Comma

There has been a reasonable number of Commas this year - it makes regular but not numerous appearances here. A dead one in the house gave me the opportunity to view its underside for once and I was struck by the greenish colour of the spots which I had not noticed before. I was also surprised in looking it up in my Butterfly book (Thomas and Lewington) that the Comma had almost disappeared from Britain by the end of the 19thC. Its last redoubt was in the Marches here, specifically Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. The start of a recovery was first noticed in 1914 and continued until the 1950s and since the late 1970s it has kicked on again. There is no accepted explanation of the population fluctuations with climate and farming practices likely to be involved

Dark Bush Cricket

I thought I had found a new species for the list when I spotted this light brown cricket close by a dark brown Dark Bush Cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera) but it turned out to be a female of the species. I had forgotten that these crickets come in a range of browns.

Broad-leaved Helleborine

In some ways the biggest success of the Orchid season here in that they have more than doubled in number from 5 last year to 11 this year. However 6 of them have been eaten so at the moment we have only 5 that can procreate. They are not the extrovert brightly coloured stars of the orchid world but close up their flowers are a symphony of pink and cream. I'm hoping they spread quickly.

Bees

A Bee expert has helpfully done a couple of surveys here so for the first time I am building a species list that includes more than just White-tailed Bumblebee and Buff-tailed Bumblebee. In fact my bee book says that some of the species being recorded are rare in Wales, although I suspect it is more likely that they are rarely recorded in Wales. After two surveys I have the following list: Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) Hawk's-beard Mining Bee, (Andrena fulvago) White-zoned Furrow Bee, (Lasioglossum leucozonium) Shaggy Furrow Bee, (Lasioglossum villosulum) Chalk Furrow Bee, (Lasioglossum fulvicorne) Patchwork Leafcutter Bee, (Megachile centuncularis) Garden Bumblebee, (Bombus hortorum) Grey-banded Mining Bee, (Andrena denticulata) Blunthorn Nomad Bee, (Nomada flavopicta) The photo is the Patchwork Leafcutter Bee, (Megachile centuncularis)

Butterfly Update

Today was the first sighting this year of a particularly beautiful butterfly - the Painted Lady (photo above). This is turning into a good year for butterflies, particularly in quantities of some species although the dry weather may lead to a poor turnout next year the experts are saying. It has certainly been the best year since we moved here in 2011 for the brilliant Marbled White. I don' think it has been seen for more than two weeks in any year until now when it has been flying for more than four weeks and in much higher numbers than usual. Other species recorded recently as first sightings for 2018 include the Gatekeeper, Peacock and Small Copper.

New Species - Silver Washed Fritillary

It's been a great butterfly day today with loads of Marbled Whites, some brand new Commas looking very fine, large quantities of Meadow Browns and Large Whites and best of all some Silver Washed Fritillaries which are a new record for here. In fact that is not strictly true as I now think the butterfly I identified as a Dark Green Fritillary in 2014 was probably a Silver Washed. My photo was not quite good enough at the time to be sure but this photo (whilst still not very good - these butterflies move around a lot) is clearly that of a Silver Washed.

New Moth - Dark Arches

Last July I found a Black Arches moth and this July I found the apparently unrelated Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha) just sleeping on a window. This is a common and abundant species which uses grasses such as Cock's Foot as a larval food plant.