A new bee on a rare flower

After a few quieter nights things picked up a bit on Saturday 8th June with 8 moths new for the year here: Hedge Case-bearer Coleophora striatipennella, 3 Large Fruit-tree Tortrixes Archips podana, Privet Tortrix Clepsis consimilana, Small Fan-footed Wave, Barred Straw, Grey Pug, Common Footman and Pale-shouldered Brocade.

Hedge Case-bearer Coleophora striatipennella (male, gen det), North Elmham, 8th June

Large Fruit-tree Tortrix Archips podana, North Elmham, 8th June

Privet Tortrix Clepsis consimilana, North Elmham, 8th June

Barred Straw, North Elmham, 8th June

Grey Pug (male, gen det), North Elmham, 8th June

Common Footman, North Elmham, 8th June

Pale-shouldered Brocade, North Elmham, 8th June

Other moths in the trap were Yellow-triangle Slender Caloptilia alchimiella, Brown House Moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella, Brindled Flat-body Agonopterix arenella, 2 London Dowds Blastobasis lacticolella, 2 Light Brown Apple Moths Epiphyas postvittana, Barred Marble Celypha striana, 5 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Plum Tortrix Hedya pruniana, Rush Marble Bactra lancealana, Triple-blotched Bell Notocelia trimaculana, Red Piercer Lathronympha strigana, Garden Grass-veneer Chrysoteuchia culmella, Hook-streaked Grass-Veneer Crambus lathoniellus, Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis, 6 Small Magpies Anania hortulata, Bee Moth Aphomia sociella, False Cacao Moth Ephestia unicolorella, 2 Common Swifts, 3 Silver-ground Carpets, Common Marbled Carpet, Green Carpet, 3 Common Pugs, Brimstone Moth, 5 Willow Beauties, 2 Buff Ermines, Heart and Dart, Flame, 8 Ingrailed Clays, Bright-line Brown-eye, 6 Brown Rustics, Clouded-bordered Brindle, Marbled Minor, 2 Middle-barred Minors, Marbled White Spot, 16 Straw Dots, 4 Snouts and Small Fan-foot.

Also new for the year here was the brown lacewing Hemerobius humulinus.

Hemerobius humulinus, North Elmham, 8th June

I initially thought a reddish orange bug was going to be Phylus palliceps, a species I've trapped here before, but the black head makes it Phylus melanocephalus - a completely new species for me.

Phylus melanocephalus, North Elmham, 8th June

Also in the trap were the caddisfly Hydropsyche siltalai and the soldier beetle Cantharis rufa.

Cantharis rufa, North Elmham, 8th June

Next day I popped in to the patch where Norfolk's only Crested Cow-wheat was flowering.  I think this bee feeding on it was my first Vestal Cuckoo Bee Bombus vestalis but I'm not 100% sure I can rule out Gypsy Cuckoo Bee Bombus bohemicus (which would also be new for me).  Please let me know if you confirm either way.

Crested Cow-wheat, Rawhall Wood, 9th June

probable Vestal Cuckoo Bee Bombus vestalis on (and off) Crested Cow-wheat, Rawhall Wood, 9th June

Also 4 Swollen-thighed Beetles here along with Speckled Wood and Azure Damselfly.

Moths at Ryburgh included White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella, 4 Common Nettle-taps Anthophila fabriciana, 2 Silver-ground Carpets, Yellow Shell and Sharp-angled Carpet.

White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella, Ryburgh, 9th June

Butterflies included Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Large Skipper while dragonflies were represented by Banded Demoiselle, Blue-tailed Damselfly and Common Blue Damselfly.

Buff-tip new for the year, a new Caddis and a Lacehopper

Still on last Saturday, following previous posts covering Titchwell, Dersingham Bog and Babingley River and Roydon Common, there was a selection of moths in the home trap that night too.  Not as many as there should be in June though - 29 species really isn't a great total for this time of year.  New for the year were Lime-speck Pug, Pale Oak Beauty, Buff-tip and 2 Setaceous Hebrew Characters.

