Marbled Delight

Wednesday 25th June 2025, Clun Castle

The group last visited the castle grounds in March 2022 so the time was ripe for a further exploration of what makes its home there.

The main attraction is, of course, the castle.

However, the grounds, a mixture of grassland, scrub and trees, bordered on one side by the River Clun, provide a home for a variety of animals and plants.

Almost as soon as we entered the grounds we were greeted by a Marbled White.

Photograph: David Williams

What a delightful insect.

We were informed that at least 45 were on the wing within the grounds, by someone who had counted them! They will feature again in this report.

There was a bench close to the entrance which became our base for the morning.

Next to the bench was an information board where the vegetation had been worn away leaving a small patch of bare earth. This proved to be of great interest to our hymenopterists as they spotted a wasp carrying a mirid bug to its nest.

Photograph: David Williams

This is a wasp Lindenius albilabris. I am not sure what species its prey is.

We fanned out from the bench, returning periodically to report what we had found. Here are a few of the species that we identified and photographed in the morning.

A blotchy 24-spot Ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

Maintaining the black and white theme started by the Marbled White, a weevil, Hadroplontus litura.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Not black and white, but mainly green, a rhopalid bug, Myrmus miriformis. This one is a female.

Photograph: David Williams

And a Six-spot Burnet.

Photograph: John Martin

Another moth that was found around this time was a micro-moth, Depressaria daucella. Not the adult, but one of its larval stages.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

Time for lunch, which was taken by the bench.

Surprised by how far we had moved during the morning?

Of course not.

We lunched to the sound of a group of primary school children at first being told what they could not do, then let off the leash for a while, before being split into four groups to explore the grounds.

Our lunch over we abandoned the bench and moved down towards the river.

At one point as one of our members was suction sampling a patch of grassland one of the groups of children passed by.

“Why is that man hoovering the grass?” was the not unreasonable question.

He explained what he was doing, then treated the children to the contents of the sampler so they could see what had been found. 

Whilst he was doing this valuable public relations work the rest of us got on with combing (not literally) the grounds for species of interest.

And the afternoon got off to an excellent start when we were able to record the plant Allium scorodoprasum, Sand Leek, in the wild for the first time within the county.

Photograph: John Martin

Photograph: John Martin

This was followed by the sighting of rare plant within the county, Torilis nodosa, Knotted Hedge-parsley.

Photograph: John Martin

According to the Flora and Vegetation of Shropshire it was known to occur at Clun Castle. 

Good news! It is still present at the site.

Before we dropped down to the areas by the river we noticed a larva in the vegetation.

Photograph: David Williams

This is the larva of a Common blue butterfly.

Eventually we reached the riverside where we were still accompanied by Marbled Whites.

Photograph: David Williams

We looked at, swept, beat and suction sampled the vegetation. Here are some examples of what we found.

A male Myrmus miriformis.

Photograph: David Williams

A beetle, Pyrrhalta viburni.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A large mayfly, Ephemera danica, known as a Green Drake.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Finally, a rust which is a species of Gymnosporangium.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

That brought the outing to a close but before we go here is another picture of a Marbled White.

Photograph: John Martin

Leaving the site, we wandered over to the café by the bridge over the River Clun.

It was closed!

Undeterred we sought out a shop in the village and enjoyed consuming a selection of their supply of ice creams.

Then we went home.

My thanks to English Heritage for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.

It ain’t half hot

Wednesday 18th June 2025, Home Farm, Attingham

Stephen Mitchell

Stephen, who died on Sunday 22nd June, was one of the original regulars with Joy of Wildlife. In fact, Stephen put “Wildlife” in “Joy of Wildlife”. 

When I decided to change our name from the Invertebrate Challenged Tetrad group, after a couple of years of our existence, to Joy of Invertebrates, Stephen thought that this name suggested too narrow a focus and suggested the more encompassing “Joy of Wildlife”, which stuck.

