A dock bug in a pine tree

Wednesday 21st September 2022, St. Mary, Caynham and St. Mary the Virgin, Bromfield

The Joy of Wildlife programme listed this outing as a visit to St. Mary’s Church in Caynham, but Caring for God’s Acre suggested that we might, in addition, like to visit the St. Mary the Virgin’s Church at Bromfield. 

The visit to the church in Caynham attracted one of our larger gatherings of the year. And so keen was everyone that we were parked, booted, kitted up and ready to go by the meet time. A very rare occurrence!

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Having taken this photograph of the church using his very long tripod, the photographer swivelled his camera around to take a photograph of the countryside between the church and a distant Titterstone Clee.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Returning to ground level here is the church as the rest of us saw it.

The church dates from the twelfth century but the nave and chancel were rebuilt in the 19th century retaining some of the earlier features. The cross standing in front of the church dates from the 14th century.

Unfortunately our arrival coincided with that of a huge tractor with hedge trimming equipment that proceeded to butcher cut the hedge for the next 60 minutes or so.

The churchyard was a mixture of grassland and various species of tree. Unfortunately the majority of the grass had been cut, but there were some more "neglected" areas around the church and gravestones.

Here are some of the insects we found:

A Box bug nymph;

Photograph: David Williams

A ground beetle, Leistus spinibarbis which has been granted the rather quirky “common name” Prussian plate-jaw;

Photograph: David Williams

A tiny Dot ladybird;

Photograph: David Williams

A Ruby tiger moth larva;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A longhorn beetle, Pogonocherus hispidus;

And a larva of the Brimstone moth.

Photograph: David Williams

Whilst we were there the day was fairly sunny and warm. We took full advantage of this as we camped out by the church wall and partook of lunch.

Unfortunately as lunch progressed the clouds built up and the sun disappeared, although it remained pleasantly warm and stayed dry.

Lunch over it was time to move on to our second church for the day, St Mary the Virgin, at Bromfield.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

The origins of this church can be traced back to pre-Norman times. It was rebuilt in the 12th century and the tower added in the 13th.

After the dissolution of the monasteries parts of the church were incorporated into a private residence. 

The house was damaged by fire in the 17th century, but some remains of the property can still be found.

The church was restored in the 19th century.

In its earliest days the church was associated with a priory. There did not seem to be any evidence of the priory now other than the gatehouse which sits at the corner of the churchyard.

However we were not there for a history lesson, interesting though it is, we were there to look around the churchyard.

Photograph: David Williams

It was mainly grassland with trees being confined to the edges. Most of the grass was of medium length, but some areas of longer grass that remained uncut. There was only a small area that had been cut short.

At the rear of the church there was an avenue of yews. However it was rather dark and dingy so I was not tempted to take a look at where it led.

Did we find anything, you may be wondering?

Well, yes.

And here are some of the beasts we found:

A spider, Nigma walkenaeri;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A gall on yew caused by the gall midge Taxomyia taxi;

Photograph: John Lyden

Another moth larva, this time a Scarlet tiger (with an attendant 16-spot ladybird);

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Bishop’s Mitre, perhaps an appropriate insect for a churchyard;

Photograph: David Williams

And a sawfly larva munching its way through a leaf.

Photograph: John Lyden

The sawfly is Apoceros leucopoda and is known as the Zig-zag sawfly, and seeing the pattern created by its feeding it is easy to see why.

Time to go home after an enjoyable day at these two churches.

I feel as though I have forgotten something …

I have forgotten something …

The title!

I have not said anything about a Dock bug, so what has it to do with the visits.

It is a quote from one of the group who uttered it to me after he had found a Dock bug in a Pine tree at St. Mary, Caynham. 

As we drove home, the rhythm of “A Dock bug in a Pine tree” brought the “Twelve Days of Christmas” to mind. Can this quote become the start of a “Twelve Days of Joy of Wildlife” set to the same tune?

Two other lines came to mind immediately:

“3 Vacs a-vaccing”

“5 Madely Pit Mounds” (OK that does not have quite the same rhythm as the original but it is close enough.)

Can you supply any more?

My thanks to Caring for God’s Acre for arranging the visits and to the photographers for providing their excellent and varied images that illustrate the report.

I’m leaning on the gate post

Wednesday 14th September 2022, Tankerville SWT reserve

I’m leaning on the gate post waiting for ten entomologists to pass me by.

Oh me, oh my, I hope the entomologists will come by.

