Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

I drove less than three miles to Fearns and walked to Hallaig a few days ago. It felt strange that the season had got so far on without me. I collected seven Hieracium (Hawkweed) specimens for expert determination, though I am not sure that I achieved much variety, nor anything scarce. Time will tell.

It was a cracking day for inverts, especially moths. Speckled Yellow had only been recorded on Raasay once before, in 1969. Had I realised that at the time I would have spent time getting a decent picture that wasn’t bleached like this one:

Speckled Yellow

I also saw two Satyr Pugs. These are not common locally and I had not recorded one before.

Satyr Pug

This little chap is Pammene rhediella (sometimes called Fruitlet Mining Tortrix) and has few records locally according to NBN.

Pammene rhediella

Curiously, the northern one on Rona in NG65 is by Stephen Moran in 2015 – I was there! And the one in the north of the island was found by Neil Roberts and myself on a kayaking trip last year.

Otherwise, there were beetles (Thanks, Ralph)

Cantharis cryptica

Staphylinus erythropterus

Phyllobius sp. A weevil that will probably be determined very soon

flies,

Rhagio notatus Large Fleck-winged Snipefly

Galls

Nettle Rust Puccinia urticae

Eriophyes pyri on Rowan

Acalitus rudis on Downy Birch. But “we cannot be certain about mite galls on Betula.”

butterflies (Common Blue, Red Admiral and many Small Heath) and various other things like this planthopper (Thanks to Stephen M).

Anoscopus albifrons

All in all, an excellent day.

Tags: Galls, Insects, Moths, Plants

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