Linacre Insects

Whilst down at Linacre yesterday, I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the insect life there. Nothing new was noted, but what was there was cooperating, and I managed some nice shots.

Common Blue Damselflies were present again in good numbers, including several males and pairs "in tandem".

Common Blue Damselfly

Along with the Common Blue, I also recorded 3 Brown Hawkers and a single Migrant Hawker, but unfortunately, neither species would pose for a photo.

The sun came out while I was there, and so too did the butterflies. Gatekeepers were seen in good numbers (6+), as were Meadow Browns (5), while 1 Small Copper, 1 Comma, 4 Peacocks and 4 Green-veined Whites were also seen feeding around the site.

Gatekeeper

Comma

Green-veined White

As well as the butterflies, I also stumbled upon a couple of moth species; namely Large Yellow Underwing and a Copper Underwing species.

Large Yellow Underwing

Copper Underwing sp.

There are 2 species of Copper Underwing in Britain, but to confirm whether this is a Svennson's Copper Underwing, or just a "normal" Copper Underwing, you need to check the hindwing. Unfortunately, the moth flew off before I could check, so it'll have to go down as a Copper Underwing species.

Three new species for Linacre

One of the best things about looking at the insects at Linacre is the fact that I keep discovering new species on just about every visit. When I say new species, obviously I mean species that are new to me, not science! As far as I'm aware no one else is recording these species, so hopefully all these new records are adding something to our knowledge of this site.

Yesterday I blogged about 2 species of butterfly that I'd seen for the first time and mentioned that there was another species that I still had to identify. I put a picture of it on Ispot with a suggested name and sure enough someone else agreed, so I can now say that the species in question was a Purple Hairstreak.

Purple Hairstreak

 

Purple Hairstreak is a species that is associated with oak woodlands, so it's no real surprise that I found one at Linacre. Unfortunately though, they spend most of their lives high in the canopy and rarely come down to the ground, so I was very lucky to spot this tatty looking individual on the floor by the middle reservoir. It's not the best photo, as I had to be very quick, before it was scared away by a marauding dog that was running towards me at the time!

The next "new" species that I found this week was this moth. It's either a Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) or a Svensson's Copper Underwing (Amphipyra berbera svenssoni). Unfortunately, the only way to tell the two species apart is to look at the amount of orange on the underside of the hindwing, something I didn't know, until later. Interestingly, this individual was found in the toilet block(!), but I also recorded several specimens in the bird boxes this year, so it appears to be quite a common species, whatever it is.

Copper or Svensson's Copper Underwing

Last up is this species of hoverfly that I found whilst looking for the butterflies. It doesn't have an English name, but goes by the latin name of Myathropa florea, and is the only member of this family of hoverfly in Britain. It is classed as "widespread and common" in my superb Hoverfly Identification guide. and the best way to identify it is to look at the pattern on its thorax, which is said to resemble the "Batman" logo. What do you think?

Myathropa florea