23 Monday Nov 2020
Tags
It’s that time of year when the Robins fluff up their feathers and sing.
The facts, that the feather-fluffing is to keep them warm and the singing is part of what can be quite aggressive behaviour to establish winter territories, are completely lost on most humans, who are simply beguiled by their cuteness … as I was by this songster.
22 Sunday Nov 2020
Posted in autumn, wildflowers
For this week’s wildfloral fest, I’ve taken a couple of meanders around my town to see what I could find along the back lanes, in cracks on stone walls, on the verges, bordering the pavements, in the churchyard and cemetery. And here are the bloomers: Bramble, Daisy, Dandelion, Field speedwell, Hedge bindweed and Hedge woundwort, Hemp agrimony, Herb Robert, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Nipplewort, Oxeye daisy, my first Primrose of the season, Purple toadflax, Red dead-nettle, Red valerian, and Wood avens. Not a bad haul for late November.
21 Saturday Nov 2020
Tags
beech, leaf mines on Beech, moth larvae in leaf mines, moth leafmines, Parornix fagivora, Phyllonorycter maestingella, Phyllonorycter messaniella, Stigmella hemargyrella, Stigmella tityrella
Five species of Lepidoptera larvae can be found in the leaves of Beech (Fagus species) and, with a lot of searching, much head-scratching, some rejections, and the much appreciated assistance of our county moth recorder Dave, I’ve now found and positively identified all five in my local area.
Stigmella tityrella: This moth’s larval leaf mines featured in last week’s post about green islands. The gallery (like a corridor) mine is usually compact and angular and, in particular, the larva stays between the veins when creating its mine – that is the feature I find helps most with its identification. As you can see from the two mines below, the galleries are very narrow to begin with, then broaden as the larvae grow.
Stigmella hemargyrella: These larvae also create a gallery mine, but the mine is most often wider and longer than that of S. tityrella, and the larvae have no issue with crossing over the leaf veins.
Parornix fagivora: This is the mine I’ve found least in my local area, though I’m not sure if that’s a reflection on the moth’s rarity or my finding skills. Look for a blister, where the larva lives at first, and then a folded leaf edge, which it inhabits a bit like a cave.
Phyllonorycter messaniella: Both Phyllonorycter species on Beech create blisters; this one is usually an oval shape, almost rectangular, and quite broad. I’ve found the upper side of the leaf can be almost featureless but the blister on the underside is quite obvious so, if recording these, it’s best to include a photo of both sides of the leaf.
Phyllonorycter maestingella: This blister mine is long and quite narrow, and often placed between leaf veins. By spinning silk, the larva draws the leaf together to create a cosy tunnel, which looks a bit like a crease on the upper side of the leaf.
I’ve attached to each of the moths’ names a link to the species description on the British Leafminers website, which is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more.
20 Friday Nov 2020
I was checking fallen leaves in a woodland clearing when I noticed something white poking through the leaves, a lucky break as it’s easy to miss these lovely little fungi. I had to clear away leaves to get these photos, but then mostly covered them up again.
These are typical examples of White saddle (Helvella crispa), one of several species of ‘saddle’ fungi you can find in woodlands, these particular saddles growing most often where there are Beech trees.
According to the First Nature website, ‘Helvella is an ancient term for an aromatic herb. The specific epithet crispa comes from Latin and means curled or wrinkled – a reference to the contorted cap or saddle’.
19 Thursday Nov 2020
Stop! Danger! With green, Christmas. Anger (seeing red). Passion (red hot). And, in Nature, red leaves, red breasts (though I’ve always thought of the Robin as more of an orange breast), red fungi, red fruit, red feathers, red eyes…. Here’s a selection of reds from my recent meanders.
