Southern Marsh Orchids

Southern Marsh Orchids

Sunday 30 November 2014

hairy little fly

Put the moth trap out last night - only three moths but dozens of these little things. The grid in the second image is 2mm, so these little beasts are 3-4mm in length. Hairy abdomen and legs and long hairs on the antennae. I have been searching on-line but to no avail - possibly one of the chironomidae? Grateful for assistance with identification.
Thanks
Howard



Wednesday 19 November 2014

Glamorgan Botany Group trip reports

The Glamorgan Botany Group have produced an excellent summary of their six excursions in 2014, all of which took place in East Glamorgan.

A pdf of the document can be downloaded from here:

http://bsbi.org.uk/Glamorgan_excursions_2014.pdf

There are more excursions planned for 2015. If anyone is interested and would like to be added to the mailing list, please email: glamorgan dot botany at yahoo dot co dot uk.

Tuesday 18 November 2014

unidentified dead bugs

Found these two bugs, dead, whilst cleaning the moth trap. They look reasonably fresh so I don't think they have been there long. Help with identification would be most appreciated.

The background grid is 2mm so they are both quite small and they have wings much longer than their bodies. The head of the first suggests a 'hopper' of some variety but as yet I haven't found a match.



and the second has wings with a very distinct vein pattern which are more than twice the body length.


Tuesday 11 November 2014

Oedemera (Oncomera) femoralis

Jake has just given me one of three beetles he and Mike found whilst working the Ivy Blossom at Lavernock a few weeks ago. It is a distinctive species but not well recorded - Oedemera (Oncomera) femoralis. At about 2cm long it's not one you can easily overlook and yet it's not at all well recorded, with less than 30 records in the SEWBReC database for the county.

Friday 7 November 2014

Purple Jellydisc

No, not a child's dessert from the 1970s, but a fungus whose scientific name is Ascocoryne sarcoides.


I came across this specimen on a fallen lime tree while looking for bryophytes in Pontcanna, Cardiff. Apparently it is quite common, though I don't recall having seen it before.

George