Benburb bioblitz

This bioblitz was based around Benburb castle, but also included the grounds of what is now known as Benburb Priory. The 17th century castle is being restored and the priory was formerly a manor house built in the 1880's.

The underlying geology is limestone and the site slopes downwards towards a river which is extensively engineered with cuts and sluices, and could almost be regarded as a canal. The riverside area has been allowed to run wild and is covered with Giant Hogweed, Bamboo, Japanese knotweed, Laurel and Himalayan Balsam. The grounds closer to the Priory are maintained as a decorative garden, but again, large areas are running wild, with a collapsed victorian greenhouse/orangery attached to outbuildings. This feature runs for some 50 metres and was clearly an important structure in its day. This is a shot of the old glasshouse:

Part of the glasshouse area with priory in the background

The south-facing glasshouse area contained a mixture of wild and cultivated plants, notably an overgrown herb garden, and attracted a huge number of hoverflies, butterflies, solitary bees and bumblebees.

Here's a shot of a Holly Blue on the approach path: 

Holly Blue butterfly

We made a quick survey to see where we should concentrate our efforts and it was clear that the riverside paths would be most productive. When I noticed that the area was limestone, we looked for Garlic Mustard, since this is a host plant for the Orange Tip butterfly and we immediately found an occupied flower:

Orange Tip egg on Garlic Mustard

We saw many Orange Tips, both male and female along the river bank. This female was nectaring on Herb Robert:

Female Orange Tip on Herb Robert

The same area yielded 14-spot Ladybird:

14 spot Ladybird

And a 10-spot ladybird with the rear spots missing. The 10-spot must be the ladybird with most variation in the spotting:

10-spot ladybird

Also from this area were the hoverfly Leucozona lucorum:

The hoverfly Leucozona lucorum landing on Bush Vetch

And I caught a glimpse of a huge pond skater down below in the cut next to the river. It's a poor shot, but there is only one pond skater this size. It's Aquarius najas, and is around 5 cm long from front foot to rear foot:

The River Skater Aquarius najas

New to my Species List.

We found a couple of leaf miners in the wooded area closer to the castle:

Phytomyza chaerophylli on Cow Parsley

And:

Phytomyza ranunculi on Celandine

Phytomyza ranunculi was also found on Creeping Buttercup.

Closer to the castle, I found a moth larva grazing on lichen on a fence post. It's Brussels Lace, Cleorodes lichenaria:

Larva of the Brussels Lace moth

That's a good example of the formal name clearly stating the nature of a species.

A final shot of Lords-and-Ladies or Cuckoo Pint, which I only ever find on lime:

Arum maculatum

Overall we submitted perhaps a hundred species on the day. This is far fewer than I would normally expect on a day's hunting, especially on a bright sunny day, but the habitat is essentially 'cultivated but abandoned', so the biodiversity could be expected to be low.

Shirley Estate, Carrickmacross

I joined the Monaghan field trip to this huge estate for a few hours, and was amazed by the variety of rich and unusual habitats. The estate is on limestone (yay!), and at one point we were in what seems to be a 'doline', where a stream had run underground, forming a cave which had then collapsed, leaving a kind of amphitheatre, with a smooth limestone wall to one side and trees growing round the other three sides.

Here's a shot looking down into the doline with the sheer limestone surface at the top of the image:

Looking down into the doline

I was 'doing' hoverflies and leaf-miners but, as usual, I was taking shots of whatever looked interesting.

Whilst checking for leaf-miners, I found this blotch on Horse Chestnut:

Guignardia aescula on Horse Chestnut

At first, I couldn't make up my mind whether it was a mine or a fungus, but when I looked under a hand lens, I could see the fruitbodies of a minute fungus. It's Guignardia aesculi.

There were a few small areas of very marshy ground with associated sedges and other plants and insects. This is Bladder Sedge, which formed large drifts of densely-packed leaves:

Bladder Sedge

New to my species list.

This was my first clue that I was on limestone:

Cuckoo Pint

Cuckoo Pint (or Lords and Ladies) is a beautiful plant that I have only ever seen on lime.

