Bug, Moths and a Slug

April 21, 2024

An interesting weekend. Today I found this little bug at the top of the shore close to home.

Parapiesma quadratum

Not the best ever image, but it was very lively and I wanted to let it go as this is the first record on the Scottish west coast apart from one way south in Wigtownshire.

Distribution map from NBNA

The moth trap was out last night but produced no new April records. This Streamer was nice, though:

Streamer

However, out on the shore I have found almost certain evidence of the Gelechiid Scrobipalpa clintoni (Northern Dock-borer). This hole is in Rumex crispus (Curled Dock) and I also have two in R. obtusifolius (Broad-leaved Dock).

I am hoping for emergence, but I hear one has already emerged on the cooler side of the country in Banff, so I may be too late. However, all is not lost. If there is no emergence it may be possible to examine the pupal exuviae and confirm the species.

This is a Scottish west coast specialist though the only record from VC104 is from Muck in 1985. Distribution map from the Gelechiid Recording Scheme:

And finally, the non-native Green-soled Slug (Arion flagellus) cruising along the garden path last night. Now becoming quite common in the vice-county.

Arion flagellus

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Caddis & Alder Flies – and Moth Trap News

April 14, 2024

I eventually got around to sending six caddis flies from 2023 to Tony for determination. Three of the caddis flies were from Raasay, the remainder from Skye. One of the caddis flies, Glossosoma conformis, and the alder fly, Sialis fuliginosa, are new to the vice-county in NBN terms. Tony remarks that this is the only one of the three British alder flies that he hasn’t recorded himself. Ian Wallace (national recording scheme) has confirmed all of his caddis identifications.

On the moth trap front, I have reversibly modified my Heath trap to take a Podlight LED light source. I am hoping that the different wavelengths may attract a different range of moths as the season wears on.

It can be powered by the very portable power pack in the image, the car battery I use with the usual actinic light or, if I buy a suitable transformer, off the mains.

The weather has really not been suitable for moth traps recently, but I had a trial run and caught a few moths using the Podlight. There was nothing remarkable, but the catch included a very fresh-looking Engrailed:

The Engrailed

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The Usual Mix – Plant/Insect

March 27, 2024

Plant first – a few days ago I went for a short walk from home and spotted the diminutive fern Hymenophyllum wilsonii (Wilson’s Filmy-fern). This was new to my home tetrad (2 x 2 km square) and means that it is now recorded in 235 out of the 709 tetrads in VC104.

Hymenophyllum wilsonii by the Arish Burn

Not far away, there were several early hoverflies, Melangyna lasiophthalma (sometimes called Spring Halfband or Hairy Melangyna). Looking at NBN I saw no records in this part of Scotland, but further investigation showed the following:

NBN
iRecord
Hoverfly Recording Scheme
Distribution of Melangyna lasiophthalma

The profusion of recording schemes in recent years is great, but if they do not send their records to a central database it becomes impossible to assess what is known in a specific area.

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Yet More Insects plus a Plant

March 23, 2024

The moth trap caught 12 moths of 7 species; nothing of great note though the Chestnut filled in a gap in my records having previously been seen in February and April. It appears to have had a run-in with one of the local avifauna.

I also caught an ichneumonid, Ophion scutellaris, sometimes called March Ichneumon Wasp. There are not many records for this on NBN but this is a very difficult group. However, about 10% of the species of insects found in Britain are ichneumonids so one should try.

There was also a cranefly awaiting i.d.

Chestnut
Ophion scutellaris

Meanwhile, a record of Senecio squalidus (Oxford Ragwort) from Skye last May has turned up on iNaturalist. This is a first for VC104 apart from an anonymous 10km record from 1962.

Images from the finder:

Senecio squalidus on Skye. Images: Luca Pegoraro

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More Insects

March 19, 2024

I disturbed a Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla) in the garden yesterday. I have only had this twice before in the garden, both last year including one last March, but adults are known to occur in all months. Recent years have seen an increase in Calystegia sepium (Hedge Bindweed) in a shared hedge, which is a favourite larval foodplant.

Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla) Note the unequal hind leg spurs.

An Early Tooth-striped (Trichopteryx carpinata) has been on the outside of the house all day and may arrive in the moth trap that I have put out tonight. The heavy banding of this one means that it could probably be recorded as f. fasciata and, looking back, this is true of quite a few of my records for this species.

Early Tooth-striped (Trichopteryx carpinata f. faciata)

Meanwhile, in what seems to be an approximately annual event, a Vine Weevil turned up in the house. These are said to be pests of ornamental plants, but we have not noticed a problem and the odd one won’t do much harm.

Vine Weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus)

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Insects

March 13, 2024

I put the moth trap out last week, but the night was colder than forecast and I caught no moths. I shall have another go soon. In the garden there was a larva of Green-veined White butterfly in a cabbage we harvested and a pupa of the same species on the wall of the house.