In general, on our outings, Stephen was an interested observer rather than avid recorder of species. However, he was very interested in moths and butterflies. On our outings when Cuckoo flower was in flower he would be seen searching the blooms for the eggs of the Orange-tip butterfly. He was a member of the Shropshire Moth Group and participated in the Garden Moth Scheme.

In addition, Stephen was a supporter of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, was a regular volunteer for the Wrekin Forest Volunteers group and ran, with Rob Doran, for a number of years, the Telford Wildlife Forum which met periodically presenting a speaker and disseminating news of local interest. Together with Margaret, he monitored and maintained bird boxes installed on The Ercall.

 
He will be missed.

Our deepest condolences to Margaret for her loss.

Home Farm

Home Farm is a large farm within the Attingham estate. We had opted to survey a large meadow that bordered the River Severn. 

The original plan was to use the fisherman’s car park, but concerns that our visit coincided with the start of the fishing season resulted in us being provided with gate code for a field off the car park in which we met and got ready.

Whilst some of us were rather sluggish in getting kitted out, others got on with the “job in hand” and searched a generous field margin for things of interest.

During this time a White-legged Damselfly was spotted.

Photograph: David Williams

Mmm! 

How do we get from where we parked to the meadow?

Scanning the field margin we noticed a gap, and…

Yes!

This led to the meadow.

(There was also a kissing gate in the field corner, but this was rather well vegetated with nettles and brambles. Not the choice favoured by those wearing shorts!)

It was good fortune that we took the entrance track as we were soon joined by a Scarlet Tiger.

The entrance track soon opened out onto the large meadow.

Photograph: David Williams

And widespread exploration began in earnest.

Photograph: David Williams

The above photograph is of a Closterotomus norwegicus. This is a very common plant bug found in meadows and hedgerows. It is known as the Potato Capsid. I do not know if it has a predilection for the vegetable.

Another early find in the meadow was a Roesel’s Bush Cricket.

Photograph: David Williams

Ladybirds generally overwinter as adults then mate and produce eggs in the spring. This means that at this time of year there are many larvae of ladybirds out and about as well as some adults.

A couple of ladybird species we found as larvae were a Red Marsh Ladybird, Coccidula rufa;

Photograph: David Williams

And a 16-spot Ladybird (accompanied by a small springtail Sminthurus viridis).

Photograph: David Williams

As you will gather from the title it was HOT.

And there was no wind to bring some relief.

However, as lunch approached, we got closer to the River Severn…

Photograph: David Williams

No, not quite that close.

But close enough, where there was a break in the vegetation through which came a pleasant breeze.

This was the spot for lunch!

The river was bordered by willows, and on one Crack Willow we spotted this gall…

Caused by the sawfly Pontania proxima.

We moved away from the lunch spot. It was time to explore the rest of the site. 

Moving first towards a pool, which proved nigh on impossible to access, and then to the meadow on the other side, before turning our attention to a well established hedgerow along the side of the field away from the river.

Along the way we observed:

A Slender Ground Hopper;

Photograph: David Williams

A longhorn beetle, Rutpela maculata;

Photograph: David Williams

A jewel beetle, Agrilus angustulus;

Photograph: David Williams

And a pair of Forest Bugs, an adult (on the left) and a nymph.

Photograph: David Williams

Generally shieldbugs are nymphs at this time of the year, but Forest Bugs overwinter as young nymphs. These mature into adults into the summer.

 
We managed to get to nearly 3 o’clock before the unrelenting heat forced us to retreat to our cars and abandon the rest of the visit.

Here are some more photographs of invertebrates seen during the day. The photographs did not come with a timestamp so I have no idea when they were taken.

Moths

Archips xylosteraria – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Hedya salicella – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A mirid bug, Heterotoma planicornis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Weevils

Anthonomus pedicularius – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Hypera postica – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Phyllobius pomaceus – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Rhinoncus pericarpius – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A male and female harvestman, Mitopus morio.

