Wet Heath, Dry Heath

 Wednesday 5th August 2026, Whixall Moss

 

The above photo shows how uncharacteristically brown the moss has become in this continuing drought. It hardly needs saying that the water level was exceptionally low, which allowed us to explore parts of the site which would normally be treacherously, or indeed impossibly boggy.
But I am getting ahead of the day’s events. Parking in the Morris Bridge car park, we took the usual long, straight track from there onto the moss. At the start of it is a cottage and garden, complete with several Buddleias, which were covered in insects, including two Hummingbird Hawkmoths.

photo: John Martin

We hadn’t got very far along the track before the first of the mosses’ specialist creatures made an appearance: juvenile Raft Spiders, Dolomedes fimbriatus were quite numerous in the herbage. Already quite large, their green legs showed that they were not adult. They would get bigger yet! This one has caught dinner:

Here is a close-up, for all you spider-lovers out there. Who couldn’t be enchanted by those eyes?

Prolonged dry weather is not good for most spider species, so it was good to see these juveniles in decent numbers. Many common species are not faring well though, making it quite an event to see supposedly common species such as the Four-spot Orbweaver…

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

… and Garden Spider in the vegetation alongside the track.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

The splendid little jumping spider Evarcha falcata made another Wednesday appearance,

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

as did the harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus, another organism which has now been relegated to the status of ‘agg.’ as it is realised that more than one species is hiding inside apparently identical exteriors.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Further excitement appeared at this point, in the form of several big (queen bumblebee-sized) flies: Tachina grossa.

photo: John Martin

The track progressed towards and into a small woodland, where several beetle species appeared. The tortoise beetle Cassida rubiginosa was the first.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

22-spot ladybirds

For various reasons weevils don’t feature in these reports as frequently as they used to. Here is just a single offering, by way of partial compensation: Rhinoncus pericarpius.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Hemiptera were well represented in the woods…
The Rhopalid bug, Corizus hyoscyami

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Birch Shieldbug

Hairy Shieldbug

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Tree Damsel Bug

and Marsh Damsel Bug.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

We were nearly through the woods and out onto the moss proper, but not before we had played a game of ‘Spot the Toadlet’ on the track. There is one in the below photo. Can you spot it?

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Out on the moss, the main tracks have been populated at intervals by these rather ingenious and informative information posts.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

I had emerged ahead of the rest of the group. No sooner had I done so than a Hummingbird Hawkmoth flashed past me, hovered speculatively for a moment and then put down in a sunny spot on the ground for a rest. How different they look when they are grounded!

In due course the rest of the group emerged. We spent a short while beating, sweeping and vacuuming but that time of the day was approaching. Though the weather was intermittently sunny, the cloudy spells were accompanied by a surprisingly strong, cool breeze. Ineffectual attempts to find a sheltered lunch spot were made before we gave up and camped on the main track, hoping that the fringing saplings would offer some shelter (which they almost did).
During a rather extended lunch break, some of the party decided to explore an adjacent area of the moss which would certainly have been out of bounds in normally damp circumstances. We did of course, have special permissions for the day to allow us to wander off limits like this. Some of the characteristic plants of the mosses were present here:
Royal Fern

photo: Neil Nash

Bog Asphodel

photo: John Martin

Round-leaved Sundew

Bog Rosemary

photo: John Martin

Cross-leaved Heath.

photo: John Martin

This last is an indicator of suitability for the Bog Bush-cricket. My bat detector told me that males were singing all around, but they proved to be fiendishly difficult to spot until finally, a male gave himself away:

Most individuals have the fancy green highlights which can be seen above, but some lack them, as per this one, who was spotted later on in the day:

There was also time for a bit of fungus spotting, this Scleroderma citrinum attracting attention.

photo: John Martin

Back on the main track, the group moved on from the lunch spot, found another likely looking area and stopped to investigate. This is Jim, assiduously inspecting the results of his latest attack on the scenery with his vacuum sampler:

Here is one of the results, a 2mm micro ladybird, Nephus redtenbacheri, the Red-patched Ladybird.

And here is another, an as-yet unidentified rove beetle of similarly tiny dimensions.

Back to ladybirds, Whixall is home to two heathland specialists. We found both. This is one of three Hieroglyphic Ladybirds to appear in our trays. They predate Heather Beetles, among other things, of which there were plenty to keep them well fed.

This is the other heathland specialist, a Heather Ladybird. A scale-insect predator, they can also sometimes turn up in cypress hedges, which are home to several species of scale.

