End of Season Sale

Monday, 5th October 2020

I am not sure why September 30 / 1 October is so significant to entomologists and the like, but it seems to signify the end of the season and the start of winter tasks. Nets and beating trays are put away in a safe place to be rediscovered next April, unidentified specimens are retrieved from storage and put under the microscope and records are tidied up before submitting to the various people and organisation responsible for keeping the records for public consumption.

And what do you get normally at the end of a season?

An End of Season Sale.

Here is my contribution to this tradition.

In this piece I will continue the "bits and pieces" stories from this peculiar season picking up from where I left off in my last report.

But before I do one reader has sent me some photographs from mid-August of her efforts to "try and photograph" dragonflies at the excellent reserve in Broseley, The Haycop. These look pretty good to my non-photographers eyes. I hope you agree.

The first is a female Southern hawker.

Photograph: Christine Littlewood

The second is of a pair of Common darters.

Photograph: Christine Littlewood

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Back to September, the thirteenth to be exact.

Four of us travelled, in separate cars due to the covid restrictions, to Cherhill Down, near Marlborough, in Wiltshire. The Down is well known as a site of a "White Horse". But it was not this that we went to see. Our target for the day was a large bush cricket, known as a Wartbiter, Decticus verrucivorus.

Wartbiters are very rare insects and their rarity affords them legislative protection. You can look but you cannot touch, disturb or otherwise cause distress.

The journey there was difficult as an accident on the M5 just south of Tewkesbury had led to the closure of the motorway and a diversion through Tewkesbury south to Gloucester.

The traffic on the motorway was quite light so no great delay was anticipated as I approached the diversion.

How wrong I was.

As soon as I had moved on to the sliproad at the junction the traffic ground to a halt.

I put the delay down to a rash of traffic lights and expected it to clear once through them.

It didn't.

It was snail pace for the next hour or so, then, as if by magic, the road cleared and good progress was made.

Then, as I crossed the M4 by Swindon, I found the M4 closed and the official diversion through Marlborough which is where I was heading.

To be fair, until I got close to Marlborough, the traffic kept moving but we came to a halt again on the outskirts of the town. This was followed by a crawl until the junction where the M4 diversion went one way and I, thankfully, went the other. 

I eventually got to the meeting point, rather later than planned, to find two colleagues standing in a space in a lay-by which they beckoned me to fill.

We had been given a grid reference of where the wartbiters had been found in the past, so we headed straight to that spot.

Some of us followed the public footpath, others plotted their own route.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

We eventually met up again in the small, steep-sided valley in which the wartbiters were reported to reside.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

As one gets older one's hearing range diminishes. One of the by-products of this change is the ability to hear the song of grasshoppers and crickets. Fortunately our orthopterist is young and he can hear many of their calls, including wartbiters.

Using his aural ability, plus a little help from a bat detector, he soon homed in on the target species.

Needless to say, we joined him to have a look.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

What you cannot gauge from the photograph is its size. It is a big insect.

The one in the photograph is a male. Apparently males tend to inhabit dense tussocky grass, whereas females prefer a shorter sward. The valley in which we found them had plenty of both types of habitat.

The target species found we wandered off to explore more of the valley.

Sometime later we heard an excited yell from one of the group as he descended the steeply sloped side of the valley from an exploration of the upper slopes. Having got our attention he shouted "Wasp spider".

Having spent many hours searching for wasp spiders in Shropshire without success we were all very excited by this find and rushed over to join him and see the animal.

Photograph: David Williams

The photograph shows the spider's underside.

Its meal is a Roesel's bush cricket.

A second spider was seen nearby.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Here is the scene that greeted any passers-by as this photographic frenzy was taking place.

As our master orthopterist moved away he found two more! One was with an egg-sac.

Photograph: David Williams

Wasp spider worship over we continued our explorations.

Eventually, a second wartbiter was located and photographed.

Photograph: David Williams

We returned home very happy.

A few days later a few of us visited a meadow at Crossways, close to the Rhos Fiddle SWT site, and the neighbouring Riddings Wood.

Conditions were good and the drone was launched capturing this view of the area we were in.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Here is a more conventional view of the meadow with the wood in the background.

Photograph: David Williams

Flushed with success our drone pilot absented himself and disappeared to Rhos Fiddle. Here he took this aerial photograph of this site.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

As good and informative as these photographs are the rest of us kept our feet firmly on the ground and sought out creatures typically found at this time of year.

A small plantation of young oaks and the surrounding area proved to be the most productive. The following is a selection of the beasts we found there.

A large late season mirid bug Adelphocoris lineolatus, commonly known as the Lucerne bug.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A large orbweb spider Araneus quadratus.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A Gorse shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus.

Photograph: David Williams

An Hieroglyphic ladybird, Coccinella hieroglyphica.

