Blitzing the garden

The weather's been alright and spring is definitely in the air. Lots of insects on the wing and the dawn chorus has been cranking up.

Confined to the house and garden, I've been beating every bush and vacuuming every patch of ground in the hope of finding new invertebrates.

This morning began with checking the moth traps as the sky lightened. It was disappointing with the two traps only totally 8 moths of 5 species. These two species were new for the year.

Twin spot Quaker

Streamer

I then got the suction sampler out and went and tried around patches of mossy grass in the lawn to see what I could find. First up were two new species of hemipteran. The first was a whopping 6.2 mm and had massive front legs, with a couple of impressive spines on the underside. It is Eremocoris podagricus.

The other was the weird looking Asiraca clavicornis. It's antennae look like a fourth pair of legs. According to the British bugs website it used to be formerly more widespread in southern Britain but contracted its range somewhat, centering around London. Well, it's still alive and kicking in this Cambridgeshire garden!

There were a fair few beetles including 2 species of Stenus. Not a genus I expected to see here. There were also lots of Syntomus foveatus and Microlestes minutulus. Side by side it was easy to see the difference especially of the ends of the elytra, with Microlestes (right hand one) being far more truncated.

I also found a new Notiophilus species. I normally only ever find biguttatus and this one looked noticeably more 'bull-necked' and bulky in the tray. Turns out it is N. palustris.

Not bad for an unremarkable bit of garden!