Sloe Bug

Sloe bug, Dolycoris baccarum.  Adult.  Orchid Bank, High Elms Country Park, 30 July 2011.

Another true bug, also a shield bug. This sloe bug is sometimes called the hairy bug; it is the only one of our shield bugs to be hairy. Even the adult has a fringe of hairs, hard to see without a lens.

The hairs are much more noticeable in the earlier stages of its growth. Below are two earlier instars.

Despite the name, these bugs don't feed on Sloe bushes (aka Blackthorns). I read on-line: "It really loves berries, especially Honeysuckle and Raspberries. It walks all over them, leaving behind an awful stinking substance. This makes all berries it walked over inedible."  Shame - it looks rather smart!

Sloe bug, Dolycoris baccarum.  Late instar nymph.  Orchid Bank, High Elms Country Park, 30 July 2011.

Late instar nymph of the sloe bug, Dolycoris baccarum.  Hayes Common, 24 June 2011.

Scarce Umber

Scarce Umber, Agriops aurantiaria. Male. Geometer.  Moth trap in Hayes, 18 November 2011.

Soon after I saw the Feathered Thorn shown in the previous post, this Scarce Umber turned up. (Despite its name, it is reasonably common.)  Like the Thorn, it wasn't actually in the trap; it was resting against the outside, in an unusual pose with its wings fully open.

The Feathered Thorn was a lively creature; I tried to calm it down by putting it into the fridge for a couple of hours, but it was still flapping, so I couldn't persuade it to pose and I only got the single position, on the bench where it was when I found it. It was in danger of damaging its wings, so I let it go.

This moth, on the other hand, was quite suggestible, and I took half a dozen different pics, including one on a fern which is close to the trap.

The open wing is shown below. You might also see that I have painted the moth trap white. This will serve several purposes. It will last longer, and survive being caught in the rain; it will be easier to see small creatures resting or crawling on it; it might reflect more light and be more attractive to insects; and I won't be bringing a horde of almost invisible beetles back into the garage (see the Feathered Thorn post)!

I will also add a head-on view that shows the antennae (and has the usual effect of making it look cross-eyed. That's an illusion, of course). The female of this species is wingless and stays on the tree; it is the feathery-antennaed male that does the flying around.

Feathered Thorn

Feathered Thorn, Colotois pennaria.  Geometer.  By the moth trap in Hayes, 13 November 2011.

I am still putting out my moth trap every few days. Sometimes there is nothing, but there is always the possibility of finding a winter-flying moth (not to be confused with the actual Winter Moth, Operophtera brumata).

The Feathered Thorn is particularly pretty. I saw one at Farthing Downs only a couple of days before this one turned up; this is fresher and prettier.  Only the male has those feathery antennae.  It was on the side of my garden seat, next the moth trap, rather than in it, but was certainly attracted by the light of the trap.  It's quite a common moth, which turns out often to be the case with these creatures that fly unseen. The caterpillar can eat the leaves of almost all the local trees, including the hawthorns I have planted in my tiny garden, and the adult moth flies from mid-September to early December.

Only when I was processing the photo did I notice the minute beetles crawling around the cracks in the wood! They are visible in this photo only as shiny almost-black specks, some alone, some grouped in the crevices.

The photo below is the specimen I saw at Farthing Downs.

Feathered Thorn, Colotois pennaria.  Geometer.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs, 10 November 2011.

Blackbush Shaw Lichens

Cudham Valley, looking towards Cudham. 19 November 2011.

This is the view from the lower edge of Blackbush Shaw towards Cudham, on the Orpington Field Club's misty outing on 19th November.  The lichens in this post came from an area to the left of this scene, on the path down into the valley.

The lichens looked very healthy and were obviously growing well. These specimens were all on tree or shrub twigs, and the trees don't have to be very old to become almost covered in lichens as long as they are not in bright sunshine.  For identifying lichens (and fungi) I am mostly reliant on others, so if I have got any of these wrong, please leave a message.

