Author Archives: sconzani

Lycogala slime mould

19 Friday May 2023

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A train journey to a woodland in the next county earlier this week didn’t turn up the butterflies I was hoping for but I took consolation in the fact that I did see several things I don’t usually see locally. The first of these (the next couple of blogs will feature others) is usually found on rotting trees, so there’s no real reason I don’t see it in local woodlands – maybe it’s just a matter of timing. This is the enigmatic slime mould, Wolf’s milk. It could either be Lycogala epidendrum or L. terrestre but I won’t know which unless I revisit the site in a week or so. I explained the reason for this in two previous blogs (the initial find featured in Wolf’s milk, 16 June 2021, followed by the species reveal Wolf’s milk update, 2 July 2021).

230519 wolfs milk slime mould

Andrena haemorrhoa

17 Wednesday May 2023

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Bee-cause I hardly ever manage to identify bees to species, I just had to share this one that was a first for me and has been identified. My local go-to guy for bee identification, Liam from Buglife Cymru, says this is a ‘nice distinctive one with the orange thorax and black abdomen with bright orange tail. Also orange hind legs beneath the pollen brush’. Meet Andrena haemorrhoa, in this case a female specimen. When I recorded it, the common name came up as Orange-tailed mining bee, though the Naturespot website calls it the Early mining bee. Same same, but different.

230517 Andrena haemorrhoa

Hairy dragonfly

16 Tuesday May 2023

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The British Dragonfly Society website describes this lovely creature as the ‘UK’s smallest, hairiest Hawker that emerging [sic] before other Hawkers in May’, so the name Hairy dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) seems appropriate. The website also says it is ‘mainly found near unpolluted, well-vegetated water bodies’, though this particular beastie was in a secluded woody clearing, with a probably polluted (as once a quarry), definitely not well-vegetated lake a couple of hundred metres away. So, don’t write off the possibility if you see a potential Hairy dragonfly in an odd habitat! All that being said, this is a species I don’t see very often so I was very pleased to have found one.

Leafmines: Coleophora serratella

15 Monday May 2023

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I’ve been checking Birch trees since their green leaves first started to unfold, prompted by a post I’d seen by Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman on Twitter) of the British Leafminers website to check for the small holes created by the feeding of the tiny Common case-bearer moth, Coleophora serratella. Finally, last Tuesday, I found some on a tree in Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

And, luckily, the little case-bearing larva was still in situ, initially checking out some silky seedhead fibres that had lodged on the end of its leaf, then retreating to the patch that marked where it had been feeding and resumed munching. You can read more about this beauty on the British Leafminers website and see the adult moth on the UK Moths website.

Six Speedwells

14 Sunday May 2023

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This week’s #WildflowerHour challenge was to find and identify as many of the Speedwell species as possible. I managed to find six, had hoped for more but will just have to keep searching on future walks. Close-ups of the flowers of my six are shown below – they are Field, Germander, Heath, Ivy-leaved, Thyme-leaved and Wood speedwell.

230514 six speedwells (1)

And here are photos showing their more general features. These are in the same order as above – their scientific names are Veronica agrestis, Veronica chamaedrys, and Veronica officinalis.

230514 six speedwells (2)

And the final three: Veronica hederifolia, Veronica serpyllifolia, and Veronica montana. If, like me, you’re confused about the Speedwells and what some hints on how to identify them, Moira (@NatureLark on Twitter) has produced an excellent crib sheet which you can find here.

230514 six speedwells (3)

Cups aplenty

12 Friday May 2023

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I was surprised but delighted to find this large colony of fungi on a pile of woodchips earlier this week. I think these are Cellar cups (Peziza cerea), as they fit perfectly with the description in my guide book:

Pale cup associated with limestone and often found growing out of mortar joints in buildings. Solitary or in small groups on woody debris, sandbags, limestone rubble, lime mortar and, sometimes, in damp cellars. Fruit bodies to 5cm across irregular cup-shaped, with the margin inrolled at first; inner surface pale ochre or yellowish brown with a smooth texture; outer surface concolorous and finely granular.

However, there are over 50 species of similar cups in Britain, many of which grow in similar locations, so microscopic examination is needed to be sure of identification.

Red admiral egg

11 Thursday May 2023

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During Sunday’s wander around the boundaries of some local horse fields (minus the nosey horses, this time), the sun wasn’t shining or warm enough for any butterflies to be found on the thick hedges and scrubby edges. This lovely female Red admiral was the one exception, appearing suddenly from behind a large bramble patch.

230511 red admiral

How do I know it was a female? Well, instead of flying off to patrol the bushes, she floated above and around the abundant, fresh Stinging nettles, looking for the best places to lay her eggs. How do I know they were Stinging nettles? Well, despite wrapping my fingers in the layers of my scarf, I still got stung on a couple of fingers while getting my first ever sighting and photographs of one of her eggs, a magnificent little ribbed barrel that should produce a tiny caterpillar in a week or so.

230511 red admiral egg