History two

Sadly my Rhanthus exsoletus record proved to be a mis-identification. I'm not quite sure how it came about, and why I'd rushed to put it on iRecord before it had been verified by BR the Orkney CCR and also how I'd mis-placed the photos. Anyway, one to scrub. At least the Cercyon unipunctatus was found and identified from this lead so one loss, one win.

In searching for the Rhanthus (not) I went through a box of old specimens. These were all identified and had been checked by BR. Back whilst I was still at work many things were done at a bit of a rush and so some of these specimens had not been checked properly after they were returned to me. In amongst a lot of common species which I'm familiar with I found a Limnebius truncatellus and a Hydroporus memnonius. I went back to Friday and keyed these out and then photographed them again. Interestingly, I've subsequently recorded Limnebius truncatellus here at Ross Bank.

Hydroporus memnonius, although there seems to be an issue identifying these to species. It keyed out fine via Friday and in the close up of the elytra you can make out the two rows of larger pores (just).

I then went on to another box of old specimens, pitfall trap catches that had not been sorted. The tube I pulled out was from very productive traps I placed by a dead Rook in our Orkney garden. The usual suspects were discovered, Philonthus marginatus, a very nice Philonthus splendens which I dissected, another Philonthus, a female that was probably P. carbonarius, but I couldn't be certain, Cercyon melanocephalus and then something unfamiliar.

Aedaegus of Philonthus splendens, nails the ID, and not a bad dissection and image.

I knew the mystery beetle was Leiodidae, but this is quite a tricky family, so on the off-chance I ran this tiny beetle through Obsidentify. Sciodrepoides watsoni 100% came the result. It's always easier to work through the key with a species in mind, next stop Mike Hackston's Leiodidae key. It keyed nicely until the last couplet which splits the two UK species of this genus. The antennal criteria seemed clear but on posting to the FB Group CW suggested that the antennal segments feature might not be as reliable as indicated in the key and MS suggested the identification was correct but it is more to do with how the antennae look, more robust, or less so. I decided a dissection was required.

Sciodrepoides watsoni dorsal

Sciodrepoides watsoni ventral

Aedaegus dorsal direct camera image

Aedaegus dorsal view, microscope image.

The aedaegus nailed the ID. 

 

This is the second Orkney record, the first was found in 1977 by Vincent Lorimer (Ian Lorimer's son) near Orphir. Quite a gap of time between the records.

 

I did manage to track down the other Cercyon unipunctatus record (see previous post), the NBN did reveal a bit more information on retrying. B. Poppius found the beetle in Kirkwall sometime between 1800 and 1905. Whilst the species is unmistakable the date is a bit to vague for this to be a useful record I think.

 

The rate at which I'm adding bird species to the patch list has slowed dramatically. Nothing more since the Stonechat and Red-legged Partridge within a few minutes and yards of each other back in early October, until walking back from counting the kite roost in the gloaming the other afternoon a Woodcock flew over my head. Some of the missing species are very surprising, so far no Skylark or Crossbill. However, I have recently discovered that although my hearing is good for Goldcrest and Treecreeper I am missing calling finches flying over, I can't hear them!

 

I don't usually bother to try to identify spiders. The other afternoon, after the community woodland work session I walked up to one of the butterfly orchid sites to talk to folk on site about managing the area for these special plants. Thinking to show people Larch Ladybird I got out the beating tray and banged a few Larch branches. Three quite interesting spiders dropped into the tray. Two turned out to be really excellent Scottish records.

 

Gibbaranea gibbosa, it looks as if there are just six prior Scottish records.

Tetragnatha obtusa, also a pretty decent record for Scotland.

I also found the Anthrocorid bug Acompocoris alpinus which was new for me. Finally, looking at the common moss on this wonderful fallen Salix caprea I realised that the moss was Hypnum andoi rahter than H. cupressiforme, it's down to the shape of the capsule.

 

Hypnum andoi

The fallen but still living Salix caprea (I seem to have mislaid the images of the whole tree.)

I was back at the woodland this afternoon and have a few more  specimens from European Larch, but these were photographed on the spot.

 

Leaf mines of the moth Stigmella aurella on Geum urbanum, I'm more used to seeing this species on Bramble Rubus sp.

Dicrytomina saundersi

Trioza urticae.

 

Ben Chonzie, the snow covered hill to the right, from Comrie Community Woodland.

 

Coincidence - mega

 I'd been working on identifying an awkward Diptera from the light trap, I'd spent most of the day at it, and in the end it proved impossible to get to species with certainty because it was a female. Most likely it was Hylemya valans, but it could be Hylemya nigrimana. So it will go into iRecord as either/or and as far as P-SL goes no tick.

Hylemya valans/nigrimana, female

Anyway, just before tea my phone rang, an unusual event in itself. It was GF from the British and Irish Water Beetle Recording Scheme asking me about a record I'd submitted in 2019. It turns out I'd submitted the most northerly UK  record of Rhanthus exsoletus from July 2018, did I have any more photos or even the specimen?

I'm pretty good at storing my photos as long as I know the date so I dug out the relevant drive and had a look through. Darn, no pix! Or at least they were not where they ought to be. I promised GF  that I would shortly delve into my fridge/freezer and see if I still had the specimen though, quite possibly I do, we shall see.

