A mix of things

A day off with the kids mid week resulted in a trip to the Suffolk coast for fish and chips and ice cream, whilst trying to avoid the crowds. As always if you are prepared to walk a bit (we are) then it's easy to lose other people and have these places pretty much to yourself, even on a busy, warm half term day.

Dingle Marshes

The weather ended up being mainly overcast which was a blessing really as we were out in the open for most of the day. The marshes were looking amazing in the muted, shifting light and Reed Buntings seemingly called from every direction. It was a family walk so beetling was limited but I did come across a few Donacia clavipes funnily enough after my first earlier in the week. Beetles are like buses....

Several patches of Sea Kale were in bloom. I can't ever remember seeing it flowering before but it added some relief from the monotonous shingle and marram. 

Back at home, we had a couple of warm nights and so I put the trap out on consecutive evenings. The moth numbers have increased somewhat bringing in many of the usual suspects but overall numbers remain worrying low.

Beetle-wise the first of these nights proved the best with two new species for the garden and both of them wetland species. Living on the old Fen Edge there are still some reasonable pockets of habitat within a 5-10 mile radius and I suspect that on these balmy nights the MV pulls in dispersing individuals as they leave these isolated fragments.

First up was Badister collaris. This was a male that I dissected and the aedeagus had the characteristic hook that distinguishes this species. As far as I'm aware this is only the second record for VC29 after I found it at Wicken Fen a couple of years ago. This species has expanded its range over the last few years and is probably fairly regular in the right habitat but they will be difficult to find from direct searching and few people sample their light trap beetles in Cambs.    

The second beetle was more of a shock as I've only recorded it once before, on soft coastal cliffs in Norfolk. Chlaenius vestitus, the Yellow-bordered Nightrunner. What a great name! Sounds like a character from the Marvel universe. It's a relatively common species but was nice to see and even nicer to add to the ever-growing garden beetle list.

The second of the two warm nights didn't quite live up to its initial promise and ended up being less warm and humid than originally forecast. However, I did end up with a second garden record of the rather cute looking ptinid, Dryophilus pusillus pootling around the bottom of the trap.  It's a small species, this individual was less than 2mm in length but has relatively large eyes giving it that slightly endearing appearance. It is apparently fond of the dead branches of coniferous trees of which there are very few in the immediate vicinity, so it either has more catholic tastes than previously realised or it too is a warm-night wanderer.

There are a few more warm nights forecast this week so I will have to see what else turns up in the traps. I'm already hankering for one of those hot August nights where the temperature doesn't dip below 20 and it feels like anything could turn up! 

In the pines

I cranked the moth trap up last night and set it up down the end of the garden. It was a much milder evening than we have had of late and the cloud cover came in at sunset and there was even a very light drizzle when I first checked on it.

Moths numbers were up and I recorded 26 species. Not a huge number but far better than recent trapping sessions. New for both the garden and for me was this rather subtly beautiful tortrix, Cydia conicolona. It's food plant is Scot's and Corsican Pine. I'm not sure where the nearest of those trees are. I do have a pine in the garden but not quite sure of the species. Maybe this moth has slightly broader tastes.

I also had two new species of beetle in the trap, which was pretty good going. The first was another pine feeder and the second new species of Ptinid in a week. Dryophilus pusillus. Adults of this species appear from about now until the late summer and are associated with various conifer trees, especially spruce, pine and larch. The apparently prefer mature conifer woodland of which there is none around here. They are mostly active at night and are attracted to light such as moth traps. So this little lady may have come a fair way or this species may be less dependent on mature stands of trees than previously thought.

At only 1.9mm this was tough to photograph given my set up so apologies for the abysmal pics. Amazing big eyes though.

The other new beetle was one that I have looked for, checking lots of its commoner cousin Dasytes aeratus. How ever this one is D. plumbeus. It has a narrower pronotum, and the tibiae, tarsi and front femora are partly yellow.

It was also noticeably smaller than the D. aeratus that I have seen this week on hawthorns, plus the eyes seem larger.

This week's night time temperatures are building so there's a chance of more stuff turning up. Obvious inspiration for the blog post today.