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Sunday, October 8, 2023

Going missing

It's been a while....

It's not that there hasn't been natural history happening. There has, but just not as much as usual and then I also haven't really had the urge to blog about it either. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Family and work life have been extremely busy this year and my running has also taken up a ludicrous amount of time as I fully embrace my midlife crisis and refuse to believe that I'm about to hit the half century. Two ultra marathons down and one left for the year. It has been great to do and I'm now the fittest I have been in years if not ever.

So, back to the wildlife. Despite the lack of posts I have managed to do some poking about in the UK and further afield. I did some beetling in SW Scotland and Norfolk as well as the usual Cambridge sites and also had trips to France, Spain and Finland over the summer.

The moth trap has been a semi-regular fixture at home and I have racked up a few new garden moth species. But it was another visitor this week that kicked my ar*e into writing this post.

In amongst the various sallows, Mallows and chestnuts, this little fella (well female) popped up on to an egg box and I potted for some photos.


I think this is a female Ectobius lapponicus aka the Dusky Cockroach. It's one of our native cockroach species and doesn't get too much further north that here, although I guess that is changing with our climate hotting up. Twenty three degrees here today and it's the second week of October. Beyond scary!.

Anyway, a new species for me and a good excuse to resume sporadic posting.

The post title is nicked from one of the singles from Maximo Park's Mercury Prize nominated first album. Always worth a listen.

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Keep trucking

So that's the end of 2022 and five months since my last post...

Natural history has taken a bit of a back seat over the last few months after a frenetic couple of years of beetling and that has meant that I've had far less to blog about. With a significant birthday coming up in 2023 I have been focussing more on running and have booked to run one possibly two ultra marathons over the next few months, so training for that has eaten into my spare time.

I've still got a few tubes in the fridge that need going through and that might mean I can post some stuff over the coming weeks, plus I can always have a rummage in some tussocks or sieve the grass heap in the garden.

In terms of highlights, our family holiday to north west Spain and Portugal was most definitely it, with views and places too numerous to mention. However, our last night in the Picos de Europa provided an hour or two of ever changing skies, where the light played over maginificent peaks and far off thunder clouds added drama and quiet threat. Sat watching it all play out brought that sense of insignificance that being in such places at such times can bring.

Here's to 2023! I hope it brings you everything you need.




The post title comes from the opening track of probably my most listened to album this year, The line is a curve by Kae Tempest. A magnificent creation. 

Thursday, July 21, 2022

The sun was rich, rich with a song of sin

What a few days. Scary temperatures that shouldn't be seen in the UK. The land is dry, parched and in need of water and here in Canbridge there is yet no sign of relief. A sign of things to come and an sign of how unprepared we are as a country for what's coming down the tracks.

Lots of idiots repeating the 'it's just like '76' or 'it gets hotter in Australia and they deal with it'. Countries that routinely experience high temperatures are built for it and the population usually has the knowledge and behaviour to deal with it and stay safe. Houses are built for it and people act differently. Siestas anyone? Conversely, when I lived in Australia I don't think I have ever felt as cold as I did during a Canberra cold snap. The houses were'nt built for it and there was inadequate means to heat houses. I ended up in a several layers of clothes each night and wrapped in a thick sleeping bag.

Anyway, it's been sobering but suspect the media will move on to the next thing soon.

On the natural history front I put the moth traps out last night in the slightly cooler temperatures and was rewarded with a brace of moth lifers.

Oncocera semirubella

Olive

Also had the second garden records of Marbled Clover and Dewick's Plusia. Beetle wise there were some bits and bobs including Amara bifrons. Also second garden records of Nicrophorus interuptus and Necrodes littoralis


   Post title inspiration comes from the dangerously hot weather and Siouxsie and the Banshees. 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Tiny ladybird

Whilst cooking dinner tonight, I spied a small beetle on the ouside of the window pane. Potted and microscoped, it appears to be Scymnus auritus. 2.4mm and hairy, I do find these tougher than they probably should be, so happy to be corrected. This species feeds on oak of which there is at least one large specimen within 250 metres of the house, so may have been dispersing on this warm afternoon.
EDIT: wrong again, it's Rhyzobius lophanthae and it feeds on scale insects and is orginally found in Eastern Australia. 

Told you these tiny ladyirds were tougher than they should be. At least for me. 

Good news is that Rhyzobius lophanthae is new too!



 

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Stunned by the last light of the sun

So despite having another weekend full of the chores, jobs and commitments associated with family, I did manage a couple of hours out this afternoon.

