RXwildlife Sightings » Insects

Castle Water

Sam Smith — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:41:42 +0000

Its been an excellent year for seeing the migrant hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri, yesterday I found it everywhere, even on one of the island at Ternery Pool. While checking through some Creeping Thistle at Castle Water I came across a female of the species lacking the distinctive comma shaped markings on the abdomen, checking through British Hoverflies I found this to be a rare variation found in the females (var.unicolor). Additional hoverfly highlights yesterday included finding two Volucella zonaria feeding on a small patch of Hemp Agrimony next to the footpath just north of the viewpoint. I know these mighty hoverflies have featured before, but they are the most fantastic things.

Female Scaeva pyrastri (var. unicolor)

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Something to watch out for

Brian Banks — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:40:33 +0000

Bombus ruderatus is one of several bumblebee species that used to occur on Romney Marsh but which now appear to be extinct here. When entomologists started to search for it about 10 years ago there was a great deal of confusion because, as it was so rare, few of the surveyors had actually seen it and it looks superficially similar to the garden bumblebee Bombus hortorum. It came close to being eliminated from the list of Biodiversity Action Plan species, when, fortuitously a surviving population was found in the Ouse Washes and was proved to be a good separate species by DNA analysis.

Both species (more…)

Chalkhill Blue !

Gordon Jarvis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:29:49 +0000

I had a good afternoon yesterday recording butterflies in Beckley Woods and to my surprise I found a group of blues amongst which were at least two Chalkhill Blues. Silvery underwing shows dark veins crossing the white fringe, the milky blue upperwing shows broad black margin.

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Convolvulus Hawkmoth - at last!

Pat Bonham — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:30:55 +0000

I’d seen several Convolvulus Hawkmoths in other people’s traps but never caught one myself, so this 2-inch long monster, dwarfing everything else, was a very welcome sight in my trap in Rye this morning. It’s an immigrant mainly to southern and eastern coastal counties and more often in autumn, the numbers varying a lot from year to year. I’ll release it at dusk, so if anyone wants to see it please phone me today – my number’s in the book!

Castle Water

Sam Smith — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:40:52 +0000

A search through some Creeping Thistle this morning provided a few highlights, the rather large Nowickia ferox just took the top spot, this fly is very similair in appearence to Tachina fera but can be seperated by the colour of the legs and antennae. Hoverfly highlights included at least 6 Helophilus trivittatus, a rather handsome male Helophilus hybridus, Eristalis Intricarius and the superb Eristalinus aeneus. Dragonflies were represented by Migrant Hawker, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Ruddy and Common Darter.

Nowickia ferox

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Waved Black

Pat Bonham — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:00:57 +0000

A surprise in my moth trap in Rye this morning was this Waved Black, a new species for me. Despite appearances it’s actually a noctuid, in the same subfamily as the common Straw Dot but classed nationally scarce. Waring’s field guide says ”The earliest records were from slime moulds on rotting wood in docks and cellars in London. The main food is fungi growing on rotting trees, particularly birches and pines …”. The two main areas of distribution are now the Severn valley and the south-east, though everywhere very local, and a few immigrants have also been recorded on the Channel coast. As if this wasn’t enough, my first Satin Lutestring for the garden provided the icing on the cake.

Big Butterfly Count

Steve Wheatley — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:59:56 +0000

At some point over the coming week (24th July - 1st August) please consider taking part in our BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT, a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It’s really simple and I’m certain you’ll find it enjoyable and rewarding. www.bigbutterflycount.org

Bumbles dry up?

Brian Banks — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:14:21 +0000

Over the past week or two I have been recording numbers of bumblebees on timed walks at Dungeness (with Pete Akers), East Guldeford, Rye and Pett Level. Dungeness has proved to be disappoining this year, with a dramatic decline in the numbers of these insects since last month, possibly because dry conditions have affected the quality of forage. Highlights have been some of the field margins at Rye and Pett Level, with a strip of hybrid marsh/hedge woundwort producing very large numbers of bumblebees again this year.

This plant at Pett level proved to be particularly attractive to the garden bumblebee Bombus hortorum and the red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius, but a third specimen of the scarce (more…)

Not a natural beauty!

Brian Banks — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:35:57 +0000

This insect, feeling rather like a limp saggy balloon with a pair of ferocious jaws, is not one of our most beautiful species, but it is probably one of the characteristic insects of the East Sussex/Kent grazing marshes.

It is the larva of a great silver beetle Hydrophilus piceus and was (more…)

Another migrant

Alan Martin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:17:12 +0000

The Orache Moth used to be a resident in the east of England until 1915 but is now a rare immigrant. The rather tatty specimen above was caught near Staplecross on the night of the 19th July, but to show what they can look like I have also shown a fresh specimen which was caught in SW France earlier this year. (more…)