HITCHIN IN AUGUST

(by Phil Barron, all photos my own)

I particularly love insects and flowers and so August is always a good month with plenty to see. 

Maisie's Meadow (near the Three Moorhens)

One particular tree I often inspect is a Turkey Oak at Maisie's Meadow and I found this furry-looking weevil there showing off its magnificent nose. It spends most of its life within an acorn, only breaking out as an adult.

 

I disturbed a nice Treble Bar Moth which is associated with St.John's Wort plant (of which there is plenty in the meadow).

Easy to spot was a cinnabar moth caterpillar (on Ragwort), but there have not been so many to spot recently and I haven't seen an adult at all this year.

Mulleins are a biennial and are impressive plants also known as Aaron's Rod and usually flower before August, but this one was in bloom (might be a slightly different variety to the usual).

 

I notice that Steve & his volunteers have been busy cutting the meadow for hay, this is important for keeping the dominant grass in check and allowing the flowers to flourish . Well done!

Charlton Area

The fields on the Charlton side of the A602 had a lot of interesting insects for me to find. The Bee Wolf colony is thriving, they can tackle honey bees which are nearly as big as they are, and carry them strapped underneath (to stock their burrows).

One of my favourite insects is the fairly common Red Legged Shieldbug, although those legs look orange to me.  Also I found a young Speckled Bush Cricket (maybe?) It has very long antennae and is totally flightless, but does have some tiny vestiges of wings (the small light brown area on top). 

  

Sticking with the same family, some Meadow Grasshoppers can be quite purple, and you can just see the the wings are a little larger than the cricket, but still too small for flight.

Another impressive beast is the Hornet Mimic Hoverfly, I have seen lots of these as they seem to be having a good year.

One of the "cuckoo" bees, which lay their eggs in others nests, is the Vestal Bumblebee. Note the stripy abdomen, and they never have pollen baskets (because they don't collect food for their offspring).

The Priory Park meadow was full of 16-Spot ladybirds, more than I've ever seen before...

...and leaving the best till last, I was very excited to find a Hazel Leaf Roller Weevil, this is one beetle which cannot be mistaken for anything else.

 

Ickleford Area

The meadow by the side of the River Oughton is now home to Wasp Spiders, these are impressive beasts, difficult to mistake for anything else. Previously rare in the UK, they are now well established in the south of England and are heading north. They are harmless to humans, but the female in the photo below is liable to eat the male after mating unless he's very careful. 

Another exciting find, and a Hertfordshire first for me, were some Common Lizards, coming out on to a log to take the sun, not far from Burymead Springs. One had lost its tail (they can be detached if necessary when under attack).

A friendly juvenile Dock Bug perched on my finger for a lovely photo, however a real Herts rarity, a Four-banded Longhorn Beetle, was not nearly so cooperative (it was let go, no harm done).

 

Other beetles which were slightly happier to pose were a Lesser Stag Beetle, these are responsible for most of the holes about the size you can fit a pencil in seen in tree stumps, and a Mint Leaf Beetle.

 

Hitchin Cemetery (St John's Road)

The relaxed mowing regime in the cemetery benefits plenty of flowers and insects, and in particular wild carrot is flourishing this month. 

These cemetery notes are going to concentrate on the insects found on the wild carrot, but first a few other sightings. Not all chestnut trees are Horse Chestnut, the cemetery is lucky enough to have an Indian Horse Chestnut, the almost-shiny leaves do look similar to a Horse Chestnut, but the conker cases are smooth not spiny.

 

The only Scot’s Pine in the cemetery has only one low branch and ladybirds are nearly always to be found there. This next photo shows an Eyed Ladybird (Britain’s biggest ladybird species) and the much smaller Pine Ladybird lurking in the background.

Dragonflies will travel quite a long way from water searching for prey (ie other insects) and the cemetery is now a hunting ground for these impressive beasts (on the left a Migrant Hawker and on the right a Southern Hawker). 

  

A small beetle which is unlikely to fall prey to the dragonflies is the Thistle Tortoise beetle. This beetle holds itself flat on a thistle stem and casts no shadow, making it very difficult to see.

 

Everybody likes to see a Red Admiral and there are plenty around, they sometimes bask on the memorials when they are not enjoying the nearby Buddleia. 

 

 Now to just a selection of the insects (all of which are pollinators) to be found on the wild carrots. Firstly on the left is a Common Blue Butterfly which has a slightly damaged wing, but still looks lovely, and on the right a Gatekeeper.  

Just a bit smaller than the regular 7-spot ladybird, this 14-spot ladybird shows it is not terribly well named as the spots don’t really total 14. On the right is an unusual wasp called a Large Tiphia which sometimes hunts beetles, but also is fond of a bit of carrot. 

 

Wild carrot sometimes attracts a midge which causes small purple galls on the flower heads, although it is quite unusual to see them. Carrot flowers often have a small dark area in the centre and there is a theory that this is a defense tactic: if a roaming midge sees a dark spot on the carrot, it may assume that another midge got there first and so moves on to find a different flower (although this tactic seems to have failed here). The presence of these midges suggests the cemetery has high biodiversity.

Two final beasts to show are a Mint Moth and a fly called Nowickia ferox (which is associated with another moth called dark Arches). Flies are not everybody’s cup of tea, but the presence of this fly suggests that there is a healthy ecosystem at work. 

As well as just being nice to see the above sights in the cemetery, the presence of just so many species including top predators like dragonflies suggests that wildlife is doing well here and indicates that many other species such as birds and bats are likely to be significantly benefitting from this urban oasis.