A selection of notable records reported to Tanyptera. Includes older, but newly recognised regional vice county records (dates blue). ‘The region’ = VC58, 59, 60 + Cheshire, Lancs, Merseyside, Greater Manchester. Hydrochara caraboides (Hydrophilidae), Near… Read more »
Acari (Mites) Rhinusa antirrhini (Curculionidae), Freshman’s Wood, Lancaster, VC58, 24/9, S. Garland Tribolium castaneum (Tenebrionidae), Pickmere, VC58, 24/9, C. Washington Leiodes rufipennis (Leiodidae), Formby, VC59, 21/9, C. Washington Hylastes angustatus (Curculionidae), Thelwell, Warrington, VC58, 17/9,… Read more »
Acari (Mites) Platyrhinus resinosus (Curculionidae), Thorn Wood, Weaverham, VC58, 2/8, C. Washington Musk Beetle Aromia moschata (Cerambycidae) Hightown Dunes, VC59, 16/8, P. Kinsella Blundellsands, VC59, 24/8, P. Kinsella Collembola (Springtails) Diplopoda (Millipedes) Pipiza austriaca (Syrphidae),… Read more »
Acari (Mites) Hadroplontus trimaculatus (Curculionidae), Northwich, VC58, 16/7, C. Washington Musk Beetle Aromia moschata (Cerambycidae), Freshfield Dune Heath, VC59, July, A. Hampson. Ontholestes murinus (Staphylinidae), Ribble Estuary NNR, VC59, 27/7, C. Washington. Brundinia marina (Staphylinidae),… Read more »
On 2nd July 2023, I found a female Mallota cimbiciformis feeding on bramble flowers at Ainsdale NNR, Merseyside. The sighting represents the first record for Merseyside and the Sefton Coast. There are just a few… Read more »
Acari (Mites) Steneotarsonemus phragmitidis (Tarsonemidae), Burton Mere, Wirral, VC58, 28/6, S.J. McWilliam. Appears to be a new record for VC58 and the region Mite gall causer on common reed. 11 records currently on NBN Atlas,… Read more »
In 2019 my wife and I discovered that Gordale Garden Centre in mid Wirral (SJ3375) had a population of the Garden Centre Spider Uloborus plumipes Lucas and we have enjoyed seeing it there on our… Read more »
Liophloeus tessulatus (Curculionidae), Alt bridge, VC59, P.Smith Only second record for Sefton coast Previous record also from the same area Diverse habitat from “meadows to mountains”, feeding on a range of common wild plants such… Read more »
First recorded in North Wales in 1968 (although an earlier specimen dating from 1957 was later discovered from Lancaster), Eriozona syrphoides is a large hoverfly that similarly to other Syrphids is a good mimic of… Read more »
P. rotundipennis is rarely seen or trapped as an adult. Ninety percent of the 700 UK records are as larvae and most from Environment Agency surveys. Permanently flowing medium-sized sandy bottomed streams with a moderate… Read more »
Bruchidius varius (Chrysomelidae), Diggle, Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, VC58/63 18/4, K. Gartside. Found at a high altitude, possibly 900ft asl One of only 3 records from the region but widespread in Southern England. Associated with flowers,… Read more »
Cryptops parisi (Cryptopidae), Nether Kellet, VC60, 5/3, N. Garnham. Probably the first VC60 and regional record. A non-native, naturalised species. Most UK records are from SW Wales. Found in bag of horse manure. Can be… Read more »
Collembola (Springtails) Bilobella braunerae (Neanuridae), Brabyns Park, Marple, VC58, 20/2, R. Atherton. Confirmed by Peter Shaw. Appears new to VC58 and the NW region. c.40 spotted under a small area of bark on a fallen… Read more »
Rhagium inquisitor (Cerambycidae), Ellesmere Port, VC58, 26/1, M. Bennett. Possibly a first record for Cheshire and the region. An adventive found in Sawmill. The natural species range is restricted to Central Scotland in the UK…. Read more »
The Marine Gardens at Crosby, Merseyside (SJ315980) comprise four walled ornamental public gardens, running from south to north and situated along the south-eastern perimeter of Crosby Marine Park. The gardens cover 4.86 hectares and total… Read more »
Orchesia micans (Melandryidae), Moore Nature Reserve, VC58, 27/12, C. Washington. A saproxylic. Previously known in Cheshire from well established sites (Oakmere, Styal, Wybunbury, Lyme Park etc). Occurrence at his relatively recently regenerated site, suggests Orchesia… Read more »