Meanwhile, back at the vacuum sampling department, a number of very notable flies were turning up. Let’s start with a frit fly, Aphanotrigonum nigripes. This is only the second Shropshire record and nationally it is very infrequently recorded, though this doubtless just under-recording rather than actual rarity, as it’s considered common on the continent in wet meadows and bogs. It’s very small and probably only really captured via suction sampling.

photo: Nigel Jones

Next, Opomyza lineatopunctatas. Not a county first, having previously been recorded at Whixall and Wem Mosses, but the most recent county record is as long ago as 1995.

photo: John Martin

The vacuums also captured Stilpon sublunatus, a species only previously recorded in Shropshire at Whixall in 1988 and described by our Dipterist as “a really tiny dark wing-marked fly” though sadly I don’t have a photo to prove it!
Not captured by the vacuum, but captured by a photographer, was yet another very notable fly, the cranefly Idioptera linnei.

photo: John Martin

Until it was discovered at Hodnet Heath in similar Sphagnum-dominated wet habitat, the Fenns/Whixall/Wem moss NNR was its only known Shropshire location. Shropshire remains the most southerly extent of this species in Britain.
We move away from flies and on to dragonflies. Our visit was too late for White-faced Darters, but just right for our smallest dragonfly species, the Black Darter. This male is respectably living up to its name.

Whereas this is a not very black at all female.

photo: John Martin

Other Odonata included Four-spotted Chaser…

photo: Neil Nash

…and Emerald Damselfly.

photo: John Martin

A spider, Micaria pulicaria.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

We finish with Lepidoptera. Our lunch break was enlivened by yet another Clouded Yellow fly-by. It even landed briefly, but only to tease the photographers, disappearing at speed before anyone could aim a camera at it. More accommodating was this Painted Lady, which perched in a beating tray to pose for portraits.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Small Tortoiseshells have undergone a dramatic and much debated decline in recent decades, so it is always nice to see one these days.

photo: John Martin

Holly Blues seem to be having a good year.

photo: Neil Nash

And finally… no visit to the mosses would be complete without a healthy crop of Beautiful Yellow Underwing larvae, beaten from the heather. Or indeed just spotted at rest in it. 

photo: Neil Nash

But today, as our day drew to a close, a bonus: an adult, demonstrating just how appropriately they are named.

A pleasing end to a very good day, which also included sightings of Marsh Harrier, Curlew and other notable birds. Many thanks to Natural England for allowing us permission to survey this important site.

 
  
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.

Bizarre Genitalia

Before we touch down in the Shropshire Hills AONB, I have a late arrival to announce from last week’s foray into north Herefordshire. Identification work continues for some time after visits have taken place of course, and this has revealed a scarce Dolichopodid fly hiding in the catch: Rhaphium antennatum. Here he is:

photo: Nigel Jones

Wednesday 29th July 2026, Coppice Farm, Rattlinghope

 This farm, in a valley through which the Bilbatch Brook flows, is undertaking a rewilding project over part of its land. A sign to that effect, with contact details, was spotted by a member of our organising committee, contact made and now, here we were on another warm, dry day. Parking in a field, the general aim was downwards, towards the brook.

photo: Keith Fowler

The parched remains of the grass were inspected as we descended and to my slight surprise were found to have not one but three species of grasshopper bouncing about in them (approximately three more than I was expecting). From left to right they are Common Green (female), Field (male) and Meadow (female).

The brook and its adjoining wetland were reached, and activities commenced in earnest. What a diligent lot we are!

photo: Jill Key

An early find from the vacuum sampler was a Red Marsh Ladybird

Another beetle, not vacuumed, was a near-lookalike, but actually a flea beetle, Neocrepidera transversa.

photo: John Lyden

This is Cassida flaveola, one of the tortoise beetles.

Next, three photos of two micromoths. The first is Epinotia tenerama.

photo: John Martin

The next two are both Argyresthia goedartella, the Bronze Alder Moth, which exists in two very different forms.

photo: John Lyden

photo: John Lyden

A couple more of the very many finds in this area were this early instar Red Admiral larva, from the nettles

And a bug, Drymus brunneus, found lurking under a piece of bark on the ground, under the alders.

All this diligence generates an appetite. Time for lunch!

photo: John Lyden

As we ate, we were able to contemplate a fine view of the cars in which we had arrived a couple of hours previously, about 50m away. Let it not be said that we rush things… But eventually it was time to move on. Back up into the fields we climbed, then tracked the brook until we reached the next area of wetland. This route took us past a widening of the brook which formed a pond, which some people stopped to examine, while others continued towards the next destination. Patches of thistles en route attracted the now inevitable quota of Painted Ladies.

