Last week we carried out an invertebrate survey at Seaford Head and it was peak Potter Flower Bee Anthophora retusa time. We saw lots more retusa than we did plumipes but it was great to catch them and see the differences so clearly. We found them on three of the seven compartments we looked at. I struggled to get decent photos that show the critical identification features that separate them from plumipes but here are the best. Above is the female and below is the male.
I was frustrated at these shots but never mind. In this one he even seems to be 'flipping me the middle finger' (or front tarsus to be precise), which my camera kindly focused on.
I also saw Bryony Mining-bee Andrena florea for the first time. Yesterday, I must of seen 50 of them at Friston Forest where it was the commonest bee.
This ugly critter, which is surely the larvae of a Bloody-nosed Beetle. I found this at Friston Forest today crawling around in the grass in exactly the same place I saw the adults a couple of years ago. Other highlights today included the impressive staph and beetle tick Othius punctulatus (species 3870) and two Adders. I also saw my first Grizzled and Dingy Skippers of the year. This is gonna be a short one today as I have an early start tomorrow and I'm not used to them this year, I always find it harder to get up early when I have fewer bird surveys to do, must be the lack of routine.
Wow! Last night was a rather good moth night. I went to Michael Blencowe's with Mat Davidson for a spot of mothing. The weather was looking good, with a warm night predicted and gentle southerly winds. I was hoping for scarce migrants and given Michael had a Flame Brocade a few days ago, I thought we were in with a good chance. We set up two traps and pretty much the first moth we saw was this Scarce Bordered Straw (below). I have seen this moth once before in my garden in Rugeley when I was a kid probably 18 years ago. There was a steady trickle of Dark Sword-grass and Silver-Y but not much else so we decided to go and do some torching on the coast...
...we saw a few Bricks and a Green-brindled Crescent but it seemed quiet, then Michael caught a Flame Brocade (top photo). Then I caught one, then another and another. Flame Brocade was by far the commonest moth, reaching double figures! A new species for me, it was incredible to be witnessing this, whether it be a recent colonisation or a mass migration.
Back to the traps in the morning, Dusky Thorns, Feathered Brindles and Feathered Ranunculus were all nice to see but this Ni Moth (above) was yet another rare migrant new to both myself and Michael. Other migrants included the Delicate, L-album Wainscot and Diamond-back Moth. We also recorded the monstrous Western Conifer Seed Bug. Two new macro moths in one night, that leaves me on 3630. We also had Redpoll, Siskin, Tree Pipit and Crossbill flying over head in the morning.
Went to Friston Forest today to discuss grazing. Saw this male Onthophagus coenobita, first time I have seen a male with the cephalic horn at the back of the head, looks a little like it has been set in place with gel! I like this family of dung beetles. We also saw many of these small Nb chafers that I have seen once before at Southerham, Omaloplia ruricola. I didn't manage to photograph it last time. There must have been five or six flying around today.
Neither of these beetles were new ones for me but this plant was, Field Pepperwort. It's not at all scarce, just one I never see in quadrats and one I must have over looked.
But the best find today was actually in reception as I was leaving Woods Mill. I saw what I assumed was going to be Xylota segnis in the window but when I got home I realised it was the nationally scarce Xylota florum, a new species for me. I end the day on 3483 species. It would be really nice to get to 3500 by the end of June.
Here are some of the better shots from 2010 that didn't make it into a post so far this year. In no particular order we have:
Young
Panther Cap from Ebernoe Common on the 21st September. Poisonous.
The beautiful but rare Oxyopes heterophthalmus a female from Pirbright in Surrey on the 7th June, no records for this as far as I know in Sussex, be great to find it on the West Sussex heaths although I think that would be very unlikely.
Speckled Yellow moth at rest on lichen. Taken at Eridge Rocks on 6th June.
The common Swollen-thighed Beetle Oedemera nobilis. This one's a female (without the swollen thighs) taken at Friston Forest on 26th July.