Buff-tip, North Elmham, 4th June

The others were 19 Diamond-back Moths Plutella xylostella, Many-plumed Moth Alucita hexadactyla, Hook-streaked Grass-Veneer Crambus lathoniellus, Narrow-winged Grey Eudonia angustea, 3 Common Swifts, 2 Silver-ground Carpets, Garden Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, 2 Green Carpets, Foxglove Pug, 3 Common Pugs, Brimstone Moth, 2 Peppered Moths, Poplar Hawkmoth, Iron Prominent, 2 White Ermines, Buff Ermine, Flame, Small Square-spot, Bright-line Brown-eye, Rustic Shoulder-knot, Clouded-bordered Brindle, Marbled Minor, 12 Treble Lines and 2 Vine's Rustics.

Marbled Minor (male, gen det), North Elmham, 4th June

Caddisflies included my first identified Limnephilus vittatus and a Glyphotaelius pellucidus.

Limnephilus vittatus, North Elmham, 4th June

Sunday night was very similar - 29 species again.  Only 2 Common Greys Scoparia ambigualis, Common Carpet and Turnip Moth were new for the year for the house.  One of the ambigualis was quite strongly marked and had a lot of brown infilling in the wing-markings - I'd have been tempted to put it down as a Meadow Grey Scoparia pyralella had I not dissected it.

Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis (male, gen det), North Elmham, 5th June

Others were 2 Hawthorn Slenders Parornix anglicella, 30 Diamond-back Moths Plutella xylostella, Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana, Common Marble Celypha lacunana, Hook-streaked Grass-Veneer Crambus lathoniellus, Garden Pebble Evergestis forficalis, Bee Moth Aphomia sociella, 2 Common Swifts, 2 Green Carpets, Mottled Pug, Lime-speck Pug, 2 Common Pugs, Clouded Border, Scalloped Hazel, Pale Oak Beauty, 4 White Ermines, 3 Buff Ermines, Cinnabar, 2 Small Square-spots, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Shears, Bright-line Brown-eye, Lychnis, Rustic Shoulder-knot, Tawny Marbled Minor and 8 Treble Lines.

Hawthorn Slender Parornix anglicella (male, gen det), North Elmham, 5th June

Lime-speck Pug, North Elmham, 5th June

Pale Oak Beauty, North Elmham, 5th June

On Monday I spent my lunchbreak at Syderstone Common where I found another White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella (following my first ever on Saturday), 5 Diamond-back Moths Plutella xylostella, 12 Grey Gorse Piercers Cydia ulicetana and Cinnabar.  Also this larval case which is apaprently not identifable between Common Oak Case-bearer Coleophora lutipennella and Tipped Oak Case-bearer Coleophora flavipennella.  Can't help noticing that all the images I can find of lutipennella look like this while all the flavipennella look darker, but they aren't supposed to be do-able without breeding them through and then dissecting the moth, so presumably the images I've seen don't represent the full range of variation.

White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella, Syderstone Common, 6th June

Common/Tipped Oak Case-bearer Coleophora lutipennella/flavipennella, Syderstone Common, 6th June

I'm pretty sure this weevil is an Acorn Weevil Curculio glandium, although other Curculio species are very similar.  I think the shape of the antennal clubs and body pattern in combination clinch the ID, but I'm not clear if that's entirely reliable or not.

apparent Acorn Weevil Curculio glandium, Syderstone Common, 6th June

I was more interested to find this Lacehopper, my first Lacehopper, Tachycixius pilosus.

Tachycixius pilosus, Syderstone Common, 6th June

Tens of thousands of moths

On Saturday morning I was up at Titchwell birding and swimming in Diamond-back Moths Plutella xylostella.  OK, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but there really were a lot of them.  They were everywhere, but some places were thick with them - you could see maybe 50-100 in some small patches of vegetation with more appearing if the vegetation was disturbed.  I put down 1000 in my records but that really was a very conservative estimate - just of the moths I'd seen.  I couldn't possibly guess how many were actually there.  Tens of thousands obviously, hundreds of thousands probably, millions mabye?  I wouldn't be surprised.

Not much else of lepidopteran note - a Common Nettle-tap Anthophila fabriciana and 2 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana were the only other moths I saw in the misty murk.  A Scorpion Fly proved to be Panorpa germanica (gen det).

Next I headed to Dersingham Bog.  I thought there might be fewer moths here with it being further inland, or at least further from a north/east facing coast.  But there were loads of Diamond-back Moths Plutella xylostella here too.  The heath itself was quite windswept and there weren't many here (although still kicking up a few every few steps) but in the shelter of the woodland above the heath there were hundreds.  I didn't spend long here and didn't cover that much ground, but even so I must have easily seen 500.