I decided to head out to the River Cam and check out sites for a couple of longhorn species that I've yet to see. The weather was humid with rolling clouds with the threat of rain that never came. I began looking at some arable margins, mainly to see if I could find Saprinus viridescens again. No luck this time although there were plenty of its prey, Gastrophysa polygoni.

At the far end of this field I saw a carabid climbing a grass stem that I assumed would be Curtonotus aulicus but on closer inspection wasn't. I had an inkling what it was so decided to pot it for further scrutiny. 

I'm glad I did as it turned out to be Zabrus tenebrioides, a species associated with cereal fields that can reach plague proportions in eastern Europe but is reasonably scarce in the UK with most records from southern counties. It is pretty distinctive and one that I have hoped to see for a while. Any day with a new carabid genus is a good day.


A second new species for me, came in the form of Cryptorhychus lapathi. This is a large and distinctive weevil from a whole new subfamily, Cryptorhynchinae. It is a bird dropping mimic and was found on a small decaying twig of a Salix sp. Another one that I had been on the look out for for a while. Despite extensive searching I failed to find any more.



So despite no longhorns it turned out to have been a pretty good couple of hours out and I shall be back in a week or so in the sunshine to see what else I can find.

The blog post title comes from another track from Kae Tempest's latest album. All the tracks are good but this one especially so. This is a version from last week's Glastobury. Enjoy.


Saturday, June 18, 2022

Whatareya?

Another month gone with no posts! 

Work, life and generally being ground down by the shit show that this country has become has meant there has been little time, energy or indeed inclination to do much beetling.

However, this week, I thought 'f**k it, I need to kick the lethargy and get out'. Cut to yesterday and a trip to revisit Panshanger Park in Herts, almost 2 years to the day since my first visit. Not only was the date silmilar but the temperature was too, although I think yesterday was a degree or two hotter.

It was good to be out but boy, it was tough going. Sweeping, beating and just looking, didn't turn up much and even the common stuff wasn't there in last time's abundance. Not only that but I soon became hot, bothered and slightly deflated. I managed four to five hours in the end but by early afternoon I decided to pack up and make my way back to Cambridge.

It wasn't a wasted trip though and I managed to find a couple of new species, the best of which was this hairy wee blighter. 


It was beaten from an old oak tree, and was found amongst a few scirtids. I had assumed that it would be another one and so got a surprise when I looked down the microscope. This is Trinodes hirtus and it is in fact a dermestid. It is listed as a Grade 1 Old Forest Indicator and is usally found in old established broadleaf woodland with plenty of damaged and decaying trees but it can also occur in old trees in parkland, which is exactly where this was found. It's either quite rare or just difficult to find and so there aren't that many records for it on NBN.

The other new species was Sphinginus lobatus which was also beaten from oak and seems to be expanding its range a bit at the moment. Still quite a few bits still to ID including a few ptinids (Ochina plus others here).


The post title is a nod to TISM who have reformed this week after a hiatus of 19 years. This song came out when I was living in Australia at the end of the 90s and I got to see them perform this live at a gig in the Sydney Royal Botanic gardens, memorable for the fact that as dusk descended, 100s of large fruit bats emerged from the trees. Watch to the end...


Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The man of shadows thinks in clay

A day in the office today but jam packed full of meetings so no chance to take myself off at lunctime for a walk round the reserve. 

I did however, make a stop on the way home at one of my favourite bits of ancient woodland and managed 45 minutes having a walk and poking my nose in the first flowering brambles of the year. A Wasp Beetle was my first of the year plus a rather chunky Meligethes that I need to have a closer look at.  


All the flowering hawthorn was over but I remembered a decent Dogwood bush on one of the main rides through the wood. Lo and behold it was still in flower and I gave it a few thwacks over my umbrella. Mainly Anaspis and not a single longorn (except for Grammoptera) but there were a couple of these beetles. 


Quite a size difference betwwen these two and looking for all the world like soldier beetles. They are in fact Melandryidae aka the False Darkling Beetles. These are female Osphya bipunctata.  I have only seen males before and from the same wood and exactly the same bush, almost 2 years ago to the day!

Up close they really are stunning beetles and have an almost super hero/Green Lantern like mask. They also have quite a scattered distribution over southern England and are nowhere common, although Cambs seems to be a stronghold. So a good one to see again.


Blog title comes from one of my favourite band, Bauhaus. All elegant posturing and cheekbones.