Swamped with Spangles

 

Over the last week we have been swamped with these tiny wasps. They're all over the inside of the windows and the car, and the moth trap was full of them. It wasn't hard to figure out they were gall wasps, but I generally draw the line at Cynipoidea - they are extremely difficult to identify unless reared directly from the gall. Fortunately my good friends the VC55 gall experts were able to help and to point me at some excellent resources, particularly Oak-galls in Britain by Robin Williams. This allowed me to confirm that these are the Common Spangle Gall Wasp, Neuroterus quercusbaccarum. 

Cynipoidea have complex life-cycles, and that of N. quercusbaccarum is a two-act play known as heterogony - an alternation between a sexual generation and an asexual (agamic) generation.

The Sexual Generation (Spring)

The sexual phase begins in the spring, from January to March or April, asexual females emerge from the leaf litter where they spent the winter. These females lay their eggs in developing Oak buds. This triggers the tree to grow a Currant Gall. Inside these galls, larvae develop rapidly. In June, both males and females emerge. They mate, and the fertilized females then seek out the undersides of maturing oak leaves to lay their eggs.

The Asexual Generation (Summer to Winter)

The eggs laid on the underside of Oak leaves cause the tree to form  Common Spangle Galls. In autumn, before the leaves drop, the spangle galls detach from the leaf and fall to the ground. Inside the gall in the leaf litter, the larva develops into a pupa. Crucially, these larvae develop into females only. No mating is required for the next stage - parthenogenesis. These asexual females emerge the following spring.

This alternating strategy is an evolutionary masterstroke. The sexual generation provides genetic diversity, while the asexual generation allows for a rapid population boom without the "resource cost" of finding a mate during the harsh transition from winter to spring.

Looks like we'll be getting a bumper crop of Spangle Galls this year.

 

Urban Spiders

A new paper shows that Steatoda nobilis and Zygiella x-notata typically made up more than 80% of the urban spiders in an Irish survey. 

Collier, B. L., Leonard, D., Lyons, K., Dunbar, J. P., Lawton, C., & Dugon, M. M. (2026). Survey of Synanthropic Spiders in Ireland Reveals Expansion and Dominance of the Invasive Noble False Widow Steatoda nobilis in Urban Habitats (Araneae: Theridiidae). Ecology and Evolution, 16(3), e73193.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73193

 

Leicestershire entomology reaches the end of (another) era

Yesterday was a sad day for me personally, but from a wider perspective...

After 38 years, Leicestershire and Rutland Entomological Society (LRES) has scaled back operations due to falling participation and an elderly demographic. It's not completely gone, and the intention is that arrangements will be made for publications to continue (the plan is that the Natural History Section of the Leicester Lit & Phil Society will pick up the remaining activity of LRES, notably publications), but there won't be any more dedicated entomology meetings. We're not, of course, the first or the only society this has happened to. 

A VC55 entomology society has blinked into and out of existence and number of times, first as an offshoot of the Zoology Section of Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. In the second half of the 19th century Leicester was an entomological powerhouse. Before a dedicated society existed, entomology in the region was driven by the "Lit & Phil", founded in 1835. Perhaps the most famous name associated with this is Henry Walter Bates, the Leicester lad and explorer who discovered "Batesian mimicry." In the momentous year 1844–1845, a young Alfred Russel Wallace moved to Leicester to take up a position as a master at the Collegiate School, teaching drafting, surveying, and English. While he was already interested in nature, he hadn't yet found his specific calling. Everything changed in Leicester. Here, Wallace met Bates, a local man who worked in his family’s hosiery business but spent every spare second obsessed with entomology, spending his limited free time collecting beetles in Bradgate Park and Charnwood Forest. Their friendship quickly turned into a professional partnership. By 1847, Wallace was bored with teaching and proposed a radical plan: they should travel to the Amazon rainforest to collect specimens and sell them to museums and collectors back in London. They left for Pará (now Belém), Brazil, in 1848. While they eventually split up to cover more ground, their time in Leicester remained the foundation of their careers. Frederick Bates, younger brother of Henry Walter Bates, began publishing in the Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society from the 1850s. In the late 19th century, figures like William Armston Vice and Frank Bouskell pushed for a specialized entomological section. For a time, a "Leicester Entomological Club" operated within the Lit & Phil, eventually evolving into Section F (Entomology) by the 1880s, producing the first comprehensive local checklists for the Victoria County History (1907). The Entomology Section ceased to operate during the 1939-45 World War and was not restarted after the War. 

 The Great Hiatus and the 1988 Rebirth

Following the 1939-45 World War, there was no formal entomology society. Naturalists of all shades typically met at the Leicester Museum, which acted as a de facto hub. Notable Leicestershire entomologists tended to interact directly with national entomology organizations. The modern society was born from a desire for a more focused, member-driven group when on June 8th 1988, a meeting was held at the University of Leicester to discuss forming a society. On September 5, 1988, the Leicestershire Entomological Society (LES) held its first official meeting at the New Walk Museum. A small number of founder members still remain. The society has always covered Watsonian Vice-County 55 (VC55), which encompasses both Leicestershire and Rutland. To formally recognize this, the society officially rebranded as the Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society (LRES) in 2022.

And now, it's over again - for now. Perhaps the "Leicestershire Entomological Club" will naturally re-emerge. Whether we blame Covid, social media, or Margaret "there is no such thing as society" Thatcher, I'm not happy this has happened on my watch, but the cyclic nature of Leicestershire entomology allows me to take comfort in the philosophy of Heraclitus - 

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

Entomology Update - February 2026

February was a varied month, spring-like at times but mostly wet. I didn't get out much but made some interesting finds when I did. 

Culture Wars - Scientists versus Citizens

I try and stay well away from culture wars, but it recently came to my attention that there is some new terminology I should be aware of.  

TG Camera News

OM System has launched a new version of the TG-7 camera for microscope use.

Card Protector Sleeves

Transparent card protector sleeves (widely available online) are useful for harmlessly restraining insects for photography, including under the microscope.

Notable Finds

The observant may notice a theme to this month's Notable Finds. I haven't had chance to write about this yet but will do so next month. 

Cyrtogaster vulgaris, first record for VC55

Callitula bicolor, first record for VC55

Delphacodes venosus, second record for VC55

Epiclerus panyas, first records for VC55

Ooctonus vulgatus, first record for VC55

Microterys tricoloricornis, first record for VC55

 

News from Elsewhere

Jam today

You're not a real naturalist unless you have a strong affinity for jam jars. We all made our first specimen collections in jam jars - turns out they were a good choice! 

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