William Allport Leighton

Wednesday 25th September 2021, Longden Road Cemetery, Shrewsbury

Our visit to Longden Road Cemetery was the final survey of five churchyards that we had carried out on behalf of Caring for God’s Acre.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

The first issue that faced us as we arrived was where to park! We used the area behind the chapel but this was made more complicated by the fact that there were several cars there already. However with some smart manoeuvring and a bit of double parking, ensuring only members of the group were blocked in, we were all accommodated.

For this outing we were joined by half a dozen Friends of the cemetery who were interested in what we were up to. And looking around the site we could see other Friends busy at work clearing unwanted saplings and scything the grass. No wonder parking was a problem.

Eventually everyone was ready and we started to wander about the site to do what we normally do. Whilst most of us moved off in the same general direction our trio of lichenologists headed off in another clearly with a specific plan in mind. They were not seen again until lunchtime.

A couple of shield bugs were early discoveries.

A Hawthorn shieldbug nymph:

Photograph: David Williams

And a Sloe bug (also known as a Hairy shieldbug).

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

We spent most of the morning in the old part of the cemetery in which the vegetation is allowed to grow, with minimal intervention to keep the site from succeeding to scrub then woodland. 

It was heart warming to find signs such as this as we moved about the site.

The grass is cut, but by human endeavour rather than mechanical means.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

There were plenty of hoverflies amongst the morning’s findings. These attractive and photogenic insects are, more importantly, good pollinators.

A pair of Helophilus pendulus trying to ensure the survival of the species;

Photograph: Jim Almond

A smaller species which is very common, Platycheirus albimanus;

Photograph: Jim Almond

Another common species that can be seen all year round, Eristalis tenax;

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

Another smaller species, Syritta pipiens;

Photograph: Jim Almond

Back amongst the larger hoverflies, Myathropa florea;

Photograph: John Martin

And finally one that is new to me, Didea fasciata.

Photograph: Jim Almond

We did not spend all morning looking for hoverflies! Their attractiveness draws the camera lens towards them. There were plenty of other photogenic insects that were recorded and photographed.

A Holly blue butterfly larva beaten from holly;

Photograph: David Williams

A 2-spot ladybird;

Photograph: David Williams

And a Green shieldbug photographed from an unusual angle.

Photograph: David Williams

A ladybird was beaten from Ivy. Not one of the larger well known ones but from a group known as “inconspicuous ladybirds”. 

Why inconspicuous?

Because they are small and easy to miss compared to their larger relations. This one, Nephus quadrimaculatus, is about 2mm in length.

Photograph: David Williams

Oak trees are excellent hosts for invertebrates and spending time seeing what they harbour can be very rewarding. However most need teasing out by beating or sweeping. Galls, on the other hand can be found by just examining the branches, acorns and leaves. Here are a couple of leaves with lots of silk-button and spangle galls on their underside.

The silk-button galls (the doughnut shaped galls) are caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus numismalis and the spangle galls (the flying saucer shaped galls) are caused by a different gall wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum. 

Lunch was taken.

It is amazing how when one person in the group decides it is lunchtime it influences everyone else. No matter how dispersed we are the message seems to get to the rest by telepathy and we all gather to partake of our picnics within a few minutes.

Even the lichenologists returned from I know not where.

Where had they been?

It transpires that they had decided to look for the grave of William Allport Leighton. He was born in Shrewsbury and attended the same school as Charles Darwin. Although his junior Darwin triggered Leighton’s interest in botany. This interest led to the publication of A Flora of Shropshire in 1841. 
Leighton’s interests extended to the study of lichens which resulted in the publication of Lichen Flora of Great Britain in 1871.

Our lichenologists’ plan had been to find the grave and study any lichens that may have grown on it.

Had they found it?

No.

But they had found the grave of the local novelist and poet Mary Webb.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Over lunch we were joined by a gentleman. I missed the introduction but it appears that he was in charge of the cemetery as part of his job. He offered to check the records to find the location of the grave. 

Lunch over we continued our searching.

But before I go any further it is time for a weevil. I am not sure when this was found. It is Diplapion stolidum.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Not far from the lunch spot we found a Denticulate leatherbug.

