Despite the rain

The weather continues to be very unsettled, but at least the rain does stop for a little while from time to time.

The parasitic ichneumon wasps are becoming very numerous at the moment, which makes sense, because now is the time when their caterpillar hosts are around in large numbers. Ichneumons are extremely difficult to identify to species since the literature is fragmented and it takes microscopic analysis to separate them. This is compounded by the fact that our 3000 or so species converge on a very small number of colour patterns across all families. Very few can be identified by sight, although I can do a couple. Achaius oratorius is one of the larger species at 3 cm. long:

The Ichneumon Achaius oratorius

Another one was kind enough to pose for some close-up shots:

Female Ichneumon wasp

That medium-length ovipositor suggests that this species parasitises larvae which live inside thick-stemmed plants, such as umbellifers.

This next one compounds the colour pattern problem. If you compare it with the sawfly from here, you will see that sawflies and ichneumons also converge on very similar patterns.

Ichneumon wasp

A couple of posts ago, I showed the Banded Snail. This is the very closely related Dark-lipped Banded Snail - Cepaea nemoralis:

Dark-lipped Banded Snail - Cepaea nemoralis

New to the site.

Every clump of Raspberry plants has a few Raspberry Beetles flying around:

Raspberry Beetle - Byturus tomentosus

The grubs of this beetle are the white 'worms' that are frequently found inside the fruit.

The very delicate Lesser Stitchwort is currently in flower, and can be seen climbing through grasses and other flowers, using them for support:

Lesser Stitchwort

Neoascia podagrica is the smallest hoverfly that I have found on the patch. It's never found far from lying water, and this specimen is on an opening flower of Tormentil:

The hoverfly Neoascia podagrica on Tormentil

Micromoths are also very numerous at the moment, with new species appearing daily. This is the very common Celypha lacunana, which feeds on a wide range of plants.

The micromoth Celypha lacunana

Most micromoths feed on a single plant species or sometimes on a family of plants, but Celypha lacunana has a very wide range of foodplants, including Male Fern:

Larva of Celypha lacunana on Male Fern

This flexibility of choice of foodplants is clearly one reason for its success.

I usually associate the micromoth Eupoecilia angustana with later months of the year, but this is an early year, despite the awful weather.

The micromoth Eupoecilia angustana

Lastly, a new micromoth for this site: Incurvarea praelatella. The larvae feed on various members of the Rosaceae family of plants; probably Meadowsweet in this area.

The micromoth Incurvarea praelatella

Other members of the family are leaf-miners.

Early year?

I'm hearing many reports of species being 'early' this year. Species have been appearing at earlier and earlier dates over the past few years; so much so that it has almost become the accepted norm and people don't even mention it any more. But this year I'm again noticing that more people are making special mention of early specimens of moths, butterflies and other insects, so perhaps things are particularly early this year.

The following shot certainly illustrates that trend as far as I'm concerned, but before I discuss it, what type of insect do you think the following picture shows? (bumblebee, wasp, fly, other?):

Male Eristalis intricarius

Well, to put you out of your misery, it's a hoverfly: a male Eristalis intricarius. These are good bumblebee mimics, and at first glance, when they're stationary, they are easily mistaken for Bombus lucorum.

A few identification pointers might help. Firstly, it has only two wings; flies have two wings, bees have four. Secondly, the head is almost completely made up of eyes. In a bee, the eyes are long and narrow, with visible parts of the 'face' on both sides of the eyes. (Incidentally, the fact that the eyes meet in the middle is what makes it so clearly a male). Thirdly, what appears to be an orange stripe between the wings is actually the shiny scutellum, and isn't really a stripe at all. Finally, if you look carefully at the wing veins, you can clearly see the famous 'Eristalis bulge', which is unique to the Eristalis group of hoverflies:

Eristalis 'bulge'

The shot also illustrates another of the wing features which identify hoverflies: the 'False margin':

The trailing edge of the wing is not constrained by a vein: it is free to flex as the wing moves. I rather suspect this is one of the main reasons why a hoverfly can hover so accurately.

In terms of earliness, I have only once seen Eristalis intricarius before June: I have come to regard it as a summer species. The references say from March, but that would probably be a date from much further south.

The next shot shows a couple of tiny flies (on Dandelion for scale). On the left is a Sepsid fly: these run around on leaves and flowers with their wings flapping up and down in a semaphore fashion. On the right is one of our smallest hoverflies, Neoascia podagrica:

Sepsid (L) and Neoascia podagrica (R)

Here's a close-up of the (8mm. long, female) hoverfly:

This is again much earlier than I would normally expect to see it.

In terms of grasses, the first to flower around here is usually Sweet Vernal Grass, but that hasn't appeared yet.  Instead, I found Meadow Foxtail:

Meadow Foxtail

I have included a little insert (top left) showing the very short 'ligule' which can be used to assist with identification.

Sun!

The view East from Leg 2 of the Hedgerow:



This is by far the smallest local hoverfly - Neoascia podagrica. In order to see them, I have to sit on a verge and wait for tiny shimmering dots to hover into view. This specimen was about 5 mm long. For those of you raised on inches, that's about 1/5th of an inch. Check it out on a ruler.


It took a little while to resolve this pair of Cixiids. These are true bugs - related to the much more common leaf hoppers.


Rhingia campestris is a very visible hoverfly with its rosy abdomen clearly seen in flight. The long 'nose' is a sheath for its extremely long, folding tongue. Previously seen only in rural areas (its larvae live in cow dung), this is now being seen in more urban settings, leading to the assumption that more domesticated dung is also being used.


This male Melanostoma scalare was nectaring on Germander Speedwell and Dog Violets:

Sawflies are closely related to bees and wasps. The female's sting is modified into a saw which is used to cut slits in leaves to hold her eggs.