Literate herring, this way.: Bits and bats and beavers

Friday, 7 August 2026

Bits and bats and beavers

This post is a tidy up. The blog is my wildlife diary (mostly), I quite often refer back to it for dates of wildlife events and to check photos etc referenced to my notebook. Things have been quite hectic recently and I've not posted about quite a few events which, for me at any rate, were remarkable or interesting.

Near home the other evening

At the moment the house is still covered in scaffold, the roof getting fixed, and it's raining a lot - it is Scotland in the summer. I'm listening to Hopefully! by Loyle Carner, on CD which elder daughter gave me a few weeks back and I've just got around to listening to, and enjoying, very much - music posts belong elsewhere though....

I've been doing quite a bit of Orkney mothing from here in Perthshire. I do the dissections of the commoner things for the CMR, the new for county etc go to more expert hands, although I did dissect the first Mottled Rustic for the islands, it's provenance being just a tad doubtful as it was found dead in a house.

Mottled Rustic Caradrina morpheus

I got gently told off by the expert dissectors for not fully opening the valves, but I always find that tricky, they tend to spring back, apparently squashing the specimen flat under the cover slip and then setting it with alcohol works, but that is not the easiest operation I find. Anyway, I think the lateral view helps and the ID was confirmed. (Thanks to GW for trusting me with the specimen.)

I've dissected a few things for myself as well, proving the first Mesapamea secalis for the garden, surprisingly, until now, the ones I'd checked had all been M. didyma Lesser Common Rustic, and the two I checked at the same time were both M. didyma. Also checking out a Rustic/Uncertain - it turns out to be Rustic Hoplodrina blanda (maybe) despite it, to my eye, looking like Uncertain Hoplodrina octogeneria. Not the easiest dissection as, it being a male, once getting the bits out it is necessary to dissect the aedaegus to see the number of the cornuti in the apex and I made a bit of a mess of that.

Rustic Hoplodrina blanda, probably

This should show the cornuti in two clear groups, but other than there being a lot of them, which points to H. blanda, it isn't that clear.

The shape of the juxta should be helpful, but it seems attenuated, perhaps better for H. octogeneria

I continue to be a verification assistant for Butterfly Conservation despite my relative in-expertise. However, every day is a learning day. It certainly focuses the mind when you are identifying for other folk and ensuring the data set is good. Some of the challenges come along before the moth gets to iRecord and I'm sent things. I've also been looking at historical records.

Puss Moth Cerura vinula, on an allotment close to ours recently.

Without going in to too much detail I've recently been able to confirm that Sallow Kitten is a valid Orkney species with two good records from 1977 (many thanks to MY for delving into his notebooks). I will write this up at a later date.

I've been quite lazy about my own mothing, not setting the traps very often. However, I continue to amass huge amounts of data with casual observations and captures. I spent the other afternoon under one of my favourite trees, there are a lot of those to choose from! This is a particular Salix caprea Goat Willow on the Community Woodland.

Salix caprea Goat Willow

It is a huge, beautiful and probably rather ancient beast. One of my vane traps is quite close to it so I visit regularly.

The list of species I amassed the other afternoon was quite impressive and included two species of insect that I had never come across previously, and a fungi.