A month of variable weather and troublesome Hymenoptera...
VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording and Checklist
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.
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.
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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