Artificial intelligence

 

Graphomya maculata, initial ID by Obsidentify, confirmed by IA (thank you).

However, we can all recognise this plant as Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, but for Obsidentify it was White Campion Silene latifolia, at 100% confidence.

Hedge Bindweed, it is; it really is not White Campion.

I use Obsidentify quite a lot. I'm not a good botanist and I usually (!) find it quite accurate for flowering plants. It is very good at macro-moths, surprisingly good at Diptera, very helpful with fungi and it can be surprisingly accurate with sawflies and bugs. But, and here's the thing, I always check the answer it gives, either with a book, a key, or with the appropriate expert online. With fungi, I often check Obsidentify with the Danish online AI tool (Obsidentify tends to give rather "simplistic" answers with fungi, try it, you'll see what I mean). 

I am quite surprised that more folk don't use AI to at least get a general idea of what they are looking at. There are many requests for ID help in Facebook groups, particularly for macro-moths, where the AI tool would have got the answer. The Android tool Lens is good at garden plants, and pretty good at wild plants, but I don't especially like the way it provides output. Obsidentify provides very clear output, even if it is at times incorrect. I think these tools will only improve over time, however, I don't see them replacing books, keys and experts in the near future because they are only as good as the photo they are presented with for analysis. Obsidentify quite often has difficulty with scale, so it can struggle with trees and with mosses (it had a period of identifying most mosses as "Daffodil").

Eutomostethus luteiventris, identified initially at 100% by Obsidentify.

Sawflies Symphyta can be tricky to identify. The keys are not especially easy and whilst there is available literature these are not the most accessible of beasts. I've identified a couple recently by employing Obsidentify and then going to the key. The above beast was put under the microscope, partially dissected, and keyed out. The answer was as I had been told by the AI initially. But, this species does have consistent abdominal markings that are distinctive, I just didn't know that, so the AI saved me many hours of ploughing through the key from the very beginning.

Female, Eutomostethus luteiventris, males are unknown in UK.

I should have run this hoverfly through AI.

Syrphus sp, a female, but I identified this as Eupeodes corollae :-( thank you RM for putting me right).

In my (feeble) defense, I am out of practice with hovers. But given this photo Obsidentify called it Syrphus vitripennis with 84% certainty. Actually, this is either S. vitripennis or S. torvus as it is a female and the hind femur is mostly dark, excluding S. ribesii. Microscopic examination of the eyes and wings are required to split female S. vitripennis and S. torvus.

Here's a female S. ribesii (which I got correctly) on the same clump of Knapweed Centaurea nigra.

Syrphus ribesii, female.

I photographed the hovers at Comrie Community Woodland, where I was supposed to be engaged in tree care, but got distracted. (I did find some small Oaks that required a bit of vegetation suppression, but spent most of my time photographing bumblebees and hovers.)

Here's my favourite hover from the session, Chrysotoxum bininctum.

I'm gradually working on my Pan-species Lists, entering on the new(ish) website. I spent a happy hour or so yesterday entering all the Diptera that I've ever recorded on iRecord. That exercise pushed me to 1,560 species. Beetles will be my next job, although lots of them are already on the list. During this activity, using the handy "Target Species" tool I found I'd missed Buff-bellied Pipit from my bird list, I will add that shortly. I've still quite a number of species to add, I would guess my total is likely to be around 1,800 species, but it could well be more. The list for the new garden now stands at 336 species, and whilst out at the Community Woodland I dipped Red Squirrel which scampered through the gate and across the back grass, darn! (I have seen one from the house, but not actually in the garden).

Here are some new moths, some not fully checked yet so please let me know if I've got any wrong.

August September Thorn, I think, correction, if necessary, much appreciated. Corrected, thanks KH. I subsequently ran this through Obsidentify - 100% September Thorn!

Crescent I thought, and Obsidentify agreed.

I'm quite surprised I've not seen Crescent before, and I could have overlooked it in the past as it does occur in Orkney.

Barred Chestnut

Beech-green Carpet

Bulrush Wainscot

The Barred Chestnut is thanks to Obsidentify, I was passing it off as Ingrailed Clay, but fortunately I checked it with the AI.

Uncertain (Hopladrina octogeneria)

I worked with neighbours to run a moth event at the Community Woodland. What seems like a spiffing idea, in practice, whilst enjoyable, and producing three or four new species for me led to a fair bit of fatigue. I've caught up now. 

