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Post by nomad on Jun 15, 2017 15:32:19 GMT
Such an attractive species, nice to have them emerging in your garden.
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Post by nomad on Jun 11, 2017 19:25:47 GMT
Thank you Paul. Britain has few butterflies and I decided to concentrate this year on other insects. I agree with Hoverflies they are best seen alive, as many of their colours fade badly in collections. For instance the blood red colour of the Brachypalpoides lentus abdomen fades to a light orange in specimens. Top Hoverfly-Diptera experts usually form a reference collection, as even in the UK many of the lesser known species can only be identified with the aid of a good microscope.
I do not know about eagle eyes because I now wear glasses when looking for insects but I have a lot of enthusiasm and most of all patience. I guess I am most happy when I am out among the diverse world of insects and as you know with your travels in the Far East and elsewhere, it is quite a thrill to find what to many people may seem a trivial thing. The best thing about Entomology is there is so much to learn and the knowledge shown here by forum members continues to amaze.
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Post by nomad on Jun 11, 2017 12:53:22 GMT
A close encounter with the hoverfly Brachypalpoides lentus in ancient woodland. Brachypalpoides lentus is a very handsome, uncommon hoverfly that is found in Ancient Woodland where it is often associated with old beech trees. The larvae live in the decaying heart rot of both live and dead beech trees and on occasions are thought to use oak. This is an elusive shade-loving insect and occasionally the adults can be found sitting low on the trunks of old beech or on the dappled foliage or vegetation around the trunks . The first indication that B. lentus is about, is a flash of the partially blood red abdomen. On closer inspection, not always possible, for B. lentus it is often a nervous insect, the femora of the hind legs is enlarged with tufts of white hairs. The only species B. lentus could be confused with is the common Xylota segnis, which has been shown in this thread and again is featured here, but that species is smaller with an orange abdomen and partially yellow legs. B. lentus is one of the species that I hoped to see and photograph in England's New Forest, a famous area for scarce insects with its wealth of heathland and old woodland but I did not find it there. Recently I encountered B. Lentus sitting on a leaf of grass by a ride (track edge) in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire but before I observed it closer, the hoverfly was gone and I again had a brief glimpse an hour later in the same location as one quickly passed in shade through bramble growing over a fallen beech tree and for an instance it appeared to feed along with the bombus bees at wild raspberry but soon vanished. A few days later in the late afternoon, while I was walking back uphill through the forest after an unsuccessful search for B. lentus along the ride where I had seen it previously. I thought it might be a good idea to look around the bases of the old and dead stumps of beech trees that I had searched earlier in the morning for B. lentus but then had saw no sign of the hoverfly. Some of the beech trees in Savernake are magnificent and tower over a 100 feet (30.48 m) above the rides. As I now approached a dead black rotting stump of a beech, I saw a B. lentus female sitting in the deep shade in a hollow at its base, as I moved closer, a Lesser Stag Beetle - Dorcus parallelipipedus took this opportunity to appear and away went the hoverfly at quite a turn of speed. I came to a grove of tall old living beech trees and there again at the base of a moss covered beech in deep shade was another B. lentus but again a movement and it was gone, this was indeed proving a difficult fly to photograph. Searching around the base of another nearby beech I saw a flash of red and a male B. lentus settled low down on the raised exposed roots, and then to my surprise another male appeared, but this was was quickly grasped by the one already there, both falling to the ground, a vanquished male flying high into the air. This time the hoverfly took turns resting on the trunk and flying off and returning either to the wood or the vegetation around the tree's base or on the leaves of the tree on a low bough. Lying horizontal among the many ants and egg- bearing spiders and close to the hoverfly, which at last proved to be a good subject, my attempt at images was at first disappointing, there was no macro depth of a field in such a poor light, what was needed was an external macro flash commander set, quite an expensive item and when attached rather bulky. At one point the B. Lentus buzzed my face and hovered with that deep red abdomen inches from my person, at last a close encounter of a hopeful kind. In the dappled light of the nearby vegetation I was able at last to get some decent images. Sometimes by just observing the habits of insects you are interested in, you can learn a great deal and that late summers afternoon among the beech trees of that old royal hunting forest will be a memory not to be forgotten. Brachypalpoides lentus male, Savernake Forest June 2017. Below the common hoverfly Xylota segnis, Savernake Forest, May and the Lesser Stag Beetle, Dorcus parallelipipedus, which turned up just at the wrong moment.
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Post by nomad on Jun 11, 2017 9:13:03 GMT
It looks like some sort of parasitic wasp but there are thousands of different species, many more to be discovered, even here in the UK. Why the hurry for an ID?
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Post by nomad on Jun 10, 2017 14:44:32 GMT
The image of Anoplodera sexguttata from the New Forest shown above is of a male (joined spots). Here is a female at wild rose photographed at Savernake Forest, June 2017. A. sexguttata was joined by the larger and common Longhorn Rutpela maculata and the and the small brown Stenurella melanura.