Photograph: David Williams

This was closely followed by another of the larger hemiptera, a Bishop’s Mitre shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

A moth that is often found out and about at this time of the year is the distinctively marked Angle shades.

Photograph: Jim Almond

We came across a Rhododendron and there were several planthoppers, Graphocephala fennahi, sunning themselves on the leaves.

Photograph: Jim Almond

This is one of our largest and probably the most garish of our planthoppers. The adults and nymphs both feed on the sap of Rhododendron. Considering the amount of this plant there is in the countryside it is surprising that we do not find it more often than we do.

A harvestman was found, Opilio canestrinii.

Photograph: David Williams

Closer inspection reveals another insect hanging on to one of the harvestman’s legs. It is a pseudoscorpion which often move around by hitching a lift off another invertebrate. This pseudoscorpion is the species Pselaphochernes dubius.

Other finds during our post-lunch wanderings were:

An Ectemnius wasp, possibly Ectemnius continuus;

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

A Southern hawker dragonfly;

Photograph: Jim Almond

An Ivy bee;

Photograph: Jim Almond

And a Field grasshopper.

Photograph: Jim Almond

It was nearing time to go home and a straight path back to where we had parked the cars lay ahead.

We took it - but with a little deviation.

Two of our lichenologists had already taken their leave but one remained.

We knew he had not sneaked off as his car was still there, but where was he?

A search party of one was sent out.

No sooner was the searcher out of sight than our “lost” lichenologist came into view (shortly followed by the searcher, thankfully).

Where had he been?

It turned out that the gentleman in charge of the cemetery had returned and told him where the grave of Mr Leighton was located. He went to find it.

And he did find it.

There was, disappointingly, no lichen on the grave and it had become overgrown by the vegetation.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

I am not sure if the deceased would have been pleased that vegetation had sprung up all round his grave or disappointed by the lack of lichens.

My thanks to Caring for God’s Acre for arranging the outing and the Friends for joining us on the day. My immense gratitude to the photographers for allowing me to use their photographs to illuminate the text.

Keep well.

Spoilt surveyors

Wednesday 8th September 2021 - Pasford Farm

Pasford Farm is an arable farm on the Shropshire-Staffordshire border just south of Patshull Park. Part of the farm is a long grassland valley that snakes north to south, mostly along the county boundary. The southern end of the valley is very damp and a large pool was dug last year creating a wetland habitat. 

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Our arrival on a gloriously cloudless, hot day was greeted by early “elevenses” of drinks and biscuits. It seemed a shame not to accept this hospitality.

During this time we admired a fungus, Boletus radicatus, that had been found near by.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Following a brief introduction to the farm we were all set to get underway when my telephone rang …

Strange, everybody who said they were coming was there, so who was it?

It was a neighbour.

“Your burglar alarm has gone off!”

“OK, thanks for letting me know”.

There is little point in having an alarm if you do not check it when it is set off, so back home I went.

Only, it was not quite that simple. I had been given a lift to the farm which meant that the driver had to take me.

Anyway, I returned home, spoke to the neighbour. Relieved as it was clear that the house had not been broken into I checked the alarm, which showed the room in which it had been triggered. Checking it out there was nothing obvious in the room that could have caused the alarm to go off except a spider that had built its web in front of the sensor. I have no idea if this was the real cause of the alarm but it was removed.

We arrived back at the farm to be offered a drink and a lift to where the others were doing their thing. Both were accepted and we eventually joined our colleagues at the pond, perilously close to lunchtime.

Photograph: David Williams

We spent the rest of the morning in the vicinity of the pond, being amazed at how quickly the new pool had naturalised and what a good assemblage of invertebrates it and its surrounding vegetation supported. In all we found nine species of damsel and dragonflies, including:

A pair of Common darters;

Photograph: David Williams

And Ruddy darter.

Photograph: John Martin

Other finds of interest in the area that were photographed were:

A spider, Araneus diadematus;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A micro-moth, Argyresthia geodartella;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Yellow-tail moth larva;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a weevil, Hadroplantus litura.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

It was now time for lunch and our host arrived bearing a table, cloth, cold drinks and more biscuits. It would have been a shame not to accept this hospitality. 