We found this Great Diving Beetle as we crossed a field between bogs. There are a number of very similar species, all of them vicious carnivores. Whilst this one was being held for identification, I heard the immortal words from the identifier: "Hey, ouch, let me go!"

Great Diving Beetle - Dysticus marginalis

New to my species list.

I have noticed a few fungi peeping up on lawns and grassy areas, but this is the first 'mushroom' that I have seen this year:

Omphalina pyxidata

Omphalina is a very interesting genus of fungi, but in order to explain this, I need to take a few steps back:

Lichens are a composite organism formed from a combination of a fungus and one or more 'partners'. The partners are usually algae, but can sometimes be cyanobacteria. This association is usually described as a symbiotic relationship, but I'm having none of that: the fungi can't live alone, but the alga can, so I see this more as a parasitisation of the alga by the dominant fungus. The fungus gains the benefits of a photosynthetic partner, but what does the alga receive?

The fruitbodies of lichens are always purely fungal, and can often resemble tiny mushrooms (which they actually are), so we can have boundary species which appear to be fungi, but can actually be lichens. Omphalina sp. take this a step further: they can happily live their own lives like any other mushroom, but in times of stress, they can capture algae to supplement their food resources. So some Omphalinas are part-time lichens.

New to my species list.

Limestone

I live in an area of highly acid soil, so I'm always keen to visit limestone areas. Soil type largely governs which plants can be found in a particular area, and different plants support different insects, so I always expect to find something new or different on these trips. Lough Erne is also much closer to sea level, so it's probably 7-10 days earlier than my local area.

My local violet is the Common Dog Violet - Viola riviniana, but this area has both riviniana and Viola reichenbachiana. The most obvious differences are the narrower flower and more pointed leaves: 

Viola reichenbachiana

And the dark, straight spur behind the flower:

Viola reichenbachiana spur

Both violets were growing on a verge accompanied by Ground Ivy:

Ground Ivy

Bluebells were just starting to open:

And this Dock Leaf Beetle - Gastrophysa viridula - was either touring or lost: they are rarely seen far from Dock leaves.

I spotted my first Ichneumonid of the year. The size suggests that these will be looking for either large flies or small moths:

This flower is Cardamine pratensis, which is the main foodplant of the Orange Tip butterfly, but is also used by the Green-veined White:

The minute moth is Micropteryx calthella, which is associated almost exclusively with Buttercups in my area, but it clearly uses other nectar sources when they are available. I don't expect to see Micropteryx calthella for perhaps another 3 weeks on my patch (the buttercups aren't even in bud yet).

I was delighted to find a new hoverfly species on the same verge. This is Epistrophe eligans, one of the earlier species to emerge:

 Male Epistrophe eligans

Another plant that I only ever see on limestone is the Cuckoo Pint, a most wonderful member of the Arum family:

Cuckoo Pint

No matter where I find Holly, I always find its leaf miner, Phytomyza ilicis. I was always curious that only one species of miner lives in Holly leaves because it seems such a safe place for an insect to live. It turns out that Holly heals very quickly when damaged, and the plant considers the mine to be a wound. Phytomyza ilicis is the only miner that moves quickly enough to keep ahead of the healing process:

Phytomyza ilicis on Holly

Moth flies are a mysterious group of flies that run around on plant leaves like little planes trying to take off. The larvae live in cesspits, drains and compost heaps:

Moth Fly

Lough Erne is a large expanse of water, so I usually expect to find some water-based species.

Alder Fly larvae are aquatic, and I only ever find the adults near rivers, ponds or lakes. The Alder Fly Sialis lutaria has to be one of the least aptly named of all species. It isn't a fly (it has 4 wings and is related to lacewings) and it has no association with Alder:

Alder Fly Sialis lutaria

Talking of aquatic species, I spotted this Coot sitting on her nest:

Coot

A couple of fungi to finish.

Last year I found a rather rare fungal infection - Taphrina crataegi - on Hawthorn. The leaves are only just open, and this bush was already infected:

Taphrina crataegi on Hawthorn

This appears to be the first record for Northern Ireland.

April 23rd is St. George's day, and St. George's mushroom - Tricholoma gambosum - is traditionally found around this date:

St. George's mushroom - Tricholoma gambosum

The spores are minute, around 5 x 3 microns: