London calling

I had to go to London just before Xmas. So far south always offers an opportunity to add a few PSL ticks. The cemeteries in Orkney are manicured and really no place for wildlife, things are better in Perthshire, but in Lewisham there are two large and wild cemeteries at Nunhead and in Brockley. So an opportunity to contribute to Cemetery Wildlife Watch (an iRecord activity - https://irecord.org.uk/activities/summary?group_id=2043&implicit=f )

Nunhead Cemetery entrance.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery, an area of good habitat.

Nunhead was first on the 17th and the star find was surprisingly a snail, Thames Door Snail Balea biplicata which is quite a rare beast, its range has been contracting in recent years.

Balea biplicata.

A new moth for me, a bagworm.

Psyche casta, larval case. I didn't check if the cases were occupied.

There were plenty of Harlequin pupal cases, and one adult.

Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis.

Both cemeteries were full of Ring-necked Parakeets of course. The best bird was quite a surprise, a Green Woodpecker in Brockley Cemetery afforded some close views.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery also produced some good inverts. Highlight was probably 24-spot Ladybird, I found two pupae. To be honest I had no idea what these were, plant/animal/fungi??? But fortunately PTS did know these (thank you).

24-spot Ladybird Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata.

Other highlights from Brockley were this mirid.

Deraeocoris lutescens.

Another snail, but not such an uncommon one.

Hygromia cinctella.

There were a couple of barkfly species. One was identified for me Valenzuela flavidus (further thanks to PTS). The other keyed out to Ectopsocus petersi, but there is some doubt that the key gives a reliable result, and it may be that gendet is required to be certain of this species.

A male Ectopsocus petersi, maybe.

Valenzuela flavidus.

I've been a bit quick to tick E. petersi PSL-wise, and on recent infomation I should probably leave it as pending. We'll see what the verifiers on iRecord think.

The only botanical PSL tick was Cherry Plum, Prunus cerafisera, I found some young plants sprouting near a more mature tree of this species. I did find the moss Tortula muralis as well, I have seen it before, but it wasn't listed, so sort of a tick.

A last tick was a Collembula, Dicyrtoma fusca, which I haven't recorded before. These were common at both cemeteries along with the very common Dicyrtomina saundersi.

Dcyrtoma fusca.

Dicyrtomina saundersi.

Of course there were a number of unidentified/unidentifiable things that I photographed. This hymenopteran is a Cynipidae, a gall wasp (thanks BL). Which species though is an altogether more challenging, and impossible without a specimen, issue.

A gall wasp of some sort....

All beastie photos were taken with the Olympus Tough TG4. In the end I regretted not taking the EM-5 with the 30mm macro, I will next time. 

Some random cemetery views follow. Taken with the TG4 or Pixel 7.

A Nunhead grave.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery views.

Cute

 The cold weather and my adjusted feeding regime have led to a new regular visitor to the garden.

Red Squirrel, actually just out of the garden but a regular visitor in the last couple of weeks.

This species is undeniably cute. We usually have one, but occasionally two turn up. The Bank Voles continue to be active in the wall by the feeders, and pretty much everywhere else, I if I take the time to look. Less welcome are the mice in the garage. These are probably Wood Mouse, deployment of the camera trap may be required, indeed deployment of live traps to remove the wee beasties may have to be considered. Roe Deer have only once made it into the garden but are regular close by and Red Deer are a possibility, I'd probably need to leave a tempting snack on the grass.

More cold weather and an accidental spill of nyjer seed brought 49 Chaffinch into the garden. One new species for the patch has been Lapwing, Sparrowhawk sightings are more frequent and Redwing are a constant presence although the Fieldfares seem to have moved through. The kite roost probably continues to include upwards of 80 birds, but counting them is not the easiset. And Woodpigeon numbered a record day count, with a single flock of 350+ the highlight.

Bullfinch, these have been feeding around the garden in the cold.

More delving in the fridge produced some interesting and new moths. I'd caught a couple of ear moths in September. Despite being macros the dissections of these are not necessarily definitive. The four species can be paired and habitat and distribution are helpful. One of these was a male and certainly Large Ear Amphipoea luscens. The other was a female and somewhat confusing as a feature highlighted on Moth Dissection is said by Chris Lewis (British Lepidoptera) to be difficult and perhaps unreliable. In the end I decided that on the balance of characters, distribution and habitat it had also to be A. luscens but it was a useful lesson in figuring these out.

Female genitalia Amphipoea luscens.

Amphipoea luscens, female, I believe.

Male Amphipoea luscens Large Ear.

A. luscens, male gendet, no doubt about this one, although there could have been fewer bubbles in the prep'.

There were a couple of micros to work out as well. A somewhat worn, tiny white beast puzzled me, but the AI gave me a 100% certainty for Elachista maculicerusella. Checking in the books proved this to be correct so I didn't bother to dissect it. Reed Canary Grass Leafminer is, I think, the new colloquial name for this species.

Elachista maculicerusella.

The other micro proved to be more troublesome, I initially thought it was a Coleophora species but when I posted it with its dissection online I was helped to the correct family and fairly soon to an identification of Ypsolopha ustella (thanks BS). This would be the 7th VC record of this species, so well worth dissecting.

Male gendet Ypsolopha ustella.

Ypsolopha ustella male.

A couple of water beetles were identified, the best of which was the distinctive, but apparently not especially common Strictonectes lepidus.

Strictonectes lepidus.

In this period I also had a bit of a mooch around the White Church cemetery, and found a few fungi. It will be worth further exploration I suspect. At the moment the photos are evading me. So some pictures from around the patch instead.