August Highlights

 Photos of some of the natural wonders I've seen this August (and late July) in Pett, Pett Level and its environs, though mostly in our garden.

First up - the glow-worms.  Photos courtesy of Ruth Ward.  I keep meaning to go out and get some pictures myself but so far haven't.

Lampyris noctiluca - this is an adult beetle but has no wing cases so looks like a larva or 'worm'.

The slightly shaky image of the light which only shows in the last 3 segments of the abdomen.

Two rarities from Pett Level sea wall - both have a conservation status of 'Nationally Scarce B' - a ladybird and a bumblebee.  No bumblebees were harmed in the taking of these photos.

Adonis Ladybird - Hippodamia variegata   3.5mm long with what looks like (but isn't) a smiley face.  It is aphidophagous - it eats aphids - and is often found in coastal areas.

Male Ruderal Bumblebee.  Bombus ruderatus. Note the broad and equal width bands on the thorax.

Male Ruderal Bumblebee showing the relatively short hair, long face, long abdomen, and his ginger beard

Ruby-tailed wasp - Chrysura radians.  One of a number of similar looking species that can be identified from the puncture patterns on the thorax.

Ruby-tailed wasp - Chrysura radians. This is a parasitoid of certain mason bees such as Osmia leaiana which use bee hotels and seal up each cell with leaf mastic.  I saw Osmia leaiana in the garden earlier this year but I'm not sure if they have nested in the garden.

A very patiently posing (or dozy) digger wasp Cerceris rybyensis.  It is commonly called the Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp.  It preys on small to medium-sized bees of various species which it paralyses with its sting and carries back to its burrow as food for its larvae.  It also squeezes the neck of its prey with those powerful mandibles.

Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp showing how it got its name.

And last but not least a particularly impressive bush-cricket.  Impressive for those long antennae which are about three times the length of the insect.  Long antennae are one of the features that distinguish bush-crickets from grasshoppers.  This is a long-winged cone-head female (Conocephalus discolor or also Conocephalus fuscus) sporting an equally impressive ovipositor which she uses to lay eggs in hollow grass or rush stems in which she has previously bitten a hole.

Ichneumon Wasps and Other Beauties

The first ichneumon was found molesting cinnabar moth caterpillars feasting on our ragwort - parasitoid and host.

Barylypa propugnator and Tyria jacobaeae on Jacobaea vulgaris

The second (very much smaller one) was found on nasturtium and is a parasitoid of aphidophagous hoverflies and there are plenty of black-fly on the nasturtiums to satisfy a small army of hoverfly larvae.

Diplazon laetatorius male

This wasp is not an ichneumon wasp, it is a Gasteruptid of the family Gasteruptidae in the super-family Evanioidea, as opposed to being in the family Ichneumonidae in the super-family Ichneumonoidea!  It does not inject eggs into its hosts.  Its hosts are solitary bees and wasps and it detects bee grubs in their burrows or bee hotels and injects an egg into the cell.  The result is the same - the egg hatches and consumes pollen and nectar from the cell and then the bee grub so the grub is eaten from the outside rather than from the inside.

Gasteruption jaculator which means stomach erupting javelin thrower!

I have found some really beautiful insects recently - an hemipteran with amazing antennae, an orthopteran with amazing antennae, and a very common but no less beautifully antennaed lepidopteran.  See below.

The orthopteran - Long-winged conehead nymph - Conocephalus fuscus

The lepidopteran - Common blue butterfly - Polyommatus icarus

The hemipteran - Heterotoma planicornis

April 2020 - other species

When we put out the moth trap, it was nearly a full moon so we didn't get much of a catch - only 4 species, two of which we'd not had before.  The streamer (Anticlea derivata) is a common species, as is the narrow-winged grey (Eudonia angustea).

Narrow-winged Grey

Streamer

Two identifications for the price of one in this life and death picture of a female ambush spider (Misumena vatia) fangs deep into the hoverfly (Eristalis arbustorum)(a new species).  I saw the dead fly first and picked it up to try and identify it - but the spider wasn't intending to let go of her lunch so she came with it.

