Telford’s best heathland

Wednesday 21st August, Langley Fields, Telford

Langley Fields is a large spoil heap between Town Park and Dawley in Telford. Don't be fooled by the "Fields"

Over the years it has been allowed to naturalise and has been known as Telford’s best example of a heathland.

When I first came to Telford in 1981 I worked in a collection of Portacabins on the edge of the area. Little did I know or find out about this site at that time. I used to take an occasional lunchtime walk around and about, but, to me, it was just somewhere convenient to place some temporary office accommodation. 

Over the years it has survived various threats and continued to develop naturally with some periodic human intervention, the latest being work carried out by Buglife as part of their B-Lines project.

 

Recently Telford and Wrekin Council declared the site as a Local Nature Reserve.

The intention was to park the cars on the side of the road by an entrance to the site, just beyond the new school and sport’s centre that occupies (approximately) the area where the portacabins were in 1981.

However, a local resident complained and told us to park on the generously wide pavement. Parking on the pavement seemed wrong, but we did as we were asked. I am not sure what happens during school terms when parents accumulate along this road to collect their children.

Parking sorted and kitted out and ready to go we entered the site.

An early find was a Long-winged conehead.

Photograph: David Williams

The following photograph was taken much later in the day but I am including it now as it is a good example of the type of habitat in which we spent our time exploring.

One insect associated with heather is the Heather ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

Despite the amount of heather found in Shropshire the Heather ladybird is quite elusive and rarely found.

A more unwelcome insect of heather is Heather beetle.

Photograph: John Martin

Unfortunately, we did not find a Heather shieldbug.

Due to a number of reasons, which are incredibly boring to relate, we were soon spread out. Whilst some of us concentrated on the heathery habitat and the trees found in it, others went off to explore one of the pools. 

Here are some of the insects that were found on and around the pool.

A couple of Common pondskater nymphs.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

An emerald damselfly.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A Common darter.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Those of us staying on the drier land came across a micro-ladybird, Scymnus suturalis.

Photograph: David Williams

A rather elaborately haired Pale tussock moth larva.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

An Oak bush cricket passing the time of day in an Oak tree.

An ichneumon wasp which may be an Amblyteles armatorius.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A very hairy beetle, Lagria hirta.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a lacebug, Tingis ampliata, that is associated with Creeping thistle.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Remarkably it was lunchtime. Time flies when you are enjoying yourself!

And equally remarkably everyone regrouped in this area.

Langley Fields has a lot of bare areas. These are kept clear by constant use and, I suspect, by various two-wheeled (and maybe more) activities taking place on the site. Whilst this may be frowned on in an area reserved for “nature” it is actually serving a useful purpose.

We had lunch.

Lunch over we did a bit more searching around the edge of this large bare patch before drifting off slowly to the far, northeastern corner of the site.

More Heather ladybirds were found together with Pine ladybirds. One of each was photographed with an innocent bystander trapped between them, which was a tiny springtail, Entomobrya nivalis.

Photograph: David Williams

Whilst considering tiny things we noticed a Gorse bush covered in silk with a host of minute Gorse mites in close attendance.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

There was quite a lot of Ragwort on the site and after much looking we eventually found a Cinnabar moth larva.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And on one of the Ragwort flowers we found what looked like a gall.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

This structure is caused by the fly, Botanophila seneciella. It is not a gall, but froth created by the fly larva that that has dried around a bunch of the florets protruding above the rest.

I heard a grasshopper.

A bit of a surprise as, in my advanced years, I cannot usually hear them.

The long burst of clicking, with help of a wonderful new field guide, informed me it was a Common green grasshopper.

It turns out that I did not hear any of the other grasshoppers and crickets on the site. Here are some of them.

A Mottled grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

A Roesel’s bush cricket.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a pair of Field grasshoppers doing what comes naturally.

Photograph: David Williams

We made a lot of use of our suction samplers throughout the visit. This led to the inevitable team inspections of the trays when the samplers were emptied.

Photograph: Neil Nash

Fortunately, the ground was dry.

Here are some of the invertebrates that turned up in these samples.

A Tortoise shieldbug nymph.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

If you look carefully to the left of the bug you will see our favourite wasp, Callitula pyrrhogaster. To give you an idea of its size the shieldbug is about 10mm in length.

The suction samplers are far better at collecting beetles than we are. 

A ladybird, 24-spot.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A ground beetle, Badister bullatus.

Photograph: John Martin

And a water scavenger beetle, Coelostoma orbiculare.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

They also tempt arachnids from their hiding places!

A Garden cross spider.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A harvestman, Phalangium opilio, also know by the group as Captain Beaky due to the pointed protrusions at the front of its body.#

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a very long-legged harvestman, Dicranopalpus ramosus agg. (the agg. is because there is more than one species that looks like this).

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Very occasionally we pick up moths. I do not know if this one was found by our suction sampling or by less mechanical means, Argyresthia goedartella.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Let’s put the suction samplers to one side and concentrate on species that we observed as we meandered our way to the end of the site. A few hoverflies were seen including one of the largest and easily recognisable, Sericomyia silentis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Another large hoverfly, which seems to crop up every now and then in the Telford area, was Volucella inanis.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

And a very striking Xanthogramma pedissequum.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Also on the wing was an Alder sawfly, Enocampa ovata.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Back to doing what comes naturally, a pair of Spiked shieldbugs was noticed which were mating whilst the female seems to be feeding on a larva. Was this a gift from the suitor?

Photograph: Nigel Jones

We had now reached the far end of the site where a gap in the trees and a seat provided a spot to rest and look out over Telford and beyond.

All we had to do now was walk back across the site to the cars and go home.

After the event I was informed that there were two fly species found that were new to Shropshire:

A frit fly (Chloropidae) which is a small fly with a big name: Pseudopachychaeta oscinina. This is a Nationally Scarce species thought to be associated with spike rushes Eleocharis sp.;

And a Big-headed fly (Pipunculidae) which is a froghopper hunter (boo!). This is another small fly, but, as the family common name implies, it has a big head: Cephalops varipes. This was numerous in marginal vegetation of ponds.

We also made the second record of a picture wing fly, Acinia corniculata. Here are pictures of the male and female.

Male.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Female.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

My thanks to Telford and Wrekin Council for granting us permission to do what we enjoy doing and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.