What a wonderful sight. And a delightful spot to enjoy our break. 

Photograph: Stepjen Mitchell

At long last lunch came to an end and we continued to look a while longer in the area around the pool before drifting away up the valley into the grassland. A find in the grassland near to the pool was a Tortoise shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

Tortoise shieldbugs are a recent arrival in the county. The earliest record was in 2009 when it was spotted at Dudmaston. For the next few years they were only found in the Wyre Forest. But in 2014  one turned up in the opposite corner of the county at Dolgoch Quarry. In 2017 one was found in Telford and another was seen at Cramer Gutter. Since then they have been found regularly in several other sites around the county.

An exciting find was a Lesser marsh grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

It is believed that this is only the third sighting of this grasshopper in the county where its presence is a result of natural colonisation. It has also been found on a few brownfield sites in Telford but it is thought to have been imported with vegetation used to aid the return of these sites to a “greener” state. Worth another photograph!

Photograph: John Martin

The heat was rapidly sapping our energy but, with encouragement, we moved on up the valley exploring the grassland. Here are some of the insects we encountered:

Slender ground hopper;

Photograph: David Williams

A fly, Erothrix rufomaculata;

Photograph: John Martin

A robber fly, probably Dioctria atricapilla;

Photograph: John Martin

A hoverfly, Eristalis horticola;

Photograph: John Martin

And a Dock bug.

Photograph: David Williams

At some stage during the day, I know not when as the photograph was not timestamped, these objects were spotted on an oak leaf.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

They look like eggs and as there is a multiple of seven then quite possibly shieldbug eggs. (Please do not ask me why they lay clutches in multiples of seven.) The photographer’s best guess was Forest bug eggs. I sent the photograph to someone who knows far more about shieldbug eggs than I do and confirmation that they were Forest bug eggs was duly received.

Amongst the millions seed heads of the grass in the grassland someone spotted some unusual growths.

Photograph: David Williams

These looked like galls and checking the key to galls it suggested they were an ergot Claviceps purpurea.

The unrelenting heat and the increasing lethargy it was causing brought an end to the day. We wandered back to the farmhouse from which we had set off, pausing to look at the bee activity on a sandy bank where an Ivy bee had been spotted earlier in the day, and arrived to find afternoon tea waiting for us.

Obviously it would have been shame not to accept this hospitality.

Thoroughly spoilt, we returned home after an exhausting but excellent day on a wonderful site.

My thanks to our hosts for inviting us to visit their farm and looking after us so well. We wish them all the best as they allow their site to develop and we look forward to returning. My gratitude as always to the photographers for providing the material that illustrates this piece.

Other items.

More exciting news from a garden in Church Stretton.

Our correspondent from this area has sent me photographs of this moth that turned up in his moth trap earlier in the month.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

And its underside.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

It is a Clifden nonpareil. Goodness knows how it acquired that name, but, I assume, it means something to somebody somewhere. It is, I believe, also known as a Blue underwing, which makes much more sense as it neatly describes the moth. It is a rare immigrant from Continental Europe.

More mundanely, our spiderman was kept awake by an insect clattering around during the night. On giving up trying to put up with the noise he switched on the light and found the culprit, an adult Forest bug. Rather than catch it and put it outside he decided to find his camera and photograph it!

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

The day before visiting Pasford Farm four of us ventured onto the Somerset Levels with a local guide.

Why did we want to go there?

To see Large marsh grasshopper, a rare species which has an outlier colony in the area (they are normally found in east Dorset and the New Forest).

We were taken to Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve where, after a short walk, we located males and females close to the path we were on.

As you can see from the photograph the male is quite a colourful insect with its black knees and red underside to the femora of its hind legs. Its call is quite a loud tick which even I could hear.

A female on the path generated quite a lot of photographic interest.

And to finish with a touch of colour, a Brimstone butterfly that insisted on feeding about a foot in front of where I stood. I had no choice but to photograph it!

That’s all for this report.

Keep well.