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 You can see the rolled up probscis, not quite fully withdrawn.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.

Birch galls 2

Pictures from the Hainault website:

     

Aculus leionotus, a sort of uneven blister above, erineum beneath. Looks very like what I saw today.

    

Circular blister on both sides of the leaf. Anisostephus betulinus.

 

Silver birch hemispherical gall. Cecidophyopsis betulae.

     

The hairs of the erineum are described a reddish-brown. However I am seeing tufts of white in a similiar situation, could this be just as it develops? Aculus leionotus. I have also seen this, but both species cannot be A. leionotus.

Birch galls

Don't know what this refers to: Semudobia betulae A gall midge on Betula. Seed gall on Birch (Betula sp.).

Name changes 2004:

Betula	Eriophyes lissonotus	Aceria lissonota
Betula	Plemeliella betulicola	Resseliella betulicola
Betula	Massalongia rubra	M. ruber

p292       Betula: the upward bulge of the Aceria lissonota gall is sparsely hairy, and smooth in Aculus leionotus.

p293       Betula: delete Fig. 127 (left); Resseliella betulicola causes young leaves to crinkle and fold upwards, and thickens and folds upwards the edge of older leaves.

Betula pendula Ectodemia occultella 34 Lepidoptera found in the Wyre Forest

138 Lampronia fuscatella

(Tengström, 1848)

Wingspan 14-18 mm.

The adults of this species, unlike some of the otherLampronia species, are relatively plain in appearance.

The moth is quite local in Britain, occurring scarcely in a few widely scattered localities throughout. It flies in May and June, during the afternoon.

The larva is unusual in that it forms a swelling, or gall on a twig of birch (Betula), usually at a node, within which it feeds. The presence of reddish-brown frassaround the exit hole indicates a larva within.

Gall-midge.	Anisostephus betulinus (Kieffer, 1889)
	Leaf Gall on Birch (Betula sp).

Dene on the 16th

This is a five or so year old ash tree by the side of the ride leading from Ringlet corner up to the Victorian Pond junction. It is suffering severely from Ash Bacterial Canker, or Bacterial Knot, which used to be regarded as a form of Pseudomonas syringae, but is now said to be Pseudomonas savastanoi pv fraxini. This actually looks quite appalling, but is probably quite good for wildlife.

Practice walk in Dene Park

Rhingia campestris, a good picture enhanced a bit by noise reduction and sharpening in CS8.

Sunday in Dene Park

A busy day at Dene Park, but nobody seemed to mind me photographing - the monopod seems to imply my innocent intentions!

I was lucky enough to find a lovely female Leucozona lucorum having a probe around the Malus flowers by the triangle - so pretty for a fly dare I say!