Arthropedia - The Joys of January

The Entomologist’s Year: What to look for in Winter (Part 1).

I loved the seasonal Ladybird books when I was a child, but looking at them now they are sadly lacking in invertebrates. Just one species of moth and a single butterfly are illustrated in ‘What To Look For In Winter’, with a few other insects briefly mentioned in the text.

The world we inhabit now is so very different from that so beautifully depicted by Tunnicliffe but the wildlife is still out there in places if you know where and how to look.

Time for an update? While ‘Arthropedia’ isn’t intended as a seasonal guide, within its pages you will discover a wonderful wealth of invertebrates with descriptions of their lives and tips on where to find them and how to attract them to your garden.

The Joys of January

It may be cold and wet outside with very little sunshine to warm the air, but there are still lots of invertebrates to be found. The good thing about January is that everything is new for the year for those of us who like to keep a list. Being good little naturalists we have plenty of those, otherwise known as biological records.

Conspicuously sitting out the cold weather – a cluster of 7-spot Ladybirds in my local cemetery.

I do a lot of my wildlife recording in my local cemetery. It is only a couple of minutes walk away so I can easily pop out for half an hour or so if the weather is right and I regularly pass through on my way to or from the local shops. It is very rewarding to have a local patch and although I know pretty much when and where to look for things each year, I am continually turning up new species for the site including ones that are totally new for me too.

My local patch – Earlham Cemetery with its mix of coniferous and deciduous trees, open grassy areas and quiet corners provides a haven for all sorts of invertebrates.

Intricate mouldings and adornments on old headstones provide shelter for these over-wintering 7-spot Ladybirds.

Beetling About

One of my favourite groups to record are the ladybirds. There are enough species to keep me searching for more and they are relatively easy to identify even for the beginner. They are also easy to find even in the depths of winter, especially if the sun shines as they are ‘winter active’ and will happily get up and trundle about if the temperature climbs even slightly. They also often knuckle down in harsh weather in relatively exposed positions, tucking into nooks and crannies on trees and gravestones. So far I have clocked up 15 species of ladybird in the cemetery, at least seven of which can be easily found during the winter with a bit of careful searching.

Pine ladybirds tucked against the lead lettering on a headstone.

The Kidney-spot Ladybird is an uncommon find in my local cemetery, more usually associated with deciduous woodland and Ash trees in particular.

A 7-spot, two 10-spot and two Harlequin Ladybirds sheltering under the overhang on a stone cross.

7-spot and Cream-spot Ladybirds with a bonus harvestman (*Opilio canestrinii*).

Bitten by the Bug

You can’t actually get bitten by a true bug as they don’t have biting mouthparts. Instead they have a rostrum which is rather like a hypodermic needle. Many bugs use this ‘syringe’ to suck up plant juices but plenty of others are carnivorous and will stab and suck on all sorts of invertebrates for dinner. Some have been known to pierce human flesh so handle with care, or not at all! I managed to avoid this pleasure for years until I picked up a nymph of the mirid bug Deraeocoris ruber for a closer look and felt its displeasure – a sudden sharp pain like when you prick yourself with a needle whilst sewing, more of a shock than anything else. Everything else I’ve handled has been much better behaved!

Spiked Shieldbugs (*Picromerus bidens*) in the summer feasting on a rare *Galeruca laticollis* beetle at Wheatfen in Norfolk. The one on the right has its rostrum stuck in. The rostrum is usually held tucked back underneath its body when not in use.

Shieldbugs are some of my favourite true bugs and they can be found with careful searching in the winter, especially on a sunny day when they come out of shelter to soak up a few rays of sunshine. Again, my local cemetery holds a good variety of these lovely insects including the Juniper Shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus). This species feeds on conifers like Leylandii and Lawson Cyprus but in winter I often find them on Larch or sitting openly on gravestones near Western Red Cedars.

Juniper Shieldbug nestled amongst moss on a gravestone.

Parent Shieldbug (*Elasmucha grisea*) on a gravestone. In late summer they can be plentiful on birch trees.

Early instar of the Red-legged Shieldbug (*Pentatoma rufipes*). This is the only British species that over-winters as an immature rather than an adult. They can be quite plentiful on gravestones during the winter in my local cemetery.

Other sorts of bugs can easily be found during the winter months too. One of the most abundant is the Birch Catkin Bug Kleidocerys resedae. As well as being found on old birch catkins as their name suggests (they do actually feed on the seeds of birch) I frequently find them tucked within the scales of larch cones, in amongst the needles of pine trees, huddled against the buds of oaks and sheltering in Ivy.

Birch Catkin Bugs tucked up on an old birch catkin (left) and nestled between the buds of an oak (right).

Another frequent species is the predatory mirid bug Deraeocoris lutescens. I regularly find the odd one or two lurking on a gravestone or sheltering amongst Ivy on trees. They can be a little bit variable in colour, varying from very light to quite dark but usually have a distinct dark scutellum divided by a light midline. The excellent British Bugs website is a great resource for identifying them and any other bug you may come across.

*Deraeocoris lutescens*; note the light line dividing the dark scutellum.

Orsillus depressus, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to our shores, hailing from southern Europe. It is a member of the Lygaeidae and it feeds on the seeds of conifers in the Cupressaceae (e.g. Lawson Cyprus). In winter I find the odd one or two on gravestones next to Western Red Cedars.

*Orsillus depressus* covered in dew on a cold morning.

