Dene Park on a slightly better day

I went up to Dene Park at about 3 p.m. after an early morning Nightingale survey, three hours teaching in the morning and some admin in College after lunch.

The nettles and brambles by the side of the first ride slowed me down as they were well stocked with insects and spiders. There must have been aphids present I would imagine, as there were both 7-spot and 14-spot ladybirds in good numbers.

This is one variant of the 14-spot ladybird, Propylea quattuordecimpunctata, a little bit variable in detail. This is a generalist aphid feeder, common all across the UK. It can secrete toxic compounds to deter predators, and is quite a bit smaller than the common red and black 7-spot. Tends to hibernate low down in vegetation.

This other is I think the same species, but is a less usual colour variant. However the mid-line suture is still black in colour:

And this is the very common 7-spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, also a generalist aphid feeder, found across the paleartic. It can also secrete toxic alkaloids to deter predators. It hibernates low down in herbage or in conifer foliage. There is a tiny fly here as well!

There were also quite a lot of nursery web spiders, Pisaura mirabilis, sitting on the tops of the nettle plants, ready to hunt or grab anything that goes past I imagine. I think this is a very common spider, of paleartic distribution, its identity indicated by the overall shape, abdominal colour pattern (variable in detail) and central fringe line over the cephalothorax. Here are three different colour forms, all fairly close together, all very different in colour:

Mixed in with the nursery web spiders, there were these animals, which are harvestmen, the order Opiliones, according to Ophrys on ispot. I should have thought more carefully before I put this picture up!

Perhaps taking dead food material from the spiders and/or harvestmen, there were plenty of scorpion flies around. This one is likely to be

and a bit further on I found this smaller spider:

I also saw the nymph of a bush-cricket, probably the Dark Bush-cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera, thanks to Michael Skelton on ispot.

and then, to my intense delight, I was sure I saw a wonderful hoverfly, Leucozona lucorum, beautifully coloured and furry, with dark wing markings, that I have hoped to see for a while. Sadly I only managed a quick "partial" photograph before it flew off into the gloom of the woods away from the path.

There were quite a few hairy shieldbugs, or sloe bugs, Dolycoris baccarum, on the vegetation triangle in the middle of the path. I didn't notice any sloe bushes close by.

and then a very interesting looking sawfly, which I originally thought was a wasp, with a creamy white clypeus and shoulder flashes, black coxae, apical parts of rear legs and overall bodies, orangey tegulae and otherwise orangey legs. Perhaps Tenthredo atra, or another species.

I also disentangled a tortrix caterpillar from some webbed hornbeam leaves. This could be one of a number of tortrix species that attack hornbeams.

Finally there was this tiny Andrena(or something else?) bee on a dandelion flower,

This next one, seen a little bit earlier, was much bigger:

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.

Nashenden cycle path

Finally sunny, but now it's windy!

Along the plum hedge there were small patches of a leaf gall. This might have been Eriophyes similis according to a previous ispot posting, so its up for checking.

The picture below shows a close-up of the the pouch galls on the underside of the leaf, not confined to the margins:

By the poplar windbreak the second(?) one along from the kissing gate had a superb fresh Dryad's Saddle, Polyporus squamosus, growing out of the pollard trunk as well as a decayed growth from last year - and the regrowth of the pollard was very weak, unsurprisingly perhaps considering the extent and duration of the fungal attack. Here are two photos of this year's Dryads's Saddle outgrowth, at different magnifications:

It seems to me that pollarding these poplars has not been an unmitigated success - it seems likely to allow disease in, and create weak points at the pollard regrowth.

On the left of the tarmac path going back towards Victoria Road there were new mushrooms, looking a bit like field mushrooms, but perhaps not quite.

Things have certainly moved on, the elder is coming into flower!

On one of the oak trees, a snail had climbed to a height of about 2.5 metres,

I have been checking the stitchwort (Stellaria media) flowers for pollinators, but found absolutely no takers as yet, At last, today, a visitor, a tiny black bee!