Norbury Park Moths

Peppered Moth, Biston betularia.  Norbury Park, 17 June 2012.

There was a "Bioblitz" at Norbury Park; two days of events relating to natural history.  I went to look at the moths that had been trapped the night before.   Although I saw lots, most of them had been put into plastic tubes and it was impossible to get good photos because of the reflections, and smears on the plastic.  But some were shown in the open.  This one is on my hand.

It's an iconic species, often used as an example of natural selection.  As well as this form there is a dark-winged form that became common in sooty cities, while this speckled form almost disappeared, though it stayed common in the countryside.  Birds were able to pick it out easily against the dark city backgrounds.  Since the Clean Air Act in 1956, the speckled form has become more common again.

Brown Scallop, Philereme vetulata.  Norbury Park, 17 June 2012.

This moth, resting on a treetrunk, shows how effective camouflage can be.  But not all moths do this.

Small Elephant Hawkmoth, Deilephila porcellus.  Norbury Park, 17 June 2012.

Many Hawkmoth species appear to try to alarm predators rather than hide from them.  Also, they are good fliers and can probably dodge a lot of attacks.  Apparently half a dozen of these vivid creatures came to the table next to the trap - exciting for the trappers!

These and other photos from the park are here: Norbury Park, June 2012.  They include a few photos of plants I took while walking back to the car park.

Two Hoverflies

Hoverfly, Eristalis pertinax, on Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, on Hillside Lane, Hayes. 13 June 2012.

Hoverflies are various and pretty, and I enjoy photographing them.  They like to visit flowers, which gives a sort of double photographic opportunity.

This one is a bee mimic, known as a Dronefly.  There are two native hoverflies that look like this, a warm brown abdomen with honey-coloured triangles at the side. The other one, Eristalis tenax,  has darker legs and distinct rows of hairs on its eyes.  Hairy eyes sound odd, but are no problem for insects.  If you look towards the ends of the wings you will see a vein with a wide loop; with one exception, this is specific to the tribe Eristalini, so it is a confirming characteristic.

This fly is a male.  All female hoverflies have a distinct gap between their large compound eyes.  This one only has a little triangle containing three much smaller eyes, the ocelli.

Hoverfly, Sphaerophoria scripta, on a Doves-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle, on West Wickham Common. 13 June 2012.

This hoverfly looks very different.  It's smaller and slimmer, and vividly marked.  There are several species that look very like this, and identification is usually not possible without collecting the creature and examining its genitalia, which I prefer not to do.  I like to leave them in the wild.

However ... this one, as you can see, is also a male, and in this one Sphaerophoria species, the abdomen of the male is markedly longer than the wings.

Downe Bank, June 2012

Horses in the field next to Cudham Road, Downe.  16 June 2012.

I showed the same mare in a post about Downe Bank in 2011.  She seems to have had another foal, with very similar colouring.

We (the Orpington Field Club) went a week later last year, and this year the weather has been unusually cold and wet, so we didn't see the same range of plants and butterflies.  But we did see several caterpillars.

Mother of Pearl late instar larva, Pleuroptya ruralis, on the track leading to Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

This one was living in a curled-up nettle leaf on the side of the track.  It will turn into a pretty moth; there's one in the first photo here: Sevenoaks Moths. I like nettles.  There is nearly always something interesting in there, and I always collect some stings. 

Larva of Six-spot Burnet, Zygaea filipendulae.  Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

This one lives on Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, and will turn into a smart black moth with red spots.  There will be hundreds of them to see later on.  On the other hand,

Sawfly larvae, Symphyta, on Silver Birch.  Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

these are not any sort of butterfly or moth.  They will turn into sawflies.  I haven't posted any of those yet; I will link back here when I do.   You can tell they aren't Lepidoptera by the number of pairs of prolegs, those stumpy legs that come after the six neat-looking pointed ones.  No butterfly or moth has this many.

These caterpillars were munching happily on a Silver Birch tree until I got too close, when they all suddenly curled back into this display, which I expect is supposed to startle predators into leaving them alone.  Some sawfly larvae are known to give off defensive chemicals, and these are probably doing just that.

Of course, we did see many interesting and lovely flowers too.

