“Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don’t have to go looking for it.”
– Richard Russo
I think I’ve mentioned before that I quite often end up with a theme running through the photographs I take on a walk. Sometimes, I choose the theme, and sometimes, it chooses me.
This was an “it chooses me” day. I set off for a quick ramble before the hockey; I always have an excess of energy to burn off before the first match of the year, and a walk is a good way to get it all out without bouncing off the ceiling all morning. Anyway, I’d chosen the circular walk at Great Hockham as being quick and easy, while still getting in a reasonable number of steps.
Slightly worrying notices have appeared in the parking space, warning motorists not to leave valuables in cars. I’d always believed that because the car was on a busy main road, albeit in a bit through a forest, it would be OK. I’ve certainly mot ever had any problems here, so maybe Lady Luck is watching out for me. Regardless, I leave the car there and strike out down the sandy path.
Very quickly, I made my first find of the morning; this Grey Dagger Moth (Acronicta psi) caterpillar was posed along the well nibbled edge of an oak leaf. When I stopped to investigate, it hunched its shoulders to exaggerate the ‘horn’ it has just behind its head and threaten me into going away. Well, either that or ut was just fed up to the back teeth of things peering at it and was just hanging its head in frustration! Apparently, those long, fine hairs contain a toxin that is a skin irritant if touched. Luckily, I prefer to observe through a lens and not get too up close and personal.
Moving on, the next tree offered up another caterpillar. Apparently, it was to be the day of the caterpillars! This one was tiny … see the spangle gall for a size reference. Google swears it was a Pale Tussock Moth caterpillar (Calliteara pudibunda), but I’m very unconvinced as it doesn’t seem to be the bright green that it should be. Maybe it’s just a very young one? Or maybe it’s something else entirely 🤷♀️. Mostly, looking at the final photograph, I think it might be a very, very small guineapig. It certainly has all the characteristics.
Completely convinced that I was going to find lots of caterpillars, I went on my merry way, peering at leaves all over the place. Instead, I found a small pile of shieldbug nymphs, who scattered in alarm at the giant face that presented itself. It tickles me that these, despite being obviously babies themselves, are Parent Bugs. It’s one of those names that really only works for a short time period. Like old people called Matty or babies called Edna, it feels a little incongruous. Maybe that’s just me.
This row of Alder trees along the stream was full of pint size inhabitants. My next encounter was with a number of grasshoppery/crickety things, all long legs and antenna, they blended into the leaves with various degrees of success. Some of them seemed to have very obvious red legs, where others seemed much more monochromatic. Like unsociable grumps, each had staked a claim to a specific leaf; there was no unnecessary socialising here. This might be a Speckled Bush Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). It certainly seems to have the speckles and the orangey-brown stripe down the centre of the back (assuming that it doesn’t have to be a particularly strongly coloured stripe!). I think the first photo is a male and the second a female, based on the curved ovipositor. They have such a high-pitched ultrasonic song that it is inaudible to humans, but this is the only British species of bush cricket in which both the male and the female sing a duet in order to locate each other for mating. Which is oddly sweet for invertebrates!
Finding this next species was a bit like meeting an old friend. This is the adult Parent Bug, a species that I have only previously found on Birch trees, again on an Alder leaf. It seemed well suited to its environment, being as it was exactly the same colour as the terminal.buds on the twigs. Like all shieldbugs, it was not keen on having its photo taken and kept sidling sideways under the next leaf to find cover. I took the hint and moved on.
This weird little pile of fluff is apparently a number of Woolly Alder Aphids (try saying thay quickly!). This is according to Google, so I remain entirely unconvinced of the accuracy of this identification. That’s an Alder leaf for scale, so you can see that each fluffy individual is about a millimetre in length.
I felt quite smug when I found the next ones because I knew they weren’t caterpillars. I knew they were sawfly larvae. With a bit of research, they might be Striped Alder Sawfly larvae. I mean, they might be something else entirely, but it seemed reasonable as an identification. They had made some very pretty patterns as they chomped away at the soft parts of the leaves, leaving the chewy bits untouched. It gave me flashbacks to my niece, who refused to eat anything with ‘stringy bits’ as a child … at 18, she still refuses to even consider celery as a valid foodstuff!
This next one is the nymph of a Pantilius tunicatus … the common name of which is the Hazel Bug. Yes, that’s an Alder catkin next to it. I think it may have been a bit lost! Looking at those titchy tiny wings it seems to be sporting, it would appear that this is a late instar nymph. As an adult, it is far more colourful,wearing a brownish-red suit with green accents.
This Green Shieldbug was positively accommodating, even allowing me to take this photo without running away. One can only imagine the eye rolling and tutting that was going on.
Another tree, another shieldbug! This one is also a Parent Bug, but a much darker specimen than the last one. I know that they’re very variable in their colouration, but I’m not sure why and can’t find anything that might explain this.
I didn’t identify the fungus below until I got home, and I’m swearing you to secrecy. If mum finds out that I found this and didn’t bring her any, my life would not be worth living. This is a Dyer’s Polypore, otherwise known as Dyer’s Mazegill, Velvet-Top Fungus, or Pine Dye Polypore. As a textile artist, mum is very keen on natural dying and is forever wandering around telling me all about the colours she could get from various species. It’s a standing joke in our family that they tend to come out slightly more …. let’s say ‘sludgy’ than she claims.
Just look at those patterns on the underside though; you can absolutely see why it’s called ‘mazegill’. The minotaur would be proud of this as a residence.
My final offering is a Common Scorpionfly, probably a female, as she doesn’t have the scorpion-like tail of the male.
At about this point, I realised that I’d been walking for slightly longer than I intended, and I needed to get a shuffle on if I wanted to get over to Nottingham in time for warm-up. I did the rest of the circuit rather more briskly and without stopping to peer into trees.
In case anyone was wondering, it was a great match, and the Panthers pulled it out of the bag in the third, winning 6:4 against the Concordia University Stingers.
absolutelynotnormal 