Sunday 5 July 2015

bits and bobs from the weekend

With athletics meets on both Sat and Sun, there was little time to get out and about. That said I did get out and picked up a few interesting bits and bobs.

Probably the pick of Saturday mornings wandering around Quakers was getting to grips with my first confirmed Merodon equestris.

also found was this weevil which I originally took to be a Figwort Weevil, but as it was on a Nettle, I took a closer look. Rather than the all white pronotum and a full white spot in the centre of the elytra, this had pale brown sides to the pronotum and the white spot was greatly reduced, identifying it as Cionus tuberculosus




Sunday was a trip up to Birmingham, so I took an early start to catch up with the Melodious Warbler that's been holding territory for the past two/three weeks. After parking up I walked down the bridal path towards the location where the warb was being reported. About 100m from the site I could hear it singing away and it was quickly picked up and it allowed quite close approach, down to about 6m. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera.It became my third British tick of the year, and one long overdue.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting looking weevil, Martin.

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  2. it looks more like a tick martin and know how good you are at finding them mate .

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  3. I don't do tick's - well not in the UK anyway. It does have that tick look about it. Most Figwort's are likely to have at least one Figwort Weevil on it somewhere. Now that i've got my eye in on them, I find them most times I look. With C. tuberculosus, the etymology name intrigues me.

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