Moths and stuff

After a relatively mild night I thought I would be pulling plenty of moths out of the trap this morning, so was disappointed to find just four five. Two were new for the year; (note to self: always check your trap carefully before posting your results).

8. Double-striped Pug
9. Common Plume

The full list was Double-striped Pug 1, Brindled Pug 2, Common Quaker 1 and Common Plume 1. The one saving grace was that, unlike the bedraggled individual fished out of the bird-bath yesterday, the pugs were at least in pristine condition.

Double-striped Pug

Brindled Pug

Common Plume

I also caught a caddis-fly and a large black beetle with red tips to its antennae. Unfortunately I put it to one side while I prioritised the moths, and it had gone by the time I returned with my camera.

This poor showing does at least give me the chance to discuss some other insects seen yesterday, the tricky ones.

Starting with bees, some are quite straight forward to identify. For example the very common Buff-tailed Bumblebee (as long as its a queen), Tree Bumblebee, Red Mason Bee, Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Early Bumblebee, and Tawny Mining Bee (as long as its a female).

Buff-tailed Bumblebee (queen)

Early Bumblebee (queen)

Red Mason Bee

Hairy-footed Flower Bee (female)

But then you get other bees: Solitary Bees, Cuckoo Bees, Leaf-mining Bees, worker bumble-bees. All of these require a level of expertise I do not possess. You can still photograph them and hope someone who knows what they are talking about tells you what they are. I give you exhibit A

Andrena Bee sp

It might be a male Tawny Mining Bee, or it might be something else entirely.

If you think bees are tough, that's nothing compared to flies (other than Dark-edged Bee-Fly), Beetles, Ichneumon Wasps, Bugs, the list goes on.

Here are a few I have photographed in the last few days, and have attempted to put a name to.

Dark-edged Bee-fly

Common Pollen Beetle

The above beetle next to my finger for scale

Ichneumon stramentor

Luckily there is the cavalry. It can come to your rescue (sometimes after six months, but often after a few hours). These are the experts who give their time to trawl the records of a website called www.brc.irecord and will confirm (or reidentify) the creature you have photographed.

Thanks to the expert regarding the Ichneumon, which is confirmed as Ichneumon stramentor.

So it was that a Box Bug which flew past us yesterday and landed in some foliage has been confirmed.

Box Bug

The exciting thing about this record is that the species was formerly mega-rare but has been increasing in numbers and distribution from the south-east. I get the impression that it may be a very recent colonist of Warwickshire.

This sort of thing is great. Being locked down, stuck in your garden, you can still make significant discoveries.