18 Wednesday Nov 2020
Posted in autumn, plants, wildflowers
If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow
the path under the trees. ~ Nigerian proverb
17 Tuesday Nov 2020
Tags
Cornus sanguinea, Dogwood, fly leaf mines, leaf mines, leaf mines on Dogwood, leaf-mining fly larvae, leaf-mining larvae, leafminers, Phytomyza agromyzidae
So far, in my recent posts on leaf mines, I’ve only covered a few of the many micro moths whose larvae make mines in leaves. But many fly species also inhabit leaves in their larval stage, and today’s post is about one of those, Phytomyza agromyzina.
You will probably never see the tiny adult fly (and, in fact, I haven’t even been able to find an illustration of one online, though this Wiki page shows an example of one member of the Agromyzidae fly family, which will give you a general idea.) but, anytime between July and November, you should be able to find its larvae’s leaf mines, as it’s probably widespread in Britain (though under-recorded, so if you do find some, please record your sighting).
The mines I’ve found have all been on the leaves of Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), though it is known to mine other species of Cornus. They’re gallery mines (i.e. forming corridors), long and meandering through the upper side of the leaf surface, and almost completely filled with frass (i.e. poo).
The UK Fly Mines website provides more detailed information on this, and the many other types of leaf mines you can find in Britain.
15 Sunday Nov 2020
Posted in autumn, wildflowers
Tags
autumn colour, British wildflowers, Penarth zigzag path, wildflowers in bloom, Zigzag path, Zigzag path wildflowers
I haven’t checked what’s flowering along the local zigzag path for a while so I thought I’d take a look for this week’s Sunday wildflower post and #wildflowerhour on social media. Imagine my delight when I found these 14 species: Ragwort, Cinquefoil (a nice surprise), Creeping thistle, Hedge bindweed, Meadow crane’s-bill (which is doing really well since the Council stopped cutting the vegetation on this site), Common vetch, Red clover, Bramble species, Herb Robert, Field scabious, Tufted vetch (nice to see the two vetches in bloom), Winter helleborine (another nice, unexpectedly early surprise) [ed. heliotrope, not helleborine – thanks, Vicky!], Black medick, and Meadow buttercup.
14 Saturday Nov 2020
Tags
Araneus diadematus, British insects, Chrysoperla carnea, Common wasp, earwig, Garden spider, Lacewing, Vespula vulgaris
Just a few of the little critters I’ve come across this week …
I can’t be entirely sure but this is probably Chrysoperla carnea, Britain’s most common Lacewing. Their transparent wings lend these creatures a fragile air so I was surprised to see one still out and about as these Lacewings usually find a cosy spot indoors to hibernate come the autumn weather.
I think these are Common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) that I’m seeing frequently on and around Ivy, and basking in our rare glimpses of sunshine, but I don’t have any face-on shots to properly separate them from German wasps (Vespula germanica). At this time of year, these are likely to be male wasps, which apparently are not able to sting – only female queens and workers have the anatomy for that.
We saw Earwigs hiding in umbellifer seedheads in a recent post (Insecting, 31 October). It seems they like to hide, though I’m not sure how effective this earwig’s hiding place is, its head tucked into a gorse seed but the length of its body exposed. Still, I doubt anyone – insect, bird or human – was going to argue with those pincers.
Spiders have been much in evidence lately. Garden spiders (Araneus diadematus) sit ready to pounce in their strategically strung webs, and, in the right photo, I only spotted the tiny, unidentified spider lurking under the Creeping thistle flower when I got home and started looking through my photos.
13 Friday Nov 2020
Oyster and oysterling fungi can be difficult to identify but I’m fairly sure these are Peeling oysterlings (Crepidotus mollis).
Habitat: ‘usually grouped on decayed wood of deciduous trees, especially Ash and Beech.’ Check.
Gills: ‘radiating outwards; greyish brown with a reddish tint and mid-brown spore print’. Check.
Cap: ‘flat, oyster-shaped or elongated and laterally attached to substrate’. And the clincher: ‘a peelable cap cuticle’. Check.
Information from my trusty Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools, Paul Sterry & Barry Hughes, Collins, London, 2009.
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