No Flies On Me

Flies can be found active all year so the dipterist (or fly fancier) doesn’t get any time off, unlike those of us who only look at bees or butterflies when we can lounge around and feel the sun on our backs. There are an awful lot of species of fly out there and they can be extremely difficult to identify but at least they are a welcome sign of life and, if nothing else, provide much needed sustenance for the innumerable small insectivorous birds that we all like to see in our gardens…

A welcome sign of life in winter: *Calliphora* sp bluebottles on a sunny gravestone; female at the top with widely separated eyes and male below with eyes touching in the middle. Most but not all fly species are sexually differentiated in this way.

*Calliphora vicina* blowing bubbles in the sunshine on my summerhouse. The bubble is a droplet of fluid that the fly repeatedly regurgitated then sucked. It is thought that flies do this to help regulate their body temperature but it is also possibly a way to remove toxins. There is much to be discovered about even the humble bluebottle.

Most of the time I content myself with looking at a subset of flies, namely those in the family Syrphidae, that is the Hoverflies, although these do require a bit of sunshine and warmth to be active during the winter and it will probably be February before I see my first one of the year.

Hoverflies that over-winter often do so by sheltering amongst Ivy. In a sheltered spot they are often tempted out if the sun shines, like this female (note the separated eyes) *Episyrphus balteatus*.

Lovely Lepidoptera

I’m hard pressed to see any butterflies in January although occasionally in very mild winters I get to see a Peacock – more often than not it is one I have disturbed from slumber in the woodstore. I carefully replace the logs and hope that I don’t have to burn too many more.

I generally have more luck in February but there are several species of moth on the wing in the winter for those with a light trap. (I rarely put mine out in the winter months as, living in a city with its attendant light pollution, I invariably draw a blank.)

I do come across the odd caterpillar though, generally when on the lookout for other insects and even find an adult moth at rest on a tree trunk occasionally.

Masquerading as a millipede? The caterpillar of the Light Emerald moth has fleshy appendages forming a tasselled skirt along its flanks, looking for all the world like the legs of a millipede. This geometer is unusual in having an extra pair of prolegs on its abdomen.

The very well camouflaged caterpillar of the Buff Footman moth. This species feeds on lichens and algae and I occasionally find them on the shady side of a headstone in the cemetery as seen here.

It is also possible to come across moth pupae when tidying up the garden. These I either carefully put back or pop into a rearing cage to see what emerges later on. I was once lucky enough to find several boat-shaped cocoons on the underside of the leaves of a Lucombe Oak, a partial evergreen hybrid between Cork and Holm Oaks. I took one home, leaving the rest to the vagaries of the winter weather and bird predation. What emerged was a beautiful Green Silver-lines.

Left: A drawing of the boat-shaped cocoon I found on the underside of an oak leaf.
Right: The Green Silver-lines moth that emerged.

You can hunt for butterfly eggs in the winter too. I’ve looked for White-letter Hairstreaks on Elm but without any luck so far. I have found the eggs of the Vapourer moth though. The female of this moth is one of a number of species that are wingless (or only have rudimentary wings). On emerging from her cocoon, the female releases a powerful pheromone and soon attracts a male moth who mates with her. She then lays her eggs on the outside of her cocoon, dying a few days later, job done. Doesn’t seem much of a life from our point of view but she will have spent several weeks as a rather splendid caterpillar, munching her way through countless leaves in one long gorge of gluttony, so maybe not all bad!

The massed eggs of a Vapourer moth laid on the empty cocoon of the female moth, found one January.

The rather lovely Vapourer caterpillar, resplendent with assorted shaving brush bristles.

Six legs good, eight legs better?

Entomology, strictly speaking, is the study of insects but I’m unashamedly throwing a few arachnids in the mix. Winter can be a very bleak time if you confine yourself to looking only at insects but there are lots of spiders, and their cousins the harvestmen, that can be found in winter.

A *Dicranopalpus* sp harvestman sitting in its characteristic posture with long legs stretched out at either side of its body. They also have forked pedipalps, distinguishing them from other harvestmen but there are at least three very similar species in the UK.

One spider in particular that I have had the pleasure of discovering in Norwich is Nigma walckenaeri. This is a truly beautiful little spider in my opinion and it is a real treat to go and find one on Christmas Day and then have a repeat visit a week later to get it on my New Year’s Day list to kick off the year.

A special New Year’s Day treat: *Nigma walckenaeri* sheltering under her silken web. 01/01/21, Norwich.

A less camera shy individual photographed a few weeks earlier in nicer weather, just to show how lovely they are when they do come out to play.

A night-time search with a torch around my garden reveals a good number of spiders, even on cold or wet evenings. Amongst the numerous Zygiella x-notata I can usually find a beautiful Walnut Orb-weaver (Nuctenea umbratica) as well as Steatoda nobilis, the infamous Nobile False Widow, that invariably gets some peoples knickers in a twist…

Probably not one for any arachnophobes – *Nuctenea umbratica*.
This lovely lady lived on the fence for three years, hiding up during the day but venturing out most evenings. I’m not entirely sure how she managed to squeeze into the gap between board and rail as she increased in girth.

Shadow-boxing *Steatoda nobilis* (or ‘Snobby’ to his friends) lurking by the gate and deterring unwanted visitors!

So there are plenty of things to go looking for on even the dullest day at the beginning of the year, with lots to look forward to in the next month when the first flowers come out at the start of the many false springs that fickle February likes to throw at us.

To be continued…

Happy True Bug hunting!