Big hoverfly Volucella inanis, this was new to me at the time, taken on the edge of The Mens on the 27th July.
Check out this awesome moth, it's a
Raspberry Clearwing, an excellent example of Batesian mimicry and was found by Mike Edwards today during the last part of our Friston Forest invertebrate survey. This is one of the few clearwings that does not develop inside wood, rather in the stems of Raspberry. I previously misidentified it as Six-belted Clearwing but the fact that it has only two veins running through the clear patch at the end of the wing is diagnostic. This species only appeared in the UK a few years ago and it was probably imported in Raspberry canes but no one in is sure if it was just over-looked. This is only the second site for this species in Sussex, the first being a site in Bexhill and is therefore first for me and although I saw a clearwing very close to this spot on the
last visit to Friston Forest that I could not catch and ID, it was definitely
not a Raspberry Clearwing though and will remain a mystery.
We also saw several Woodland Grasshoppers, another nationally scarce (Nb) species. It's quite variable but the most striking form is mostly black with a red abdomen. However, it's the white palps that clinch this species but I'm afraid I couldn't photograph them. The palps are really easy to see in a live specimen though.
Finally, for comedy value, here is an early instar larvae of the amazing Pale Tussock. I'm sure these used to be on Fraggle Rock.
Another survey wrapped up for the year, I can't wait for the report.
I finished the quadrats in the
Friston Forest area today and there are many changes. The disturbance caused by the cattle is reflected in the flora, there is a great deal more
Scarlet Pimpernel,
Field Madder and
Viper's Bugloss than usual. There is also more
Long-stalked Cranesbill (top photo - with a free-loading Field Madder flower in the back ground!) which in my opinion is a really smart little plant. I also found some
Trailing St. John's-wort (second photo). The variety of plants that grow at Friston is incredible, chalk heath is quite unusual, plants you would not normally see growing side by side are quite at home together. All of this is due to wind-blown deposits also known as 'loess' that sit on top of the chalk and have a much lower pH than the chalk due to their sandy nature. These deposits can be very thin so long-rooted calcareous species can grow in amongst short-rooted calcifugous species.
As I was leaving I noticed this social wasp mimic hoverfly nectaring on Hogweed by the gate. It's Chrysotoxum festivum. The habitat is grassy places near woodland rides and the species is widespread but never common according to 'Stubbs & Falk'. It has four pairs of curved yellow bars on the black abdomen, all yellow legs and yellowish wings with a dark spot.
Look at this beast! We saw these during the Friston invert survey but failed to confirm the ID. It is the RDB Four-lined Horsefly Atylotus rusticus. This is known only from the levels between Pevensey and Lewes and beyond that there are records from Monks Wood and that is about it. The females have HUGE eyes that basically take up their whole head, like a flying pea! I managed to catch one and confirm the ID when I went back to look for the clearwing. This is a much rarer find and softens the blow of me missing the clearwing. This thing looks pretty well equipped to give you a nasty bite. Whilst I was messing around with the pheremones, another Nb beetle landed on my leg, it was Variimorda villosa.
This is a mordellid or tumbling flower beetle. The sharp pointed abdomen is diagnostic. They are quite an unusual shape for beetles, a little flea-like. Compressed laterally with a head that can tuck right under the pronotum giving them a hunched-back look.
Just a quick one today, whilst on route to Friston Forest I noticed a large strip of what can only be Common Sea-lavender growing on the central reservation on the A27 between the universities and the Ditchling turn off. I have seen Danish Scurvy-grass and Reflex Salt-marsh Grass doing this for many years but never the sea-lavender. I love how these halophytes have found a way to grow in the most inhospitable of places. I guess all the salt that is put down on the roads builds up accumulatively, so soon we'll be able to pick marsh samphire by the motorway, not that you'd want to eat it though.
Crawling around the bend at Exceat I noticed what looked like Red Star-thistle growing right by the roadside and it was! Another new species for me.