Common Milkwort, Polygala vulgaris.  Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

This one, with its intricate and delicate structure, is quite common on chalky ground.  The flowers are no more than a centimetre long, and the colours on different plants vary through pink, blue and purple. 

Here's one that is harder to spot.

Fairy Flax, Linum catharticum.  Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

A tiny white flower almost hidden in the grass.  It is a true flax.

I can't leave this post without showing a Roman Snail.

Roman Snail, Helix pomatia.  Downe Bank Nature Reserve, 16 June 2012.

This chunky creature, with a shell 5 cm across, is edible, but protected.  Roman Snails are rightly named. They were brought over by the Romans, like apple trees, but unlike apples, they are not a regular part of our diet. 

And a last view of the lively foal.

Foal in the field next to Cudham Road, Downe.  16 June 2012.

These and some more photos are on line here:  Downe Bank, June 2012.

Hoya Bella

Flowers of Hoya bella on my kitchen windowsill in Hayes.  20 June 2012.

This is the other Hoya I have at the moment; compare with the Hoya serpens in my previous post.  This one is also a jewel, similar but distinctly different.  The individual flowers are about 2 cm across. They hang facing downwards, so you need to hang the plant high or be very close to see them properly.

It is a little sturdier than H. serpens and hangs stiffly rather that trails limply.  It flowers almost all year, with a light floral fragrance that you need to get up close to appreciate, not like the deep all-pervading odour of H. serpens.   It doesn't get too big, and being so well-behaved, it is a good Hoya to start with if you want to try them out.

A Creeping Hoya

Hoya serpens flowers in my kitchen window in Hayes.  18 June 2012.

I've been out a lot recently and I will be out more.  I will have enough lovely photos to queue up summer blog posts for weeks..  But this one, like the Sundews, comes from my house.

Hoya flowers are beautiful miniatures.  The plants are usually climbing and vine-like, needing a support to twine around.  This one has inconspicuous small roundish leaves on a weak trailing stem.

These flowers are each about 15mm across, larger than the leaves.  They have a powerful sweet scent that fills the whole house at night just from this small cluster.  Some Hoya flowers drip a sweet nectar that you can catch on your finger and lick off.  I can see drops forming in these, too, but not as much as that.

It came originally from the Himalayas, and now it is happy on a north-facing windowsill, where it can get quite cool in the winter.

Two More Non-Dandelions

Cat's-ear, Hypochaeris radicata.  Hayes Common, 13 June 2012

Two more yellow flowers that look like Dandelions, but aren't.

Identifying a plant in a group like this, where many species look quite similar, is tricky. This one, Cat's-ear, can be identified by the following criteria:

There are no forked hairs on the underside of the leaves (that would make it a Hawkbit.)  There are dark-tipped bracts along the flower stems, which are single or have few branches.  The flowers are bright yellow, with the outer florets greyish beneath.  Around the flower-head are many erect, overlapping, purple-tipped bracts with bristles on their midribs.  And inside the flower, mixed with the florets, there are small, long-toothed scales, which you can find if you pull the flower apart.

You can see many of those things in the photo, but by no means all.  So it is quite necessary for even a partly serious botanist to carry a decent hand lens. 

Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus.  Hutchinson's Bank, 14 June 2012.

This one does have forked hairs on the underside of its leaves, which you can see with a hand lens.  That, and the very hairy calyx, make this a Rough Hawkbit.  (The Lesser Hawkbit, which also has those forked hairs, has a hairless calyx.)

But these flowers also have a different overall look to them if you first assimilate their characteristics and then draw back.  If you then look at the other two non-Dandelions I posted earlier, you can see that they are different again. Once you are familiar with the flowers - and the other parts of the plants - in detail, your eye and mind can pick up those differences even at a glance.

Miniature Sundews

Miniature Sundew with flower, in my back bedroom in Hayes.  1 June 2012.

Six months ago I planted some Sundew gemmae, tiny pieces of plant tissue that can grow into complete new plants. Some of them were the size of lentils, and those were easy to handle, but I also got, as a freebie, 14 tiny ones about the size of a pinhead, no species name given.  Spacing those out properly was tricky.

Here they are now.  These plants are tiny.  The pot is two inches across, and the larger rosettes are just over a centimetre.   But they have reached their full size and are flowering.   If you don't have much space to grow plants, these would be perfect!  But you need rainwater for them; tap water will kill them.  They come from wet, sandy spots in Australia, but they die off in sandy soil in my house; this is a special soil-free and nutrient-free compost.