The other aspect is whilst I can leave identifications pending for my own private mothing, I feel I should get it all done and dusted identification-wise for the event. This would seem to be straightforward, except that there were a few complicated species.

Firstly, this super minute beast. Unfortunately it died in the pot, but I would have euthanised it anyway as without dissection it was beyond my identification abilities.

Borkhausenia fuscescens

I'd expected it to be Gelechelidae, but when I completed the dissection, which happily went well, the male genitalia looked nothing like anything in that family. Fortunately my enquiry in the Moth Dissection FB Group was answered and AG suggested I take a look at Borkhausenia spp. These are Oecophoridae, a different family. There are just two UK species and the other one is fairly distinctive so an identification and a life tick were achieved.

My other lifers were Slender Brindle and the Tortix Epinotia brunnichanna. In fact the Epinotia is also a bit of a tricky ID and I should have probably retained and dissected it, however, the individual did look like one of the more clear-cut ones, hopefully that was a good judgement.

Epinotia brunnichanna, hopefully.

We caught four Slender Brindle in the end, a smart looking Noctuid.

Slender Brindle.

I'd not led a moth event before and it was a bit of a learning curve, everyone was very helpful, and I think/hope enjoyed the event, but being away from a fridge meant subduing lively moths for photos was tricky. And keeping track of all the pots so that no specimens I wanted to keep were released was also a consideration. In the end I brought a fair few pots home to photograph later, after a spell in the fridge.

The other issue were the time honoured Mesapamea secalis/didyma (Common/lesser Common Rustic) conundrum, and the Hoplodrina octogeneria/blanda (Uncertain/Rustic) issue. There were fifteen Mesapamea, of which I took three. Two have turned out to be male didyma, I'm still working on a female as I'm struggling to locate the essential bits, the KOH having not done enough of a job - note - leave Noctuids to stew a bit longer. I've no Aga to cook them on any more so a bit more time is required.

The two male Mesapamea worked out fine, but it still takes a good while to get the bits out, check and double check against the web pages, as the differences in males are subtle, and then take the evidential photos for the verifier.

Aedaegus and clavus, of Mesapamea didyma.

 

The one  Hopladrina I'd dissected previously had turned out to be a female, so the genitalia are useless for identification, however it had grey hind wings, so it had to be Rustic H. blanda, but that was from our garden, and this is a different site. This new one really does look H. octogeneria, I've posted it on the Moth Dissection FB Group pages. It's a male so the genitalia are of use for identification, although the differences are subtle. Help with this one would be much appreciated by anyone who sees a few of these.

Aedaegus

Aedaegus dissected to show the cornuti.

Whole shooting match, so to speak.

Upperwings

Whole moth, at the moment uncertain of Uncertain - help requested!

It's probably time to "phone a friend" or two, or three....

It's not all been dissection, I've been out in the field and have a pile of photos to sort. I'll just throw in some of the things I've seen and identified or have had identified for me.

Crossoserus quadrimaculatus

Phasia hemiptera, a parasite of bugs.

Tabanus sudeticus - the grout is 7mm, to give an idea of size

Andrena denticulata

Bombus hortorum

Comma

These were all in the garden. The garden list is currently 238, but that's just what I've managed to add to the PSL site, there are quite a few outstanding, including the Conops quadrifasciatus I found today. (Photo to be processed.)

Did I mention I added Kestel to the bird list? Flew over the garden as I hung washing out. Spotted Flycatchers still around, but perhaps the Swifts left yesterday?

The Neglected (blog)

It's not that I've not been out in the field finding things, it is that I am completely overwhelmed. Just about every time I walk out of the door I bump into something new. Most things take a while to process - photograph, edit the photos, work through the identification and if I can't do it go back and find the species again, perhaps taking a specimen, then keying through with the reference and the microscope. There are quite a few things awaiting dissection.

The garden list is currently 228 species, which I think is pretty respectable in that it is about the size of a tennis court, and that has been achieved in just over two months. There are a fair number of things pending further investigation.

Last night I put the light traps out and it quickly became very busy. About 80 species of moths, I'm still working on the photos and there are a few specimens I will need to dissect. There were four species of beetle and yet again I chose to ignore the caddis. I have taken a few to do over the winter but the caddis as well, a step too far!

Athripsodes bilineatus, well ok, I have done some caddis, the easy ones.

I finally added Sparrowhawk to the Patch list, it narrowly missed the garden list. Equally, Roe Deer hasn't quite made it on to the garden list, although I bet the buck's nose crossed the fence-line as he snaffled the raspberries the other morning. Perhaps I could add him. And a cheeky Red Squirrel has sat on the fence across the access track.