Female – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Male – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Spiders

Tetragnatha extensa – Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Tibellus species – Photograph: Neil Nash

My thanks to owners of the site for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.

Too rushed

Wednesday 11th June 2025, Rushy Marsh and The Isle

A double header.

We have done these many times with success.

But on this occasion, I freely admit that I underestimated the amount of time we should have spent on the first site and apologise to all the attendees and the site owners for this.

The first site was a small wetland named Rushy Marsh in Bicton.

The initial challenge was to get there. We parked at Bicton Village Hall, where there was ample parking, but there was a 20 minute stroll from here to the site.

The time taken to walk to and from the site was not something I considered when scheduling the visit, which reduced even more the amount of time we could spend carrying out the survey.

This was compounded by the wildlife which was plentiful in these days of generally poor abundance. 

However, we were helped on our journey by a Land Rover!

This took our bags and equipment to the site to await our arrival on foot.

An early find on arrival was a pair of Wasp Beetles doing what was necessary to help the continued existence of the species.

Photograph: :Liz Roberts

The vegetation around the site was lush and quite difficult to negotiate but there was a rough path.

Leaving this path and using a railway sleeper to cross a ditch led to a “Garden” area.

Most of what was left of the morning was spent here.

Amongst the finds were:

A Spiked Shieldbug nymph;

Photograph: David Williams

A plant bug, Grypocoris stysi;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Common Striped Woodlouse;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Pill Millipede;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And the micro-moth Celypha lacunana with a friend.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Pride of place for the morning was this large larva.

Photograph: David Williams

This is the larva of a Red Underwing moth. 

Here is a more detailed picture.

Photograph: David Williams

Time was marching on but there was just enough time to explore more of the site. 

We followed the path until we met one of our hosts busily hacking through the vegetation to cut a path to the pool.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

As we sauntered along the path that our host had created with great effort, we noticed the following creatures:

A pair of “busy” Scorpion Flies;

A staphylinid beetle, Paederus riparius;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And finally a pseudoscorpion, Neobisium carcinoides.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Time was up...

Feeling that there was much more to be found.

We packed our equipment and bags back in the Land Rover, which took them back to the car park, while we meandered our way back.

Then on to the owners house for some refreshments.

Seats were provided around a makeshift table. 

The refreshments arrived. These turned out to be a feast – sandwiches, salad, scones jam and cream, not to mention hot drinks.

Of course we did our best to ensure our hosts magnificent efforts had not been in vain.

Sitting in the warm sun, satiated by the food and drink, the motivation to move on was absent. But move on we must.

We drove to The Isle, a large farm, employing regenerative farming methods, to the north of Bicton that is almost surrounded by a meander in the River Severn.

Here there was a choice of sites, either grassland and meadows by the River Severn, or visit the large pool where Norfolk Hawker had been seen recently.

I went with the group to the grasslands.

Checking the vegetation as we followed the lane from the car park we spotted a hoverfly, Leucozona laternaria.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Reaching the grasslands, we had a glimpse of the River Severn.

A longhorn beetle, Rutpela maculata, was spotted on a flower.

The first grassland opened out onto a very large meadow.

Which included this fine oak.

It was not being hugged, but inspected for lichens!

I had to leave but the visit continued.

As I did not go to the pool I do not know what happened but they did not find Norfolk Hawker.

Here are some of the things they did find.

A female Oedemera nobilis. The male has enlarged femora and is known as the Swollen-thighed beetle.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A 2-spot ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

A ground beetle, Oxypselphus obscurus.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Water Scorpion.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

And a Red-eyed Damselfly.

Photograph: David Williams

Finally a fly with, as the sender says, “remarkable adornments on its back end”, Coenia curvicaudi.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

After packing up for the day some of the remainder of the group returned to the lunch spot to try and finish off the leftovers. (They were invited!)

I do not think they fully accomplished this task.

My thanks to owners of the sites for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and the brilliant refreshments. My immense gratitude to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.