There follows a selection of images of creatures found somewhere around this part of the day, though precise times and locations are not known for all. To begin with, the cheerful sight of a Small Copper, this one on a hybrid mint, Mentha x piperita.

photo: John Martin

Sneezewort.

photo: John Martin

A pair of Kite-tailed Robberflies, in the process of making more Kite-tailed Robberflies.

A Tortoise Bug, continuing the seeming resurgence of this species this year.

photo: Neil Nash

A Blood-vein moth.

photo: Neil Nash

Two dragonflies. Firstly, a Common Darter.

photo: John Lyden

Next a very mature female Black-tailed Skimmer.

photo:Neil Nash

Our Dipterist chanced upon some prime fly habitat: a very old deer carcass (species unknown, though I spotted a Roe race across the top of the field and vault the fence some minutes earlier). Whether this produced any notable flies I can’t say, but it did reveal a handsome rove beetle, Ontholestes murinus.

Arriving at the wetland, the second tortoise beetle species of the day showed itself, this one Cassida viridis, the Green Tortoise Beetle.

photo: Liz Roberts

Altogether stranger was this sight, several feet up a tree: 

Crayfish claws, sadly but inevitably those of the pestilential alien Signal Crayfish. They had presumably been eaten by something which had hauled them up the tree to eat in safety, which is some sort of small compensation for them being there in the first place. Though if it was a Mink which had eaten them, very small compensation indeed.
We moved through the alders and into the wetland proper.

photo: Jill Key

But not before this leaf beetle had been captured, Plagiosterna aenea, a species which is associated with alders.

There seems to be a law whereby the smaller a moth is, the longer its name becomes. Which brings us to Ochsenheimeria taurella…

photo: John Martin

Moving through the vegetation, a small, open stretch of the brook appeared.

photo: Liz Roberts

Here, Golden-ringed Dragonflies were perching and patrolling. This very confiding species always allows a close approach for photos.

So confiding in fact that when Jim moved from his seat, one soon appropriated it for its own use. Comparing photos, the wing damage shows that these were two different individuals.

photo: John Martin

More crayfish remains were found.

photo: Neil Nash

Other species photographed included a sedge: Carex piulicaris.

photo: John Martin

A large Tachinid fly, Tachina fera, one of several seen in the area.

photo: John Martin

A female Long-winged Conehead. Both this and the first damp area were full of singing Roesel’s Bush-crickets, but they remained stubbornly out of sight. Coneheads were fewer in number, but proved easier to see.

This area proved to be quite rich in shieldbugs. Here is a Bishop’s Mitre.

These are Hairy Shieldbugs hatchlings, fresh out of their eggs.

A big bruiser of a bumblebee attracted attention. This is a female Bombus rupestris, the Red-tailed Cuckoo Bee, the nest parasite of Bombus lapidarius, the Red-tailed Bumblebee. Note the very dark wings, shiny cuticle and big head. She will attempt to appropriate a nest for herself, turfing out the queen and subjugating the workers to produce her own offspring.

We worked our way along the valley until the point where time was called. Turning back revealed this fine view of the area we had been working in.

photo: Keith Fowler

Back to the brook we plodded, to the territory of the Golden-ringed Dragons. A largish stone was turned over speculatively and bingo! This intimidating beast was revealed, very much alive and in still possession of all of its limbs.

photo: John Martin

Caught out in the open, it stood and threatened. I went in for a closer view.

There is a strange sort of beauty to it, especially in the blue highlighting, but what odd things these non-insects are. Just how many pairs of antennae can you possibly need? It eventually decided that retreat was in order and began moving downstream, demonstrating that crayfish are just as willing move out of the water as in it.

We boggled at this spectacle for a while and in doing so spotted another big crayfish and an absolute tiddler, before finally leaving the wetland and heading back through the fields. This is the view that greeted us as we arrived back at our starting point. A fine end to a fine day.

photo: Keith Fowler

 But wait. What of the rather provocative title of this post, I hear you ask. I’ll end as I started, with a microscope image of a dead fly. Fittingly, perhaps, whereas we started with a head and shoulders portrait, we finish at the ‘other end’ of the beast (a different beast, of a different species, found at a different site ie here). In the words of the finder “Attached are the rather bizarre genitalia of the tiny fly Meoneura neottiophila. It has spiky bits sticking out and two brushes of long fine curled hairs. All this on the end of a fly that is about 2.5mm length. Swept from the stream banks at Coppice Farm.”

photo: Nigel Jones

This is the sort of thing that we go out into the field for!! Many thanks to our host for allowing us permission to survey this interesting site.
 
  
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.