A viper's voice would plead

A trip out to the southern most bit of the Brecks this week was an excuse to tire the kids out and visit a completely different habitat from recent trips. 

The area of King's Forest just north of the village of Lackford is a mix of coniferous plantation, deciduous woodland and open sandy areas. It's a nice place for a wander except for the huge amount of dog shit. Is it really too much to ask for owners to remove it? Seems so.

Apart from the that, I was really taken with the plant life here. So many in flower that I decided to pay attention and have a proper look at them. Lots of Sickle Medick, Wild Mignonette and Dark Mullein lined the tracks. There was the odd patch of Wild Basil on the side of the path...

...as well as the odd Musk Mallow.

There was masses of Viper's Bugloss along the edges and sometimes centre of the paths.

I remembered that this it had an associated weevil so net in hand gave some patches a good sweep. Bingo, the beautifully marked ceutorhynch Mogulones geographicus. This beetle turned out to be on pretty much every patch I sampled.

 

Sweeping the Wild Mignonette turned up Bruchela rufipes. Currently assigned to Anthribidae, this species has previously been classified within a distinct family, the Urodontidae, or as a subfamily of Bruchidae. This individual was 2.7mm and was the only one found sweeping quite large areas of its host plant.

There were a few other new beetles including this tortoise beetle, Cassida sp. Swept from yarrow and only 4.4mm I think this is C. prasina.

There was also a new tenebrioid, Cteniopus sulphureus. The Sulphur Beetle.

There's definitely more possibilities from this site, especially if you were to venture into some of the better patches of tree. I also think a return visit at night with a generator and MV light trap may be quite interesting too. A good excuse for another visit.

Blog post title inspiration comes from one of the greatest songwriters of the last 40 years...