Hitchin Wildlife September 2021

Hitchin Wildlife September 2021

The September wildlife spotting season was quieter than summer, but still some lovely finds from the Hitchin area.

Maisie's Meadow & Jazz's Orchard (near The 3 Moorhens), on the left a Two Spot Ladybird, quite a rarity in Herts but they keep popping up here, and on the right a Cream Spot Ladybird, these both love to eat aphids. The Two Spot Ladybirds are sometimes black with red dots, somewhat confusing.   



Two more, on the left the rather small but lovely 22 Spot Ladybird which feeds on mildew and on the right a 10 Spot Ladybird which has very variable colouring making them tricky to identify,... this one (like a lot of so-called 10 Spot Ladybirds) does not have 10 spots...


A final pair of ladybirds, in this case both Harlequins, in fact these are two photos of the very same beetle. On the left is the ladybird just emerged from its pupal stage and is less than a day old and on the right after 2 more days the colours have changed dramatically!
 

A couple more beasties from the Maisie's: I turned over a log, hoping to find a beetle, but found a wasp, a bit bigger but duller than the Common Wasp, complete with a scattering of rotten wood dust, this is a Median Wasp and is a new one for me! As I have mentioned before in relation to other insects, Median Wasps are relatively new (1980s) to the UK and have been gradually spreading north and are now found in Scotland. On the right is evidence of the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner moth at work: here we have the same theme again: new to science in 1985, new to the UK in 2002 and now found everywhere in the UK. Many of these species movements I am seeing are caused by global warming: it is affecting us here in Hitchin today.
 

A final sighting, I was a bit startled to find this Mouse nest under a log, they stayed still enough for a photo then scooted off, I put the log carefully back... 




Other Hitchin Locations
Burymead Springs has a log where I saw lizards in August: the same log had an individual basking in the sun and let me get quite close...


I have "got my eye in" for odd looking ladybirds, and saw this poor "Zombie Ladybird Guardian" near Ashbrook, it has been forced to stand guard over the hairy pupa of a tiny parasitic wasp. Usually the ladybird doesn't die from this event but this one looked like a goner to me. Parasitic behaviour may not be nice to think about in the human world, but it is incredibly common in the insect world and is a large and normal part of our ecosystem.


Over at Oughtonhead I found a funky caterpillar of the Grey Dagger moth (much more colorful than the adult) and the tiny fruiting bodies of Fairy Inkcap (?).



At Purwell there was a lovely Footballer hoverfly, and (trying hard to look like a bird dropping) the larva of an Alder Leaf Sawfly...

 

Also at Purwell some rather gelatinous things from a damp  morning: on the left a group of Oak Slugworms, which are actually  sawfly larva munching on the underside of an Oak leaf, and on the right a blob of Cranefly eggs, they are reputedly found suspended over streams and they will drop off in to the water when mature enough (I found these on a bush away from water though).
 


I wonder what October will bring?

Phil Barron
All photos my own.
@pcbtwit on Twitter



 




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