May 2024 - A Year in the Valley

Rust Fly (Psylidae)

There are two species of Rust Fly that are very similar. The difference is in the antennae. As I can’t see the antennae clearly enough to determine the species, I’ll settle for ‘Rust Fly’, which refers to its orange colour.

They are quite widespread and live in a variety of habitats, but anywhere where there is abundant foliage suitable for them to lay their eggs so that the larvae will have plenty of roots, bulbs and soft stems to eat.

There are rather a lot of orange flies, as well, but most have various arrangements of spots on their wings and dark eyes.

Daisy D

31 May 2024

Insects

Rust Fly

Hydrothassa marginella Beetle

Just another leaf beetle? No! I noticed the orange stripe – or margin – along the side of this beetle. It has a black shiny, dimpled body and bobbly antennae. It loves buttercups and can be found wherever there are buttercups (or members of the buttercup family) growing, such as meadows and grassy banks.

Daisy D

30 May 2024

Insects

Hydrothassa marginella Beetle

Sheet Weaver or Money Spider

Linyphiidae is a family of very small spiders, also known as sheet weavers or money spiders. They are hard to identify due to their size and the sheer number of species. In fact, there are still new species being discovered worldwide. This one, I thought, had quite distinctive colouring, but it looks most like a Peatland Sheet-web Weaver (Hypselistes florens) which is found in North America and Canada, not the UK. The next nearest is Gonatium rubellum, which doesn’t have a common name and is found in the UK. It lives in shaded leaf litter and low vegetation.

Tiny spiders travel around by ‘ballooning’ or ‘kiting’, which means they release a silk thread to catch an air current and pull them along. It isn’t without danger, as they have no control over where they are heading. Money spiders prey on smaller insects and spiders which they catch in their hammock-like sheet-webs, but they are also prey to small birds. Where does ‘money’ spider come from? There is a superstition that if a tiny spider lands on you, it has come to spin you a new suit of clothes, so it brings good luck!

Daisy D

29 May 2024

Spiders

Money Spider, Sheet Weaver Spider

Baby frogs and tadpoles

Nothing new for my tally today, but the watermeadow is awash with baby frogs or toads. They are mostly scrambling through the grass, but some have tried to leap.

And we still have tadpoles…

Daisy D

28 May 2024

Animals

Common Toad, Frog

Snipe Fly (Chryopilus cristatus)

This is the snipe fly. It is thought that the name comes from the habitat in which it is found, which is damp grassland the same as the snipe. It can also be found in damp woodland and is most often seen from May to July. It is identified by the small dark panels on each wing, hairy abdomen, and proportionately long legs. This is a male. The females are broader and paler in the body.

The snipe fly is a predator of smaller insects. Its method is to perch head-down on a selected look-out spot like a fence post and watch for passing prey. It will then catch smaller insects in flight and bring them back to its post to eat or suck their blood. The larvae are also predatory.

Daisy D

27 May 2024

Insects

Snipe Fly

Common Red-legged Robberfly (Dioctria rufipes)

The weather has turned more showery and colder. On my walk today, I noticed a common marble moth, dock and other bugs and beetles, a robber fly and a snipe fly on the foliage, many yellow dung flies everywhere and tiny froglets and egg-case-carrying wolf spiders underfoot. Buttercups, speedwells and herb Robert are still the main flowers blooming, but I have now noticed more wood avens flowers, as that seems to be on my radar now.

I was very pleased with my haul of bugs and flies. The common red-legged robberfly, was identified by its antennae joined halfway down and its legs – the front two pairs of which are orange the rear pair black. It has white halteres and a fairly thick waist compared to other robberflies. It also has shiny silvery patches on the side of its thorax. These are known as ‘shimmer stripes’ and according to the Natural History Museum are used in courtship. Furthermore, the robberfly is also distinguished by its ‘beak’, which you can see in the picture. With this needle-shaped projection it pierces its prey and injects it with nerve toxins to paralyse it and dissolve its insides. It is instant death. It will perch on foliage and wait to pounce on unsuspecting prey – flying insects, especially parasitic wasps. Their preferred habitat is scrub and woodland and they are widespread in the southern half of England.

Daisy D

26 May 2024

Insects

Common Red-legged Robberfly

Tuberous Polypore

The first thing you notice about this toadstool is that it has pores instead of gills on the underside. It is white with a brown scaley top in a concave shape, and a funnel-shaped stem. I spotted this on the steps under the sea buckthorn where there is a mix of stone and log surfaces. There was a large brown toadstool in this spot last summer, but I didn’t get to see the stem and underside before it decomposed, so I couldn’t identify it. I thought it was a funny time of year for fungi, as I usually expect to see them in the autumn, but this one can be found from May to October. The cap becomes more funnel-shaped with age and can become slimy, as happened with the last one, which had debris stuck to it, which made identification even harder. It is said to be edible with a mild mushroomy flavour!

Daisy D

25 May 2024

Toadstools and fungi

Tuberous Polypore

Chocolate Mining Bee (Andrena Scotica)

Two days ago I spotted Marsham’s Nomad Bee, which preys upon mining bees, especially the Chocolate Mining Bee. Then yesterday, I noticed this bee in Vole County. It is, in fact, the chocolate mining bee and is usually found in sandy soils, parks, gardens and woodland, between mid-March to mid-June. Females nest singly but may share a burrow entrance. They forage on many different spring-blossoming shrubs, trees and low-growing flowers including buttercups and willows.

The larvae of Marsham’s nomad bee attach themselves to bees when they land on flowers and are then flown right into the mining bee’s cell where the consume the contents, including the eggs of the mining bee.

Daisy D

24 May 2024

Insects

Chocolate Mining Bee, Marsham’s Nomad Bee

Marsham’s Nomad Bee (Nomada marshamella)

Yesterday, I spotted the bumblebee plumehorn, which I thought was an actual bee, but I also noticed a ‘funny wasp’. I could see it didn’t look quite right, but I wasn’t sure why. For a start, the stripes had no dots, but were regular (apart from the first two being split with a black line, which defines it as the Marsham’s Nomad Bee). The legs were brownish, not yellow, and the thick antennae red-brown, rather than black. And although the abdomen looked the right shape, the waist was too long and the wings covered the abdomen, rather than lying down each side. Interestingly, this is not a hoverfly, but a bee. Nomad bees are, nevertheless, parasites, and also known as cuckoo bees. This bee can be seen from April to June and lays its eggs in the nests of mining bees.

One final point to note is that although it looks menacing and waspish, it doesn’t sting humans. In fact, I was pleased to learn that no solitary bees sting humans, as they do not have a hive and stores of honey to defend and are therefore less aggressive.

Daisy D

23 May 2024

Insects

Marsham’s Nomad Bee

Bumblebee Plumehorn (Volucella bombylans)

Noticing the cuckoo flowers under the alders, was like welcoming back old friends. There were a couple of bumblebees on them, with white tails. I couldn’t remember whether I’d already counted the white-tailed bumblebee, so I took some photos anyway. But wait a minute! Look at its head! Not furry like bees, but a big-bug-eyed fly’s head. I didn’t notice till I looked at the photos on the big screen of the laptop! What we have here is a bumblebee plumehorn – the best bumblebee mimic in town! Yes, it’s a hoverfly. There are two variations – red tailed and white tailed. Obviously, this is the white-tailed version.

Plumehorn refers to its antennae, which are plumed. This hoverfly lays its eggs in the nests of bees and wasps. Sometimes their larvae eat the host larvae.

Daisy D

22 May 2024

Insects

Bumblebee Plumehorn, White-tailed Bumblebee