A quiet Holborough

Quiet because of a much lower variety of birdsong, but there were some good insects and a couple of really nice songsters.

Butterflies were nice with a fresh Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, and two others scrapping, over the brambles on the path in to the reserve by the houses. At the end of the walk there was a Green-veined White and a male Orange Tip along the concrete path.

The picture below shows a Bombus pascuorum doing something quite strange - it is investigating the remnants of an old Lamium album flower from which the corolla has already fallen off. There seems to be little to attract the bumblebee, and little advantage to the flower in attracting the bee. I wondered if this is a common observation?

Well, it turns out apparently that Lamium is unusual in the family Lamiaceae in that the nectaries continue to secrete nectar for some time after the corolla falls off. This seems odd, but after all, why not if it perhaps more successfully facilitates pollination of the other flowers in the whorl, the structures are there anyway and perhaps it just shows common sense to leave them releasing for a day or two longer. This fits in with the often bizarre position of the nectaries in many other plants, by no means confined to the flowers themselves, for example perhaps being on leaves close-by.

The nectaries themselves in Lamiaceae are often are a ring or torus of four individual structures surrounding the four ovary chambers. The fourth is however undeveloped and apparently vestigial in Basil, the three developed ones directed downwards towards the lower corolla lip. In other Lamiaceae there may be only one active lobe, the one with the thickest epidermis. The nectar-producing cells inside the nectaries are small and parenchymatous, with abundant inter-cellular spaces to release the nectar into. Starch acts as the carbohydrate store and builds up in them prior to anthesis, and then disappears as the flower develops and requires the sugary nectar. The stomata on the nectary surfaces are ultimately fed solely by the phloem vessels in some Lamiaceae and are at least in some cases "anomocytic" (lacking in subsidiary cells), perhaps subsidiary cells being unnecessary where close control over opening and closing is unnecessary. However in Lamium oddly enough there are more than two guard cells per nectary stoma!

Fuller details of the fascinating Lamiaceae nectary structure and function can be found in the article in the South African Journal of Botany on Floral nectaries of Basil (Ocimum basilicum): Morphology, anatomy and possible mode of secretion written by M.P. Mačukanović-Jocić, D.V. Rančić, and Z.P. Dajić Stevanović from the University of Belgrade.

This is a more conventional picture of a bee visit, with the anthers held over the back of the bee, releasing the pollen there. Much will be collected by the bees' legs perhaps and transferred to the pollen baskets. Other grains may end up on the stigma of the next flower to be visited.

This individual has quite worn wings so she is probably not fresh. She is quite a large insect judging by the size of the flower she is visiting, so she could be either a Queen from last winter or a large worker from the first generation this year. I am pretty sure she is the standard Carder, B. pascuorum, as she has shaggy hair overall, paler hair on segment 1 of the abdomen than on segment 3, and a few black hairs do appear to be present on the back (and therefore maybe the side?) half way along the abdomen.

This is the same bee having moved on to another, more advanced whorl of flowers. Here, although most of the flowers in the whorl are over, there is at least one more to come! As the bee makes use of one of the flowers on the back of the whorl, you can see how the legs are being used to help hold the bee in position for nectaring, head held deep in the hood of the corolla. There might also be a tiny insect on one of the calyces to the front of the whorl.

Before the Bumblebee got on to that whorl it had been up to a bit of thievery, getting at the nectar by attacking the side of the corolla just above the ovaries:

Happy Holborough

2 Mallard, 4 Gadwall, 3 separate(?) Herons, Bluetits, 4 separate(?) Blackbirds, 2 separate(?)  Greenfinches singing, 2 separate(?) Cormorants, 100 Blackheaded Gulls, 50 Herring Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 1 Redshank, 6 Magpies, Carrion Crows, 1 Coot, 8 Woodpigeons, 1 Stock Dove.

This was the first Greenfinch singing by the Churchfield houses. It looks fluffy as though it might be moulting on the wings, but the timing is way out. Although the greenfinch moult is fairly extended, the very last traces of any moult should have finished in December.

There was a pair of mallard on the river:

I only saw one Coot in the ditch system, but there were certainly more.

Holly Blues at Cliffe

There were at least half a dozen second brood Holly Blues in a very short walk to the scoping view over ?? pool so there must have been lots over the reserve as a whole. I can't remember having seen them in the garden yet. The ones I saw over a month ago would have been first brood.

The second brood is different in that the female has very dark wing edges, a feature most noticeable when I got a flash of upperwing at last, too quick to photograph.

