Back to the Access trail

On the Field Maple (Acer campestre) leaves on the sunny side of the Access trail I found both of the common Acer campestre leaf mite pouch galls, the very common Aceria myriadeum and the less abundant and somewhat larger Aceria macrochela (warning: the taxonomy of all Acer gall mites is a bit dubious).

Both, however named, can be seen in this general picture of the upperside of a leaf at about breast height.

At first I was worried because I didn't think that these galls were at all fuzzy/furry, as shown in Redfern and Shirley, but a closer look at one of the more terminal galls in the picture above reassured me:

Here to compare, is a shot of a leaf absolutely covered with puches caused by Aceria myriadeum. It's amazing how the wrinkles in the leaf can bring the surfaces in and out of focus.

While these mites attack the plant foliage, there are a number of butterflies about, including good numbers of ageing Commas, Polygonia c-album. Even after a fair amount of wear, these butterflies show wonderfully coloured hairs and scales:

There were also some of the new emergence of Gatekeepers, Pyronia tithonus, basking in full view, even if screened from my camera by nearer foliage:

And there was one Large White, Pieris brassicae (L.), and several Small Whites, Pieris rapae (L.), some of the detail  of which are shown here, the eyes most in focus in the first photograph, and then the furry hairs of the body more clearly seen in the second photograph.

There were quite large numbers of the Marmalade Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, on the bramble banks.

Now, how about the bumble bees? These are quite tricky I find. I think the first is a male of the White Tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lucorum, and the second is a male of the Buff Tailed Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris.

Moving on to the plants I took particular notice of the very common Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten., showing the sharp somewhat yellow-tipped bracts below the inflorescence:

Here you can see the cottony stem, and the spiny-hairy upper surfaces of the non-shiny leaves, which have long terminal lobes:

Looking a bit closer at the upper surface of the leaves you can easily see the spiny hairs:

and here is a close-up of the cottony stem - remarkable! A noxious weed in the UK, it is an introduced and injurious weed in 9 states of the USA and also an alien in Australia - lucky them!

In amongst these bramble, thistle and nettle banks, there must be rabbits. Here is some of the damage they are doing to the Wheat crop, (Triticum sp.)  in the field owned by Hadlow Place Farm.

Millers Dale, Peak District

I had a good session up in the old quarry that is Millers Dale Nature Reserve, part of the Wye Valley SSSI.

Meadow Browns, Maniola jurtina, were out in reasonable numbers, but could have been outnumbered by the Ringlets on first impression. Ringlets do seem to be having a good year.

I think this is a female Meadow Brown, settled in the grass. Egg-laying could be on her mind perhaps? She has both front legs over the top of the grassblade, together with her right rear leg, and the left rear leg hooked under the grass blade, holding her steady. Like all Nymphalids, the front legs are tiny and vestigial, and hardly ever visible at all.

Females are more banded than the males, and rarely "spotted" - apart from the main eye spot of course. You can see the rolled up probscis, not quite fully withdrawn.

I think this however is the male, with a duller less banded rear underwing. You can just see a red mite attached to the "neck". The rear underside wing shows no spots however, some males have them, some don't and it appears to be genetically related to predation risk, with a degree of genetic drift towards more uniform but differently marked populations on different smaller islands. There may be gene linkage involved as well.

This male by contrast has two spots on the lower underside wing, which indicates variability in this population at least.

There seem to be many more flowers up North than at home in the parched garden of England. Here is a plant that I suspect of being Greater Burnet-Saxifrage, Pimpinella major. However it's a little hairier, and rather less furrowed than I expected.

Skippers at Lullingstone

The photograph below shows a male Small (?) Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris. I am pretty sure it is this species, partly due to the apparent orange underside to the antennal tip just I think visible on the far antenna in particular, and partly due to what seems to be a curve in the male sex mark, most clearly seen on the far front wing. These two species are a fascinating example of evolution at the species level, with this species preferring Yorkshire Fog as the principal larval food plant, while the Essex Skipper seems to like a range of grasses such as Cocksfoot, Creeping Soft grass, Timothy, etc., but appearing to avoid Yorkshire Fog.   

 

I checked on the nectar food plant (Creeping Thistle, Cirsium arvense - ouch!) and noted that the flower head smelt of honey.

This, on the other hand, is the Essex Skipper, Thymelicus lineola, with black under the antennal tips, and a finer, straighter sex-mark, although this cannot be seen in these photographs.