A Sting in the Tale (or not?)

Sunday, 5th July 2020

This report includes two unusual sightings, the first in Coalbrookdale, the second in Church Stretton.

Starting with this which was, according to my informant, seen on a bird feeder in Coalbrookdale:

Photograph: Les Hughes

An Andean condor!

As my informant tells me it is very good at keeping the squirrels away!

A very tall story.

Now for a far more believable but very unusual sighting in Church Stretton. I let the people involved, Graham Wenman and Mike Shurmer tell their story.

It is the middle of summer, the sun is shining and you are sitting on the lawn reading your latest e-book from the library on your phone when a Hornet lands next to you. 

What do you do? 

1. Try to remember where the epi-pen is. 

2. Squash it on the arm of the chair with your phone. 

3. Turn on your phone camera and take its picture?

Well, it was almost like that: Catherine and I were sitting on the lawn, with Mike and Jo (socially distancing of course), who had called in to help us put the world right in these difficult times!

And indeed, Jo suddenly announced that a Hornet had just landed on the small willow tree behind me.  “It’s a funny looking hornet” said Mike and picked up a pot and popped the beast into it.

What I have not explained is that Mike is the County Micro-moth Recorder and I am the Assistant Recorder and we were (as usual) discussing moths – hence the handy pot. And possibly of more interest is the fact that neither of us “experts” had noticed it! 

But now, with the “beast” in the pot it was identification time and yes, it was a “hornet”, but it was a “Lunar Hornet Moth” – Sesia bembeciformis – being quite harmless. It is also a wonderful example of Batesian mimicry, a form of mimicry described by English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, where a harmless species has evolved to imitate a more dangerous species, thus deterring potential preditors.

So the epi-pen was not needed!

So what? Well, here are a few statistics and a few facts. This was only the 20th record ever for this moth in Shropshire and only the third this century. It was also only the 4th ever record for Church Stretton. The other 3 records were in 1901, 1908 (F.B. Newnham) and 1938 (H.G. Burkhill) – maybe your relations? The last record for Shropshire was 4 years ago at Oswestry.

So squashing it would have been a very bad move

The female moth lays her eggs on Goat Willow and Common Osier trees (and some sallows) which are at least 6 cm. in diameter and the larva (caterpillar) eats the wood and remains there for up to 2 years before becoming an adult moth.  It makes one wonder how this moth can find a mate in order to ensure the survival of the species.

So taking a photo was a very good idea – as you can see:

Photograph: Graham Wenman

My thanks to Graham and Mike for providing this tale and the photograph.

As I have nothing else to tell you about I will finish with a few photographs that I have accumulated over the past week. As always, my thanks to the photographers for allowing me to use them.

To start, a pupa:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

It started to wriggle so Nigel kept an eye on it and out popped a Large white butterfly.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Just to make up for taking such an interest in something that did not have eight legs he also provided this photograph of the spider Metellina merianae.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a couple of days later another of our eight-legged friends, Pseudeuophrys lanigera.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

This was followed by another eight legs, but this time on two animals (four legs each) discovered in his garden - Newts.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Next a moth from my moth trap, a Spruce carpet.

On Thursday I visited Jinlye Meadows to look for the bilberry bumblebee, Bombus monticola. I was accompanied (socially distanced) by Debbie Vivers whose Bumblebees on the Long Mynd has unfortunately, been effectively scuppered by the virus preventing many of the planned activities. However she has ploughed on as best she could and invited me to take a look at the meadow. 

I did not find the target bee but Debbie did. The weather was awful so no photograph. However before the rains started I did manage to spot a Six-spot burnet.

Finally, in my last report I included a photograph of the assassin bug Reduvius personatus that turned up in a moth trap. Well like buses a second one turned up, also in a moth trap, a day or so later (and half a county away from the first).

Photograph: John Martin

That's all folks.

Keep well.