Sunny, warm Orkney!!?

 The temperature changed suddenly, the skies cleared, and it's forecast to last, a week, maybe longer. The warm weather has brought migrant insects, lots of them. There was a post in the hoverfly group about an influx of hovers to a North Sea rig, and sure enough, two days later the wave hit us. As predicted in the post plenty of Episyrphus balteatus with Eupeodes corollae. But today in the conservatory were at least two Meliscaeva auricollis (I've only ever seen one here before, and a known migrant, Scaeva pyrastri in the greenhouse.

Episyrphus balteatus, female.

Eupeodes corollae, female.

Meliscaeva auricollis, female.

The most obvious migrant though were Red Admiral, they are everywhere. At least seven in the Wee Wood this morning and maybe 25 in the back garden around the Swedish Whitebeam.

Red Admiral, on Swedish Whitebeam flowers.

We glimpsed two likely Silver Ys as well.

I haven't run the moth trap since this influx, but Sunday night produced a better selection including Small Phoenix, White Ermine, Lychnis, Poplar Hawk-moth, Udea olivalis and Garden Carpet, all new for the year. There were a couple of pugs as well which I think are Wormwood Pug and Common Pug - corrections most welcome!

Wormwood Pug, I think, I find these tricky.

Common Pug, I think, but worn and thus very tricky.

The pheromone traps have produced various Hymenoptera, which have gone into labelled tubes to be done when I have some time. The FUN lure has produced a good run of Epiblema scutulana with a 5, a 7, a 2 and today a 1.

Epiblema scutulana.

In the LEEK trap there was a Staphy on 5th June. It turned out to be Quedius mesomelinus which is not common in Scotland and had not been found in Orkney since 1913. What's more the record came from Auskerry, a tiny island south of Stronsay, with one house and a lighthouse. It was suggested to me that maybe a lighthouse keeper had discovered the beast, which is a good theory, a trip to Stromness Museum, or the Kirkwall Archive might throw some light on the circumstances of that find.

Quedius mesomelinus, male, post dissection.

Aedegus lateral view.

Aedegus, dorsal view. Dissection was required to prove the ID.

Three other really good beetles this week as well, my favourite being Elaphrus cupreus on the shore of Loch of Bosquoy, I found two.

Elaphrus cupreus, not many Orkney records.

.... to be continued or not, as I haven't got back to this. There was an outing with the Field Club to a very nice field up behind Finstown, which I'll quickly note as I found what is likely a new moth for the county.

Anania terrealis, new for Orkney.

The field was full of micros, mostly Ancylis badiana, but there were a few larger moths which mostly turned out to be Anania fuscialis, which I've seen previously at Yesnaby. However, looking through the images the next morning the Anania terrealis appeared!

Anania fuscialis.

Crambus pascuella.

Puccinia hieracii, on Taraxacum sp

Puccinia poarum on Colt'sfoot.

Oh, and there was Moonwort.

Moonwort.