Beetlemania

 Saturday, 5th June 2021

The second outing of the Joy of Wildlife programme was to the grounds of Millichope Hall which is situated about 10 miles from Much Wenlock along the road to Craven Arms.

Photograph: John Sweetland

A brilliant turnout of entomologists and allies came along to this event - nineteen - possibly a record for the group. 

The covid regulations on car sharing meant that most turned up in their own cars. Fortunately we were parking in a field so there was plenty of room for everyone.

Whilst we waited for everyone to arrive a casual beat of a Scot's pine revealed a Cream-streaked ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

And a Large pine aphid, Cinara pinea.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Across the fence from the "car park" field was a meadow and a stream.

Photograph: David Williams

As you can see from the above the stream has been massaged into a water feature with a small bridge and a series of small falls from a feeder pool well out of view.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

By one of the falls a patch of Marsh marigolds was flourishing.

With so many attendees it was impractical to expect us to progress around such a large site as a group and a number of breakaway groups went their own way to look at and for things that interested them. A core of about 10 stuck loosely together.

Species of interest to report from the "breakaway" groups are:

Heath milkwort

Photograph: Rob Rowe

A jewel wasp, so called due to their shiny red and blue colouration. This one is probably Chrysis angustula.

Photograph: Neil Nash

And finally a larva, found under a log, that caused a lot of head-scratching to identify ...

Photograph: Neil Nash

Help was sought from the internet and eventually it was suggested that this is the larva of a soldier fly, Sargus bipunctatus, known in Roman military circles as a Twin-spot centurion - don't ask me why.

Back to the main group.

A great deal of interest was taken in the area around the stream and a wet flush that joined it. Indeed - too close an interest in one case where a slip of the foot caused one wellington boot to get stuck in the mud and its occupant having no choice but to take an early bath.

A sweep of the grassland in this area revealed another star ladybird - an 18-spot. This was a surprise as it is normally found in Scot's pine.

Photograph: David Williams

From the wet area we moved across the meadow to a patch of rougher vegetation. Here we found a 7-spot ladybird.

Photograph: John Sweetland

And for the second week running we found Crucifer shieldbugs doing what comes naturally after having a hard time overwintering.

Photograph: David Williams

As I was devoting my attention over the shieldbugs a tree that had suffered a catastrophic accident in the past was attracting a crowd.

Photograph: John Sweetland

I never did find out what was causing the fuss, but it was short-lived as attention was drawn to a dead tree near by.

Someone has found something of interest ...

No-one apart from the finder is convinced ...

There is no alternative but to go and get it ...

Triumphant a "fungus" is given to our fungus guru ...

"Mmmm" he is heard to utter.

Meanwhile a pair of spiders is spotted fighting over lunch.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Taking our cue from the duelling spiders we take our lunch around the nearby "temple".

Which overlooks the pool in front of the hall.

We are joined by the county beetle recorder. 

I freely admit (to anyone who asks) that one of the group's weaknesses is its inability to identify beetles, other than the easy ones like ladybirds. So when we have a beetle expert in our midst we have to take advantage of the situation.

Never have we found so many beetles and got answers to "What's this?".

Wonderful.

Here are some more beetles from our collection for the day.

Onthophagus coenobita

Photograph: Jim Almond

Red-headed cardinal beetle

Photograph: David Williams

Ischnomera sanguinicollis, which is Nationally Scarce.

Photograph: David Williams

A Harlequin ladybird that is almost completely black

Photograph: David Williams

And finally the same species but in one of its more common colour variations.

Phototograph: John Sweetland

We pressed on.

Past a mysterious bridge.

To more grassland

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And more water, with a strange pair of monoliths (a duolith?) staring back at us. One of which is pictured below.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

When out surveying sometimes you have to admit defeat. Was this brown knobbly tube animal. vegetable or mineral. Without wading into the water to get a closer look we will never know.

Photograph: John Sweetland

But to restore your faith in our abilities here are a couple of insects we could identify.

Andrena cineraria

Photograph: John Sweetland

Rhingia campestris (the insect not the bud)

Photograph: John Sweetland

It was nearly time to go.

We made our way back to the cars. Not by a direct route but by a rather circuitous march that took us further away from the cars initially as we arched around the back of the house via the odd ancient tree to the field where we started.

Off home we went, leaving the residents to wonder what all the excitement was about.

My thanks to the Millichope estate for giving us permission to visit and Nigel Jones for arranging the outing. As always my thanks to the photographers for providing the photographs of a wide range of subjects that enable me to liven up these reports. And finally my thanks to the attendees for their time and knowledge.

Bioslog update

Neil's epic quest is nearing 750 species. The most species of any group are the birds of which he has recorded 123 species, but the number of invertebrates is rising rapidly.

A couple of recent finds are:

Agapanta villosoviridescens

Photograph: Neil Nash

Nicrophorus humator

Photograph: Neil Nash

That's it for today.

Take care.