The Oakmoss below has a leafy structure, whereas the others are crustose lichens that cling to the surface they grow on.

Oakmoss, Evernia prunastri.  Cudham, 19 November 2011.

Xanthoria polycarpa. Cudham, 19 November 2011.

This orange-yellow Xanthoria polycarpa is a familiar sight in the suburbs. It doesn't have much tolerance of pollution, so it used to be on roofs and walls at the very edge of the countryside; but since the Clean Air Act in 1956 it is growing much closer to town, and there is lots of it on the garden walls here in Hayes.  This one has colonised a twig.

Lecanora chlarotera.  Cudham, 19 November 2011.

On the crustose lichens you can see the jam tart shapes of the apothecia, their fruiting bodies. These are sometimes a contrasting colour to the rest of the lichen: see below ...

A group of lichens on a shrub.  Cudham, 19 November 2011.

This popular twig has at least four different lichens. At the top right, another Lecanora chlarotera. Below and to its left, Lecidella elaeochroma, greyish with black apothecia. These two often grow in a patchwork on trees.  On the left, a foliose lichen, perhaps a Parmelia species, and to the far left you can see an orangey apothecium of another Xanthoria. The yellowish-green material all around these might be an alga, though it does seem that there is some young Xanthoria in there.

Finally, something different; a moss. This clump was growing on the end of a twig in mid-air! It could not have grown like that. It was close to the ground, so maybe when the branchlet was fully leaved it was heavy enough to touch the ground, when moss could have spread around the tip.  (Added later: This moss is probably Eurhynchium striatum.)

Clump of moss hanging from a twig.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

Most of the photos here were taken with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens, as usual, but the scene at the top was taken with my iPhone 4s.

Blackbush Shaw Fungi

On a cold, misty morning the Orpington Field Club visited Blackbush Shaw. "Shaw" means a strip of woodland, and this is one of two shaws on the side of Cudham Valley, opposite the village, that are owned by the Woodland Trust. There's a view of this one in summertime in this walk report; look for the photo titled "Cudham valley and Bottom Barn Farm with common knapweed and ox-eye daisy."

Of course, that was summer, and now it's almost winter. There were still a few plants in flower, more than we expected, though only a few straggling examples of each; buttercups, red clovers, some yellow composites, a single milkwort. In the shade of one hedgerow were dozens of seed spikes of Broad-Leaved Helleborine. But it was the fungi and lichens that were flourishing the most brightly, and here is a selection of the fungi, all shown from below to celebrate their beautiful and delicately coloured gills.  Any that are marked "unidentified" are unidentified by me, not by the experts; I probably wasn't at that spot when they arrived. If anyone knows more, please leave a comment!

Mica Cap, Coprinellus micaceus.  Fungus.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

This one has the species name "micaceus" and the common name "Mica Cap" because it is sparkly, particularly when it is young. The camera's flash highlights the reflective cells, which were not so prominent in the subdued light under the trees. It is one of the ink cap fungi, and you can see the black spores developing between the gills that will drip out in an inky liquid when the fungus is ripe.

A Waxcap, Hygrocybe species.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

This orange beauty, about 3-4 cm across, is a Waxcap. It was in grass, in an open glade near the edge of the wood.

Unidentified fungus.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

An unidentified species, larger and chunkier, found next to the path through the wood.

Lepista species.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

This was being investigated during a short tea break.  It was still misty and cold, but we were sheltered from the wind.

The delicate mauve colouration shows that this is a Lepista, related to the Blewits. I don't think the species was conclusively identified.

Unidentified fungus.  Blackbush Shaw, Cudham, 19 November 2011.

Just a small brown fungus, but its depth of colour and symmetry are unexpectedly beautiful.

The sun did finally break through, as we were climbing back towards the cars.  I'll show some lichens next time, from before that happened.