(With apologies to the songwriter Noel Gay.)

Photograph; Bob Kemp

This trip was to the recently acquired Shropshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Tankerville. The site is very close to Pennerley Permaculture where we visited a few weeks earlier. It is a hundred yards or so from that site, across the Stiperstones to Pennerley road, but up the hill. The hill being the Stiperstones!

We parked in the same spot as the previous visit. And we were met by one of the owners of Pennerley Permaculture who returned an item we had left behind when we visited.

It was a bit of a walk to the site. Firstly down the road, then gently up through Bergam Wood, which has recently been clear-felled, to, eventually, the gate of the site.

To encourage the group onto the site I assumed my mental blinkers and pressed on to reach the gate.

Once through I decided to hold it open whilst the rest of the group filed past.

Unfortunately only about a half passed by in the first few minutes.

What was keeping the others?

I admired the view for a while.

After a while, waiting and wondering, I peered back to where we had come from. I could see the rest staring intently at ... I knew not what.

What was holding their attention?

This was one cause.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A communal group of sawfly larvae chomping their way through a willow leaf. The larvae were identified later as Euura pavida. 

(The photograph was taken later in the day as we made our way back to the cars.)

The other big attraction was captured by this photograph.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

An enormous aggregation of the fly Sepsis fulgens. 

Research by the County Recorder has found an article suggesting that the swarms are a gathering prior to hibernation. The article also suggests that the flies lay a scent on the chosen spot; this firstly attracts other wandering sepsid flies to join the swarm, and, in spring, after emrging from hibernation, brings them back to the same area to facilitate the sexes meeting and mating.

Eventually all the other entomologists had passed me by and I was able to stop leaning.

An early find was a Sloe bug, which was wandering around a camera trying to find out how to take a selfie. I saved it the trouble.

A longhorn beetle, Pogonocherus hispidus, was dislodged from an ash.

Photograph: David Williams

The path followed the lower boundary of the site. For the most part the rest of the site was guarded by impenetrable vegetation. We decided that the best way to get to the upper grasslands was to follow the path to the far end of the site where the vegetation became more open and provided easier access to the top of the site.

Following the path and observing as we went we came across a strikingly coloured beetle, Platycis minutus.

Photograph: David Williams

Reaching the end of the path there was no alternative but to start the ascent.

The first objective was to reach a small area of spoil below a mine shaft. 

(Do not worry the shaft was fenced off.)

This became the location for lunch.

Whilst taking in refreshments we were entertained by Mottled grasshoppers.

Photograph: David Williams

Lunch over most of us continued the ascent up the hill.

We came across a Laburnum in a group of trees at the edge of a small patch of woodland. I looked for and failed to find the psyllid that inhabits this species of tree, Floria variegata.

However others, scouring the leaves, were more successful and found a leaf-mine caused by the larva of the fly Phytomyza cytisi.

Photograph: John Lyden

Whilst some progressed through the trees and scrambled to the higher slopes, a few of us decided, after a little thought, to take a more gentle route by leaving the site and using a bridle path that passed nearby to get to the top. (We had been told there was a gate at the top that provided access from this path!)

The climb was worthwhile. The top of the reserve provided a panoramic view of the land to the north and west of the site.

Here the grassland, kept short by grazing, was punctuated by gorse and hawthorn bushes with some bracken, before dropping down to a patch of woodland.

A Ruby tiger moth larva was found and photographed.

Photograph: David Williams

An old boundary was marked by a few larger trees. One of these was a Rowan. Tapping its lower branches and leaves revealed another longhorn beetle, Pogonocherus hispidulus.

Photograph: David Williams

If you think it looks like the one we found earlier, the similarly named Pogonocherus hispidus you would not be wrong. They are very similar in appearance as well as name.

Their distinguishing features are:

The scutellum. In hispidus it is all black; in hispidulus it is black with a central white stripe.

The trailing edge of the elytra. In hispidus there are two small points; in hispidulus there are four.

I have stitched the two photographs together, side by side, and annotated them to show these differences.

From photographs by David Williams

Time for afternoon tea and a chat …

Before beginning our descent from our lofty position. 

I was quite happy to go back the way we had come, picking up any stragglers (i.e. those who had resisted the climb) on the way. However I was persuaded to take the shorter and not too difficult route down.

To pick up anyone we may miss by going this way I tipped my hat to modern technology and used a mobile phone to call them and arrange a rendezvous.