The Pine Ladybird is a common species but I've only seen it here since last year.  It's a very small ladybird and could be mistaken for the 2-spot Ladybird.  The main distinguishing feature apart from the different spot shapes is that the pine ladybird has a noticeable flange around the elytra (wing cases).

Pine Ladybird

The hoverflies were well represented this month.  Epistrophe eligans is another new species for the garden.  Note that we are currently on Covid-19 lock-down, so the number of new species will rise this year because I have more time to look for and identify them.

Spring 2020 Solitary Bees

It's been a while, but with coronavirus rampant and time on my hands, I've been finding lots of new stuff in the garden.

Hairy-footed Flower Bee male

First up, but not new to the garden, just the first time I've managed to get a good photo of a male hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes).  The male gives the species its name and is normally found darting about guarding or trying to mate with the females.  I don't understand the term 'flower bee' because it is  actually a mining bee, and all bees forage on flowers.  I guess it may be to distinguish them from the Andrena species.

The chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica) - named for its colour rather than its diet, is a fairly plain brown bee with little else to distinguish it from other solitary bee species.  I thought this female was a Buffish Mining Bee (A. nigroaenea) going by the longish hair and buffish colour, but it has been identified as A. scotica.  It has a two-toned scopa (hind leg where the pollen goes) whereas the A. nigroaenea would have had an orange one.

Chocolate Mining Bee female

This male Chocolate mining bee is carrying some mud on the back of his thorax which probably came from the hole he was born in.

Chocolate Mining Bee male

The female tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) is not a new species and is a common species, I've just never had such a clear shot before.  It is resting on Pieris, a great plant for early spring forage for a range of species.

Tawny Mining Bee female

The red mason bee (Osmia bicornis) is a regular resident in our bee hotels and emerges slightly later than the Andrena species shown above. 

Red Mason Bee female (Black hair on face)

Red Mason Bee male (Pale hair on face)

I was actually putting up a new bee hotel and one female was investigating the holes even before I had it screwed together and on the wall.




































One group of solitary bees that is not welcome in the bee hotels, at least as far as the residents are concerned, are the nomad bees.  They are not welcome because they are cuckoo bees and will lay their eggs alongside those of their unwitting host, which when it hatches will eat the egg or larva of the host.  They are a difficult group to identify, but I've managed to sort out identification for two of the common ones shown here.

Marsham's Nomad Bee (Nomada marshamella)

Gooden's Nomad Bee (Nomada goodeniana)

The Blackthorn Mining Bee (Andrena varians) was a new species for the garden, as was Trimmer's Mining Bee (Andrena trimmerana).  Perhaps if I spend more time searching out new species, identification will get easier, but then again...

Blackthorn Mining Bee female

Trimmer's Mining Bee female

Birds - the bike list

The only strenuous exercise I can get during the Covid-19 lock-down is to ride my bike.  As birds are a bit more conspicuous now that there are fewer people about, I thought it would be amusing to play the twitcher and compile a 'bike list'.  The rules are - no binoculars (which would have been impossible anyway) and no stopping to identify anything and heard birds count.  They have to be identified on the move. Stopping to identify a bird and then riding on while keeping the same bird in sight would be cheating! That means that this list is full of easily identifiable birds but it's a reasonable length under the circumstances.

So, in no particular order -

1. Blackbird
2. House Sparrow
3. Great tit
4. Linnet
5. Magpie
6. Carrion Crow
7. Rook
8. Jackdaw
9. Swallow (Flying over Rye Harbour - only my second this year)
10. Avocet
11. Mallard
12. Shoveller
13. Pochard
14. Widgeon
15. Tufted Duck
16. Moorhen
17. Coot
18. Canada Goose
19. Greylag Goose
20. Cormorant (Male with white thigh spot in full view)
21. Herring Gull
22. Black-headed Gull
23. Chiff-chaff (Heard)
24. Little Egret
25. Great White Egret
26. Redshank
27. Marsh Harrier
28. Common Buzzard
29. Kestrel
30. Gadwall
31. Starling
32. Wren (Heard)
33. Ringed Plover
34. Mute Swan
35. Collared Dove
36. Stock Dove
37. Wood Pigeon
38. Whimbrel  (Fairly sure, just going from bill shape and length)
39. Skylark - and next 7 added 17/04/2020
40. Robin
41. Pied Wagtail
42. Oystercatcher
43. Dunnock
44. Wheatear
45. Egyptian Goose
46. Shelduck

