A while back (2019, time flies) Sarathy Korwar released an album - More Arriving, which I like very much, both the music and the humanity expressed resonate in these divisive times (digital album available on Bandcamp for £7.20ish). Anyway, this is a bit of a crude device to put some politics (Scottish Parliament elections approaching....) into a bit a seasonal phenomenon with migrant birds currently trickling back to their breeding grounds. I heard Cuckoo yesterday at the community woodland whilst minding my insect traps, Chiffchaff and Blackcap were also present.
The main migrant event (in the natural as opposed to human world) has been a huge arrival of moths from Mauritania/Western Sahara (thanks SN), namely Small Mottled Willow Spodoptera exigua. I trapped in our garden on 7th April and there were two Spodoptera exigua, one netted in the evening and one in the blue LED Heath trap.
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| Small Mottled Willow Spodoptera exigua |
According to Leverton and Cubitt 2024 these are the first records for Mid-Perthshire. The next night I trapped at the community woodland and caught another. That would indicate there are many thousands at loose in the Perthshire countryside.
These light trapping sessions, at home and at the community woodland were excellent overall. I'd not seen Small Mottled Willow before so that was NFM, and there was also Satellite in the trap which I've seen very few of. The next evening at the CCW there were two more moth species NFM, a very fresh and smart Lead-coloured Drab and two Eriocrania sangii as well as another Satellite and a Water Carpet.
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| Satellite |
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| Eriocrania sangii |
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| Lead-coloured Drab |
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Water Carpet The Eriocrania sangii are slightly problematic. The better marked one looked good for E. sangii, but unfortunately there is a confusion species, E. semipurpurella. The extent of the pale tornal spot should be good enough to determine the species but I noticed online a comment that dissection might be necessary, and checking Chris Lewis' commentary he also recommended dissection for certainty. Females are fairly straightforward to determine with dissection, the differences with males are more subtle. One of my specimens had lost most of its scales, although there were long scales on the hind wings so it was one of these two species, just possibly I had both. Dissecting tiny moths seems like an impossible task but generally it is surprisingly easy, chop off the abdomen and put it in 10% KOH. Just leave it there for 10 hours or so at a cool temperature, everything can be speeded up by increasing the temperature, but don't completely dissolve the specimen! Then tease everything apart under the microscope with mounting pins. The two moths turned out to be males and the dissections required removing the aedaegus from the rest of the genital apparatus. The differences are quite subtle -explanation here- https://www.mothdissection.co.uk/species.php?ABH=2.00800  |
Subtle,but I think these are ok for E. sangii.
On a somewhat lighter note a pair of Long-tailed Tits performed rather nicely for me at the CCW.
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| Long-tailed Tit. |
To more earthy matters, the dead leveret by the hub is a treasure trove, if a tad smelly.
Why a treasure trove? Because it is full of beetles. Catops chrsomeloides (confirmed MS, thank you) was the smallest and most active, requiring a rather disgusting poot from the corpse! Nicrophorus vespilloides was spectacular but not unexpected, Thanatophilus rugosus, familiar, and the next day quite a few Oiceoptoma thoracicum, something I'd not seen prior to moving to Perthshire.
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| Red-breasted Carrion Beetle Oiceoptoma thoracicum, on the hare and on other suitably enticing carrion there were 30 in all. |
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| Nicrophorus vespilloides |
The Common Whitlowgrass is, well, common at the woodland this year and even flowering under the hub building.
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| Common Whitlowgrass Erophila verna |
In the sunshine there were quite a few Peacock Butterflies, Dark-bordered Bee-fly and a few hoverflies which I struggled to photograph or identify. I need to go back with a net.
A couple of Drinker were likely searching for somewhere to pupate.
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| Drinker Euthrix potatoria |
The vane traps have begun to capture things, although I need to modify them as they require a better rain guard. I'll probably report on those in the next post, but they are producing beetle species I'm unfamiliar with, so much time is required to identify the captures.
Finally, and in another obtuse political reference linking with the post title, there was a small drama on the surface of the pond by the hub. On inspecting it I found Pterostichus nigrita/rhaeticus swimming across the surface, not what either species is adapted for (to species by dissection only), it must have fallen in. The carnivorous pond skaters (species not determined) took a significant interest and it looked like the beetle was going to be dinner. But, perhaps the bugs were sated on tadpole, the Pterostichus made it to some vegetation and clambered out.
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| Pterostichus nigrita/rhaeticus- more fortunate than many humans trying to reach UK shores. |
