30.iii.2024

A sunny but muddy trip to Croft Pasture. I have never seen the Soar as high and it has made new braided channels across the meadow. Worked unsuccessfully for half an hour without finding any aquatic bugs, but eventually found out where they were all hiding in a sheltered bay by the railway bridge.

Walking back across the road bridges there was a good range of insects sunbathing on the verge. Spring at last?