Hawthorn Shield Bug

Hawthorn shield bug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, in Saville Row, Hayes.  18 May 2011.

Two more pics from earlier in the year. These are true bugs, Hemiptera, and belong to the group known as shield bugs or stink bugs.

The one at the top was in a hedge opposite my house. The specimen shown below came to the moth trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.  As the name suggests, they inhabit hawthorn bushes, and I have seen them on the hawthorns in my garden.  They seem to be quite common.

Hawthorn Shield Bug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.  Moth morning at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 14 August 2011.

Pink Bramble

Pink-flowered bramble, Rubus fruticosus.  Jubilee Country Park, 1 July 2011.

Now that summer is definitely over, I can see that I have quite a few photos that I didn't post. It wasn't possible to fit everything in when it was all going on around me. But there are bugs, hoverflies, galls and a few other things that I thought were interesting or beautiful or both.

This is a bramble flower. Brambles, which give us our crop of blackberries in late summer, are a complex of microspecies and so vary quite a bit; most of them have white flowers. They grow vigorously on poor soils and are early colonisers of woodland clearings, which is what gardens are like, ecologically speaking, with predictable results. Butterflies love the flowers, and the fruits are a valuable food resource for small mammals and insects.

Sprawler

Sprawler, Asteroscopus sphinx, left; Blair's Shoulder-knot, Lithophane leutieri ssp. hesperica, right.

At Farthing Downs on the morning of 10th November there were only six moths in the trap, and two of them were small micromoths, much more difficult than the macros to identify. One of the macros is shown to the left above.

At first I thought it was a Blair's Shoulder-knot, one of which is shown on the right, but if you're not completely cartain it's worth checking it out against the books, and this one didn't seem to be resting in the expected narrow formation. Gill Peachey, with 10 years' mothing experience, agreed it looked similar, but wasn't happy with the pattern. And Gill soon found the right match; it's a Sprawler.

I thought it might be named for the way it spread its legs out, but the book says it's because its caterpillar rears up with its head back - not what I would have thought of as sprawling, but there it is. The book also says that this moth is unmistakeable; thanks for telling us!

This male, with feathered antennae, looks very smart seen from in front.

Sprawler, Asteroscopus sphinx.  Male.  A Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs, 10 November 2011.

Narrow-Leaved Pepperwort

Narrow-Leaved Pepperwort, Lepidium ruderale, by the roadside on Croydon Road, Hayes Common, 18 June 2011

This is a plant that grows not far from my home, and I could not identify it. So, I took a few photos with my Ixus 100, and later on, Sue Buckingham, who runs the wildflower course I am attending, knew it straight away. I know I am not going to be that good coming out of the course, but I will be pleased if I know the look of more kinds of plant and have some of the skills needed to refine a rough identification.

This one is a Pepperwort, with tiny flowers turning very quickly into typical strings of seed pods. Sue identified this one by the shape of the lower leaves, and told us that being next to a road was a normal habitat for it. In fact when I looked it up on the web I saw that it is sometimes called Roadside Pepperweed.

The "pepper" in its name comes from its taste. Sue brought in some of a related species last week, the Broad-leaved Pepperwort, and I tasted some of that; it was a bit like watercress, quite hot.

Brick

Brick, Agrochola circellaris.  A Noctuid.  Moth trap in Hayes, 29 October 2011.

Another lone moth from my moth trap. Like the Satellite, this is a late-flying species, but this one is only around until December.

This is a well-marked specimen. Even though it is not fresh, as you can see by the worn patch near its head, the autumnal colours are quite vibrant.

Nipplewort

Nipplewort, Lapsana communis.  Lullingstone Country Park, 14 October 2011.

One of the many plants with yellow composite flowers. But this plant has a simple distinguishing feature. It is the only yellow composite whose seeds do not have a hairy pappus, the organ that makes up the parachute of dandelion seeds and other similar wind-borne seeds.

