Born to blossom, bloom to perish

It's hawthorn time! 

I always get a bit giddy at the first major irruption of hawthorn blossoms. Driving around the lanes surrounding my village I'm slightly aghast at the sudden spectacle of white. In the garden the hedge too is in bloom and there is that heavy perfume in the air, especially on recent days where heavy downpours are interspersed with strong warm sun.

Time to get beating...

It's nice to get reacquainted with a few beetles and also to get my head around the Anaspis again. There are a lot more A. fasciata in the garden at the moment than in previous years.

It's mainly a war of attrition, zoning out the common stuff that you see every time you tap a branch over a tray, and trying to focus on the different and unique. Predictably, as they are my favourite family I'm always on the look out for staphs, and on blossom they are not encountered too often, at least not by me.

The one I find most often on blossom is this one, Dropephylla ioptera. It has fairly well defined lines of elytral punctures that distinguish it from others in the genus. It's in the subfamily Omaliinae and so has a couple of ‘ocelli’ on the back of the head, which help place this in the right ball park when keying out.

But in the garden last Friday I found a new one. Dropephylla vilis. These aren't an easy group and I had to resort to checking out its tackle to be happy with the ID. The beetle is only 2.7mm so that really is tiny tackle!

The other new beetle I found last week was a long awaited species from under some bark on a felled log in a local wood, Uleiota planatus. This is one of those species that used to be pretty rare but has really expanded its distribution in recent years. Seems to be relatively easy to find in the south east now.

I will keep beating the hawthorn while it lasts and see what else I can find. Only one species of longhorn on it so far. Need to venture to some better sites.
 

Post title comes from a great bit of pop with an accompanying extravagant video. 17 years old too. Crazy....

Even now in heaven there were angels carrying savage weapons

Not said much about moths recently as things have been pretty quiet on that front. However Friday night's trap had a bit more variety, including one of my favourites, the Puss Moth.

These fluffy, cuddly, cherubic-looking moths aren't an annual occurrence at the trap here so it's always great when one turns up..

I've still never seen the caterpillar despite a fair amount of looking. Weird looking things with whip-like projections from their back end. I guess I need to try a little harder.

I also had the first hawkmoth of the year in last night's trap in the form of Poplar Hawkmoth. Always a sign that summer's almost here.

Keeping it real on the beetling front I managed another new staph from tapping hawthorm blossom. This one from the Subfamily Omaliinae is Dropephylla ioptera. A bit like a slimline Olophrum

The next few days look like they might be a bit of a washout so I will probably resort to some backlog beetling, mainly staphs from the heap and oh so many ptilids.

Today's inspiration comes in the form of.....