Snakefly surprises

Wednesday 5th June 2024, High Leasowes 

High Leasowes is a collection of grasslands lying at the foot of Caer Caradoc and Helmeth Wood, just east of the A49 as it enters Church Stretton from the direction of Shrewsbury. It borders Coppice Leasowes Nature Reserve which is a woodland and grassland.

In 2022 in local residents in association with the Middle Marches Community Land Trust raised £400,000 in just 8 days to purchase this site. Their aim is to “create a patchwork of rich habitats that provides shelter, nesting and feeding opportunities for a great variety of wildlife, where there is space for people to walk and enjoy the area and for the community to participate in its care.” (https://middlemarchescommunitylandtrust.org.uk/high-leasowes/)

We had a magnificent turnout for this event with a couple of new people joining us.

There is a short walk from where we parked to the entrance of the site. The hedgerow accompanying this stroll became the first area to receive our attention.

As we entered the site one of the group was telling us about an encounter with a snakefly in her garden. These are enigmatic insects with an elongate pronotum which, with imagination, give the appearance of a snake. I had seen three of these before in the last 12 years or so. As it happened, I was with a group the previous weekend that found another.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure then when I was shown a snakefly found on the site by one of the attendees. It was identified later, from the photographs taken, as Atlantoraphidia maculicollis.

Photograph: David Williams

What a start to the day!

The site now consists of 4 meadows. There were three but a new hedgerow has been planted to split the largest one into two. 

Here is the first grassland, with Caer Caradoc in the background.

In the corner of this grassland there is an extensive area of scrub.

We spent most of the morning in these areas, where the snakefly was found, then moved on to the second.

In the second meadow a handy bench provided an ideal spot for lunch. The group, which was quite widely spread, somehow sensed the mood and converged on the spot. Who needs a gong or a whistle!?

After lunch we made our way gently around the rest of the site eventually returning the first grassland before making our way home.

It was a day of two halves. The morning was cool and it proved difficult to find species as they stayed sheltered. In the afternoon it was much warmer and there were more invertebrates out and about.

 

However, there was a worrying lack of abundance of a lot of the common species and very few butterflies. I do not think this reflected the quality of the site as I have noticed this lack of abundance on several other sites including some where I have seen good numbers before.

I seem to have reached the end of the report with very few photographs.

Do not fret.

For this report I decided to get the words out of the way first.

Here are the photographs, roughly in the order that they were taken as we progressed.

A robberfly, Leptogaster cylindrica.

Photograph: John Martin

A click beetle, Athous haemorrhoidalis.

Photograph: John Baines

A moth larva, Coleophora discordella, one of a number of species whose larvae wrap themselves in bits of vegetation for protection.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

Cercopis vulnerata. (A personal triumph for me as it is the first of these fairly common and distinctive insects that I have found this year.)

A sawfly that has been identified tentatively as Tenthredo notha.

Photograph: John Bains

A hoverfly, Eristalis pertinax.

Photograph: John Baines

A caddis fly, Limniphilus lunatus, known as a Cinnamon sedge.

Photograph: John Baines

The second meadow. The area towards the top right of the photograph with the large tree is a small quarry.

Another hoverfly, Volucella pellucens.

Photograph: John Baines

A Garden chafer.

Photograph: David Williams

A third hoverfly, Merodon equestris.

Photograph: John Martin

A weevil, Deporaus betulae. This is know as the Birch leaf roller. If you look closely at the photograph you can see the adult insect has started to cut the leaf. This will continue and the cut leaf rolled to form a cone into which an egg is laid.

Photograph: Caroline Uff

A bee, probably Andrena haemorrhoa.

Photograph: John Baines

A Cream-spot ladybird.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

A female Broad-bodied chaser.

Photograph: David Williams

A beetle that was seen throughout the site, Dascillus cervinus, known as the Orchid beetle.

Photograph: John Martin

A micro-moth, Celypha lacunana.

Photograph: John Martin

A couple of Small tortoiseshell larvae.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

By now we had returned to the top of the first grassland. Here it is looking towards Hazler and Ragleth Hills.

A small longhorn beetle, Grammoptera ruficornis.

Photograph: John Martin

A distinctive black and yellow mirid bug with a ludicrously long name, Dryophilocoris flavomaculatus.

A mining bee, Andrena cineraria, Ashy mining bee.

Another star find, a Bilberry bumblebee. This is a worker. Although associated with Bilberry and other plants in upland habitats, they can be found foraging in neighbouring lowland areas.

Photograph: David Williams

A micro-moth, Ptycholoma lecheana.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

And finally, another micro-moth, Elachista albifrontella.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

Despite the low numbers we saw a good range of species over the day.

Other news

A trip to Cranwich Heath in The Brecks near Thetford came across the following species:

A spectacular moth, a Cream-spot tiger;

Photograph: David Williams

Emperor moth larvae;

Photograph: David Williams

A Rhombic leatherbug, a species not yet found in Shropshire;

Photograph: David Williams

A further moth, a Clouded buff;

Photograph: David Williams

A Small blue;

Photograph: David Williams

A female Ant’s nest ladybird, Platynaspis luteorubra;

Photograph: David Williams

A male of the same species;

Photograph: David Williams

And a Black ladybird, Scymnus nigrinus.

Photograph: David Williams

Nearer to home this photographer found a Pale tussock moth in his garden.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Switching to the south-west of the county and beyond this photographer found these:

At the school where he teaches, found in Mistletoe, a colourful mistletoe specialist Pinalitus viscicola;

Photograph: John Lyden

A moth, Anania fuscalis, Cinerous Pearl, in his meadow;

Photograph: John Lyden

And to round this report off nicely, ANOTHER SNAKEFLY!!!, the same species as the one mentioned earlier, Atlantoraphidia maculicollis, in his garden.

Photograph: John Lyden

My thanks to the High Leasowes Management Committee for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.