Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Yesterday was Flying Ant Day in Fulham. That day in the year that flying ants come out and kamikaze style whack into everything, largely including my head.
It is of course on flying ant day that people walk around going "it's flying ant day - look at all those ants". All day. And to everyone that they know. As if we all know why it is that the ants take to the air, and that we care. Or that we have some affinity with the ants, or even that we had been looking forward to flying ant day. Although it has no cultural significance, it never gets on the news, everyone was talking about flying ants yesterday. I suppose it beats going around saying "it is hot" all day which is equally inane. Maybe it's the company I keep during the day. Anyway, I didn't take any photos of the ants, but instead I proffer some random buggage that I have come across recently.
Exhibit 1
Harpalus affinus
According to my book...
The elytra range from metallic green or blue, through bronzy red, to almost black with the outer areas punctate and slightly pubescent.
I have no idea what that means.
It is small and it looks like this.
Exhibit 2
Yellow Shell. Camptogramma bilineata
It's a moth.
Exhibit 3.
Ringlet.
Aphantopus hyperantus.
It's a butterfly.
I have recently found a spider with a pink back but I cannot discuss this here as spiders, as I am sure you know dear reader, are not bugs.
I did see some birds yesterday. But it wasn't very exciting.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
...and another moth free post.
There have not been many blog posts here lately, because not much is happening. Unless you call grebes flying 'a happening'. I've looked, but I haven't found much. Not much happening, not much blogging. That's how it works, innit.
A Yellow-legged Gull was recently seen on the patch, not by me either - see here. Usually, if they stay for a little while, they stay for a long while. If you get me.
There is a Chaffinch by my house that cheeps for most of the evening, almost constantly. It is getting annoying.
I don't know anyone who wants Uruguay to win tonight.
That oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is still leaking.
Home made scotch eggs are quite lovely.
There is a programme on the telly on Thursday about Harpy Eagles. It is an hour long. Yummy.
The moths from the other day were a European Corn-borer and Dark Arches. One is a pest, and the other looks nothing like the picture in my book.
Birdlife now have a blog going on called the Birdlife Community. It's ace. Get on it. It's not just conservation, or doom and gloom. Just check out this Woodpecker. And their tag cloud is immense.
Micro moths are not necessarily really small.
This picture is of a butterfly, not a moth.
A tatty White Admiral doing, phwoar look at that underwing!
I lied about this being a moth free post.
Friday, July 02, 2010
Someone please tell me what these bloody moths are! I've been through my book at least 10 times trying to find something that is fits and have come close, but not close enough. They are doing my bonce in. Twisting my melons in fact.
Moth 1. Not quite a Broken Barred Carpet, or is it.
Moth 2 - I can't even remember what I thought this was.
Yes, the quality isn't great, but no moths were harmed or chilled in the making of this blogpost.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Beauty does not necessitate colour. That's not another quote from one of those book things, it's an observation what I made. Yes, Bee-eaters and Kingfishers are beautiful but some of my favourite birds are black. Or white. Or a combination of both, for monochrome simplicity is also beautiful. And so it is with moths.
This moth (called an Ermine) was found in the kitchen over the weekend. Dead, as you expected.
Very pretty moth (especially when it's alive). Black and white doing it again. Note the red patch on the back of it's head - it's not the norm. I have seen this in Ermine before (get me! Sounding like a right lepidopterist!) and this is how I reckon it happens. They fly to the light bulb and bounce off. And do it again, and again. This slowly burns the fur (?) on the back of it's head of and then when it keeps going to the light it fries it's little brain up, and there it ends. There was another one on the kitchen floor last week which also looked dead. However, I picked it up and took it to the back garden where twenty seconds of direct sunlight brought it back to life and it flew off.
My moth list is now charging through the 20's with the addition of a few more species including this Light Emerald (Campaea margaritata), which can be assumed to be fresh as it is still quite greeny.
And no, over the weekend, I didn't see the Little Stint at Brent Res, nor the Common Rosefinch in Tottenham, but I might well see some Coots later today.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I'm still a bit old fashioned when it comes to identification. I want to look in a book to find out what something is. This means that I have lots of books about identification of birds (not that it means that I get it right of course) and when it comes to moths and butterflies the same applies. The two moths that I proffered yesterday were not in my book, so I had to go to my percieved second option and ask someone else. I could have done what Jonathon claims to have done and go to the UK Moths website and look through the pictures of all the species until I found the right one, and then wouldn't have bothered y'all with my little request. The thing is that it never actually occured to me! Not for one minute did I think that there may have been a valuable resource online that could help. Not in a book, see. So for those that are still interested...
Image 1 was a Bee Moth Aphomia sociella and it is common. Bee Moths are sexually dimorphic, and this was a female. They are, of course, common.
Image 2 was a Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana. UK Moths says the following about it...
This originally Australian species was probably accidentally introduced into Cornwall in the 1930's and since then has spread quickly northwards, and is now regular in many parts, and very common in some areas [of course - Ed.].
A pest species in Australian orchards, it is one of the most catholic polyphages in Britain, and should be considered as a possibility when identifying larvae off any plant.
It flies in two generations between May and October.
So there.
For the sake having a picture - here is another moth. It is called a Grey Dagger. But it might be a Dark Dagger. The only way to tell them apart is to analyse their genitals. And it might kill it. Which is a bit unfortunate if you just found the rarer of the two, yes? But I don't know how to analyse moth genitals and to be honest, I have no inclination to find out. So lets assume that it's the common species, right?
Grey Dagger doing Acronicta psi
What I'll do today, right, is go out into the patch and watch some birds. Good idea, eh? Don't go thinking that this blog is going to go all moth mad all summer. It's is but a small diversion. Honest guv.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Continuing the rather rubbish theme of moths and kitchen there have been some of note recently. To me, not of any national significance nevermind local significance. I find that I locate a moth, spend an age trying to identify it and then find out that it is so common that seeing a Robin in a west London garden is actually more interesting. Anyway, recently there has been Golden Fringe, Garden Pebble, Common Pug, Hebrew Character and a carpet whose name escapes me.
A lot of people on the interweb don't try and work out what the identification of a species is. They just lazily upload their pictures to Birdforum or some such and learn nothing in the process. At the opposite end of the scale, lies yours truly. Utterly determined to identify everything for myself, but failing due to the limited resource before me. There are two (probably common moths) that I frustratingly cannot identify. These two that I present here are not in my book (or at any angle that makes them identifiable) and I proffer them to the wider world (photographed in my incredible moth catcher).
A moth doing unidentified.
Another moth doing unidentified.
Any ideas?
Saturday, May 15, 2010
whatammagonnado?
Stick it on the blog, obviously.
Last year on this blog (I can say that because I've been spinning this tedium out for everyone for an age) during the late summer I stated that this was a moth free zone as many of my peers were filling the birdless days by finding moths and butterflies and things. That didn't half make for some pretty repetitive postings. I recant. This post will contain a picture of a bug. Why the change I hear you ask. Why not I say. They often stay still long enough to get a rubbish photo of and I have a book now, so I can now mis-identify moths and butterflies as readily as I do Gulls. Hurrah!
So here we go, the first in an occasional and quite possibly very short series of posts on moths...
A Brimstone Moth doing Opisthograptis luteolata