Solitary Bees and others

Last weekend was spent at Rye Harbour attending a solitary bee course given by the author of 'The Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland' Steven Falk.  Solitary bees are a diverse and difficult group of insects to identify and though we spent some time using dichotomous keys and microscopes I still have great difficulty even getting to the correct genus.

Dasypoda hirtipes - the Pantaloon Bee

I can however fairly confidently identify the female of one particular species - Dasypoda hirtipes - known to its friends as the pantaloon bee and it is fairly obvious how it got its name.  This particular photo was taken the previous week when I was walking a bee transect at Rye Harbour looking for bumblebees, but this striking specimen caught my eye.

Anthophora bimaculata - Green-eyed Flower Bee

I also know now how to identify three species of Anthophora, or the flower bees.  One species is very common and a regular visitor to our garden - Anthophora plumipes - known as the hairy-footed flower bee.  The female is large, all black, and can be mistaken for a bumblebee.  Sadly the male is less distinctive but he is the one with the hairy feet.

The other two species we found this weekend are Anthophora bimaculata - the green-eyed flower bee - again, it is easy to see how it gets its name, and , a larger and quite squat bee - the four-banded flower bee, Anthophora quadrimaculata, though I think its scientific name derives from dark spots on the male's face.

Anthophora quadrimaculata - the Four-banded Flower Bee

Wasp Spider - Argiope bruennichi

The weekend was not confined to solitary bees and we took every opportunity to immerse ourselves in whatever aspect of nature presented itself.  Here is an example of the several wasp spiders that we found on a grassy patch.

Rare and less rare

It always amazes me what you find when you are not really expecting to see anything unusual.  Considering that our wildlife and their habitats are in such decline, we may get amazed far less often.  I photographed a couple of unusual flies recently and I thought one was a soldier fly and had no idea what the other one was.  It turns out that the soldier fly was indeed a soldier fly but not the common one I thought it was, in fact, though it is a European species it is very rare in the UK.  The other one that I thought was unusual was in fact fairly common.

Ornate Brigadier - Odontomyia ornata

The rare one was Odontomyia ornata or the ornate brigadier.  This one was sat on a yellow flag iris that a neighbour had given me and was just put in a corner of the pond waiting until I could plant it in its final position.  The most striking feature of the fly was the spotty face between the eyes.

Ornate Brigadier - Odontomyia ornata

Broad Centurion - Chloromyia formosa

The common one was on some wild forget-me-not in the tiny patch of garden that we like to call our annual meadow.  This too was a soldier fly - a broad centurion, Chloromyia formosa. This was a male.  The species is sexually dimorphic with the males having a bronze abdomen and the females a metallic green abdomen.  The most striking feature of this fly was the hairy eyes. a distinguishing feature of the species.

Knotted Hedge-parsley - Torilis nodosa

Yesterday, I was walking along the sea wall at Pett Level, doing a wildflower survey for the short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project.  This can get a bit tedious especially when you are seeing a lot of the same species time after time.  So I was delighted to notice a plant that I didn't recognize.  The flower looked a bit like an umbellifer, but instead of standing tall, it was in a low sprawling clump.  Despite the distinctive nature of the plant, it took me a long time to find it in the flower book because the illustration looked nothing like the plant, almost as though the illustrator had never seen one growing (maybe he hadn't).  It was knotted hedge-parsley, not a rarity but in decline.  The one thing that distinguished this umbellifer from others for me was not the small size but the way it has several flowers growing up the stem, each one opposite a single leaf.  I guess that's how it got it's 'knotted' name.