RXwildlife Sightings

In the middle of Romney Marsh the banks of a new farm reservoir were sown with a legume mix a few years ago. This still persists and is attracting foraging insects. Bumblebees were well represented with the shorter tongued species such as the white tailed bumblebee foraging on strawberry clover Trifolium fragiferum which was particularly frequent where the grassland appeared to be more regularly trampled.

Other legumes, such as lucerne Medicago sativa ssp sativa and bird’s-foot trefoil were attracting a good range of other bumblebee species with red tailed bumblebee B. lapidarius being the most frequent species (this species seems to be having a good year), but pleasingly a single specimen of one of the rarer carder bees was also observed (either the brown-banded B. humilis or the moss carder bee Bombus muscorum - it flew off before the insect could be examined under a hand lens).

Butterflies were also frequent, with several specimens of small tortoiseshell Aglais urticae, and numerous caterpillars of the painted lady Vanessa cardui feeding on both creeping thistle and musk-mallow Malva moschata.

A good use of what would otherwise be a patch of waste ground.

Posted in Insects | by Brian Banks