The Scorched Wing

Scorched Wing, Plagodis dolabraria.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

This was the most impressive, colourful and beautiful of the moths we saw at Oldbury Hill on 9th June.

The reason for the name is obvious.  Its larvae eat mainly Oaks, sometimes other woodland trees, so you can only expect to find this moth in or near woods.  It looks as though it would be well camouflaged amongst autumn leaves, but it only flies in May and June.

This is a male, as you can tell by the feathery antennae.  Also, the male has this odd habit when at rest:

Scorched Wing, Plagodis dolabraria.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

It tilts up the end of its abdomen.  From this angle you can see that as well as that delicious orange colour, the "scorched" area leads to an almost plum shade that also appears on its face and chest.  This is my favourite photograph of the day.

Here's the underside, seen though the plastic side of the moth trap.  From this angle you can see the colouration better.

Scorched Wing, Plagodis dolabraria.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

Now I'm looking forward to the next mothing event!

More Oldbury Hill Moths

Kent Butterfly Conservation mothing event at Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

Here's the trap that David Gardner brought to Oldbury Hill.  It's his own design, and it packs flat for transport.  At the far end of that wire is a petrol-powered generator. 

There are no egg-boxes here because the trap is constantly attended, and there is no need to provide somewhere for moths to rest until morning. 

White-pinion Spotted, Lomographa bimaculata.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

Mostly white, but with two dark spots at the edge of each forewing.  The larvae of this moth eat Blackthorn and Hawthorn.  I have a Hawthorn hedge in my garden, but I haven't seen any of these in my garden trap yet.

This White-pinion Spotted is not to be confused with  the much rarer White-spotted Pinion, which makes me wonder just how evil the people were who named them.

Little Thorn, Cepphis advenaria.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

Another small moth, with scalloped wings like its larger relatives - here's a link to an Early Thorn I saw in March.  The larval food plant is Bilberry, and this wood is full of Bilberry plants, so it's surprising that we only saw one.  We also saw another Bilberry eater, a Beautiful Snout, but I didn't get a photo worthy of showing.

Orange Footman, Eilema sororcula.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012. 

This moth looks quite different, and indeed it comes from a different group.  The first two belong to the family Geometridae, and this is one of the Arctiidae. Some of the Footmen are tricky to tell apart, but the orange colour makes this one easy to identify.  Its larvae eat lichens.

Ingrailed Clay, Diarsia mendica mendica.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012. 

This pretty creature, different again, belongs to the Noctuidae. There are some general similarities within the Noctuid wing patterns that make most of them easy to place to their family, but that only helps a little in identification because there are many of them, and some, like this one, are very variable in the detail of their markings.  I don't think I would ever have been able to pin down the species of this one by myself.  As with so many things, you need to see a lot of them in various conditions and ages to become any sort of expert.

Last for today:

Brindled White-spot, Parectropis similaria.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

Another Geometer.  There are several moths with this general mottled appearance, which you can see would be good for camouflage against, for example, bark.  This moth is distinguished by the white spots near the edges of its forewings.  Its larvae can eat a whole range of woodland trees and shrubs.

Next time, a single moth, the most beautiful of those we saw on 9th June.

Oldbury Hill Moths, June

Kent Butterfly Conservation mothing event at Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

There was a strange light in the woods on the night of 12th June.  Anyone approaching would have seen three people seated around the light, gazing into it in a mysterious way.  I'm sure I saw this on the X-Files.  Mulder to the front .. But no, it was a mothing event!

It was run by David Gardner, the Chairman of the Kent branch of Butterfly Conservation. He brought his ingenious portable trap and generator and set it up in the woods in a likely spot.  It was not particularly warm, so we weren't inundated with moths, though we did get plenty of Ichneumon Wasps and Cockchafers.  The Cockchafers were a particular nuisance.  They kept bombing into us and disturbing interesting moths just as they had settled.  They are big, fast and heavy and arrive like bullets, and if you toss them away they circle back like boomerangs.

But by the time we packed up at midnight, we had seen twenty species of moth, some dowdy, some beautiful.

