A frosty trip north

I've just returned from an absolutely glorious few days in Abernethy Forest in the Cairngorms. I was there back in the late spring and things this time were quite a bit different. We were mostly lucky with the weather but the clear skies meant plummeting temperatures. It did drop to below -7 degrees one night and it made getting up in the morning at the hunting lodge we were staying at all the more difficult!

There was a good smattering of snow on the higher ground and hard frosts most mornings. I have to say I don't mind the cold when the air is as crisp as it was. It was exhilarating and the perfect antidote for the ongoing political clusterf*ck.

A random, dead Chrysomela aena on a bridge!

I was there to help on BBC Autumnwatch as a lot of the stuff was being filmed on RSPB land and we were there to support the local team. It involved long days but it was pretty magical and so no complaints from me. The weather more than made up for any tiredness.

On Thursday morning I got up early and hiked up through the forest up the hill to where the trees thinned out. My feet were numb for the first wee while but  eventually got the blood flowing. It was spectacular with lots of ice and frost.

Even when the temp is around freezing things are flying. I first flushed two male Black Grouse from beside the track. They flew in a semi circle around me before landing further back down the track. I then noticed this moth on the wing. Appears to be an Epirrita species, but without a good look of its upperwing and genitals it will remain at genus level.

Beetling was hard going with very little reward for the time spent looking. I beat a lot of juniper bushes, figuring that some of the overwintering  adults would be holed up in here. Spiders....yes! Lots of spiders but very few beetles. A single Altica sp. and a few of these Stenus impressus,

Loch Garten was looking fine in the winter light. This photo was taken on our first night just as we arrived. 10 mins later and we would have missed it. Calm as a mill pond with impressive clouds. Later in the week we came across people swimming across the lake!! Nuts!

Looking through leaf litter and rotten logs I found a single Phosphuga atrata and a few of these weevils. Not one I had seen before and appear to be Rhyncolus ater which appear to be pretty much restricted to this part of the world with the odd record elsewhere.

The only other staph I found was this Quedius lateralis.

At an 11 hours drive each way, you get to appreciate the distance of these isles. I do hope to get back at some point. Maybe even for WinterWatch in January. Who knows!

Mushroom beetles

A walk round the work reserve this week revealed lots of emerging toadstools. The Fly Agarics Amanita muscaria were just coming out and were looking rather resplendent with their smart colours.

There were several other patches where numbers of toadstools had emerged.

Most were relatively fresh but there were a few that had started to go over and had attracted a number of flies and beetles to the rotting flesh.

There were a few of these rather prettily marked Lordithon trinotatus, one of five species of Lordithon found in the UK. The only other species I've seen so far is lunulatus. 

There were also lots of Proteinus, another genus of staph. This one is P. brachypterus but I have a few others to look at. You can just make out the red first antennal segment below. At just under 2mm these are really small beetles.

Boxing club

Finally joined the Box Tree Moth Cydalima perspectalis club yesterday. When I went to clear the traps in the evening it was sat on an egg box. I must have missed it when I was going through the trap in the morning.

Whilst in the Pyrenees this summer, this was the most commonly encountered moth. A fairly depressing state of affairs. Let's hope it doesn't happen here. 

Famous last words...

A Royal midget?

So last week I decided to have a go at rearing some leaf mines. 

Now I had actually been looking for weevils associated with Salix spp. but I found these mines on a large weeping willow and thought they looked about right. So I picked a few leaves.....

I wrapped them in some damp paper towel, put them in and old ice cream tub and then waited....

Yesterday this moth emerged. Not the beetle I was expecting....

I got it down to a species of Phyllonorycter but that was as far as I could get. Cue Facebook Micromoth page help request.

So it appears to be Phyllonorycter pastorella, and quite possibly new for Cambridgeshire and VC29, so not too bad given it wasn't a beetle.

This species was found in west Norfolk in 2018 so probably no surprise to find it here now.

And as part of the plan to give all moths an English name, this has been blessed with the moniker of Royal Midget!

Brash Americans

I managed only a quick 20 minute break break at lunchtime today and went and peered at some small ponds. I noticed this bug sat on some of the aquatic vegetation. Not exactly where I had expected to see it but its food plant was nearby, a species I've been meaning bump into for a while Graphocephala fennahi or the Rhododendron Leafhopper.

This species is native to the USA, and was introduced to Europe in the early 20th century. Both adults and larvae feed on Rhododendron sap, and it is one of the few insects to use this invasive plant as a foodplant. It's rather pretty too.

A tropical interloper

Last night I notice a small beetle crawling on the inside pane of the kitchen window. I potted it and had a quick look under the microscope. It was about 3mm long and had a couple of abdominal segments exposed beyond the elytra.

It was as I had first assumed one of the Nitidulidae or pollen beetles and it keyed easily to Carpophilus marginellus, another new beetle for me. It's not one I can find much info on and it's not covered in the RES Pollen Beetles book by Kirk-Spriggs. All I can find is that it was introduced from tropical areas to Europe and is pretty reliant on humans and their stored products.

So I'd better go and check the biscuit tin!

It's time to get some bembid heaven

So, this day in the field seems like another life time ago now but I've finally got round to ID'ing some of the trickier beetles I found on this day back in June. Whilst working up at Abernethy Forest in the Cairngorms I managed a few hours exploring the river shingle on the River Feshie.

I was really lucky as the weather was dry and warm and was a vast improvement on the previous days' rather patchy weather. This wasn't a habitat that I'd ever looked at before and despite all the interesting looking plants I decided to stick to beetles. Specifically I wanted to see if I could find a selection of Bembidion species that I wouldn't necessarily have encountered elsewhere.

There was a real mix of substrate types to search through, from really fine sandy sediment through to large rocks intermixed with gravel. There was also fast running river water and smaller areas of standing water left over from spring meltwater.

There were also good numbers of Dingy Skippers on the wing seemingly flying up every few metres as I walked the banks- cue crap photo alert!

One of the beetles I had hoped to bump in to quickly gave itself up, 5-spot ladybird Coccinella 5-punctata. This species is a river shingle specialist and I found them in small patches of vegetation around the edges of the river. Easy to see as they moved along the ground.

5-spot ladybird Coccinella 5-punctata

There were also a few of these Amara fulva under stones in some of the areas with smaller gravel.

Click beetles came in the rather robust form of Hypnoides riparius. 6.5mm but built like a brick shit house.

As for Bembids well the most noticeable was Bracteon litorale. There were loads of these beetles scurrying around on sand patches when the sun came out. They're a reasonable size at around 6mm and an easy one to ID with the four 'mirrors' on the elytra.

Bracteon litorale

 The next most commonly encountered one was Bembidion tibiale.

Female Bembidion tibiale

 This proved a bit more difficult to key out as I was questioning how straight the base of the pronotum was.  Finding a male made the identification much easier and the aedagus fits tibiale nicely.

Aedagus of Bembidion tibale to confirm

There were also lots of these guys and girls which will probably turn out to all be Bembidion tetracolum but I reckon that some might actually be B. bualei. The characteristics are subtle enough that I'm going to need to compare with some known specimens to make doubly sure.

Whatever they turn out to be it was an amazing few hours in a stunning part of the world and I'd really like to get back for a further look.

And here's the track that inspired the title....