Anyway, whilst going through the photos I had noticed an image of a beetle I did not recognise, and the photo had a query against it. I grabbed one image and quickly ran it through Obsidentify which came up with Cercyon unipunctatus, 100%. A quick check on Nature Spot and other sources confirmed the ID. Although tiny, at 2mm, this is a pretty distinctive beastie. I then ran the record through the NBN. Ah! This is not a common beetle either. Indeed my record of this would also, just, be the most northerly in the UK. The other Orkney record was from near Stromness in 1909. (There appears that there might be another Orkney record, but there is no data attached to it, and anyway I would still be to the north of that.) Well, that was a turn-up!

Cercyon unipunctatus from 10 July 2018, the previous record for Orkney was H.Locke, 22/11/1909.

 Very few Scottish records of this beetle, so I'm pretty chuffed.

Edinburgh

The day after my last post, 20th October, there were a couple of earthquakes here in Shaky Toun. The first one, whilst I was in bed, shook the room, and me and there was a prolonged rumble. The second one, in the afternoon, was of about equal strength, but I was outside in the garage and felt and heard nothing.

Depth of 3km and 3.7 magnitude in the morning, 5km deep and 3.6 magnitude in the afternoon, with plenty of wee after-shocks.

A few days later when the 204 year old European Larch came down in the night, that was also audible from the house (apparently).

 

This disrupted both human travel and that of the Red Squirrel which we watched trying to figure out new routes now its A road had gone.

A couple of mornings Red Squirrels have been in the garden raiding the bird food and generally searching around for an easy meal.

Red Squirrel.

I've been to the city a couple of times recently. The Andy Goldsworthy 50 year retrospecive at the Royal Scottish Academy I might write about elsewhere, it has ended now but it was well worth seeing; art connecting to land and nature. 

I went back to Edinburgh the other day and caught Martin Stephenson and the Daintees playing songs from Boat to Bolivia. On both occasions I did a bit of recording of wildlife in cemeteries, an iRecord activity, the FB Group is here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/257026872679440

Cemeteries in cities are interesting as they seem to attract very large numbers of some species. Laybirds may sometimes be found in huge numbers, on my latest visit there were hundreds of the hopper Ribautiana ulmi on the few remaining green leaves of elm. 

Ribautiana ulmi, on one elm every remaining green leaf was covered on the lower surface with this hopper.

 

On these graveyard excursions I nearly always find a species I've not seen before. At Dalry Cemetery near Haymarket I finally came across Pine Ladybird (Orkney had a very sparse ladybird fauna).

Pine Ladybird Exochomus quadripustulatus

Apparnetly, Pine Ladybird has decreased significantly in Edinburgh in the last couple of years. Harlequin Ladybird has increased significantly in the city and it is known to feed on the eggs and larvae of other ladybird species. These two factors may be related. There were certainly plenty of Harlequins in Dalry Cemetery. I saw at least 100 and that was without searching systematically.

Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis

This species occurs in a number of colour forms which can make it confusing to identify. There is more information about Harlequins here - https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/bug-directory/harlequin-ladybird/  Harlequins are usually quickly identified by Obsidentify if you are in any doubt.

Other inverts are not so straightforward to identify, even with AI help. Ichneumons are notoriously hard - but look in the side panel for links to colour clues to identification ranked by frequency of recording on iNaturalist which may be handy. Obsidentify occasionally gets these correctly, or at least gets to family or genus correctly. Obsi got this to family with a low % of hope but it was correct. The friendly and helpful folk on the FB Group then gave me a definite genus and likely species. Brilliant considering the poor quality of my images in very low light. 

Schizopyga podagrica (thank you OV)

 I'm unsure about the ID of this mirid bug, small at about 3mm.

A Dycyphus species but which one? Current thinking is that this is D. stachydis as the tibial spines are longer than the width of the tibia (thanks for the suggestion PTS). I need to go and find the key and look at this criteria critically for myself.

I did also find a few definite IDs for the pan-species list including this rather smart an easy to ID fly.

Peplomyza litura, the close up of the face is only necessary to separate it from a continental species which has never occurred in the UK. As I had the specimen I ran it through Mike Hackston's Lauxaniidae key anyway. Confusingly NatureSpot gives this species a red dot for ID, IMHO green (maybe orange, it is quite small) would be more appropriate, Obsidentify got it confidently first go.

Although this Anthocorid required gen det.

Terrible in vivo field image, but I managed to catch it.

Lab pic, not much better to be honest!

But here's the business, male gen det proves Anthocoris confusus, NFM, nice!

 

I probably shouldn't count this plant as it is a garden introduction across the UK and given the location probably shouldn't qualify as a neophyte, although I do suspect it has spread beyond its original introduction here.

Oxalis tetraphylla

Garden escapes can often pose a moral conundrum for a P-SL tick. 

I'm still light trapping, three species new for the year the other evening.

Acleris hyamana

December Moth

Two very different looking Mottled Umber.

A new record Red Kite roost count, 137. Redwings in some numbers, a few Fieldfare, a big increase in Woodpigeons, a couple of Redpoll (Lesser in old speak, but now just Redpoll as the AviBase List is adopted) and both Tawny and Barn Owl heard on a number of evenings. 

Red Kites going to roost.