As the weather was fine on Sunday, I wanted to go and beat some evergreen shrubs to see what I could get out of them, as you do (seriously great for entomology in the winter). I've been eyeing up the Juniper on New Timber Hill but haven't got permission to record there yet so I headed over to Levin Down (with Niall).
A pair of showy Red Kites greeted us at the reserve, Niall was impressed. We started beating Juniper into a white tray and it was a bit disappointing to be honest. Too windy for the detritus in the tray and because of this, it was hard to detect motion. We recorded about 40 species in total so not the end of the world but no lifers. Highlight was probably Corizus hyoscyami (above). I've seen this bug quite a few times now (this is the 16th time I've recorded it in five years) but it's so active in the summer, I can't get them to sit still for a second, this is the first photo of one I've ever managed.
Here is a couple of shield bugs beaten from the same branch as each other, left is the Gorse Shieldbug and right Juniper Shieldbug.
And what I believe must be Juniper Aphid Cinara juniperi. Go and beat an evergreen bush near you and see what comes out!
As I write and for the last two days, I have been helping John van Breda, Charles Roper and Bob Foreman construct the pan-species listing website with funding from the BRC. It's been an exciting few days watching the site take shape and it's great to be able to have such an input into something I really see the value in. Thanks guys!
I am, as ever, continuously distracted by wildlife. Two Great Tits killing each other in the drain outside the mill, a mouse running around my feet as I type, Jet Black Ants Lasius fuliginosus showing off their heart shaped heads by the door but what I really wanted was a tick to mark the occasion.
Being that I only had a twenty metre walk to the Truffles sandwich van in the car park planned, this was not looking likely. Or so I thought...
...Charles and I spotted these crazy looking aphids, I've never seen anything like them before despite spending two or three days a week waiting for the sandwich van in the same spot. A little searching online and it looks likely these are the Black Willow Bark Aphid Pterocomma salicis. They were being attended by Lasius fuliginosus and another species of Lasius as yet unidentified.
I went back to the area of Field Maples and willows where I found some interesting mosses yesterday. It's great having a new 'patch' I can work within a hundred yards of my office. I was trying to figure out if I had found another new liverwort or just a different form of something more familiar when I spotted these little weirdos shuffling around in a crack in some willow bark. They are
Large Willow Aphids Tuberolachnus salignus and I have never heard of them before. Easy enough to identify online, read more about them on
this page. What is strange about them is that they overwinter as adults. They are meant to be quite common on willow bark and are one of the biggest aphids in the UK, they were certainly pretty visible today. What may look like a male and female is most likely just a winged and an unwinged female as the males have not been recorded in the UK. In the background you can see just how small
Fairy Beads are. The liverwort I originally spotted turned out to be just a small green form of
Frulania dilatata but it lead me to something completely unexpected. Awesome.
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