The Lyons Share

This is Chrysolina banksi, a new species for me. I tried something a bit different today and invited Penny and Dave over for a crash course in microscopes, keys, beetles, carding etc. It was really good and reminded me I must do more of this. I'll be doing more such days for friends in the near future. I went on a course at Flatford in about October 2009 and that really helped me, so it's great to give something back. It's great to have someone show you the way, just to get you going.

Here they are in action.

Now this painting was placed in the American Museum of Natural History by Banksy (would have been so much better if Oragainstus hadn't been capitalised), it took two days before it was discovered. I wonder if he knows he shares his name with a beetle? If I were to break into his studio and leave a specimen of C. banksi there, how would he like them apples?

Another Chrysolina from the same place, this time the nationally scarce Chrysolina oricalcia. This is a really nice beetle and I've become quite taken with the genus. I would love to see the mental one, Chrysolina cerealis, at the top of Snowdon but I'd be happy to see Chrysolina americana for all it is an alien.

This is about the height that the small but beautiful Adela cuprella flies at around the tops of the willows. I did catch one but it wasn't playing ball for a photograph and after that lucky catch, I couldn't get anywhere near them again. At about the same height was the impressive hoverfly Eristalis intricarius. Tony Davis, Penny & Dave Green and I headed out to the far west of the county in search of a number of scarce moths. We started with the Adela at Ivy Lake (Tony was at a distinct advantage with his extra long handle) and then ended up light trapping for Northern Drab at Thorney Island, which we failed to find. In fact, no moths came to light except a Streamer, as we were packing up. A trio of pugs were pretty much all that was on the wing, despite a mild night.

Beetles saved the day once more! Torching in the short turf revealed a number of Chrysolina species and a few Pill Beetles Byrrhus pilula which everyone was impressed by. A nice surprise was a Helops caeruleus crawling around on an old Hawthorn whilst a Whimbrel called once in the night. At the time of writing, I'm on 3849 species. Now tomorrow, I'm heading to the far east of the county with Andy Phillips and my new fork to look for weevils...