The Fever
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Monday, 24 May 2010 19:33
So it begins. Is there anything more ridiculous than a botanist with hayfever? For the next two months I have sore eyes, sore throats, wheezing, lethargy and sleepless nights where I can't open the window to look forward to. Anyways, Mark Monk-Terry and I had the chance to have another look in Badlands today and we came up with a few goodies, Mark found this Purple Hairstreak larvae by beating oak. Other leps included Blood-vein, Mother Shipton and Green Hairstreak. There were Malachite Beetles everywhere as well as Cantharis nigricans. I found a Malachite Beetle on a Beech stump covered in red spores and thought it was something much rarer. Whilst Mark was beating I was sweep-netting and the best thing I came up with was this smart beetle, Leiopus nebulosus or the Black-clouded Longhorn Beetle. This is a local saproxylic species that I have only seen once before but that does not mean much as I only really got into beetles last year!
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