I did not have so much luck trying to relocate yesterday's clearwing with pheromones although I did get another nationally scarce (Nb) beetle landing on me, Variimorda villosa. Whilst quadratting I had a Humming-bird Hawk-moth fly into my quadrat and nectar on Viper's Bugloss. I think this is the first one I have seen for two years.
Visit 4 of the Friston Forest invertebrate survey and we turned up a number of good species. Firstly though, on our way out of the forest we stopped by a large patch of Field Scabious, the sole food of the large mining bee Andrena hattorfiana. A RDB3 species known from this area for some forty years. As the bee takes pollen only from Field Scabious (and sometimes Greater Knapweed - two plants that are flowering well this year), the pollen has a very unusual colour, pink! The amount that these bees pile up on their legs looks ridiculous. This is a large mining bee with a reddish abdomen (I think Mike Edwards said it also comes in a black form). We saw perhaps 6 or 7 without any real effort. A really unusual looking invertebrate with its big pink bloomers!
Butterflies today were great, there were Chalkhill Blues (photo), Dark-green and Silver-washed Fritillaries, Brown Argus, White Admirals, Red Admirals and Marbled Whites everywhere.
What caused the most excitement today though was a clearwing I spotted nectaring on Creeping Thistle. I am pretty sure it was either Sallow Clearwing or Orange-tailed Clearwing. As I missed it with my net though, I can't be sure. It was very small, all black with two creamy-white bands on the abdomen and thick dark borders to the translucent wings. I am going to try and go back with pheremones to the spot. I also saw a Kent Black Arches.
Today we carried out the third visit of the Friston Forest entomology survey. I'm concentrating on Lepidoptera, leaving the beetles alone for a while. The highlight for me was Olive Crescent (top picture). A new species for me. This RDB noctuid is known from the site and is particularly fond of stressed or dying leaves of Beech. The site is a Beech plantation and of the five areas that we survey, two are Beech plantation and three are rides. Interestingly I saw one individual Olive Crescent on each of the three ride surveys but none on the two plantation surveys, this is in line with what Waring and Townsend states; 'the edges of rides and clearings'. They disturb from rest very easily and this was how we were recording them. They do look very much like a geometrid (although they are actually noctuids - related to the fan-foots) with a large wing area to body size ratio. For a comparison, the bottom picture is the local Beech feeding Clay Triple-lines. They are very similar in flight. There are also LOTS of Clay Triple-lines at this site so I had to try and catch them all to check for Olive Crescent. Other highlights for the day included a Red-necked Footman in flight, several Dark-green Fritillaries and a Magpie (moth) larvae. I now have a whole bunch of micro moths to ID...
On Friday the 29th May I had a very long day's entomology starting at Friston Forest at about 10.00 am through to Eridge Rocks at about 11.30 pm. In this part of the blog I will just deal with the Friston Forest session. We set up a series of timed invertebrate surveys in the project area to show the effects of the grazing there. One specialist concentrates on flies, bees, ants and wasps, another looks at beetles and I do moths, butterflies and dragonflies. The sites will be visited once a month from April to September. There are five defined areas that we search for 45 minutes each visit and these areas reflect different micro-habitats and management within the wood. At the end of the year, the list for each area will be compiled and the assemblage of invertebrates analysed by resource needs. I recorded this nationally scarce (Nb) micro moth known as the Orange Conch Commophila aeneana. The larvae feed on the roots of ragwort. It is probably the most impressive tortrix I have ever seen, the strange, raised black-and-blue scales give the impression the moth is extruding droplets of oil. I saw lots of Grizzled Skippers and Dingy Skippers. Grizzled was the most abundant and frequent butterfly! We recorded the Nb soldier beetle Rhagonycha lutea and I saw the tiny longhorn beetle Tetrops praeusta. Towards the end of the survey, we disturbed this young Badger which we first thought was injured. It had clearly not had much contact with humans as it was very tame and then it suddenly ran off, nothing wrong with it at all. I have never seen a Badger in the day, a great photo opportunity!
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