I had to travel to London for a few days. Not too much on the agenda whilst there so I managed to go to a couple of my favourite sites, Nunhead Cemetery and Brockley Cemetery, I also mooched about looking for plants in the streets, and I had a garden I could investigate. I'd not been to London at this time of year for a good many years, and whilst I used to live in southern England I was not much into insects and my botanising was pretty much limited to the chalk Downs and orchid hunting. So the trip added quite a few species to the pan-species list. I only took the wee Olympus Tough with me so the photos may not be quite up to the usual standard, especially since mine is a fairly old TG-4, although it is a surprisingly good macro camera. It is taking quite a while to work through all the photos, more than 700, and things like Andrena bees are a bit of a headache to identify, so this post is somewhat incomplete.
The first evening I managed to find Petty Spurge (everywhere) and Hop on the Brockley streets. Annual Mercury, Euphorbia oblongata and Greater Celandine were also added fairly sharply the next day. But Tuesday afternoon at Nunhead Cemetery was more the business, sunny and warm, not too much wind, and lots of flying insects; why had I not brought a net?
Hoverflies were everywhere as were a lot bees, Holly Blue were most evident with the occasional Orange Tip and Speckled Wood and I was quickly on to Dock Bug - new.
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| Dock Bug Coreus marginatus |
Searching through the low hanging branches of a few oak sp I came across the spectacular Black-headed Cardinal Beetle Pyrochra coccinea.
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| Cardinal Beetle Pyrochra coccinea |
I thought I had a Cream-streaked Ladybird, but too small! It was one of the more confusing iterations of 10-Spot.
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| 10-Spot Ladybird Adalia decapunctata |
7-Spot and 14-Spot were also found.
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| 7-Spot Ladybird Coccinella septempunctata |
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| 14-Spot Ladybird Propylea quattuordecimpunctata |
Bee-flies turned out to be Dark-edged, and not the hoped for Spotted. But the striking Anthomyia pluvialis was common - and new.
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| Anthomyia pluvialis |
Another dipteran that I think I've only recorded once before was Phasia hemiptera.
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| An interesting Tachinid fly that is a parasitoid of plant bugs like Birch Shieldbug Elasmostethus intersinctus, laying its eggs on the adult bug, the larvae once hatched eat the host from within until it expires (I think this to be correct). |
Most frustrating was a tiny 'picture-winged' fly Euleia heraclei, the Celery Fly. I like these insects but they are not easy to photograph, especially with the TG4, this is where I most missed my EM-1.
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| Celery Fly Euleia heraclei, tiny, and very active |
Equally frustrating were what I think were a species of nomad bee which appeared to be hunting for nests of burrowing bees. These were so active and rarely paused for a moment. In the end I managed to identify them as Nomada fabriciana and get some very poor images. There were several other bee species, these are always tricky to identify but 'm fairly happy with these identifications, correction welcome!
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| Andrena scotica Chocolate Mining Bee |
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| Andrena chrysosceles |
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| Andrena haemhorrhoa |
I collected a few very small beetles on flowers which turned out to be Byturus tomentosus and Meligethes aeneus, both common enough things, but I'd not found them previously. These are the sort of things which are much easier to identify if you have Duff, the investment was worthwhile for sure.
The hoverflies were very active with many Myathropa florea. More interesting perhaps were Eupeodes luniger found on the bridge just before the cemetery where there were 100s of aphids (still unidentified) on Prickly Lettuce. Dasysyrphus albostriatus briefly on a gravestone and Epistrophe melanostoma.
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| Epistrophe melanostoma, female (thanks CS and RM) |
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| Myathropa florea |
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| Syrphus vitripennis (probably) female |
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| Syrphus sp |
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| Xylota segnis |
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| Eupeodes luniger |
Birds were plentiful, Chiffchaff and Blackcap especially, but there was a Whitethroat singing in Brockley Cemetery.
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| Green Hairstreak was a nice surprise in Brockley Cemetery. |
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| Holly Blue in Nunhead and Brockley Cemeteries. |
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| Large Red Damselfly at Nunhead. |
I'm realising this is a long list of species... and let alone what else I recorded round and about and in Brockley Cemetery, although a quick mention for Psallus albicinctus which I found there, and there were many interesting galls, especially on Turkey Oak.
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| Psallus albicinctus, keyed through Nau, the fine spots on the head and pronotum, the shape of the hind femur and the extent of the spots on the hind femur led me to this ID, quite an uncommon bug I think (specimen retained and microscopically examined). |
However, a quick jump to the garden of where I was staying where on an angelica cultiva there was a Honey Bee that remained very still, remarkably so until under closer observation I discovered why.
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| Misumena vatia with an unfortunate Apis mellifera Honey Bee |
The long task of editing the images complete, now to add everything to iRecord.... I added around 30 species to my P-SL in, effectively, two days. I think I might head south again shortly, maybe.