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Post by nomad on Jun 10, 2017 8:07:35 GMT
Very nice and quite strange the females of even common Delias are so rare today. I expect because everyone collects the mud puddling assemblages. Meek and the Pratts had no trouble collecting females of all the species they encountered but they spent quite a long time in one area and Meek had his own collecting crew out with a net. Another important factor to consider is that when we say collected by Meek, he himself was rarely out with a net except in the lower Snow Mountains and Mount Goliath, most of the Meek Papuan specimens were caught by his native crew and sometimes the locals, while he was busy in his tent setting all the goodies.
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Post by nomad on Jun 4, 2017 7:35:24 GMT
"It hasn't been collected since the days of British Burma, and I've never seen another in a private collection;"
Are there many specimens in the Worlds-BMNH museum. Is there any reason this subspecies has not been seen or collected since that time. I know there were quite a few colonials out with a net and that India today takes a dim view of any collecting but there are still butterfly enthusiasts there I believe.
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Post by nomad on May 31, 2017 16:26:02 GMT
Welcome here beetlebaily.
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Post by nomad on May 31, 2017 7:24:59 GMT
The attractive Micro moth, Scoparia pyralella of the Crambidae » Scopariinae family which is found in a variety of habitats. This one was found on a steep limestone bank in the Cotswolds in June
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Post by nomad on May 31, 2017 7:21:10 GMT
This is the beautiful metallic green Cistus Forester Adscita geryon Hübner, [1813] of the Zygaenidae » Procridinae family ; photographed on the Wiltshire Chalk Downland in June. The larvae feed on common rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium.
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Post by nomad on May 31, 2017 7:13:38 GMT
Here are some more of my images of the more frequent of the British endemic Burnet Moths. Zygaena trifolii decreta. Bentley Wood, Wiltshire. July 2014. Mating pair of Zygaena trifolii paulustrella, one of which is f. minoides. Cotswolds. June 2016. Zygaena trifolii paulustrella Wiltshire Downland. Zygaena trifolii paulustrella Wiltshire Downland confluent spots resting on Plantago media (Hoary Plantain) Zygaena filpendulae stephensi. Lowland Meadow, Wiltshire. June 2016. Zygaena filpendulae stephensi. Salisbury plain. July 2015.
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Post by nomad on May 31, 2017 6:53:55 GMT
Aporia crataegi disappeared in Britain when there was plenty of suitable habitat left and no pesticides. There was some other reason for its disappearance and the only one others can think of is that climatic conditions did not suit it, which is rather strange when you consider it had been in Britain for thousands of years, since at least when this country was joined to Europe. I do not really believe that was the reason for its extinction.
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Post by nomad on May 30, 2017 14:08:28 GMT
The chances of finding a Pontia daplidice today in the UK are very slim, although it is worth checking whites along the south coast. I have never met anybody who has seen a British example and 1945 proved with time to be a remarkable year for daplidice and other rare immigrants. Even Colias hyale is rarely encountered today and considered among our rarest migrants. Global warming has not helped these species to travel or establish themselves further north in Britain and there is no indication that they will ever do so.
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Post by nomad on May 30, 2017 9:56:59 GMT
1945, the Great British Bath White Year. Pontia daplidice of the Pieridae family is a common butterfly in much of Southern and central Europe. Ever since the first specimen of P. daplidice was taken in Britain by William Vernon (1660-1735) in 1702, the butterfly which is known here as the Bath White, has always has been regarded as a great prize among British butterfly collectors. It mattered very little that the butterflies they captured had flown across the English Channel from France, the very fact that they were seldom seen in Britain, made them all the more desirable, they had become an interesting but rarely seen part of our butterfly fauna. In the Aurelian Legacy (2000) on some species of historical interest, the Bath White, P. daplidice, the authors wrote. " During the whole of the second half of the twentieth century, it has been among the rarest migrant butterflies ; annual numbers have seldom exceeded two and in most year there are none reported" . During the the summer of 1945, P. daplidice arrived in England in unprecedented numbers, around 700 were reported and a good many captured . A few luckly collectors were in the right place at the right time, two of them were on holiday on the southern coast of Cornwall. Bernard Kettlewell (1907-1979) the famous geneticist took 37 P. daplidice on July 14 at Falmouth and on the same day C.S.H. Blathwayt caught 38 at Looe. Kettlewell managed to obtain the ova and bred a long series and among them were a number of aberrations. Not only Bath Whites arrived here in 1945 but with them came a number of our rarest immigrant butterflies. Kettlewell account of his captures of P. daplidice along with other rare migrants in Cornwall was originally published in the Entomologist for 1945, and was later reproduced in full in the Aurelian's Fireside Companion (2005) pp 190-191. Here is an extract from his notes, on July 14 Kettlewell wrote. " fine and sunny. I noticed an insect fly out of a herb bed which I at first thought was Abraxas grossulariata (Magpie Moth). It came to rest in some parsnips, where I procured it by picking it up between my finger and thumb. To my amazement it was a newly hatched female P. daplidice. I hastily returned to my hotel to get my net and whilst running through the garden I saw my first hyale (Pale Clouded Yellow) and then another daplidice. On returning with my net I caught the hyale, which was a fine male. A quarter of an hour later I caught my second daplidice. It was somewhat worn, but the normal green pattern of the underside was entirely replaced with grey-black. It was a female I found no more in the next half hour, so I crossed the road into a small valley which was entirely taken up with allotments. Pontia daplidice was flying freely here, I spent a great deal of time following the females, endeavouring to find on what they were ovipositing.