Photograph: David Williams

And a sawfly larva, the Pear slug, Caliroa cerasi.

Photograph: David Williams

Another fine day was had by all. Our thanks to the owner for allowing us to visit.

The following week, on September 21st, three of us travelled independently to Yoseden in Buckinghamshire. The site is close to Aston Rowant but a few miles further north of the M40.

I start with a brilliant photograph of the site being overflown by a Red kite, Milvus milvus.

Photograph: David Williams

As you can see, not a cloud in the sky; what a glorious late September day.

Yoseden is a steeply sided chalk grassland flanked on the higher ground by woodland and the lower by farmland. The information board told us that it is a site where Chiltern and Autumn gentian can be found. It also told us that it is difficult to tell them apart, leaving us pondering "How do you separate them?"

Here is a gentian. Feel free to tell me which one it is.

Photograph: David Williams

Why did we chose this site for a day out?

To find Great green bush cricket. A warden at another reserve we had visited looking for these suggested that this was a good place to find them.

Did we find them?

No.

If only we had been there earlier in the year we may have seen plenty.

No matter, we did have a good day on this excellent site, which, according to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon SWT website, is home to 28 species of butterfly, almost 50% of the British species. In fact the day after we went there, Yoseden was featured on the "One Show" where the presenter of the piece was visiting to photograph Adonis blues.

Clearly it was a bit late in the year for many of the butterfly species but we did manage to spot a rather worn Brown argus.

Photograph: David Williams

The grassland is grazed by a few cows. These greeted us as we passed through the kissing gate to gain access. They were no threat, they were huddled together seeking, seemingly, shade under the trees. However, where you get cows, you get cow-pats.

Lots of insects visit dung and one shiny fly immediately caught our attention.

Photograph: David Williams

This is a soldier fly, Sargus flavipes, known to some as a Yellow-legged centurian!

Dung was to play an important role later in the day ... read on to find out why.

A plant that was in full bloom throughout the site was Devil's-bit scabius.

Photograph: David Williams

It was at this species of plant that we saw one of our larger hoverflies, Epistrophe grossulariae.

Photograph: David Williams

And our largest hoverfly, Volucella zonaria.

Photograph: David Williams

Our search for the Great green bush cricket did not yield any sightings but we did find a Speckled bush cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima sunning itself in the bushes.

Photograph: David Williams

Nearby a Common green shieldbug, Palomena prasina was also enjoying the September sun.

Another person was wandering around the site, clearly searching for something, close to where we were. She told us that she was looking for the Hornet robberfly, Asilus crabroniformis which is found on this site.

This is is one of the largest flies in Britain. It feeds on grasshoppers, dung beetles and other flies and is often found on dung. We promised to keep an eye out for one.

With this promise in mind we continued looking for the elusive bush cricket but checking out cow-pats as we picked our way through the grassland. 

Our vigilance paid off as a female Hornet robberfly was seen. The fly was followed until it settled for long enough to be photographed.

Photograph: David Williams

Our fellow searcher joined us to share our views of the insect.

This or another female was seen later where it appeared to be ovipositing in or under a cow-pat.

Photograph: David Williams

After all this excitement it was time for a rest. We all met the voluntary warden of the site who was, sensibly, sitting under the shade of a tree at the top of the site observing our activities. We had a good discussion about our interests, the site itself , the surrounding land and Great green bush crickets. He felt that we had left it too late to see the bush crickets.

We made one last effort to find the elusive insect but, as you know already, this was to result in failure. However, we did see several more Hornet robberflies including this male.

Photograph: David Williams

The following day, whilst on an outing to Gogbatch, Catherine and Graham found this rather smart beetle on mint.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

It is, surprise, surprise, a Mint beetle, Chrysolina herbacea. This is only the fifth record in the county. Another one to keep a look out for.

A week later Graham found this in his garden.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

It is a Tortoise bug, Eurygaster testudinaria. Until recently these had only been recorded in the Wyre Forest, then one turned up in Dolgoch Quarry followed by sightings in Telford and Cramer Gutter. Now it is found in gardens. What a remarkable expansion of range within the county!

Fittingly, I end this "End of Season Sale" at the end of September with a  Twenty plume moth, Alucita hexadactyla, one of many seen in log store in Madeley.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Now as I prepare for winter in these uncertain times, who knows what the future will bring. I will continue to venture out, others may join me or venture out on their own as permitted by ever-changing regulations. On these outings photographs will be taken and these, I hope, will be shared with you periodically.

I cannot say with any certainty if the Joy of Wildlife group will be able to gather again next year, but I will put together the programme for 2021 during the next few months in the hope that it will.

My thanks to the many photographers who have provided photographs for me to use. And, of course, my thanks to you, the readers, who make the production of these ramblings worthwhile.