Louise and I went up to a consultation at Loch Turret the other Saturday. It's a very lovely area. The whole Glen Turret Estate was sold and bought by the Kith Trust and Edinburgh University, with the Kith Trust holding the significant majority of the land. Edinburgh University have published a broad outline of their ideas; we were somewhat suspicious. (There is, and has been for a while now, a "land grab" in Scotland by the exceedingly rich, much of which results in impacts on local communities and (most often) negatively on the environment. Much of this is funded by Scottish Forestry grants - actually, Scottish tax payers' money - money that often heads south of the border to line share holders' pockets. Hopefully, at the next Scottish election we might be able to vote in a Scottish Government that is properly understanding of what is going on and that is prepared to radically alter Scottish Forestry's modus opperandi and properly fund and empower NatureScot to do their job. But don't get me started....) However, this development looks generally positive, we shall see. The two personnel at the event were knowledgeable and answered our questions in a manner that led us to feel positive about the scheme, a good start. Information can be found here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/sustainability/operations/forest-peatland click the Barvick Burn tab for the information currently available on the Loch Turret scheme.

Green Pug, new for the garden, I've seen it before occasionally.

Grey Dagger (Dark Dagger does not occur in Scotland), nice for the garden, they were quite common in Orkney.

Anelosimus vittatus a brand new spider for me.

Athous haemorrhoidalis, not a new species but I was quite pleased with the photo.

Yarrow Plume, a new species for me.

I was very, very pleased to find this Larch Ladybird at the Community Woodland.

I did a bit of tree maintenance at the Community Woodland on Sunday. Finding planted trees and clearing the bracken from them. I didn't get too distracted by insects as there wasn't much about on the day for some reason. On the previous visit I'd found the above Larch Ladybird, a species I've been searching for for a while.

A very nice moth or two from last night, I'll post some more shortly (honest).

Catropia falsella

Double-striped Pug.

Juniper Pug, well chuffed with this.

Pyrausta purpuralis

Darned Scoparia/Eudonia things!

This post kicks off with a whole pile of these ghastly Crambids which are a pain to identify. Any help would be very much appreciated. I'll likely take a good few samples for dissection, I have one or two in the fridge. However, if you know what any of these are, or can confirm or correct my presumptive identifications please do comment below (if you don't want to comment publicly please FB Message me, or email.). Please refer to the #numeral and apologies for these being out of order. Many, many thanks. The more I look at these the more confused I become, on the whole!

#2 Eudonia mercurella

#1 Eudonia mercurella Corrected Eudonia lacustrata.

#4 Eudonia truncicolella or lacustrata

# 3 Eudonia truncicolella

#5 Eudonia mercurella, corrected to Scoparia ambigualis

#6 Eudonia pyralella Corrected to Scoparia ambigualis.

In other business Spotted Flycatcher is becoming regular in the garden. I've seen both Osprey and Kingfisher again on the patch. Interestingly, the Common Gulls have disappeared and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are regularly around 30, stealing the sheep feed.

Elephant Hawk-moth was nice (and easy to identify) in the traps on election night, when the rain came in earlier than expected, so I didn't catch much in total.

Elephant Hawk-moth.

And Clouded Buff was exceptionally nice.

Clouded Buff.

I've dissected three minors Oligia sp as they are not reliable from external characters.

All were females, and one dissection my solution was a bit strong and everything of use disappeared. But the other two worked and proved Marbled Minor.

Marbled Minor, female.

Most valuable record of the week; I poked about in Oak Trees and in a spider's web found a long dead "thing". I thought it was an Ichneumon, but on sticking it under the microscope found it was a cranefly that mimics Ichneumons. Not only that it was nationally scarce Ctenophora pectinicornis. According to NBN mine, when verified, will be the most northerly UK record, rather chuffed.

Bits of long deceased Ctenophora pectinicornis.

I'm still battling with botany! And it helps with finding interesting insects. Here's today's find.

Grypocoris stysi.

The dog and I were nearly taken out by, or maybe nearly took out about eight cyclists, as we were in the verge/road edge when taking the photos. It could have been rather messy. In the garden, on the Buddleia was another addition to my spider list (and garden list). I'm still slowly adding things to my PSL. I think I've got enough here to claim Araniella cucurbitina.

Cucumber Spider, Araniella cucurbitina, the genitalia don't seem to stick out enough for the very similar confusion species, A. opisthographa.