Full steam ahead

After a wet early start, St. Patrick's day eventually brightened up and I went to an area that always provides early interest. This is the view looking north into an Ash wood with a stream along the right hand side.

View north into the Ash trees

Lesser Celandine is out all along the edge of the stream:

Lesser Celandine with Creeping Buttercup leaves to the right

No time is wasted before the fungal rusts appear. This is Uromyces dactylidis, which is common on leaves of various Ranunculus species, especially Lesser Celandine:

The fungal rust Uromyces dactylidis on Lesser Celandine 

And Puccinia lapsanae, which grows exclusively on Nipplewort. Notice that the rust has forced the leaf to grow a 'bulge', which serves to increase the available area for spore production/dispersal of the Puccinia:

Puccinia lapsanae on Nipplewort leaf

The ditch is also home for Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, which has to be one of the most symmetrical plants I know:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage in flower

My last post showed an old mine of the micromoth Stigmella aurella on bramble. This leaf has at least 6 mines, some of which are currently occupied:

At least 6 mines of the micromoth Stigmella aurella on Bramble

This shot shows one of the micromoth larvae actively mining from left to right. Notice that the mine has abruptly turned right just before the margin: there must be something that the larva can detect that makes it turn before it is in danger of falling out of the leaf.

Larva of the micromoth Stigmella aurella

That shot is taken from below the leaf looking upwards, and shows light shining through the upper surface of the leaf, through the larva and through the lower surface of the leaf. Given that the leaf is no more than a millimetre thick, the larva is probably around 500 microns thick (and 3 millimetres long).

The ditch wall has many mosses and liverworts; these capsules belong to the moss Bryum capillare. Last year's capsules are still present, and the leaves of the Bryum can be seen to the bottom right of the image.

Capsules of Bryum capillare

Lastly for today, flowers of Hairy Bittercress, also known as Jumping Cress. If you want to discover the origin of the second name, just touch some ripe seedpods.

Hairy Bittercress (also known as Jumping Cress)

Green shoots of recovery

We've been having some very variable weather for the last couple of weeks, with about 15 cm. of snow at the weekend. The heat last week certainly stimulated some growth on the Raspberry canes:

First Raspberry leaves

I was a bit surprised to see a single flower of Germander Speedwell which has clearly suffered from the sharp dip in temperature that came with the snow:

Germander Speedwell

Leaf-miners always intrigue me, and the most common mine in this area is the micromoth Stigmella aurella. I often pause to have a look at the mine and see if I can work out the factors that determine the route of the mine:

Mine of the micromoth Stigmella aurella 

In this instance, the mine has started below right of centre and looped round a spot of rust on the leaf. It then heads for the central vein (which is the part of the leaf that's furthest away from the edge) and follows that vein for about half the length of the leaf. It then deviates outwards towards the edge (it has to do this at least once, since the central vein isn't long enough for a whole mine) and follows the edge without actually reaching the edge (how do they do that?) before turning back into the central vein to complete the mine.

The large fungal spots on either side of the vein are the fungal rust Phragmidium violaceum, which appears in summer and autumn as bright orange dots inside an expanding purple ring on the leaves.

Elementary, my dear reader

Moth identification is a dark art, and last night a famous quotation from Sherlock Holmes came to mind: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." 

My version, adapted to Moth identification, is as follows: "In March, when you have eliminated all other possible identifications, then the moth is Clouded Drab, no matter how unlike the specimen is to the usual illustrations."

Clouded Drab - Orthosia incerta

I showed my first Clouded Drab last year in April (Click here to see it), and I'm sure you'll agree there is little superficial similarity between the images. Clouded Drab feeds on many broadleaf plants as a larva.

Another timely moth is the March Moth - Alsophila aescularia, which think is a rather delicate little beast:

March Moth (male)

Yet again, the females of the March Moth are wingless. It seems that there's some correlation between the cold-weather moths and flightless females (although it's not exclusive to them). There must be some advantage  in that system, but I can't quite work it out.

