Hitchin Cemetery August & September 2022

The most significant event during August & September was the presentation of a long service award (garden centre voucher) to Betty for her work for over twenty years as a volunteer for the Countryside Management Service. Betty is the hardest working volunteer at the cemetery, keeping going for long hours in all weathers: note the muddy knees!  Betty has been used to hard  work having been a nurse all her working life. I won't embarrass her by disclosing her age, but she mentioned that she was one of those people who camped out all night to see the coronation in 1953 (a bit of rain never put her off then and it doesn't now), at the time she was working as trainee nurse at Great Ormond Street and it was just luck that her days off coincided with the coronation. 

 

Compared to the above event, the cemetery wildlife was on the quiet side during August and September as the summer heatwave meant much of the grass had turned brown and many flowers had passed their prime. The "conservation cut" of the meadow areas was done and the clippings taken away which is an important part of managing meadow areas for wildlife. There were few butterflies but a slightly worn Peacock put on a show, and the unusual leaves of a Purple Oxalis could be found.

 

Apparently unaffected by the drought were quite a number of yellow Toadflax plants and the wild roses looked okay too with the occasional colourful Robin's Pin-cushion to be found on them (a gall caused by a little wasp) and this one was providing shelter for a 7-Spot Ladybird.

 

The wild roses also were home to some Rose Sawflies, luckily these caterpillars seem to favour wild roses and not the garden varieties as they can strip lots of foliage using team work (although the plant still seems to thrive).

The above photos show a very young stage on the left and on the right the larva are a week older and are bigger and more boldly marked. Below are photos of an adult (left) and the scar (right) on the stem where eggs were laid. The flies are named after the saw-like appendage which the females use for slicing in to a stem to lay their eggs.

  

I found a different Sawfly caterpillar on a Scots Pine, this seems to be rare enough that it only has a scientific name,  Gilpinia frutetorum. There are hardly any records in the UK for this species (see map) and so it is exciting to have found it. To be honest there is an element of doubt about the identification as there are so few experts prepared to spend time and effort to verify such sightings (they would probably want to see the live caterpillar and to raise it to produce the adult fly) so this will likely remain a "probable" sighting.

 

A rather more spectacular sight in the cemetery was a Jersey Tiger, these day-flying moths were seen by several people around Hitchin and are unmistakeable as they are black and white striped with a bright flash of orange from the underwings as they fly. Until fairly recently they were only found in the UK in the Channel Islands, but as with many insects, they are being found further north these days (global warming).

During September the Ivy begins to flower in the cemetery and this is a very important plant for pollinators, photos below are of a Batman Hoverfly (you can just about make out the black Batman logo on its thorax), a Honey Bee, and an Ivy Bee. Ivy Bees were new to science in 1993 and first discovered in the UK in 2001 and now they a very common sight, about Honey Bee sized but a little more brightly marked with some chestnut hairs and stripey abdomen.

 

 

 As ever the cemetery is an excellent place to spot ladybirds and it was a good time to spot the larval stage of Harlequin Ladybirds with their spikey "don't mess with me" appearance, and the stunning Eyed Ladybird which is the largest UK species.

An unusual sight was a Southern Oak Bush Cricket which I found in a Silver Birch, so maybe the name is a bit mis-leading. Crickets have very long antennae whereas grasshoppers are stubby. Interestingly this species is predator of Horse Chestnut Leaf Miners which are the tiny moths which are turning every Horse Chestnut tree brown in mid-summer. 

There will be plenty of interest in the cemetery even in the darker days to come, both plants and animas as well grave stones to be found, so why not have a stroll around?