After a fairly uneventful walk down through grassland which passed between gorse thickets and bracken we regained the path not too far from the entrance gate.

A Comma was spotted which promptly flew off across the fence to land on a tree just beyond.

A more leisurely pace was set for the walk back through Bergam Wood to the cars to allow the group to see what most of them had missed on the way to the site.

Additional finds included:

A bee, Halticus rubicundus;

Photograph: Nigel Jones

An assassin bug, Empicoris vagabundus;

Photograph: Nigel Jones

And a case-bearing moth larva, possibly a species of Dahlica.

Photograph: David Williams

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for inviting us to do what we enjoy doing and to the photographers for providing their wonderful images that illustrate the report.

Restored

Wednesday 7th September 2022, Stoney Field, New Invention

This outing took us back to Stoney Field at New Invention. This is a large, recently purchased field being nurtured for the benefit of wildlife. Information about the field and the aims of the owners can be found by following this link We bought a field.

The first thing that we noticed on arrival was that the barn which was in the early stages of restoration on our last visit:

Had now been restored to its former glory.

An excellent job.

And, as I shall relate, it was very welcoming during our visit.

We parked on site on the edge of the two tumps.

The site’s main meadow had been cut for hay but the tumps and other areas had been left.

Our searches started in the wetland area as we spent least time there on our last visit.

Early finds in this area was a Blue shieldbug;

Photograph: David Williams

And a striking (in colour pattern, not its activity) rhopalid bug, Corizus hyoscyami was spotted.

Photograph: David Williams

The group became dispersed along the length of the wetland but soon a ripple circulated that a Black darter had been spotted. This caused a bit of a regathering as members came to take a look and try to photograph it.

Photograph: John Martin

Unable to get a photograph myself I retired to the drier part of the wetland to see what I could find there and amongst the vegetation bordering the wetter area.

My speculative sweeps and beats succeeded in netting a monster spider.

Araneus quadratus. It was huge. Presumably a female full of eggs getting ready for laying.

Pitter-patter …

No, not the sound of the spider lumbering around my tray …

Pitter-patter – splash …

But the sound of rain striking the tray.

We beat a hasty retreat to the welcoming barn.

Fortunately, the rain did not last long.

However, by the time it had stopped it was approaching the time when thoughts turn to food.

But it was just too early!

We returned to the wetland to continue our searching.

I am not sure when the following three insects were found but, for the sake of the narrative, I will pretend that they were found in this period!

A tortoise beetle, Cassida flaveola;

Photograph: David Williams

A weevil, Larinus carlinae;

Photograph: Neil Nash

And a tiny wingless wasp with a red abdomen, Callitula pyrrhogaster.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

By now it really was time for lunch. We returned to the barn where our hosts had very kindly placed some chairs and a bench for us to use. Luxury!

Lunch over we ventured out again. It was sunny, but threatening clouds were massing.

A common darter was spotted perched on a log.

Some of us drifted towards a small pool that was considerably smaller than it should be due to the extremely dry conditions we had experienced recently.

Here we observed a Southern hawker ovipositing, and were able to photograph an Emerald damselfly undertaking the same activity.

Photograph: John Martin

At the base of some of the stalks of the pool’s vegetation, close to where they emerged from the water, we noticed several flies. Each fly occupied one stalk and rested face down. They were all the same species, a snail-killing fly, Sepedon sphegea, 

By now the sun had been hidden away behind very dark clouds. Then the thunder started. No rain, just thunder. After the second or third clap, we headed, as swiftly as we could, back to the barn. 

Although most of us did not quite make it to the barn before the rain started, we did not get too wet. 

As we sat, watching the torrent of water pour from the sky and waiting for it to stop, we realised someone was missing.

Eventually he turned up, rather wet!

He had tried taking shelter under a hedge when the downpour started.

The rain eased …

Then it stopped.

We ventured out once more.

Unfortunately time quickly caught up with us and we had to bring the visit to a close.

Our host offered us tea and cake. I was unable to stay so I asked one of the group to take a photograph to show what I had missed.

Photograph: John Martin

Looks delicious!

Before I finish, after a short break, the Wednesday Weevil of the Week makes a welcome return. On this occasion it is Pelenomus quadritubergulus.

Photograph: Emm Cane-Honeysett

My thanks to the owners of the site for inviting us to do what we enjoy doing and their hospitality. My gratitude to the photographers for providing their wonderful images that illustrate the report.