Clouded Border, Lomaspilis marginata.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

I liked this one.  The larvae feed on Aspens, Poplars, Sallows and Willows, none of which were close to us, but there were Sallows somewhere in the woods. 

The left forewing is damaged.  Several of the specimens we saw were damaged or worn, which is quite normal.

Green Carpet, Colostygia pectinataria.   Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

This one is called a Green Carpet, and when it was fresh it would have been a distinct green.  Compare with the moth in the last photo in this post from last August: Farthing Downs August Moths.  But the green colour fades quite fast from moths.  There are several "Emerald" species which are often tricky for the novice (i.e. me) to identify because they find them when they are mostly white. The same goes for at least one micromoth, the Green Oak Tortrix.

The larvae of this moth eat Bedstraws, probably including Cleavers, which is quite common.

Here's one of the Emeralds:

Little Emerald, Jodis lactearia.  Male. Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

A small moth, this one with only a hint of green.  This photo was taken through the plastic side of the trap and shows the pretty antennae typical of many male moths.  The large surface area helps them to detect the pheromones given off by the females.

Clay Triple-lines, Cyclophora linearia.  Oldbury Hill, 10 June 2012.

The larvae of this one feed on Beech.  Again, you can see the feathery antennae.

I will post some more moths from this event next time.

Not Dandelions

Prickly Sowthistle, Sonchus asper.  High Elms Country Park, 22 May 2012.

I've heard people say that they think any flower that looks like this is some sort of Dandelion.  But that's far from true.  This plan looks more like a thistle until you see the flower.  You can see the edge of a prickly leaf on the right.

This thought is just an excuse to post two side views of non-Dandelions.  The second, Goat's-beard, is sometimes called Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon because the flower only opens in the morning sunshine.

Goat's-beard, Tragopogon pratensis agg.  High Elms Country Park, 22 May 2012.

I saw both these specimens at High Elms, but they are quite common, the Sow-thistle in particular.  It can be found on verges and waste ground, along with its realative the Smooth Sow-thistle.

Views of Chalk Meadows at High Elms

The Conservation Field.  High Elms Country Park, 30 May 2012.

In High Elms Country Park there are three chalk meadows, all with extensive interesting plant and invertebrate life.  They can also be beautiful.  They change their appearance month by month; in winter they look bare, and in summer there are flushes of different flowers in different seasons.   I have been there many times, and this link will show you all my posts which contain at least one photo from there: High Elms.

The meadow above is usually the prettiest of the three.  In this photo there is a flush of yellow Meadow Buttercups.  Later there will be white Oxeye Daisies, and after that, mauve Scabiouses. 

Before anyone asks, or if anyone asks, I took great pains to keep my camera level when taking these photos.  It has an internal level sensor which I used. The meadows do slope, facing south, and the trees do grow at an angle on the edge of the woods.

Burnt Gorse using the in-camera High Dynamic Range feature. High Elms Country Park, 30 May 2012.

Burnt Gorse was the old name for this field, and it has been retained, or perhaps reinstated.  This is the field that I like best.  Its flora and fauna are always diverse and interesting in the season, even though it doesn't look as spectacular from a distance as the Conservation Field.   It has grown since I last photographed it and it is now full of life.

There is a narrow extension off to the right of this photo where I always find moths, butterflies and beetles.   And there are orchids, which are prized for their rarity.  Some orchids are showy, and some are not.  Some are so much not showy that they are hard to spot.  The best meadow for orchids is this next one.

The Orchid Bank.  High Elms Country Park, 30 May 2012.

The ground here is almost pure chalk, and in some spots it's quite bare, but even so there is a rich flora.  You have to get down and look, something botanists do almost without thinking.  (I have just deleted a paragraph that says exactly where the orchids are. Unscrupulous collectors exist.)

When orchids look like the Common Twayblade or the Man Orchid, they are very hard to spot without some practice, and even those with pretty shapes and colours like the Bee Orchid are not really conspicuous.  Here are some of High Elms' orchids from a post last year.

There are several other openings and glades with orchids and other plants, and the woods also contain interesting things.  For example, Parrot Waxcaps, Glowworms, and a pit where bats hibernate. I am lucky to live only 10 minutes' drive away.

I'll finish, not with a flashy orchid, but with some Twayblades, green and inconspicuous.

