Ectopsocus briggsi and female chironomid

Today's catch in the yellow water trap was a bit disappointing as most of the diptera were females which are more tricky to identify. 

Ectopsocus briggsi however was straightforward and is illustrated below meaning two members of Psocoptera have turned up in the past week or so. 

A female chironomid keyed to subfamily Orthocladiinae with the front tibia longer than the first segment of the front tarsus.  The wings, squama and eyes were all bare.  It is probably Smittia pratorum which I've found as the male before in the garden. 

Trioza urticae

In yesterday's catch in the water trap was a female of Trioza urticae, which means that two of the four common members of family Triozidae have turned up in my garden in February.  There are 19 species on the British list in this family in four genera.  Of these six are rare or based on very few records and six are uncommon.  Of the remaining seven, four are locally common and three are common to very common.  One of the remaining common species is associated with oaks and the other with willows, so the latter could turn up with the ornamental willows in the garden.  There are no oaks particularly nearby. 

Today's image shows Lauritrioza alacris and Trioza urticae next to one another.  They differ in particular in the length of the front vein which goes past the Y-fork in the second vein in Trioza and ends well short of the fork in Lauritrioza.  Below the eyes there are two triangular projections known as the genal cones.  These are pale in Lauritrioza and black in Trioza.  Seen side by side a number of other differences are apparent.  Lauritrioza alacris is associated with bay trees (scientific name Laurus nobilis - hence the insect's name).  Trioza urticae is found on nettles (Urtica dioica -again giving the insect its name)

Omitted to mention that the frogs were in the pond well over a week earlier this year although they have not begun spawning yet.  This year it there were sixteen in the pond on the 19th February; last year it was the first week of March before any turned up.

  

Trichopsocus brincki and Lauritrioza alacris

Put out a yellow pan trap (yellow plate containing water and a couple of drops of washing up liquid) to catch insects in the garden at the beginning of February and this has turned up some insects I had not seen before.

These included Trichopsocus brincki, a member of family Psocoptera (the bark lice).  Working from the old key this was identified to family Trichopsocidae due to the hairs on the back wing being alternately long and short (required about x100 magnification to see).  It was clear that the patterning on the wings didn't fit the species there so went to Keith Alexander's site and identified the species easily using the illustrations there of wing patterning (https://www.brc.ac.uk/schemes/barkfly/key/A1-B-C2.htm).  This was recorded on February 9th, 16th-18th and 21st.

A second one new to me was Lauritrioza alacris (Psyllidae, Hemiptera).  I had previously constructed a key to the 24 species listed as common in the Royal Entomological Society's Handbook to Psylloidea and got in a real mess trying to see the microscopic surface spicules on the wing.  This species didn't appear to have them so I went back to the full key and found it tracked to this species which is listed as locally common.  That is now added to my key and posted at https://sites.google.com/site/mikesinsectkeys/Home/hemiptera/psylloidea

Hampshire Violaceae completed

A visit to Bartley Heath just off the M3 at the Hook junction yielded the last two species of violet growing in North Hampshire.  These were the two heath violets, Viola lactea and Viola canina.  

Viola lactea, Bartley Heath

This completes the eight species growing in the area and meant that I could complete illustrating the revised key to the species, which is now published here - https://sites.google.com/site/mikesinsectkeys/Home/keys-to-plants-of-north-hampshire.  I know it is rather unorthodox to publish under "insect keys" but it saves effort on my part as the site was already in use.  I expect I'll rationalize it all given time.

Again the season is not particularly conducive to getting out and about but the total is gradually creeping up, going up by one today with spotting Sisymbrium orientale growing at the edge of the car park of B&Q in Basingstoke. 

528 species, 43.5%

Lovely display of Symphytum x hidcotense

On the way through Old Basing stopped off for a few minutes on Newnham Lane as it passes close to the River Loddon.  Found a lovely display of the comfrey variety Symphytum x hidcotense growing on the flood plain.  The red flower buds contrast beautifully with the pale blue to white petals of the opened flowers.  In the same area were Malus sylvestris and Salix viminalis in flower which I'd recorded in leaf before.  

 
Total 511

Common plants that have passed me by

It is strange that some plants that are really common get missed.  I've been interested in the local flora for a long time and yet I'm still seeing plants for the first time that I really should have seen had I been more observant.  A recent example of this is Erophila verna, the Common Whitlow Grass.  It is found throughout Hampshire and yet I have never knowingly seen it.  It gets its name from reputed healing properties of whitlows (an infection on the fingers).  Since seeing it on the kerbside near the Brighton Hill shopping centre, Basingstoke, I have seen it at Silchester, Odiham and Ellisfield.  It is very easy to identify with its basal whorl of leaves from which the completely leafless flower stalks arise.  The four petals are deeply divided giving the impression that it has eight petals.  Similar species have leaves on the flowering stems.

A brief visit to the Roman walls at Silchester yielded a second common species that I'd not seen before, the Field Forget-me-not, Myosotis arvensis.  

My list now stands at 507 which is just under 42%.

Erophila verna at Brighton Hill

Toothwort found

Along with most botanists and gardeners I've been waiting for spring to get started.  We in fact cheated by popping off to Kos in the Aegean for the Easter break and at least returned to the current improvement in the weather.  Before going off to Kos I put together ID keys to all the plants that grow there and managed to find and photograph in excess of 200 of them while we were away.  This included a superb sawfly-mimicking orchid illustrated below.

This evening I popped out to a spot on the southern edge of Worting Woods just north west of Basingstoke to try to find the toothwort this year having failed last spring.  I took my two year old grandson with me having shown him the illustration in my plant book.  We found three spikes under hazel bushes and the identification was confirmed by my companion.  The adjacent field is possibly zoned for housing development and I would be concerned that this sensitive species would survive.

Lathraea squamaria (toothwort), parasitic on hazel

Ophrys speculum on Kalimnos, East Aegean.  Rather atypical as the brown margin of the "abdomen" is tucked round behind the purple mirrored section