While checking a south-facing fence at Wick’s Path, Formby Point on 4th November 2022, I spotted an insect I didn’t recognise. It was about 9 mm long, rounded and greyish, with a prominent net-like pattern… Read more »
Southern Oak Bush-cricket Meconema meridionale is a pale green bush-cricket with a creamy-yellow dorsal stripe and two reddish spots on top of the pro-thorax. The female has a long, slightly upturned ovipositor, while the male… Read more »
Despite the occasional excessive heat and drought-like conditions during the Summer, 2022 proved to be an excellent year for me in the field. I recorded my highest yearly total of Syphidae species on the Sefton… Read more »
Oxypoda induta (Staphylinidae), Woolston Eyes, VC58, 1/11, C. Washington. Possible first VC58 record. Found in Phragmites litter. 26 scattered records on NBN Atlas from England, including 2 from Merseyside. Myrmecocephalus concinnus (Staphylinidae), Jacksons Brickworks LNR… Read more »
Strigamia maritima (Linotaeniidae), Heysham Head, VC60, October, N. Garnham. Found only at the top of the shore, around the High-Water Spring stand line on the seaward side of the shingle bank. Although generally common around… Read more »
On 31st August 2018, Steve Garland collected a solitary bee at North Walney NNR, Cumbria that he identified as Colletes halophilus (Sea Aster Colletes). This was an extraordinary find, as most of the world population… Read more »
Geophilus insculptus (Geophilidae), Elton Goit, VC59, 17/9, D. Bentley. New to Greater Manchester according to searchable data sources. Can be found under stones etc. in the upper layer of soil in a variety of habitats…. Read more »
Aphodius zenkeri (Scarabaeidae), Dunham Massey, VC58, 1/8, C. Washington. A woodland favouring dung beetle that may be at the limit of it’s current NW range in Britain but has been known from Dunham for over… Read more »
Between 21st May – 30th July 2021, 5 adult females of the brown lacewing S. klapaleki (image below) were caught in two vane traps placed on veteran oaks growing in open parkland 150 metres apart… Read more »
A total of three female W. balticus were found during hand searching amongst dense marram (image below), on semi fixed dunes at Formby National Trust, Merseyside (Image below) on 26th May and 8th June 2021…. Read more »
Araneae (Spiders) Leviellus stroemi (Araneae), M, Combermere Park, VC58, May & June 2022, Col. G. Hedges. Det. T. Hunter. New to VC58 and the region. Nationally Rare and Near Threatened. The most recent UK record… Read more »
Entomology, particularly in the past, has been a field dominated by men, and for some the word ‘Entomologist’ itself conjures an image of an eccentric bearded gentlemen armed with a butterfly net. There are, of… Read more »
Conops strigatus (Dark-cheeked Beegrabber) (Fig. 1) is a scarce insect in Britain with scattered records as far north as Cumbria and hardly any for Central England. Only 78 records are shown on the NBN… Read more »
The Beewolf (Philanthus triangulum) is a spectacular looking wasp that was once regarded a great rarity in Britain. In the 1990’s, the status of the species in Britain was considered to be Vulnerable, but it… Read more »
On the late afternoon of 6th September 2021, I was searching for insects along the frontal dunes at Hightown, Merseyside. It was very warm and sunny and there were plenty about. As I scanned… Read more »
Anacampsis temerella is a rarely recorded, inconspicuous member of the Gelechiidae family, with a mainly coastal distribution and a Nationally Notable A conservation status (Figure 1). It is usually found as a larva in spinnings… Read more »
Following on from the discovery of the Pine Hoverfly, Callicera rufa, at Formby in 2020 (see article), I visited that site on several occasions during May 2021, but failed to find it again. The… Read more »