The underwing pattern is a diffuse scattering of small spots over the pale surface, with a nice thin "eyebrow" mark in the middle. In fact the spots are quite a consistent pattern, although this is a little difficult to describe in words. Nice second brood individuals. The legs are gorgeously patterned (rather in the style of Cruella De Ville) and the antennal tips look like expired sparklers with their white ashy tips. On the forewing you can see the "eyebrow" of this wing easily, and if you look at the edge of the fore wing you can see the dark chequer marks along the margin, which are not really repeated on the hindwing.

A windy St Margaret's at Cliffe

When I arrived at the Dover Patrol memorial it was still rather misty, cool and windy. As the afternoon progressed it got a bit warmer and drier, but the windspeed didn't drop at all, making butterfly ID and photography very difficult.

The first butterfly I saw on the path towards Kingdown was a tattered Marbled White, Melanargia galathea (L.). I think maybe these are coming towards the end of their season, as I haven't seen them elsewhere in the last few weeks.

There were also a number of Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers scattered by the wind. The Meadow Browns when put up fluttered frantically across the wind and then crashed down close to the ground in amongst the grass.

Here is a very tattered Gatekeeper, probably a female - from the lack of the large brown smudge in the centre of the forewings.

There were Large and Small Whites as well, and here is a Large White male.

I took a couple of shots of the Everlasting Peas and to my shame when I looked the photos I realised I had missed two moths and even a silver-spotted skipper!! Poor observational skills:

Bumblebees were in good numbers despite the windspeed. One species fairly commonly seen was the Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius, and I was really pleased to see my first definite Queen this summer (there was also a probable at Queensdown yesterday). The Queens are huge compared to the workers:

I checked the antennal segments on the left antenna (the right one was missing oddly enough) and there were only 10 flagellar segments as expected in a female.

I also checked that the  rear leg had a pollen basket

As in most sites I've visited recently, there were good numbers of the Sothern Vestal Cuckoo Bumblebee, Bombus vestalis, and many of the ones I've been able to sex have been males, as this one is also. You can see the smokiness of the wings blocking the colour of the knapweed head behind that is characteristic of cuckoo species. You can also see the hind of yellow where the white tail hairs are separated from the black hairs of the front of the abdomen characteristic of vestalis, and the partial yellow band on the front hair of the abdomen that is often found. The rear legs are generally hairy as characteristic of male Bombus.

Here is the same bee extending out its front leg to fend off intruders - a characteristic attitude when approached by other bees or other insects:

While photographing the Bumblebees, the camera also picked up the tiny flea beetles on the Knapweed:

There were also good numbers of the Hogweed Bonking Beetle, Rhagonycha fulva, paired up on the Hogweed flowers,

And a single Oedemera nobilis on a Field Bindweed flower,

There were a very good range of flowers on the clifftops. Here is a harebell, Campanula rotundifolia (L.): A delicate perennial with graceful, slender stems, usually in clusters, rising in height from 4-15 in. The stems can be weak so that the entire plant bends over. Its rounded, basal leaves wither early while the narrow, stem leaves remain. Blue-violet bell-shaped flowers hang singly or in clusters along the top parts of nodding, thread-like, mostly unbranched stems that grow in small patches. The nodding, bell-shaped, lavender flowers are borne in loose clusters at stem tips.

The genus name, from the Latin campana (bell), means little bell. The name Harebell may allude to an association with witches, who were believed able to transform themselves into hares, portents of bad luck when they crossed a persons path. In Scotland, another old name for this plant was Witches Thimble. The characteristics of this perennial vary considerably, depending on habitat conditions, ranging from Scottish hills to Kentish chalk downlands. Harebells can be seen in many areas of the UK, being found in a wide range of habitats including heaths, dry sandy banks, and grassy places on poor shallow soils. They thrive on both acid and chalk soils.

This is Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis, and I think most of the plants I saw today are actually this species. I do also need to keep my eye out for the Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria, which is superficially very similar.

Garden bumbling

I spent a few minutes in the back garden this afternoon and tried to take e few close-ups of Bumblebees. There was one very tired and worn Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius (L.), and a rather more lively Common Carder Bee, Bombus pascuorum.

This is the (dying?) Red-tailed Bumblebee photographed. Here is a reasonable shot of the hind leg and the pollen basket:

This is the Carder Bumblebee photographed. The antennae have ten segments in the flagellae, and the hind legs are clearly modified into pollen baskets, each with just with a few pollen grains here (in the second picture), making this one a good sized worker. This one is in quite reasonable condition.

The Bumblebee tongue is amazing:

Here you get another view of the ancillary mouthparts:

Queendown Warren full of butterflies and bumblebees

The East end of the reserve has a fantastic piece of meadow, covered in butterflies and bumblebees,

Queendown Warren

A late afternoon trip up to Queendown Warren produced good numbers of bumblebees and the common Brown butterflies, but was disappointing for Chalkhill and the other Blues.

