To Russia with love...

On the 18th of next month, it will be my tenth anniversary of writing this blog. A lot has changed during those ten years: My writing style has developed (for the better I hope), I'm closing in on 300 blog posts and something like 18000 words.

When I was checking my blog stats recently, I was amazed to see that Russia headed the list of most views...

It's also rewarding when people are recommending my blog to others...

Anyhow, enough self-aggrandisement. Let's crack on with this update;

Autumn can be a quieter time for finding subjects to include in my blog updates, most things have either completed their life-cycle by now, or have hibernated until spring. If you look back over past autumn/winter posts, you will see that they often feature..........spiders! This update won't be bucking that trend, and so please take this as advanced warning?

By the way, you do know that even though you probably hate the little buggers and find them 'disgusting', we are doomed without them: we are told by the scientists that man could not survive without spiders.

Cut the spider talk and show us a pretty picture JJ!

"Well I like it! Beech tree leaves."

'This species is classed as Nationally Scarce Notable B' - That's what I read when I researched one of the finds I had on one very special day last week. I have found this critter a few times in the past but it's always a joy to behold. What am I talking about? 'Platyrhinus resinosus', that's what... 

Also known as Cramp-Ball Fungus Weevil (Larvae of P. resinosus have been found in the Cramp-Ball fungus) and even King Alfred’s Cakes Weevil, this has to be one of the United Kingdom's strangest beetles. By the way, that tiny blue creature far right is a Lepidocyrtus species springtail (Collembola).

 

Love this pose: just how my little doggie sits sometimes!

Before we all get carried away with excitement though; a word from the excellent 'UK Beetles' on this species:

 In the UK this species is classified as nationally scarce (B) but there appears to have been an increase in both range and abundance over recent years and this is probably no longer appropriate.

It is locally common across south and central England and South Wales in wooded habitats, including parkland and gardens.

Adults have a long season, we have recorded them in January, persisting into late summer or autumn, they can often be found active or at rest during the day on fallen timber or logs etc. but may be cryptic to the inexperienced eye as they resemble bird droppings.

Exactly how I found this one, beside a wood, under a fallen ash branch.

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Another find from the same day? Certainly, I have plenty...

Bruchus rufimanus

Sometimes known as the 'Broad Bean Weevil' (or Broad Bean Beetle). At about 5 mm, this is the largest species in the genus Bruchus. The elytra are grey-brown, flecked with white, and are shorter than the body.

The antennae are orange at the base, and whilst the front legs are reddish, the middle legs are black. When these weevils feel threatened they have a clever trick to escape predation: they play dead...

Now this is what a Flat-backed Millipede should look like...

But I recently found a white one...

How is it that there is, as far as I know, not a white millipede; and yet this one is definitely very pale. Well because it must have only just moulted and the pale colour is teneral. It will gradually take on a darker tone as the new exoskelton hardens. 

I suppose we should get the spider thing out of the way right? 

Actually there should be nothing scary about this; it is in fact one of the most beautifully marked spiders I have seen...

This is 'Araneus diadematus', the Garden Spider. The spider is mature from summer to autumn. After mating, the female builds a silken cocoon in which she lays her eggs. She protects this egg sac until she dies in late autumn. The spiderlings hatch the following May.

As I only spotted this a few days ago, and we are already well into autumn, I would think she will not last much longer. 

Here's something you'll probably enjoy more; who doesn't like ladybirds? If you cannot enjoy the pictures for whatever reason, at least have fun with the scientific name of 'Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata'...

The 22-spot ladybird is just 3-4mm in length. I spotted (pun intended) this one in my garden two days ago. Don't waste time counting the spots by the way, there aren't 22!

The default mystery object that is...

I know what it could be related to but...not exactly what it is; do you?

Actually, whilst we are doing weird, look at these very strange fungi...

Odder than a very odd thing that seems odd even to an odd person right? 

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Good things come in threes don't they? So how about a third oddity to complete this update: this one is in the form of a video that I took using my phone at full zoom (x8) and so quailty is pretty awful, but what the heck is going on here? Whatever it is, it's minute, and was on a horse-chestnut tree...

(once again, you will need to be online to view this vid: too big to show in e.mailed version)

Ash dieback, it's no laughing matter...

My usual style of writing these blog entries is to try and inject a little humour to compliment some interesting dialogue.

Sometimes the subject matter requires a tad more gravitas though. The 'ash-dieback' caused by the chalara fraxinea fungus that is making headlines across the U.K. is a case in point.

As I write this update the disease now threatens most of the estimated 80 million ash trees and worryingly for me personally, there have now been 9 confirmed sites in my own gloriously,tree rich county of Kent.

People have already said to me that it won't be a disaster on the scale forecast by those in the know! This seems to be based around the (crazy to my way of thinking) premise that we had DED (Dutch elm disease) in the 1970s that devastated our native elm trees, yet nature reclaimed the open spaces that the felled elm left behind, and now, most people are none the wiser.

Well, there's an old saying that 'Nature abhors a vacuum' based on the observation that nature requires every space to be filled with something.

But to me the loss of these native trees is of huge importance and whilst it's true that nature will compensate by filling voids with other things, eventually the very nature of our British landscape and countryside will be changed forever.


Without getting into the politics of how and why this disease has taken hold in our county, there are, as always, knock-on effects to consider.
Ash dieback could have a devastating effect on our invertebrate population-especially those that rely solely on ash.

The Invertebrate Conservation Trust points out that there are 27 species
that rely almost entirely on ash for survival.
7 species that rely on ash are already considered to be rare. Nearly 100
invertebrate species in total are known to feed on ash.

Platyrhinus resinosus

This fabulous looking weevil pictured above is one of the species that is thought to rely solely on ash. It's not known to be associated with any other species as far as I know.

That of course means that should we lose all of our native ash trees, this wonderful creature would become extinct.

Ash woodlands have light, open canopies, so are an important habitat for flora such as bluebells. Birds like bullfinches feed on the trees' seeds.
Also, ash provides an important habitat for more than a quarter of Britain's lichen, including some of the nationally rare species.

I purloined this little graphic from the internet that shows how the loss of ash trees could affect nature...

It's a serious subject that I could bang on about for ages and turn this little blog update into a mighty tome but I won't do that because I would like to think that you'll return another day, to at least glance at future missives.

I'll return very soon with a more 'normal' style of entry- probably still no 'knob' gags though!


Until the next time then...

As a postscript I'd like to apologise if I have misused 'effect' and 'affect', I can't remember the verb/noun thingy but, you get the gist I hope?