On a visit to Hightown dunes on 10th April 2021, I found the Tachinid fly, Gonia ornata, a species apparently not recorded on the Sefton coast for thirty years. I had already seen Gonia picea… Read more »
During a National Museums Liverpool survey of parasitic wasps at Formby National Trust (VC59) on 29th September 2020, a female ichneumon resembling Ctenochira haemosterna was swept from the edge of a small mixed woodland with… Read more »
Although summer is often seen as peak time for entomology, many groups can be collected all year round if suitable techniques are used. This is particularly the case for beetles, as many species overwinter as… Read more »
Introduction Smith & Kinsella (2020) reported on six robberflies (Asilidae) they had recorded and photographed in the Sefton Coast sand-dune system, suggesting that four more species might be discovered through field survey, namely Dioctria atricapilla,… Read more »
My job revolves around protected sites and whilst I fully appreciate the invertebrate wonders to be found on nature reserves and sites of special scientific interest, since reading Ken Thompson’s ‘No Nettles Required’ well over… Read more »
On 19th July 2020 Don Stenhouse and I were hunting for beetles in Danebridge, Staffordshire. We were on a mission to find new sites for Bromius obscurus (we didn’t) but like most beetlers, couldn’t resist… Read more »
Other than the beetles associated with ant nests there are a couple of others that should interest Hymenopterists – and both are rarely recorded. Firstly is the Wasp Beetle (Metoecus paradoxus), the UK’s only representative… Read more »
Like many others, I’m spending even more time in my garden than usual with the current Covid situation. Although I’ve been photographing the insects in my Southport garden for over a decade, this extra time… Read more »
During summer 2020, I regularly visited an area of coarse grassland in the shelter of planted trees at Ravenmeols Local Nature Reserve near Formby. This supported plenty of flowering umbellifers that attracted a wide range… Read more »
The late and much respected entomologist and Botanist (and Curator at Oldham Museum) Leonard N Kidd wrote a small booklet in the 1990’s titled Flora of Saddleworth. It is still relevant and is used as… Read more »
On 28th June 2020 my wife Claire pointed out an unusual looking insect in our kitchen in Bromborough, Wirral (VC58). On inspection it was clearly a shieldbug, but not one I could recognise. I tasked… Read more »
On 25 May 2020, during a bee survey carried out as part of the biodiversity monitoring programme on the Nature Reserve at Chester Zoo (SJ4070), a single female Stelis phaeoptera was found investigating this log… Read more »
The afternoon of 22nd March 2020 was warm and sunny at Hightown dunes, Merseyside. There were plenty of insects on the wing and I had found good numbers of Vernal Mining Bees (Colletes cunicularius) and… Read more »
The hoverfly Callicera rufa is an enigmatic species that was once only found in the Caledonian forests of the Scottish highlands. Then in 2011, it was found south of the border in Shropshire and subsequently… Read more »
On April 15th, 2020, I noticed and photographed a male Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis) guarding two old “rawlplug” holes in an east-facing wall of my garden in Formby (SD28380802). A week later, a pair… Read more »
Formerly restricted to Juniper woods in southern England, the Juniper Shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) is now common across southern and central England, having colonised planted Junipers and Cypresses in gardens. It has also been recorded on… Read more »
On the 18th June 2019 I collected a small black bee from apple mint (Mentha suaveolens) in my urban garden in Longsight, Manchester. I later examined it under a microscope and identified it as a… Read more »
On 12th July 2017 I took 2 male and 2 female Dolichopodidae flies in Newton Beck Valley, a small wood on the edge of Lancaster. Unable to determine their genus, never mind species, I put… Read more »
