Description


A diary of my mothing activity covering highlights and photos from my moth trapping activities. Mainly Norfolk (UK), occasionally beyond. I may mention other wildlife sightings here, especially insects, but for birds see my birding diary.

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Second-for-Norfolk bug and lots of other insects

I just posted about all the moths I trapped on the night of 21st June and as promised, here are the other insects that turned up in the trap.  The highlight had to be one of the bugs.  I narrowed it down to either Macrotylus horvathi or Macrotylus solitarius.  It had a black spot on each wing membrane as horvathi does, but the spots weren't circular as they're meant to be on horvathi.  I didn't think there was any dense dark spotting on the femora (as shown by horvathi) but there were a lot of black hairs and I wasn't 100% certain if I'd be able to tell if the dark spots were just at the very base of each hair.  As there were no records of either showing on the NBN Atlas in Norfolk I checked with Rob Coleman, county recorder for bugs.  He in turn checked with bug ace Tristan Bantock who apparently confirmed that it was Macrotylus solitarius, and Rob subsequently informed me that it is only the second record of this species in Norfolk.  Well I've had two more since...

Macrotylus solitarius, North Elmham, 21st June


Among the other bugs 2 Phylus coryli were a new species for me.  There was also a Birch Shieldbug.

Phylus coryli, North Elmham, 21st June


No less than seven species of Lacewing included 4 green lacewings all new for the year here (Chrysopidia ciliata, 2 Cunctochrysa albolineata, 2 Dichochrysa flavifrons and Dichochrysa prasina), 2 brown lacewings (2 Hemerobius humulinus and one that I'd never identified before: Wesmaelius subnebulosus.) and at least one species of Waxfly (two female Conwentzia sp. - only the males can be identified).

Chrysopidia ciliata, North Elmham, 21st June


Cunctochrysa albolineata, North Elmham, 21st June


Dichochrysa flavifrons, North Elmham, 21st June


Dichochrysa prasina, North Elmham, 21st June


Wesmaelius subnebulosus, North Elmham, 21st June


Caddisflies included a new species for me: Cyrnus trimaculatus.  Others were Hydropsyche angustipennis, a new one for the garden, Athripsodes aterrimus and Mystacides longicornis.

Cyrnus trimaculatus (female), North Elmham, 21st June


Hydropsyche angustipennis (female), North Elmham, 21st June


The beetles were good too - no lifers but three that I hadn't recorded here before (one or two probably only because I haven't been looking at them closely enough, though I think I might have picked up on the ladybird in previous years if I'd seen one) - a Glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca, the click beetle Melanotus villosus and a 10-spot Ladybird.  There was also a Harleqin Ladybird.

Glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca, North Elmham, 21st June



10-spot Ladybird, North Elmham, 21st June


Mayflies were represented by 3 Serratella ignita and finally there were 2 Common Frogs looking on.

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