At Nigel’s suggestion I went and had a look at young leaves of Leucanthemum vulgare (Oxeye Daisy) and successfully completed my mission by finding the larva of the micro-moth Bucculatrix nigricomella, sometimes given the name Daisy Bent-wing.
The next day I found this chap flitting about in the conservatory:
Depressaria daucella
Sometimes known as Dingy Flat-body (poor thing), I found larvae last year on Oenanthe crocata (Hemlock Water-dropwort) on the shore just along from the house:
Depressaria daucella larva on Oenothera crocata
However, the adult marks the 200th species of adult moth I have recorded here at West Suisnish.
Someone has planted two groups of three Monkey-puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana) on the lower slopes of Temptation Hill on Raasay. (There could be more.) This seems slightly strange to me, but perhaps no stranger than the Forestry planting little patches of cypress all over the place in the same area. They should perhaps have been planted more than one metre apart if they are to grow to full size.
Araucaria araucana (Monkey-puzzle)
Nearby a small forest of Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant – silly name as all Ribes species flower!) is coming into flower:
Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant)
Recent finds have included lots of this Globular Springtail on a picnic table (Thanks Stephen M for identification):
Dicyrtomina saundersi
and, yes, those marks at the bottom of the picture are millimetre divisions.
Larvae of The Drinker were out in numbers yesterday:
The Drinker
There were lots of this common fly sunning themselves on a wooden bridge across the Arish Burn:
Phaonia tuguriorum
I see this one pretty much all year:
The moth trap has been out a couple of times but has yielded nothing new for the time of year in the way of moths. Adults caught so far this year are Dotted Border, Hebrew Character, Mottled Grey, Pale Brindled Beauty and Red Chestnut.
However a coouple of days ago there were no moths in the trap, just a few gnats and this fine spider:
Clubiona phragmitis
According to the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website this species is “very scattered…. in northern Britain”, “can be found in most wetland habitats, especially in emergent vegetation at the edge of water and occasionally on sand dunes” and “adults have been found throughout the year, but mostly in late spring to mid-summer and late summer to early autumn”. My specimen is not far from wetlands but I am not sure that it is late spring yet nor that being found in a moth trap is entirely normal. Something of an outlier as a record.
A little over one hundred years ago a poor seam of iron ore on Raasay was mined for strategic purposes. A splendid book about the mine was published in 1990 and subsequently updated:
There was both opencast and underground mining. A barrier across the entrance to No. 1 Mine was put in place quite a lot of years ago:
This is what the entrances to No. 2 Mine looked like in 1917:
but this one was never worked owing to geological issues and subsequently the entrances were partially filled in. The biggest remaining hole looks like this:
The lower entrance is even less inviting:
I had started checking on these in the hope of finding hibernating Herald moths and perhaps other interesting critters, but I have decided that discretion is the better part of valour. In addition to a torch one would need ropes, back-up, absoultely no sense of claustrophobia and possibly a deathwish.
Anyway, I did find this spider in one of the entrances:
This little rove beetle was on the outside of the house. It is Tachinus subterraneus (thanks Bruce and Stephen M) and amazingly not recorded by Richard Moore during his years of beetle recording on Raasay. There are curiously few Scottish records on NBN, too.
Tachinus subterraneus
This moth-fly today is Psychoda sp. but going further than that requires checking the genitalia and/or antennal tip – not for me nor even for my bug/beetle/general entomology expert friend!
Psychoda sp
In the bay outside there are two Canada Geese – numerous enough to be a pest in places but a real rarity on Raasay.
We have had some of the lowest tides of the year in the past few days, exposing the kelp beds in the bay by the house. Monday was the perfect day for exploring this habitat – the lowest tide of this period, not a cloud in the sky and not even a breeze. And all well before the midge season starts. The Eider were making their calls of faint astonishment and the Herring Gulls wanted to beat me to the animal life with intentions less pacific than mine.
Netted Dog Whelks had left tracks in the sand and Banded Chinks have laid egg rings all over the kelp.
Banded Chink: Adult and Egg Rings
Netted Dog Whelk
There was the usual array of starfish (Bloody Henry, Common, Spiny) though no Seven-armed which seem to be seasonal, appearing later in the year, and large numbers of Edible Sea Urchins – always worth another image!
Edible Sea Urchin
There were various crabs, hermit, spider and others, anemones and fish. I only caught one which appears to be a Five-bearded Rockling.
Five-bearded Rockling
There was a fair bit of this seaweed, which Seth suggests may be Desmarestia aculeata. An expert opinion is awaited. Later: confirmed.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 