Common Twayblade, Neottia ovata.  High Elms Country Park, 30 May 2012.

Here are the flowers close up.

Common Twayblade, Neottia ovata.  High Elms Country Park, 30 May 2012.

Jubilee Country Park Wildflowers, 2012

Wildflower walk in Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

This was a regular annual walk in Jubilee Country Park, specifically to look at the wildflower population.  It was introduced by the Chairman of the Friends group, Jennie Randall, and led by John Bruce and Sally Morris.

It was a week earlier than the walk in 2011, and there was much less on show - there was less general development, even allowing for the week's difference. The odd weather pattern this year probably accounts for that.

But we still saw a lot, and I also managed to get some photos of invertebrates, though we  didn't see many, and in particular, not a single butterfly on this cold and overcast morning.

Bladder Campion, Silene vulgaris.   Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

This was my favourite flower of the day.  The delicate white lanterns of Bladder Campion, each with three long, mauve-tipped styles hanging from them.  We saw one cluster of these plants in one of the meadows.  On this plant you can also see what we used to call Cuckoo-spit; a cluster of bubbles which shelter the young of froghoppers, which live by sucking the plant's sap.

Common Swift, Hepalius lupulinus.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

And this was my favourite insect.  In the absence of butterflies, at least there were several moths.  This one was pointed out by the group; I followed and caught it, and held it gently in my hand while I chased and photographed yet another moth, shown below, then released this one where I could capture its image.  So this photo represents more work than usual.

It's not really a day-flying moth and must have been disturbed by the party.  It's one of a group of moths that hold their wings close to their sides when resting, whereas most of the larger moths hold their forewings out, flat to the ground.

Galls on Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, caused by a fungus, Taphrina pruni. Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

  We also saw a couple of interesting galls. This one turned up in a couple of places and puzzled the group,  but I was able to identify it at home with the aid of one of my books.  Those pods take the place of the expected sloes, and are empty.   This is caused by a fungus that infects the bush, destroying the seed and stone, and later the pods will turn grey or brown, covered with the tiny fruiting bodies of the fungus.  It infects the stems and will still be there next year.

Rose bush in the hedgerow.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

This prolific rose bush was also in a hedgerow.  It's probably a Dog Rose, Rosa canina, but I can't be sure without a closer examination.

After a while I felt as though my trainers had been filled with water and I was wading. The grass was soaked, and we made several forays off the paths to see interesting plants.  This one was the prize:

Common Spotted Orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

Probably our commonest orchid, but not at all common in this park, which is mostly on acid soils.  It is likely that the large concrete slabs of the wartime gun emplacements have caused enough alkalinity to allow some orchids to grow even half a century later.  We found four flowering stems; this is what the top photo shows.

Here's another insect.

Malachite Beetle, Malachius bipustulatus.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

We saw a few of these Malachite Beetles.  They are small, but quite showy, with a shiny green carapace and orange body.  From above, you can see two orange spots at the ends of its wing-cases, which give it its Latin species name.   I don't suppose the spider on top of the buds was actually aware of it; it was probably more worried by the way I was bending the plant over to take the photo!

It's interesting that beetles, which seem so shiny and smooth to the naked eye, turn out to be hairy all over when you see them close up.

Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

Tiny white stars in the grass, as its Latin name suggests.

Melanostoma scalare, a Hoverfly, in a Meadow Buttercup flower.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

From head height these look like small black flies, but they actually have a typical Hoverfly coloration with yellow triangles on a black abdomen, in a shape that is typical of this species.  There is a gap between the eyes, so this is a female, and it has triangular "dust" marks on the front of its face, another identifier for the species.

Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

This was another one we slogged though the wet grass to see!  When the fruit dries out, it rattles, and this is supposed to indicate that it's harvest time.

Here's the other moth I chased:

Lime-speck Pug, Eupithecia centaureata.  Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

Like some other small moths, it looks rather like a bird dropping from any distance, and this should help it to fool predators. 

This quick run-through only shows a fraction of the things we saw.  Next year, we will probably go round one or two weeks later and it will be even better and more interesting, so if you are within reach you might like to join in.

Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus.  Last year's Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, is in the background.
Ray's Pond, Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.

These photos and a few others from the day are in an on-line Picasa album here: Jubilee Country Park, 2 June 2012.