Green-veined White

I have caught several flies in the garden as there is always a chance of something interesting early in the season, before more southerly-based entomologists have migrated north. Mostly I have had Pollenia spp. which are unlikely to be very exciting but I shall ask Murdo to look at what I have when I see him in April.

Pollenia sp.

Potentially much more exciting is an Anthocorid bug that I swept off the Box hedge in Raasay House garden a few days ago. It may be Anthocoris butleri, which is a Box specialist, larvae and adults both being predators of Psylla buxi (Box Psyllid) which was found there last year. The key distinguishing feature of this species (cf A. nemoralis and others) is that the second antennal segment (counting from the head) is longer than the width of the head across the eyes. This appears to be true of my specimen and it is also small, which is right. However, I have sent it to Stephen Moran for confirmation (or otherwise). If correct, this will be the first record on NBN north of the English Midlands.

Later: Sadly, not confirmed.

Anthocoris nemorum, it turns out

Not an insect, but in the bathroom there was a fine specimen of Metellina segmentata or M. mengei. Had it been a male, I could have been confident of the species from the presence or absence of a fringe of long hairs beneath the fore tarsi, but the females are trickier.

Metellina sp.

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Out of Hibernation

March 13, 2024

That’s me, rather than the wildlife…

On Sunday, Neil and I took advantage of a very low tide to revisit the spit on the east coast of Raasay. As well as a good variety of marine invertebrates, we found a new site for Zostera marina (Eelgrass). It is often easier to find wash-ups on the strandline than a rooted colony like this one. It is not large, covering a patch maybe 4 metres in diameter, but looks to be in rude health.

Zostera marina, Raasay

We also found a Flounder (Platichthys flesus) which seemed entirely unperturbed by our attention. Or is it a Dab (Limanda limanda)? In NBN terms either would be new to the 10 km square NG53. I am fairly confident that it was a flounder as the underside was white and I don’t think there was the arch in the lateral line that is diagnostic for Dab.

Later: I put images on the British Marine Life Study Society FB group and got votes for both, but in the end I think the conclusion is that this is a Dab because “the mouth is much more pronounced on Flounder and eyes not as big”.

Flounder or Dab, Raasay.

We saw a variety of limpets and other molluscs, crustaceans, worms, echinoderms, etc. of which Limacia clavigera (Orange-clubbed Sea Slug) should have been the most photogenic. However, I didn’t manage a very good photo and am hoping that Neil did better, in which case I shall replace the image below with one of his:

Limacia clavigera

Neil identified this isopod as Janira maculosa:

Janira maculosa

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The Second Half of 2023

January 12, 2024

A report on botanical activities in VC104 from July to December 2023 is available here.

Sparganium natans at Loch Lonachan Photo: J Walmisley

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Two New Plants

December 17, 2023

Seth has sent nearly 1,000 records from August onwards, which made me realise that I never mentioned here his finds of Geranium psilostemon (Armenian Crane’s-bill) and Inula racemosa (Indian Elecampane) from Kyleakin in August, both new to VC 104.

Geranium psilostemon Image S Gibson
Inula racemosa Image S Gibson

Also at Kyleakin, he had second VC records for Buddleja globosa (Orange-ball-tree), Fallopia baldschuanica (Russian-vine) and Veronica longifolia x spicata (a hybrid garden speedwell), plus the third for Tropaeolum majus (Nasturtium).

Turning to native plants, he found the first Drosera x obovata (Obovate Sundew (D. rotundifolia x anglica)) in NG50 with its parents.

This batch included a total of twelve new 10 km square records.

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Gunnera

December 13, 2023

Back in 2015, I was asked by the Botany team at the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley to provide samples of naturalised Gunnera plants for DNA analysis. I have just received the results and the two from Sleat are G. tinctoria. However, two others, from Waternish and the Dunvegan area, turn out to be Gunnera x cryptica, the recently described hybrid between G. manicata and G. tinctoria.

Interestingly, the study concludes that G. manicata has not survived in the British Isles following its introduction in the 19th century, but it has clearly left its genes in the hybrid.

Two papers describe their work:

Edwards, D., Armitage, J., Bilsborrow, J., David, J., Gebauer, M., Hassemer, G., … Könyves, K. (2023). An investigation of large-leaved Gunnera L. (Gunneraceae) grown outside in Britain and Ireland. Sibbaldia: The International Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture, (22). Retrieved from https://journals.rbge.org.uk/rbgesib/article/view/1998

Shaw, J. M. H., Edwards, D., David, J (2022). A new spontaneous hybrid in Gunnera subgenus Panke (Gunneraceae) widespread in the British Isles, with notes on the typification of G. manicata. British & Irish Botany 4(3): 364-384, 2022. Retrieved from https://britishandirishbotany.org/index.php/bib/article/view/129/164

I reproduce here, with permission, Figure 1 from Edwards et al.

Images of Gunnera tinctoria and G. × cryptica at RHS Garden Wisley, UK (photos: RHS), and G. manicata in Santa Catarina, Brazil (photo: G. Hassemer).

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