The Isle of Wight Moth Report 2018 is now available, and can be downloaded here.
Iain Outlaw says: “In what turned out to be a good year for moth recording there was a slow start to the season. The first three months of the year were particularly poor with overall numbers and species diversity lower than normal.
“A prolonged spell of hot dry weather in June and July saw a big change in moth numbers and a decent run of migrant moths. (more…)
Some new observations of True Bugs (Hemiptera) by lain Outlaw.
Iain Outlaw
Although I was aware of this gall midge I hadn’t previously looked for it. In June I noticed several False-acacia or Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) trees in flower on Shanklin Big Mead so I had a look for the galls. The large trees were not easy to examine but fortunately there were also lots of self-seeded saplings close by. Checking those saplings the galls were immediately obvious so several were collected for examination. (more…)
A mayfly larva has been found by Keith Marston at Plaish in the Lukely Brook on 7th May 2006.
There have been no previous records of mayfly larvae of this genus from the Lukely Brook. It is not possible to speciate the animal from the photo, but it is likely to be either Ephemera danica or Ephemera lineata.
Mayfly of this genus have been recorded from the Eastern Yar near Newchurch (Herbert to KM, pers. comm).
NB There is another species of mayfly larva on the photo Ephemerella ignita
Isle of Wight Natural History & Archaeological Society