Monday 29 August 2016

Garnwen - Plan B

With good weather forecast my plan was to do Garnwen properly, but I forgot it was Bank Holiday and there was only 1 parking spot when I arrived at 1100hrs. Nevertheless I spent a good 5hrs rummaging through the undergrowth despite the crazy looks I got off family parties, who by the look of them were on their annual walk. I recorded 33 species of Hoverfly and had a lifer in Eriozona syrphoides which was my 100th species for the valley, even though the valley list is 107 as Paul has had a few I haven't seen yet. It would not come out in the open and was tucked into the hedge, so photos were poor. Besides that a number of good other species were seen like Baccha elongata, Dasysyrphus albostriatus, Xanthogramma pedissequum, Melangyna umbellatarum, Leucozona laternaria, Xylota sylvarum, Eupeodes luniger, Epistrophe grossulariae and yet more Helophilus trivittatus. Eristalis tenax was the commonest species with 310 logged. I also had some interesting other insects, some of which I managed to photograph.

 Devil's Coach Horse [beetle]- this threw me for a while, as it was very large [1 1/2"], but I found out later that when adults emerge they can't retract their wings under their short elytra for 2 hrs while they dry out. So I caught this one feeding just after it had emerged. Try as I might I can't find any images on the net of Devil's Coach Horse with wings, so this could be a first.
 Harvestman species - caught this one just right, but I don't know anything on this family, so I put it on Irecord. [Mitopus morio]
 Knotgrass - moth Larva [ID'd for me by Paul Parsons]
 possibly Goldenrod Pug moth larva - again ID'd by P. Parsons
 Eriozona syrphoides - the crap photo - can you see what it is yet.
 Lucozona laternaria
 Xanthogramma pedissequum - lacking any features of "stacklebergi"
 Xylota sylvarum
 Cheilosia impressa
Helophilus trivittatus - face shot

2 comments:

Paul tabor said...

Glad you had the Eriziona syrphoides ��

dean mceachen said...

Annual walk lol love it