More moths

More moths to light: Broken-barred Carpet - Electrophyes corylata: (Thanks to Peter for the correction)


Flame Shoulder - Ochropleura plecta:


Heart and Dart - Agrotis exclamationis:


All three are new to me.

Update on leaf-mining Hoverfly

On May 30th, I showed a couple of images of what I supposed was the leaf-miner Cheilosia semifasciata. This identification has now been confirmed by a leading European authority on leaf miners (his website is: www.bladmineerders.nl). It turns out that this is an extremely rare species that needs a very specific habitat: Navelwort (or close ally) in deep shade. But even when suitable environments are examined in detail, they are usually not found, so something else must be an influencing factor.

This species is so scarce and under-documented that I have decided to show all the details I have, in the hope that others might be able to record it, too.

Here is a shot of the location I found it in:


The bank on the left had Navelwort all the way along it, but the mining stopped abruptly at the line where the sunlight started.

Here's a (flash!) shot showing how obvious the miner is:


Have a look at your shaded Navelworts and see if you have any.

A right mixture

It's always a good time of year when the orchids return. The first on my patch is usually the Northern Marsh Orchid - Dactylorhiza purpurea:


I did find a couple of Spotted Orchids in bud, but nothing worth showing yet.

Butterwort is also out. The pale yellow-green leaf rosettes always remind me of a sickly starfish.

Fungi aren't usually associated with summer, but I often find new growth of Dryads Saddle - Polyporus squammosus - at this time of year.


This batch was about 60 cm tall.

You can just make out the black 'bootlace' on the upper right of the image. This is caused by an infestation of Honey fungus, which probably killed the tree in the first place.

A pleasant surprise

One part of the hedgerow is currently alive with damselflies all displaying themselves on ferns, Hawthorn and grass stems in a shimmering display of blue, red and green. I love a challenge, so I thought I would try to get 'the definitive image' of a Common Blue Damselfly.

Last night, I was browsing the images and I liked the quality of this one, and I was also pleased with the composition: the Scaly Male Fern makes a lovely platform.
Suddenly my jaw dropped. The markings on the second abdominal segment are quite different from the usual 'wine-glass' marking of the Common Blue, taking the form of an underlined 'U'. A quick glance at the references revealed that this is a male Azure Damselfly - Coenagrion puella - another first for me.

Hoverfly leaf-miner

Leaf-miners belong to one of 4 groups:

• Micromoths
• Flies
• Beetles (weevils)
• Sawflies

The flies are usually Agromyzid flies, which are all leaf-miners, as far as I can work out. But I found this miner on Navelwort - Umbilicus rupestris:


The list of options for that foodplant is very small (one micromoth and one fly), and this looks like a fly mine, so I'd have to opt for Cheilosia semifasciata - which is a hoverfly.

However (and this is where it gets very interesting), the other Cheilosia sp. aren't leaf-miners. Information about Cheilosia semifasciata is scant - there is no image of the adult in the standard reference - but it appears to be an oligophage: it mines plants that belong to a single family (another host plant is Orpine - Sedum telephium). So it appears that one member of a hoverfly family has independently discovered leaf-mining, and on a plant that is not mined by any other fly. Interesting.

Edit: it turns out that this hoverfly is extraordinarily rare, and I'll be monitoring the situation over the next week or so.

Art?

I usually concentrate on 'factual' images, showing species in a scientifically useful manner, but tastefully cropped. But sometimes my artistic eye takes over and I take 'arty' shots.

I really love this image of the shadow of a fly being 'just-only touched' by the shadow of a Bramble briar. The shot is cropped only, the background being naturally under-exposed. Dunno what the fly is.

Rare hoverfly

My first trip to Mullaghagary wood for quite some time produced one of the more exciting of my hoverfly finds. The beautiful specimen below is Eriozona syrphoides (thanks to Malcolm Smart for the id). At first I thought it was a bumblebee in flight, but something said I should look closer. It landed at the bottom of a ditch - presumably to take on water in the hot weather - and I rattled off perhaps 20 shots at arms length.



This european species was first recorded in England in 1967, and was added to the Irish list in 1998, so it's clearly moving north and west. That's the end of the good news. It is only ever found near Spruce plantations (and, indeed, this was found at the edge of Spruce), so my campaign to reduce the amount of Spruce planting just took a severe blow.