My first Beetle for the year is one of the Chrysomelids, or Leaf Beetles - Chrysolina staphylea. I'm seeing more of these each year since I first recorded it 3 years ago.

The Chrysomelid beetle Chrysolina staphylea

It's about the same size as a 7-spot Ladybird, and they can often be found in the same locations.

New directions

We've had some warm and sunny days recently, although the temperature has dropped at night. This Dotted Border moth - Agriopis marginaria - came to light:

Male Dotted Border

The Dotted Border is another of our moths with flightless females, and the larvae feed on many broadleaf trees and shrubs.

One thing that I have been promising myself (or threatening myself) for quite some time now is to develop some skill in wildlife painting. My chosen medium is watercolour with ink, because I like the intensity and accuracy that indian ink adds to watercolour. For the past couple of weeks, I have been working on a portrait of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (which incidentally can be seen flying at the moment), and I now feel brave enough to reveal my efforts to the internet audience:

I suppose the actual painting/inking time was perhaps 3 hours, but with large gaps between sessions to layer the colours and let things dry.

The original is about 15 cm. x 10 cm.

Light and dark

I went up to the Celandine area, but the buds were still closed. I did, however, find a few open specimens of Coltsfoot:

Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot is quite interesting in a couple of ways:

1) The flowers always appear before the leaves
2) The stems have a fine cobwebby covering which tightens and stretches to alter the attitude of the flowerhead and seedhead as the season progresses.

Gorse has also come back into flower:

Gorse flowers

At this point, the rain became much heavier and the next Gorse shot has a very interesting background:

Gorse in heavy rain

Damaged parts of leaves attract me like a magnet: they usually indicate a fungal influence or signs of something feeding . This Common Polypody had a single leaflet that was clearly eaten:

Polypodium with feeding signs

I flipped it over and immediately saw that a micromoth had been eating the spores and had made its pupation case from the leftovers:

Pupation case of micromoth

The pupation case is the large cluster of sori just below centre.

Only one micromoth  - Psychoides filicivora - has been recorded from Polypody, so I rather suspect this is the beast we have here.

Slight heat

Last night was slightly warmer than it had been recently, so I had a quick check at the porch lights just in case moths were active. 

This male Pale Brindled Beauty had tried to get as close to the *light as it possibly could:

Male Pale Brindled Beauty - Phigalia pilosaria

Again, these have flightless females, and they appear in two main colour forms: in rural areas they tend to be as shown above, and in industrial areas or cities, they are often much darker.

The Chestnut is a bit atypical of the winter moths, since it is patterned and coloured like many of the moths from much later in the season (it also belongs to a different family - the Noctuids):

Chestnut moth - Conistra vaccinii

Both of these moths can be found during the coldest months, so they aren't really a sign of the forthcoming spring, but they do bring a smile nevertheless.

* this is a very interesting lightbulb, as it attracts many night-flying moths; it's one of the newer energy-saving bulbs that's shaped to look very much like the old incandescent bulbs.

Little things

This is a great time to have a look at mosses: many of the fruiting capsules are ripe and ready to release their spores for the next generation. I really like the setae ('stems') that support the capsules: many of them are translucent and come in various shades of green, yellow or red. If you can get a back-lit shot, then the results can be very beautiful indeed, as this shot of Tortula muralis shows:

Notice that the red capsule lids are sliding upwards over the capsules as they expand to make room for the growing spores.

There has been a recent trend to 'dumb-down' the names of many species of mosses, lichens and fungi by giving them 'friendly English' names. Tortula muralis would be known as Wall Screw-moss if this system became more popular. I'll stick with the latin binominal.

Since the primary purpose of the setae is to give the spores the best chance of distribution via exposure to wind and/or rain, I find the system used by the moss Grimmia pulvinata to be almost perverse: the setae are invariably strongly curved, leading to a situation where the capsules are always buried below the leaves of the parent plant:

I cannot think of a reason for this system, but Grimmia pulvinata is one of the more common mosses on our wall tops, so it obviously works well enough.

A quick couple of flower shots:

Snowdrops fully opened

And a glimpse of the first daisy of the year: Groundsel: