Holborough Marshes

A very pleasant walk around Holborough Marshes, starting off in warm sunshine, getting gradually cooler and just caught by the first start of the rain as we approached the car at 6:30 p.m. Then off to Pam's for lamb champ chops cooked by Paula, with Monty smelling strongly of the marsh ditchwater. Nightingales singing strongly!

In the narrow strip of woodland leading out to the river wall just at the start of the reserve, there were four Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, all of them that I saw likely to be males. They were in apparently obvious territories, from ground level to about waist height, and I saw one duel. One was already quite battered, and it seems that each individual adult only survives for approximately one week, perhaps feeding off honeydew up in the canopy. These will have over-wintered as chrysales. There will also be over-wintering caterpillars, an almost unique scenario amongst butterflies to have these two options, which still have to form chrysales and which will then be on the wing from sometime in May in their turn, peaking in June. It was impossible to tell if there were three spots or four spots on the top of the hind-wing in these insects.

This is the same butterfly's head in close-up, demonstrating the irridescent hairs:

While photographing the Speckled Woods, the camera caught the underside of a Greater Celandine leaf, Chelidonium majus, with its long thin silky hairs:

Here are the flowers of the Greater Celandine, with the same silky hairs, this time on the outside of the sepals.

One of the high points was a female Gooden's Nomad Bee, Nomada goodeniana on a Dandelion flowerhead (Taraxacum officinale) - apparently they seem to be seen on these quite often . The lack of any red on the abdomen, the unbroken yellow bar on T2, the yellow tegulae, the yellow tubercules (many on this specimen) all point to this species. The orange antennae have no black on them and have only 12 segments, the eyes are reddish rather than green spotted and the abdomen has only 6 tergites, so this is a female.

In this side view the pattern of yellow bands on the tergites and sternites of the abdomen can be seen, as well as the long mouthparts seeking the pollen or nectar in the capitulum.

Oare Gunpowder Works on the first really hot day of the year!

A wonderful wander round the Country Park full of munitions production archaeology and natural history. Three Peacock, two Brimstone and four female Orangetip (?) butterflies. A nesting pair of Bluetits, Sparrowhawk, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Chaffinches, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Green Spotted Woodpecker, Woodpigeons, overflying Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gull.

Yellow-legged Mining Bees, Andrena flavipes ( a guess!), Lasioglossum poss calceatum, Episyrphus balteatus, Sphaerophoria sp.,

Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia, was in at least one spot in the ancient (rather dominated by sycamore) woodland, quite a common plant generally across most of the country, an early introduction by man (intended or not) and I think a very nice little plant to see. It is a "winter annual", probably germinating in autumn, spreading by seed. As the fruit ripens it bends downward, allowing the ants to collect the seed, attracted by the scent of the associated oily appendage.

Single small light lilac pink flowers with long stalks in the leaf axils, heart-shaped sepals (not always easy to see), petals short so said to be almost hidden in among the (claimed to be) slightly larger sepals, leaves with short stalks, veins only from base of the 5-7 lobed leaf, not from a central midrib, therefore "palmately veined leaves" (the only speedwell like this I think), small, softly hairy low-spreading plants, photos attached. Like the other Veronicas it has now been reclassified from the Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family) into the Plantaginaceae (Plantain family).

There are actually two recognised subspecies, ssp hederifolia (2N = 54) and ssp lucorum - aka sublobata (2N = 36), with different chromosome complements (Tetraploid and Hexaploid, as the seed is fertile?), I tend to think this is the latter, with longer flower stalks and lilac flowers with pale anthers which is rather less common, but typically found in woodland rather than arable/verges, although I think you really need it in fruit as well to give it anything like a reasonable guess (BSBI have an excellent online plant crib)! This subspecies does not seem to be recorded in this NBN 10K square.

Great Comp

Arrived about 2:40 in warm but sometimes overcast weather, certainly not as hot as it was earlier. Immediately we had a look at the plants for sale a tiny black bee was seen in numbers investigating the Campanula flowers on the bench. This was I am nearly certain Chelostoma campanularum, almost confined to members of his family.

There were dozens of Episyrphus balteatus on the wide range of flowers available, and there was also my first

A large fat bee is most likely to have been a Megachile species

A quick stop at Dene Park in mid afternoon.

In this picture you can just see the sharp keel between the antennae bases characteristic of all Nomada species except N. obtusifrons. 

A bit of warmth on the Access Trail

Nomadas zipping around the base of trees on MT 133, various Andrena around to tantalise, Epistrophe eligans resting up on the sunlit leaves of the hedgerow trees, Eristalis pertinax hovering at about head height in sunlit glades, the sound of a cuckoo calling in the middle distance, robins, chiffchaffs, chaffinches, goldfinches and blackcaps singing around me, while the blackthorn is at last in full bloom. Pretty fantastic!

Epistrophe eligans female quietly resting on a sunny hawthorn leaf:

Another one along MT 133:

Dene Park

In the grassy area by the car park this female Andrena was happily stocking up on pollen!

Bees at Trosley

While out with the British Butterfly Conservation Society Kent group at Trosley Country Park, I saw a lot of mining bees flying fast and low over the sparse grass of several areas of the chalk downland. Most of these were probably Andrena flavipes, the Yellow Legged Mining Bee. 

However this male appears to have a slightly reddish tail, and I think might possible be a male Andrena chrysosceles 

This I am fairly sure must be Nomada fucata, the cuckoo bee of Andrena flavipes.

Bourneside Meadow and Andrena haemorrhoa

Andrena are really fascinating solitary bees and there must be so much to learn about their mysterious lives. Today I was hoping for hoverflies but also came across quite a few Andrena which seemed to be flying in the canopy of trees. For example first there were quite a few Andrena in the twigs and branches of the Great Sallow bushes, Salix caprea, by the Red Pond along the Access Trail, of which I only caught one.

I don't know for sure that there were any more bees here than anywhere else, all I can really say is that I spent quite some time looking for hoverflies there, and that I saw mainly bumblebees visiting the catkins and mainly Andrena bees in amongst, and occasionally settling on, the branches. I think the Andrena may also have visited the catkins rarely, but I got the impression that most of the time they were not looking for food, just flying. I imagine that if you are a bee subject to predation by birds, then you are probably safer in amongst the twigs and branches, than out in the open. However I do also wonder whether there is a social feature in gathering together as well.

After quite a lot of time by the Red Pond I moved down to the riverplain of the River Bourne and ended up looking for bees on the dandelions in the damp meadow by Bourneside Farm. There was almost nothing there, but it was getting on towards 4 in the afternoon and I rather suspect the dandelions become less attractive to insects after about the middle of the afternoon.

There was at least one chiff-chaff in the treeline along the boundary with the land below Easterfield Bungalow, and while trying to get photographs there of the opening leaves of the native Common Alder, Alnus glutinosa, I saw some rapidly flying insects moving quickly in, and just outside the edge of, the canopy of the trees at about head height. They were moving so fast I couldn't even tell for sure whether they were bees or flies and I spent a lot of time trying, and failing (I need a bigger net?), to catch one. I would say that as far as numbers go, there were at least half a dozen and probably into double figures as a total. In the end I eventually caught one insect and that turned out to be a male Andrena haemorrhoa upon closer examination and under the binocular microscope. The insects did all look quite similar in size and "jizz" and if asked I would have said it was more likely that they were all males, rather than a mix of males and females, and possibly all of the same species.

I have found Andrena haemorrhoa in several places in the local area, but this seemed to be a specific association with these trees and also a specific behaviour.  It could be that the bees were commuting back and forwards along the tree line towards a food source or other site, or perhaps they were just flying to and from with some sort of social purpose. It would be useful to see if the behaviour is repeated on different days and times of day, and also to see if the all the insects are really all male Andrena haemorrhoa.

Here is a picture of one, this time a female, I took a few hundred metres away up on the Access trail in May last year:

You can see the foxy red colour of the hairs on the thorax (even more intense in the female as compared to the male), the whitish hairs around the face, the orange-red hairs on the tail, and the rather shiny black colour of the main dorsal surface of the abdomen.

The unfolding alder leaves were very difficult to photograph because of the shallow depth of field. As the buds swell the two main scales may part slightly, partly exposing the leaves within.

The scales then roll fully back on themselves, allowing the leaves to start their main phase of expansion, looking slightly shiny or possibly sticky.

Dene Park escapes the thunderstorm!

It was very hot today, with gathering thunderstorms which just missed Hadlow and Dene Park. It was lovely in the late afternoon/early evening up in the wood, with excellent birdsong from song thrushes, blackbirds and robins in particular. There were quite a few insects around, including this moth welcoming me to the car park. I am sure this is a very common one:

Also in the car park grassland was the "Black-Hearted Flower Beetle" Cantharis rustica.

It is about time I looked in a bit more detail at birch trees, the genus Betula. They are so reliant on seed distribution that the new seed heads are out, before the old ones are completely finished!

So, next, something entirely new to me, a Birch Leaf Roller. This was very difficult to tie down, as initially it looked as though it ought to be due to a beetle larva, but now I think it must be due to a Lepidopteran larva, by counting the number of legs!

I was now in the first woodland ride and came across another Nomada bee species, dark and orange!

Deeper in the wood, feeding on the nectar from the cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, I found this odd looking fly. There is a tiny, tiny beetle with it! This is the largest of the UK species of Dance Flies, Empis tessellata, as identified by Ophrys on ispot. ID characteristics include the striped hairy thorax, brownish wings and black femora. It is probably quite a common fly, but likely to be significantly under-recorded generally in the UK.

As always there were the difficult hoverflies, usually the small and black ones. This ought to be a female Platycheirus albimanus, quite a moderate size, with grey spots just visible in the second photo, at a wild guess!

This next one is much easier because of the triangular yellow spots on tergite 2, Melangyna cincta.

Pseudopanthera macularia, the Speckled Yellow moth, exactly where it ought to be, on a fairly open woodland ride

A mega visit to Whetsted Gravel Pits

After I had deserted Monty for my walk along the Nashenden cycle trail, I took him for a walk along to the Whetsted Gravel Pits whist it was still reasonably sunny. First thing I found was a Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis, ID'd by Chris Brooks on ispot.

Then there was what looked like a small Andrena with a largely reddish abdomen, which was again ID'd on ispot by Chris Brooks and then Stuart Roberts to be a good match to Andrena labiata, the Girdled Mining Bee, a slightly scarce Andrena that shouldn't really be found on the Low Weald at all. If it turns out to be this, then I shall be very pleased, although a little puzzled as to why it strayed into my territory! A very blurry picture I am afraid, I will have to try a lot harder.

Now, is this, or is it not, the same species? There is a clear dark centre along the top of the abdomen in these two pictures, and it seems to me to be unlikely.

My first Nomad Bee of the day was also found in the open on the herbaceous vegetation, and looked a lot like one of the species of the Nomada flava/panzeri species pair, with the likelihood likely to be on flava from its fairly yellow colouration. This was a female from its 12-segmented antennae, so in theory its ID should be distinguishable between flava and panzeri.

By the hedge below the grassy area were a lot of St Mark's Fly, Bibio marci, flying clumsily as usual. They look like something out of Lord of the Rings, rather scary.

There were quite a few Large Red Damselflies, Pyrrhosoma nymphula, on the hedges above the farm ditches, and I was quite pleased with one of the photos, of an immature female, forma typica I think.

Down by the pillbox there were quite a few Nomad bees, although I only got a rather poor photo of one of them. I think the first photo was perhaps a male Nomada flava, although I couldn't actually see any red stripes on the back of the thorax. This one here is also quite dark on the thorax, and the second insect is if anything even darker. I am therefore pretty sure that the second one at least is not flava. The back of the thorax is very dark (without any orange-red stripes), the tegulae are mid-brown rather than orangey-brown, there are definitely no orange spots on the back of the thorax, and there is little red on the dark abdominal bands.

Naturally wherever there are Nomad bees, there will be their hosts, mining bees such as Andrena species.

There were several around the pillbox, such as this one,

There was also a Dock Bug, the first of two seen today. Several have also been put up on ispot, indicating their abundance at this time of year.

A nice spot was the red and black hopper, Cercopis vulnerata, which is almost instantly recognizable, as well as being very obvious.

Walking across the meadow I was interested to see the number of what I think was Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium vulgatum, plants in flower amongst the grass.

Before I reached the gravel pits, as I entered the last field there was an interesting looking umbellifer that was neither Cow Parsley, nor Common Hogweed. It was only half a metre high and flowering well, strongly bracted with thick umbel or even simple pedicel stalks. I was pretty stumped as I looked through the flower books, not even Francis Rose could rescue me! Anyway, here it is:

I also caught a solitary been on it quite well, From the reddish tail hairs coupled with very little foxy colour to the thorax, and quite obvious abdominal hair stripes, I rather think it might be Andrena chrysosceles, as opposed to Andrena haemorrhoa, the other "red-tailed" Andrena. I put it up on ispot, with my guess, but got no answers, so retired, slightly disappointed I must say!

At the gravel pits themselves there was quite a lot of leaf damage on the sallows, with a tiny beetle running quite quickly over the leaves. Quite elongate, with a reddish-bronze thorax and contrasting green grooved elytra, about 2 mm long, it would most likely have been

There was also a male scorpion fly, belonging to the family Mecoptera, perhaps Panorpa communis. The inflated genitalia, looking a bit like a scorpion's sting, indicates it is a male. They tend to eat dead insects, perhaps taken from spiders webs. Nuptial gifts are common.

One of the nicer plants to see in flower today was my first Bugle, Ajuga reptans, in 2012. On Sunday Mat had emphasised the importance of this plant as a nectar source for woodland butterflies.

This large midge-like insect was found on a fence-post by the edge of the shallow gravel pit:

And this is an alder-fly, Sialis, also on a fence-post.