I managed a few other moths too: 2 Green Long-horns Adela reaumurella, Brassy Tortrix Eulia ministrana, Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis and 3 Common Heaths.

Common Heaths, Dersingham Bog, 4th June

A leafhopper turned out to be Chamaepsylla hartigii, a first for me.  A wildflower tick for me here too, which I might not have noticed if it wasn't for the display board telling me about it.  Cranberry.  The flowers aren't exactly tiny and they're bright pink, yet they were strangely hard to see even when looking down on them.  I must have walked past them before, here at least if not elsewhere.

I wish I'd spent longer trying to get a decent photo of an amazing insect that I found on a log pile close to where I parked.  Turned out none of my photos of it were in focus, which is a bit disappointing.  It was obviously an Ichneumon wasp, but what an Ichneumon!  It was a monster!  An absolute beast!  Off the top of my head I can't think of another insect I have ever seen anywhere in the world as long as this.  The body was probably well over an inch long, the antennae about as long on top and then the ovipositor!  Wow!  I believe it's something called Ephialtes manifestator.

Ephialtes manifestator, Dersingham Bog, 4th June

But good as this was, top trump goes to a hoverfly.  A large and very distinctive hoverfly that I was pretty sure I hadn't ever seen before.  Turns out it was Sericomyia lappona, a species with a relatively restricted range in Norfolk.  Looks like it occurs only in west and north-west Norfolk, and given its preference of boggy habitat I would hazard a guess that Dersingham Bog might be the best place to see it in this county.

Sericomyia lappona, Dersingham Bog, 4th June

To the untrained eye this Hoverfly looks even more distinctive, but alas there are 2-3 similar species and the quality of my photos is not high enough for me to be 100% certain of its ID.  Probably Helophilus pendulus.  Not a greatly significant record even if the ID was clinched (either way).

Helophilus sp., probably Helophilus pendulus, Dersingham Bog, 4th June

My next stop was a little further inland, a footpath close to the Babingley River just south of West Newton.  I've been meaning to explore this path for ages.  The path starts running down the edge of a crop field on one side and on the other, a strip of low vegetation, a dyke and then a hedgerow.  It goes on like this for maybe a third of a mile before crossing a sheepfield and then running alongside the river itself.  I only got as far as the sheepfield.  Being a bit further inland I didn't expect especially huge number of Diamond-backs, although with the numbers I'd seen elsewhere I knew it would hold a good few.  Well, it was spectacular.  I have never seen anything like it.  As soon as I opened my car door a cloud of Diamond-back Moths got up beside me.  But this was only the start - they continued all the way down the path.  Counting them was impossible but I was keen to document how many there were so set about to estiamte numbers as accurately (but conservatively) as possible.  To give you an idea, a single stinging-nettle held about 20 - and that was just the ones I could see without disturbing it.  There were a lot of stinging nettles, and a lot of other plants with moths on.  In just one small section in front of me I could see hundreds, and that went on for pretty much the whole footpath.  A very conservative estimate for just this small stretch of footpath was 10-15,000 Diamond-back Moths.

With so many moths present it was hard to pick out any that were different, but I did manage a few.  Best was a new moth for me, and a very attractive one too - White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella.  They're not hugely rare (indeed my second followed a couple of days later) but a first is always exciting, especially when they're so stunning.

White-barred Gold Micropterix aruncella, Babingley River near West Newton, 4th June

I also found 5 Cocksfoot Moths Glyphipterix simpliciella, a Common Marble Celypha lacunana and a Drinker caterpillar, but an interesting-looking small Plume moth sadly evaded my net.  Bugs included a number of Hairy Shieldbugs and the striking Cercopis vulnerata.

Hairy Shieldbugs, Babingley River near West Newton, 4th June

Cercopis vulnerata, Babingley River near West Newton, 4th June

Dragonflies included at least 20 Azure Damselflies and about 3 Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Azure Damselfly, Babingley River near West Newton, 4th June

Next stop was Roydon Common where I was to join the Norfolk Moth Survey for an evening's trapping.  I got there early - a lot early - with Dave so as to give ourselves plenty of time to look for day-flying moths before the trapping started.  A good time was had, with thousands more Diamond-back Moths, but I'll save the details for my next post...