The rare aberration of the female P. daplidice that Bernard Kettlewell caught on 14 July 1945 at Falmouth in the hotel garden, named ab. infragrisea Goodson 1953. BMNH. Kettlewell amazing luck continued, on July 16 he caught one of Britain rarest immigrant Butterflies, Cupido argiades, only around 17 have ever been captured in Britain. He recorded " At about 2 p.m. I noticed a blue moving on a patch of hop-trefoil. I turned back to look at it, as I suddenly realized that it had an underside like Celastrina argiolus (Holly Blue) and it would be unlikely place to see this species. To my amazement I found it was a fine male of E. argiades ( Short-tailed Blue) in good condition, its two tails being obvious on close examination. At this stage an awful feeling of unreality came over me, which was not helped by seeing another daplidice flying towards me".
The specimen of Everes argiades that Kettlewell took at Falmouth on July 16, 1945. BMNH. Charles Stephen Hare Blathwayt (1916-1991) from Weston-super Mare in Somerset also produced brief notes in the same issue of the Entomologist regarding his encounter with P. daplidice during 1945, " During a short holiday at Looe, Cornwall, whilst collecting along the hedges of a large rough field about two miles inland, on July 14, I noticed some Whites flying N to NE towards Liskeard. I assumed they were Pieris napi or perhaps MelanargIa gathathea ; there were only one or two and they were not close to me. At 1.15 pm, a quater of an hour later, I saw, the first P. dalidice and netted it over a small thistle in the field. Immediately afterwards I saw many more. Between 1.15 p.m. and 2.30 p.m., I caught 38, mostly feeding on or flying over thistles. I should think about 200 were present. The field was very large and steep, and chasing up and down the slope very exhausting. By about 2 p.m. the daplidice had left the field, many of them having flown high over the trees that bordered it. A few were still about in the next two fields, but these soon left, flying north, towards Liskeard. By 2.30 there were none to be seen".
"During the previous day there had been a very strong S.W. wind, whivch dropped about 9. p.m. and did not start again till 10 or 11.am, the following morning. On July 16 I visited the field again and took a further 6 P. daplidice making a total of 43, of which 25 were males and 18 females. A few Colias hyale were about, and I took two fresh females ".
Specimens of P. daplidice caught by C. S. H. Blathwayt on July 14 1945 near Looe in South Cornwall. Specimens of Colias hyale taken by C. S. H. Blathwayt on July 14 1945 near Looe in South Cornwall. On the North Coast of Cornwall at Bude, the collector A. H .H. Harbottle, a resident of that village recorded 47 P. daplidice in the summer and Autumn of 1945. The experiences of Kettlewell, Blathwayt and Harbottle were exceptional, nearly all the other records of captures of P. daplidice during 1945 were of singletons or perhaps two. Ian Robert Penicuick ( 1904-1970) of Burnham in Somerset was fortunate to collect six specimens of P. daplidice that year, one of the first arrivals of the summer brood in July 1945 and five specimens of the resulting Autumn brood which appeared in a mild October. On the 30th July 1945, Heslop had gone in search of Maculinea arion and perhaps P. daplidice at Marsland Mouth ten miles north of Bude on the Cornwall-Devon county border. The date would appear to have been a late one to look for M. arion but that year it had been a cold and wet end to the Spring after a promising start to the butterfly season. Heslop recorded in his diary for the 30th July , daplidice has turned up in considerable numbers in parts of England, a friend of Violet's Mr John Cook had taken one near Bude on July 23 or 24. The first white I examined was daplidice, it was almost the first butterfly I saw, though I examined hundreds of whites I did not take another. Arion helped to make the day more interesting".
Returning to Marsland Mouth on the Ist of October 1945 after a brief spell collecting at Bude, Heslop took four specimens of P. daplidice of the Autumn brood and on the dunes near his home at Burnham another specimen was secured on the 5th of October. It had been a remarkable collecting year for Heslop and the others, previously on the September 25 , Heslop caught two Issoria lathonia, another butterfly common elsewhere but an extremely rare immigrant to Britain. The I. lathonia were found among Vanessa atalanta and Vanessa cardui on the Mendip hills at the Butleigh Mounement in Somerset, a favourite hunting ground of Heslop. Specimens of P. Daplidice caught by Ian Heslop in 1945. The two specimens of Issoria lathonia caught by Ian Heslop at Butleigh in Somerset during September 1945.
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Post by nomad on May 30, 2017 7:38:31 GMT
yes not ab. arete but I do not believe anybody thought it was? ab. lanceolata are on sale sometimes at the AES. Quite a few were bred but still a very nice ab. Perhaps this specimen belongs under that named aberration.
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