NORWICH: Interesting garden wildlife

12th May 2018

After the lichen walk I gave Jeremy and Vanna a lift home, and whilst at theirs had a look at some more wildlife. The highlight was a new hoverfly, Eumerus funeralis. This species has a lookalike that can only be separated by a close look at the inner surface of the hind femur - fortunately Vanna caught it and we could check that it was E. funeralis before it was released back into the garden. Other new species included the bug Harpocera thoracica and the sawfly Aglaostigma fulvipes, although as often happens I saw both of those species again elsewhere on the following day!

Another highlight was the sighting of two picture winged flies, Tephritis neesii, doing a dance. This consisted of the pair facing each other and doing elaborate wing-flicking, which was very interesting to watch. A bit of research suggests it was probably a courtship dance, but I can't rule out that it was two males having a dispute.

As I was leaving a small moth flew past, resembling a Diamond-back Moth. Jeremy and Vanna both recognised it as a related species, Plutella porrectella. They were used to seeing it on their Dame's Violet, but it is fairly scarce in Norwich and was a fourth new species for me during my brief visit. It was five by the time I reached the car as on my way past the house I noticed the a gall on Red Valerian. This is caused by Trioza centranthi, and seems to be spreading through the UK. It is quite distinctive (have a look at the photo and keep an eye out for it) and Vanna was sure that it hadn't been there in previous years.

NORWICH: A new shieldbug

22nd April 2018

I have a (non-written) hierarchy of my favourite wildlife groups, and shieldbugs are pretty high up it. On Sunday I received a rather intriguing text message that simply read "Bordered Shieldbug?" I initially assumed that it was an ID request with a missing picture, not an unusual event with me as my phone is a very basic model that can't handle photos. However it actually transpired that Vanna had found a Bordered Shieldbug on the allotment and had temporarily brought it home. I popped round to have a look and was surprised how small it was. I had previously seen another all black shieldbug, Forget-me-not shieldbug, but this was half the size (about 4mm).

Jeremy and Vanna have an enviable garden wildlife list so before leaving we did a quick lap of the garden, seeing Vestal Cuckoo Bee, Blue Mason Bee, the picture-winged fly Tephritis neesii, the hoverfly Melanostoma scalare, leaf mines of Phytomyza leucanthemi in Ox-eye Daisy leaves and Splitgill fungus. Quite a productive half an hour! Thanks as always to Jeremy and Vanna for their hospitality.