15th July 2018
In May I had the opportunity to visit a private wood at Postwick along with Jeremy, Vanna and Ian to record wildlife for the owner. We had a good time and recorded some interesting species, so had agreed to visit again in July to do more recording. The England football team had briefly threatened to alter my plans by getting to the world cup semi-finals, but by losing meant that I didn't have to leave early to watch the final.
We recorded a good range of species, many different to those recorded on our previous visit. The undoubted highlight for me was the Cramp Ball Weevil (Platyrhinus resinosus), a species I've wanted to see for years but despite seeing hundreds of Cramp Balls had not come across. It could have got away again, as when Vanna noticed something on a plant stem it dropped to the ground, a common beetle defence mechanism. Fortunately I had seen enough to think that it looked interesting, so I kept looking until I located it on the ground, even with the very passable bird-dropping camouflage on the underside.
Of the rest of the species several interesting micro-moths were seen, including the mine of Heliozela resplendella, Ash Bud Moth and Alder Signal. I recorded 17 Agromyzid leaf mines, including Phytomyza agromyzina on Dogwood, probably the commonest species that I had yet to see.
The leafhopper Evacanthus interruptus, conopid Conops flavipes and soldierfly Dioctria baumhaueri were also of note.
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