In June 2019 I found a female blood bee (Sphecodes sp.) foraging in a small clearing in dense deciduous woodland next to Risley Moss, a lowland peat bog (Cheshire (VC59)). Having taken the… Read more »
Asilids are insects with attitude. They are active predators of other insects and therefore have good eyesight and rapid reactions, making them challenging subjects for photography. This is a small family as insects go… Read more »
One of the good things about recording beetles is that you can do it at any time of the year, since many beetles overwinter as adults. In summer techniques like sweeping and beating are used… Read more »
It’s nearly ten years since I produced the last Heteroptera (true bugs) checklist for Lancashire and Cheshire. So, the time has come for another update. In the last checklist an impressive 45 new county… Read more »
On 12th December 2019, botanist Joshua Styles emailed me to say that he had come across a “peculiar shieldbug” hiding in a plastic bag used to store seed of Berry Catchfly (Silene baccifera) in… Read more »
‘Guess what’. ‘What?’ ‘I left the pheromones in the freezer. We need to go back’. ‘Haha, very funny.’ ‘No, really…’ So started the South Cheshire Rare Moths Project (or SCRaM to its friends). Our… Read more »
On the 4th December 2019, Susan Marley and I visited Stanley Park, Liverpool to record for the Greenspace Challenge project running under the Year of the Environment initiative. One of the plants found in the… Read more »
On the afternoon of 12th September 2019 I was delivering print jobs to customers in the Northern Quarter of Manchester city centre and, having recently joined the Hoverfly Recording Scheme, thought I would take a… Read more »
On 20th May 2019 whilst assisting volunteers with a bumblebee transect at Dunham Massey, our route took us through farmland managed by the National Trust a few hundred metres west of the deer park to… Read more »
One of the most recent additions to the north Merseyside fauna is Colletes hederae, the Ivy Bee (Fig. 1). The first UK sightings of this distinctive solitary bee were in Dorset in 2001. Within the… Read more »
During the afternoon of the 27th June 2019, Pete Kinsella and Mark Nightingale visited Ainsdale NNR, Merseyside, primarily to search for insects, in particular hoverflies and Odonata. While walking along a firebreak in the extensive… Read more »
Returning to Falklands Way dunes, Ainsdale, in August 2019, I easily located male, female and immature Speckled Bush-crickets (Leptophyes punctatissima) close to where they were first noted in 2018. Trevor Davenport also found them again… Read more »
Britain’s spider fauna is comprised of some 670 species from the infra-order Araneomorphae and one species from the infra-order Mygalomorphae. Our single mygalomorph is the Purseweb Spider, Atypus affinis. Although this striking and enigmatic spider… Read more »
On 21st November 2018 I found a dead picture-winged fly on the kitchen windowsill in Bolton le Sands (VC60). It was quickly identified as a male Tephritis praecox (Tephritidae). There are very few UK records… Read more »
On 24th August 2018 while sweep-netting for shieldbugs at Falklands Way, Ainsdale, Phil Smith netted two male Speckled Bush-crickets (Leptophyes punctatissima) from a Wild Privet bush near to back gardens at SD303116. According to Phil,… Read more »
Most large insects are inactive over winter. An exception are larvae of the caddis family Limnephilidae. They eat dead leaves that fall into freshwaters and that resource is at its peak over winter; many also… Read more »
The Nationally Rare and Near Threatened Sphagnum bog jumping spider, Sitticus floricola has been the subject of a Tanyptera Project commissioned survey to better understand its current status and distribution in a UK stronghold, the… Read more »
After two decades with no records, experts had feared that a rare diminutive scarab beetle Aphodius brevis had become extinct from our shores (Lane & Mann, 2016). In the UK, it’s only ever been known… Read more »
