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.
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
06.viii.2024
Other commitments have prevented any entomology so far this month but I did manage to sneak out into the garden for 10 minutes for a late afternoon FIT Count. The Water Mint produced a good range of insects with a count of 28, although the bumblebees greatly preferred the Pickerelweed flowers next to the mint and steadfastly refused to enter the count zone.
07.viii.2024
A Steatoda nobilis web outside the back door has snagged a Lesser Stag Beetle, Dorcus parallelipipedus. These spiders make the strongest silk I know (try it), but even though this is a hefty beetle it's not quite the bat or lizard they have been known to catch (rarely).
08.viii.2024
The wanderer returns. While I was watching TV a love-lorn male House Spider crossed the carpet. Decades ago this used to be a common occurrence but I don't think it's happened for the last twenty years. First the Pholcus arrived, then the Steatoda, both bad news for the much larger House Spider. I haven't seen many Pholcus recently so this chap, deciding it's as near to autumn as makes no difference, set out in search of love. Good luck sir!
13.viii.2024
Escaped for 10 minutes sweeping my favourite local road verge (memories of lockdown). I was targeting two species and managed to find both, although one flew off before I could pot it and the other was immature.
16.viii.2024
There was an autumnal feel to the air first thing this morning, although it doesn't smell like autumn yet. It was all go on the FIT Count in the afternoon, 62 - my highest score to date, so much so that it was difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings, the Water Mint was really pulling them in. There are plenty of bees on the runner bean flowers now, hopefully they will start setting soon.
17.viii.2024
Since we are beyond the Inglorious Twelfth, I decided to take a look at the Heather at Charnwood Lodge. This was the first run out for the vacuum sampler since February and it turned out to be a good decision, sucking up multiple heathland specialists including Cymus claviculus, Orthotylus ericetorum, Scolopostethus decoratus and Stygnocoris sabulosus, all but one of which are new records for the site. This was a good haul, but in spite of that most of what I found was still immature and it feels like things are weeks behind where they normally would be. I then turned my attention to the Oaks and this produced the best find of the day, Theridion pinastri. This is not only the first record of this spider for VC55 but also a considerable northward range expansion for the species. Understandable considering Charnwood Lodge provides the perfect habitat it requires.
20.viii.2024
22.viii.2024
Recent stormy weather has limited opportunities for much entomology.
23.viii.2024
It feels like it's been a disastrous year for moths and data for the first half of the year from the Garden Moth Scheme shows that it's been the worst year since 2013. However, it's not outside the normal run of year to year variation.
In the afternoon I popped out to the local arboretum where bugs abounded.
26.viii.2024
Out with Knighton Wild this morning monitoring water quality in the Washbrook as the follow-up to the Saffron Brook Project. No change in the Trent Biotic Index (score = 4/10). This isn't surprising as the inputs haven't changed - sewage releases from Oadby, surface runoff, and pet flea and tick treatments.
30.viii.2024
A nice day out at Coombs Meadows with friends. It had a late summer feel, everything a bit tired, and the entomology was a bit disappointing. However, the picnic at the end made up for it.