Under pressure

High pressure, as in sunny weather, brings out all the insects, so things have been quite busy.

The Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - is the latest of my local bumblebees to establish a nest. Most of the specimens seen around are still queens stocking up their reserves before the workers emerge for the season:

Common Carder Bee on Bush Vetch

Members of the Empid family of flies are commonly called 'Dance Flies' due to their habit of forming mating clouds where individuals bounce vertically within the cloud. They are voracious predators, sucking fluids from their victims with their long proboscis. Sometimes, however, the proboscis is used to reach nectar in flowers:

Empid fly on Creeping Buttercup

Hoverflies are everywhere at the moment, which is good news: they pollinate flowers, trees and crops, so the more we see the better. Eristalis arbustorum can be separated from other Eristalis species by the lack of a dark stripe down the face in association with the swollen rear leg which is conveniently extended in this shot:

Eristalis arbustorum hoverfly

Rhingia campestris is an increasing species which used to be found mainly near farms (the larvae live in dung), but is now found in most habitats:

Rhingia campestris hoverfly

That long 'snout' contains a folded-up tongue which it unfolds to suck nectar that other insects cannot reach.

Leaf-mining species don't wait long after the leaves emerge before laying their eggs: they have to make use of their only food as soon as it's available. This is the very common Phytomyza ranunculi, which mines various members of the Buttercup family:

Phytomyza ranunculi mining Creeping Buttercup

I increased the light intensity on this shot to show the larva more clearly:

Phytomyza ranunculi close-up showing larva in mine

The mines of Phytomyza ranunculi can be separated from those of the much rarer Phytomyza ranunculivora by the pattern of 'frass' (dung droplets), which are joined up ("string of pearls") in P. ranunculi, but are quite separate in P. ranunculivora (Click here for comparison).


Most predators are adept at catching their own food, but some chance upon their next meal whilst simply wandering about. I saw this Lesser Dungfly discovering an already dead fly and after a brief inspection, it wasted no time in tucking in:

Lesser Dungfly with discovered corpse

I previously showed the newly-laid egg of the Orange-Tip butterfly. As expected, the egg has now turned orange and should hatch in the next day or two:

Orange Tip butterfly egg on Cardamine

Good weather encourages moths to emerge and they can often be seen beside lights at night: I keep one light running to see what I can attract. This is Common Marbled Carpet - a very variable moth (and this specimen is quite worn, making identification even more tricky):

Common Marbled Carpet moth

Just to show what we're up against in moth identification, here is a shot of Goldenrod Pug - Eupithecia virgaureata:

Goldenrod Pug moth

Compare that with my previous shot of the same species here. The only features in common are the (faint) elongated wing spots and the tuft of whitish scales behind the thorax. This colour variation has been named as f. nigra for fairly obvious reasons.

Lastly, a shot of the very common Buff Ermine moth. The caterpillars are very common in wooded areas and look like the business end of a stiff yard brush.

Buff Ermine moth

Brief sun

We had an unexpected clear blue sky today (I say 'unexpected' because I pay little heed to weather forecasts due to their consistent inaccuracy) so I took an early trip to see what was around.

The heat had certainly brought out more insects than I had expected to see in October, starting with this Buff Ermine moth caterpillar, which is coincidentally basking on the vacated mine of the micromoth Stigmella aurella on Bramble:

The caterpillar will shortly pupate and then hibernate until summer.

The 'Noon Fly' Mesembrina meridiana is never too numerous, but I saw at least eight on this trip:

The larvae of Mesembrina meridiana live in cow-dung and are predatory on other dung-dwelling larvae, including those of the Scathophaga Dung-Fly below:

Scathophaga are dung feeders as larvae, but are voracious predators as adults, a complete reversal from the Mesembrina which only feeds on nectar as an adult.

It would be good to get a 'full-circle' photo of an adult Scathophaga with a Mesembrina as its prey, although the Mesembrina tends to be a little large for the normal prey-size of the Scathophaga.

Just as I was finishing my little survey, a Speckled Wood butterfly flew over my shoulder and landed behind me:

It's amazing what a little sun will bring out.

Continuing the excellent fungal year, I found these 'Lawyer's Wigs' - Coprinus comatus - on my lawn. These only last for a day or two at most.

The visible, reproductive, parts of fungi are the familiar, short-lived, mushrooms or toadstools, but the actual fungus (the mycelium) lies below the soil or inside some other substrate such as wood or animal debris. This mycelium will last as long as conditions are right, which is why fungi are often found in precisely the same place from year to year. This specimen of Phaeolepiota aurea was also on my lawn, and in exactly the same place as last year. This rare fungus is thought to be a nettle associate (and I have nettles within a few metres of this specimen), but there must also be some other requirement, since the vast majority of nettle patches don't have the fungus.

Dry night - moths to light

Plenty of moth activity due to the dry days/nights.

This is the Brimstone Moth - Opisthograptis luteolata:


The rather frequent Buff Ermine - Spilosoma luteum.


Difficult to catch the subtle blue colouring of the Clouded Silver - Lomographa temerata - under flash:



And finally for today, the orange form of Common Marbled Carpet - Chloroclysta truncata.


When identifying moths, pattern is virtually everything. Colour is much less important. And this specimen is VERY worn.