The 'Your Best Insect Finds of 2009' thread!

[Jason Green]

Hi all,

Here's an interesting annual thread - post your best insect finds here!

Mine? Well... first off, I can't forget about my first-ever sighting of the rarely-recorded Barkfly, Blaste quadrimaculata can I? It's been a good year, I added six, yes 6, Picture-winged Flies to my life-long total of... 7, so very good indeed! My best surely being Acanthiophilus helianthi - quite uncommon, and very attractive colour-wise around the face!

The Juniper Shieldbug - associated with Juniper and Lawson's Cypress - was found in my garden though locally I don't know of the presence of either foodplant! Then there's the Seed Bug Arocatus longiceps that I went down to Battersea Park to see. I've now found five Eupteryx 'hoppers - Eupteryx mellisae, decemnotata, florida, urticae and filicum. I also added the Plant Bug Deraeocoris flavilinea to my list. Heterotoma planicornis is always nice to see! Very pretty.

Elsewhere, on an area of scrub new to me this year I found the syrphid Scaeva selenitica, a nice find. I had confirmation on a photo from last year of Mintho rufiventris. The Spring Hoverfly Epistrophe eligans is always good to see - being one of the first Hoverflies I photographed.

Beetle-wise, it was nice to find my first Rupela maculata and Kidney-spot Ladybird.

I had a very short encounter with the new bee, Bombus hortorum.

Each year, you see more, you learn more, you want to see more

Thanks for reading! I will look forward to reading yours. What a nice year it's been!

Take care,

Jason

[ChrisR]

From my own collecting in the UK it would have to be:

• Phytomyptera zonella - a tachinid new to the UK and soon to be published by Ivan Perry - I caught it 1 day before he caught his but I have let him write it up as he was the first to identify it
• Bithia spreta - a rare tachinid fly of dry habitats - something I haven't caught before but this year it appeared on 2 of my favourite local sites
• Eriothrix prolixa - a rare tachinid fly of downlands - another one that seems to have had a good year locally

all were caught in south Oxon or west Berks.

I also helped Howard Bentley with his discovery of Linnaemya picta in Kent. The species is new to Britain but it has existed here since at least the 1940s - misidentified as L.rossica

Every year I am also sent hundreds of tachinids from Europe but I'll have to think a bit harder about which of those are 'good' ... I got a second record for Spain in Ceromya dorsigera and quite a lot of new country records from Estonia but I won't list them unless you are interested otherwise this thread could be dominated by tachinids

Jason: your Mintho rufiventris was a nice tachinid record. Mintho is found fairly frequently in Europe, where it is warmer in summer, but here is just seems to crop up fairly randomly (and rarely) all across southern England - a bit like Lophosia fasciata. Wherever you get one you can never guarantee to get one again.

[Jenny W]

Nothing particularly rare or spectacular, but nice for me nonetheless -

4 new macro-moth records for our site this year - Orange-tailed Clearwing, Blackneck, Grass Rivulet and Brindled White-spot, plus 7 new micros, but I'm not very good on those and I can't remember the names off the top of my head!

My first year getting properly into click beetles too - year list of about 10 (id's pending) is not much, but quite exciting for me!

[Geoff F]

This is something I will have to think about but offhand.

Hoverfly Chrysotoxum elegans which, until I put my glasses on, I nearly overlooked as just another Syrphus ribesii.

My first sighting of Xanthogramma pedissequum.

A mating swarm of Colletes hederae.

Some Mason Wasps Odynerus spinipes constructing their burrows.

A good mixture of butterflies including many Pearl-bordered fritillaries and my first Dark Green Fritillary plus mating pairs of Common Blues and Wall Browns. Green Hairstreaks were common in one location.

Quite a few dragonflies and damselflies including an Emperor Dragonfly laying eggs, several mating Azure Damselflies and Gold Ringed Dragonflies.

Pleased to see that the harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus was in my garden for the second year. Also making a return appearance, in my greenhouse, was the Jumping Spider Heliophanus cupreus.

And many others, including several first sightings for me, but too numerous to mention here.

So all in all a good year for me.

[JRsbugs]

Jason: your Mintho rufiventris was a nice tachinid record. Mintho is found fairly frequently in Europe, where it is warmer in summer, but here is just seems to crop up fairly randomly (and rarely) all across southern England - a bit like Lophosia fasciata. Wherever you get one you can never guarantee to get one again.

I saw Mintho rufiventris twice! I shot off a nervous 3 or 4 pics, got a really good one before it shot off! I'm not certain but I think I got a female first then a male next time.

More later when I think about all the rarities I have, some yet not confirmed..

Janet

[JRsbugs]

Here's the pic as I know you will be dying to see it It was as bright and fresh as it looks, an amazing sight!

[ChrisR]

Yup - a lovely photo of Mintho Did you send me your tachinid records for 2009?

[Wild-Woman]

Apart from the obvious ones from the WAB meets like the Norfolk Hawker, Swallowtail Butterfly, the one that probably made this year for me was meeting up with Omocestus rufipes AKA the Woodland Grasshopper for the first time. A male caught my eye as it leapt out of my way at Hothfield Common, showing off its red abdomen and on closer examination, its white palps. What a smashing little GH that was.

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by ChrisR

Yup - a lovely photo of Mintho Did you send me your tachinid records for 2009?

You got my first Minto rufiventris record for 14th June but not this one. I also sent you Phasia hemiptera female but not sure if you have both sightings, on 31st July and 5th August.

I still have some to get an ID for, maybe that should be my next job amongst many.

[ChrisR]

All records welcome - just email them through or PM me with the details