Saturday 13 September 2008

Hoverflies & corn-salads

Some good things on a rare sunny day.  Two hoverflies were feeding on ivy blossom: the drone fly (Eristalis tenax) and the much scarcer common bog hoverfly (Sericomyia silentis) pictured below.

20080913 KWR Sericomyia 002

20080913 KWR Sericomyia 003

I also noted the first mine, in a bramble leaf, of the golden pigmy moth (Stigmella aurella).

On the flora front I have decisively determined the corn-salad plants that continue to flower into the autumn.  They are all keel-fruited corn-salad (Valerianella carinata), a relatively scarce species and not, perhaps, one that would have been expected.

In examining the seeds under the microscope, I noticed that many had been broken into via a jagged hole on one side and the kernel eaten.  Perhaps a small beetle - I must try and find the culprits.

Valerianella carinata in flower, South View 20020928 f