You can see the maturing seeds to the left of the open flower. They seem to spread effectively, even though they can't be distributed by the wind.

Small-Flowered Sweet-Briar

Small-Flowered Sweet-Briar, Rosa micrantha.  Lullingstone Country Park,  14 October 2011.

This is one of the roses whose thorns I showed in my previous post. Although this is not an ideal specimen, it shows some of the features that help to distinguish it from other species; features that I would not have noticed before taking this wildflower course.

There are glandular hairs on the flower stem and even on the fruit, and many glands without hairs on the leaflets.  Their secretions glisten brightly in the light of the camera's flash.  Of the nine species of rose that grow wild in Kent, only the common Dog Rose (Rosa canina) has leaves which are smooth and shiny underneath, and you can feel out very quickly this way whether you are looking at a less common type. 

The sepals are reflexed, folded back along the fruit, and fall early, Here, just one is left.

The photo was taken in bright daylight. The dark background is an illusion caused by the way the photo was taken, with a very small aperture and fast exposure, so that only objects close to the flash show up at all.

Thorns

Thorns of the Short-Styled Field-Rose, Rosa stylosa.  Lullingstone Country Park, 14 October 2011.

The second day of the wildflower course I am attending was a ramble round the park. We were looking for roses, and here are the thorns on two of those we saw.

Roses that form sturdy, upright bushes tend to have deltate thorns like those of the Short-Styled Field-Rose. They do not need to grip, but they still protect the plant very well. On the other hand, climbing roses tend to have thorns which are more like hooks, like the arcuate thorns on the Small-Flowered Sweet-Briar.  "Arcuate" means "curved like a bow," but actually, these look to me more like fish-hooks.

There are several different species of wild rose in Kent, I learned, and other types of prickle, and now that I know what to look for, I expect I will show them here in due course.

Thorns of the Small-Flowered Sweet-Briar, Rosa micrantha.  Lullingstone Country Park, 14 October 2011.

Green-Brindled Crescent

Green-Brindled Crescent, Allophyes oxyacanthae.  A Noctuid.
Moth trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 23 October 2011.

A late Autumn moth, flying from September to November, after which it overwinters as an egg laid on twigs of scrubby trees and shrubs.  I saw this one at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, where Susanna Clerici, one of the wardens, sometimes puts out a trap.

The scattering of metallic green scales is an obvious feature. Less obvious to me, until the book pointed it out, is the way the bright crescents on the inner sides of the forewings make a shape like a recurved bow. The book describes it as a crossbow, but it makes me think of something used by a Parthian horseman; a small but powerful bow made of horn and sinew.

After I had taken photos on gridded paper for my record, I took a shot on my hand, from a low angle, showing the antennae and the ruff at its neck.  I then put it on the ground, where it looks magnificent among the autumnal litter.

Green-Brindled Crescent, Allophyes oxyacanthae.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 23 October 2011.

Satellite

Satellite, Eupsila transversa.  A Noctuid.  Left: Hayes, 22 October 2011.  Right: Sevenoaks, 23 October 2011.

As it gets closer to winter, I am catching many fewer moths in my trap; sometimes none at all. But those I do catch include some different species.

This one, the Satellite, is so called because of the two small dots to either side of the clear wing marking. It is a winter moth; it feeds between September and April, emerging only on milder nights to look for sugary berries and ivy flowers.  Its caterpillar is omnivorous, and among other things, will eat smaller caterpillars of other moth species.

My Hayes specimen is on the left. It is fresh, with clear markings, and the appearance of a fur stole. I saw another the next day, at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, shown on the right. Both are resting on the paper I prepared for such photos, grey, with a 5mm grid so that I can tell the size of the moth even when looking at a photo. While editing these, I moved them around to match up the grids, so I know that the Sevenoaks specimen is genuinely slightly smaller.

The light spots on its wings can vary in colour from white to tawny brown.