Firstly were the Cuckoo Bumblebees, and here are two versions of Bombus vestalis or Bombus bohemicus, the first version with only one yellow thoracic band, and the second version with a thinner band in the middle of the abdomen.

Here is the first version. If it is Bombus vestalis, it is probably a fairly worn specimen, as the yellow patches are now quite small and indistinct. These are all the same bee. The wings look a little worn and tawdry, and not strikingly brown, although clearly brown tinged especially on the veins. This would all fit with a Bombus vestalis that has been around the block a couple of times.

Frustratingly once again I cannot tell for sure whether it is a male or a female! If I had to make a decision I would think it is a male vestalis in which the antennal segment A3 is much shorter than the A5, but I really cannot be certain. I think this only applies to males, and is well seen in one of the photos on http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/apidae/bombus-vestalis.

This is the second version, with a slight yellow band on the abdomen. Again these photos are all the same bee. In this individual I would have said that the wings are rather browner than the bee above.

To the Pheasantry and back.

Eristalis arbustorum and Eristalis pertinax, bug, Carder bee, white/buff tailed bee, honey bee, Volucella pellucens,  Episyrphus balteatus, Small White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, Holly Blue, Common Carpet, seven spot ladybird, spider.


Spearmint, meadow vetchling, vetches, water mint, water parsnip, common centaury, ragwort, yellow loosestrife, woody nightshade, yarrow, common knapweed, black horehound,                  

Whitehorse Wood with the KFC

We had quite a wet morning so concentrated mainly on the plants to be found, although a few butterflies, flies, beetles and grasshoppers were seen.

The hogweed was its normal attractive self, and was drawing in a variety of flies including these Episyrphus balteatus, three on this one head - by no means unusual.

We had a good look at some remaining chalk grassland on a steep slope, where there were some beautiful field scabious plants, Knautia arvensis

We found the Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola) here, with the underside of its antennal tips black, as opposed to orangey as seen in the Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris. No photos of the Essex Skipper, but I did manage to snatch one photo of one of the Marbled White, Melanargia galathea, taken from a rather odd angle, nectaring off a Mallow plant. This is actually a member of the Browns, rather than the true Whites.

This is Blackstonia perfoliata, a nice plant common in this habitat

There were a few Melanostoma scalare or lookalikes to be seen, this on Mignonette, Reseda luteola.

Scattered on the steep slope were some pyramidal orchids, Anacamptis pyramidalis. Note the overall uniformity of pinkish colour, the three wide-spreading oblong lower lobes and the two raised ridges running down onto the lower lip.

Evening on the Access Trail

I was late out out, today, after five, but pleasantly surprised to still find some bees and flies on the brambles and hogweed along the trail, despite the dull evening conditions.

There were hive bees, common carder bees, white/buff tailed bumblebees, greenbottles, Episyrphus balteatus, Sphaerophoria scripta, Melanostoma scalare, and some Syrphus hoverflies.

The Syrphus all looked initially to be Syrphus vitripennis, with the hind femora at least two thirds dark, as opposed to ribesii, in which they are more yellow Syrphus ribesii as the hind femora in this first one I looked at are yellow for at least the apical third or 33% (the yellow length measured in this picture as 44% on the ruler) To be Syrphus vitripennis the yellow should be less than 25%. However it does seem as though Syrphus are definitely not separatable into species and it is better just to leave this as Syrphus spp. They do all seem to be males however!

This Syrphus on the white flower looks more like Syrphus vitripennis however, with 33% or less visible as yellow, although I couldn't see the whole of the femur to be sure.

The last Syrphus, by the sloe clump near the end of MT 133, was again more like Syrphus ribesii with the yellow looking like 41% of the femur.

I saw a couple of male Sphaerophoria scripta, recognized by the wings being shorter than the abdomen, but only pictured one.

There was also this apparently silver-spotted version of Meliscaeva auricollis, only starting to colour up on the fifth tergite.

This is Melanostoma scalare, with its unique abdominal pattern quite nicely visible through the wings, easier I think when taken towards the light, or in poor light, rather than struggling with reflection off the wings.

I nearly mistook this for an Episyrphus from a distance, but it is in fact Meliscaeva cinctella,again quite a common hoverfly.

There were quite a few Common Carder bees, Bombus pascuorum around, and I did get a few pictures.

There was also an Oedemera beetle, possibly a female Oedemera nobilis without the swollen thighs of the male. The elytra in this genus are rarely if ever properly "closed":