The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

BRECKLAND: Wayland Wood and a new moth for Norfolk

19th May 2018

A fungus study group visit to Wayland Wood, but I suspected that a nice spring day at an ancient woodland would be more productive for insects than fungi, and this proved to be the case (although I'm told lots of fungi was recorded too).

I arrived a bit early, and Stewart Wright was already there and had found an Oak Sawfly larva and a leaf mine on Greater Stitchwort. I nipped off into the woodland nearby and noticed a leaf mine on Hornbeam that I hadn't seen before. Showing it to Stewart he recognised it as Paracrania chrysolepidella, a species new to Norfolk! I went back to see if any were tenanted, but only found vacated ones, including some on Hazel. Later in the day both Stewart and Andy Beaumont did find occupied mines.




This was an excellent start to the visit. I also noticed that there was a Malthinus or Maltheodes beetle resting on one of the mines, which I passed to Martin Collier who had also just arrived. White-pinion Spotted moth and numerous Mottled Umber caterpillars were of note, whilst Stewart found me an Adela fibulella moth on Germander Speedwell.




By now most people were chipping in with the invertebrates, of which Robert Maidstone's Anaglyptus mysticus longhorn beetle was a new one for me. Various hoverflies (some identified and some not) were seen, along with more caterpillars. There were large areas of Yellow Archangel in flower, plus some Early Purple Orchids and Andy pointed out the feeding signs of Nemapogon clematella.




Many of the fungi seen were plant or wood fungi, but we did see this large and rather formless Morel sp.


I left early after lunch, calling in at a pingo site on my way home, where I found the scarce hoverfly Anasimyia interpuncta to cap an excellent trip.


No comments:

Post a Comment