Many small things

Not much avian news in this quick follow up post. The most notable occurrence in the last week has been the singing of Song Thrushes. From not seeing any all winter pretty much, suddenly in a few days they are singing everywhere. A day or so later and Chaffinch started singing as well. The first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year put in a brief appearance and my key species to add to the Patch list must be Woodcock. I shall begin crepuscular roaming on suitable evenings shortly.

I found Megabunus diademea on my favourite wall, a wall I scrutinise almost daily that runs up the side of the Earthquake Field. I thought I hadn't seen this species previously, but I recently found an old notebook with quite a few pages of data and there is a record in there, this from the late 80's 90's. There's a bit of interesting data in the notebook, some stuff that I know isn't proven, but some Carabids that I will have done correctly as I was well practised in them in those days. These will boost the P-S List.

Megabunus diamedea

Before I went to London in early February I'd found a Staphylinid beetle in another nearby wall, I'd taken a moss sample and within was the beetle and a false scorpion. I'd had a go at the beetle prior to departure, but I wasn't getting anywhere with Lott, the RES key. So I left the beetle on my desk. I had another go at identifying it recently and again made little headway. The problem was that as it had a small apical section of the maxillary palps I was convinced it was Paederinae and I was keying it presupposing that was the answer, well I think that was going on. I tried again today, keying it with Mike Hackston's key and after a bit of back and forth I came to Othius, and indeed it looks as if it is Othius subuliformis, but I'll need to check that before iRecord-ing.

I've eventually succumbed to the inevitable and ordered Andrew Duff's latest volume of Beetles, Staphylinidae, at some expense, but this is a Family that I like, are underrecorded and apart from the Aleocharines are generally identifiable. Quite a lot of money for a book though.

Aedaegus, I ended up dissecting it as I just couldn't get a match, and of course the aedaegus didn't match any of the Lathrobium species. That did convince me I'd gone off track somewhere.

Othius (thanks for checking my ID CW), perhaps O. subuliformis, 5.5mm

Another interesting beeetle from my favourite wall was this larvae. I had no idea which Family but CA kindly suggested Cantharidae, and possibly Cantharis rustica. A bit of research indicates that this predatory larva is active in winter and is a likely possibility, despite being a quite uncommon species in Perthshire.

Cantharis larva, quite small, c8mm, perhaps Cantharis rustica.

Also on the wall Dicyrtoma fusca, one of those globular Collembula, I'm not sure I've found this species locally previously.

Dicyrtoma fusca

When I walk to the Linn, the swimming hole on Water of Ruchill I pass a good few old Ash trees. It is amazing what you walk past without noticing! I've taken to examining these trees a bit more closely of late and several are host to Lungwort, a really rather spectacular lichen.

Lobaria pulmonaria Lungwort

I ran a light trap for one night in February, the one suitable night I was at home and the temperature was above 4C and there was no torrential down-pour. Good result; a very early Hebrew Character, five Pale Brindled Beauty and 14 Chestnut.

Chestnut

Hebrew Character and a couple of Chestnut

Pale Brindled Beauty

I've been to a couple of cemeteries as well, revisits to Strowan Woodland Cemetery and the White Church cemetery in the village, both visits were productive with quite a few interesting plants in the village cemetery; all good for PSL.

In Strowan I got some nice field images of Anotylus rugosus, a common enough beetle which I used to find very regularly on loch shores in Orkney. Getting field images of such a fast moving beast was pleasing.

Anotylus rugosus new of the Cemetery Wildlife Watch activity, surprisingly.

I need to revisit the site shortly as I also found this:

Andricus quercusradicis, agamic, the colloquial name is Truffle Gall

 

Thanks to SL and PS from the British Galls FB Group for the ID, I really had not a clue. Agamic means that the gall is the product of asexual egg laying by the female wasp. The gall made by the egg laying of mated females is different and has a different colloquial name. There are very few records of this species on the NBN and just one other from Scotland. It was suggested that I go back and take a sample to see if anything emerges in the spring, but these are old galls and to me it looks as if there are emergence holes so the quarry may have departed.

The PSL community is split about counting galls on their lists. Not split about recording these things, just the listing element. In the past I've not counted galls but in order to see the insect/organism it would be necessary to disturb the gall and probably kill the offspring. On balance I would prefer to leave the gall undisturbed and count the species in cases like this. I found Robin's Pincushion  at Tentsmuir last year, the gall of the hymenopteran Diplolepis rosae, and left it be. I'm inclined to add these two to the list to be honest.