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The amazing spread of Comma recently has been updated in
the animated map on right. Note the last frame which shows the number of
records per year, which has increased this year despite the horrendous weather. Note also the record (confirmed by photograph) in Thurso, a real outlier. Maybe some human assistance was involved. |
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| A while back I suggested you check any plastic compost bins for the moth-fly Psychoda sigma. My bin is full of them just now (the little white dots in the pic below), but as they are only a couple of mm long you will need a lens or microscope to check for the diagnostic sigma mark ∑ across the wings (right). We have records from Skye, Raasay and Strathpeffer, but it must be elsewhere. If you have it, let us know! |
 © Simon Taylor. |
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Knopper Galls are showing well on Oak at the moment.
It is one of our TRY! targets and we are on the edge of its N and W spread.
Details are on
our TRY!
page and a more up-to-date map is
here
(click the Knopper link). If you pass a fruiting oak please check the acorns and report any Knoppers. |
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Please remind yourself of the item in
Highland Naturalist this
spring on the distinctive harvestman
Dicranopalpus ramosus. This is the time when
it seems to be especially obvious as adults, usually on white-washed walls. In the last few weeks we have added dots to the map (right) from finds in Contin, Strathpeffer, Dingwall and Fortrose, and there must be more around. HBRG has provided all but one of the northern Scottish records on NBN Atlas - and a few in the south as well - so we are (not for the first time!) leading the field in pushing back the frontiers of science. Let's push them back a bit farther! The orange dots are of the genus, species not having been determined. Green dots are all D. ramosus. Triangles are confirmed records from iRecord. We must be open to the possibility of D. caudatus here, so species identification must be done from specimes or very good photographs. Records of the genus are still very valuable, though. |
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If you have Bay
Laurus nobilis in
your herb garden please check it for the galls of the Bay Sucker
Trioza alacris.
I have just found it for the first time on my old Bay bush at Strathpeffer, and
there is no record for Scotland on NBN Atlas. More information is on the
British Bugs site, and on
Bladmineerders. It appears not to be a serious pest but certainly causes
cosmetic effects from the yellowed folded leaves (see image on right). ***Update - found in quantity in Dingwall, Inverness and S of Nairn.*** On that Dingwall bush was also a bright red blister which is still a mystery - see picture below on right. If you find that, please also report it. It does not seem to be associated with the leaf-roll. The other thing you don't want on Bay is the scale-bug Coccus hesperidum which is known from Dingwall, Culloden, Forres and Edinburgh (all four records on NBN Atlas are ours!). Details of that one are on Bladmineerders and RHS. If you find any of these, please let us know. |
 .  © Murdo Macdonald |
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