‘Pan’ what now? Yes, you probably missed it, but Tris and I are having a go at ‘panrecording’ – ie recording everything we find in our ‘patches’ (which for me is the wonderful Great Chalfield Estate in Wiltshire where I live). Panrecording is a wonderful thing to do, BUT – how the blinking, flipping Hell do people do it? And by ‘people’ I mean naturalists like the inestimable Graeme Lyons, Ecologist for Sussex Wildlife Trust, whose The Lyons Den blog is so ridiculously cool it is like the biggest bowl of the best ice-cream on a really hot day. (I think I’m developing something of a ‘naturalist crush’ on Mr L – it’s purely a mental thing, in case he reads this…)
I mean it’s one thing to be confident about IDing most birds I’m ever likely to come across in this country (adult ones in fresh plumage anyway), but how does anyone get to grips with the UK’s 4000 beetle species (belonging to over 100 families), our 270 or so hoverflies, our 7500 Hymenoptera (inc 250 bees), or the more than 600 species of spiders? I’m guessing one species at a time, with help, and by doing as many ‘Open Days’ or courses as possible. Which sounds like fun does it not…?
Anyway, proper naturalists who know thousands of scientific names of things the rest of us don’t even know exist will probably find the photos and identifications that follow rather pedestrian (and possibly incorrect), but what the heck, we all have to start somewhere…
Ashy Mining-bee Andrena cineraria: one of the ‘solitary’ bees, and very common this year.
Nomada marshamella: a tiny bee that is a parasite on ‘Andrena’ mining bees
Araniella cucurbitina (prob.)
Female Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines on Cuckoo Flower Cardamine pratensis
(a favoured food of the butterfly’s larvae)
Pied Shieldbug Tritomegas bicolor
14-spot Ladybird Propylea 14-punctata
Rhingia campestris: a common hoverfly
Celery Fly Euleia heraclei: one of the ‘picture-winged’ flies
Tephritis bardanae: another ‘picture-winged’ fly.
Turnip Flea Beetle Phyllotreta undulata
All photographs copyright Charlie Moores/Talking Naturally. Similarly the identifications are (mostly) my own – if you see any errors I’d be very grateful to know. Thanks.
