{"id":586,"date":"2014-05-29T15:49:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T15:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=586"},"modified":"2014-06-05T15:07:45","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:07:45","slug":"more-a-bug-than-a-butterfly-transect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/29\/more-a-bug-than-a-butterfly-transect\/","title":{"rendered":"More a Bug than a Butterfly Transect"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a go at the ‘regular’ butterfly transect down at the reserve. It was warm and humid but overcast and it didn’t look promising. A large willow covered in Gypsy Moth caterpillars had been loosened by all the rain, and had fallen across the path. I lopped off the crown branches and carted them down to a dead hedge to fill in a gap someone had been climbing through.<\/p>\n

The sun peeped out and the cloud cover reduced to maybe 60%, making it warm and pleasant. A single Small White appeared over the ramp and made it onto the transect. I wandered around the reserve, but there was nothing until I found a solitary Speckled Wood in the large meadow.<\/p>\n

However, there was plenty to notice all around. The building site looks a lot better now the ‘Costa Concordia’ white horizontal balcony cladding on ‘Chiswick Point’ (well, it’s in Acton Green and on Bollo Lane, but I guess Bollo Block didn’t quite have the same cachet) has been completed: it will be nice when the noise of cranes and drilling stops.<\/p>\n

\"Handsome<\/a>
Handsome iridescent green male Oedemera nobilis<\/span> on Catsear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many ichneumon flies were out on the Hogweed, some mating; almost every Catsear flowerhead had one or two handsomely iridescent green Oedemera nobilis<\/em>, the “thick-kneed flower beetle” – only the males have the swollen hind femurs, but both sexes have a gap between the slender wing-cases. The males were of noticeably varying sizes, presumably the large ones having the best chances of mating.<\/p>\n

\"Tent<\/a>
Tent of Peacock butterfly caterpillars on Stinging Nettle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A fine bustling mass of hairy black early-instar caterpillars of the Peacock butterfly, wriggled on their silk tent atop a Stinging Nettle.<\/p>\n

\"Laburnum<\/a>
Laburnum leaf beetle larva doing an impressive amount of leaf damage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Laburnum by the main path is being eaten full of holes, probably a good thing for a non-native shrub in the reserve, by spotted and striped larvae of the Laburnum Leaf Beetle. Never seen it before.<\/p>\n

\"Mating<\/a>
Mating Rose Sawflies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wild rose in the car park hedge was host to a mating pair of Rose Sawfly, a serious pest for gardeners but an attractive insect with a bright yellow abdomen.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a>
Large Red Damselflies in cop over a lot of healthy Starwort in the pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As if all these treats weren’t enough, there were Large Red Damselflies mating and egg-laying on the pond, Common Blue Damselflies, lots of Hoverflies, Click Beetles (seemingly Athous haemorrhoidalis<\/em>), large brown frog tadpoles and small black toadpoles, singing Blackcaps, a Song Thrush, a Jay, and plenty more. Maybe it’s not just Bugs Day on Saturday, but Bugs Week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a go at the ‘regular’ butterfly transect down at the reserve. It was warm and humid but overcast and it didn’t look promising. A large willow covered in Gypsy Moth caterpillars had been loosened by all the rain, and had fallen across the path. I lopped off the crown branches and carted them … Continue reading More a Bug than a Butterfly Transect<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88],"tags":[345,339,343,16,279,344,342,337,316,340,126,341,338],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-history","category-nature-reserves","tag-catsear","tag-click-beetle","tag-cut-leaved-cranesbill","tag-gunnersbury-triangle-nature-reserve","tag-gypsy-moth","tag-herb-robert","tag-ichneumon","tag-laburnun-leaf-beetle","tag-large-red-damselfly","tag-oedemera-nobilis","tag-peacock-butterfly","tag-rose-sawfly","tag-starwort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}