James Emerson

@norwichbirder

Naturalist living in Norfolk (UK) - particularly interested in birds, fungi, psyllids and shieldbugs (also real ale, Forteana etc) Local patch = Whitlingham C.P. and the wider Norwich area. Sporadically updated blog:

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James Emerson@norwichbirder· 26d

Oak Longhorn Moth (Carcina quercana), or Long-horned Flat Body in old money. A beautiful micro moth with very long antennae seen on an Oak tree this evening. It was the cover star of one of the versions of Richard Lewington-illustrated Field Guide to the Micro Moths of Britain & Ireland.

An orangey tortrix with yellow markings and very long antennae.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 26d

A rather nice tephritid fly, Trupanea stellata. Although I found this one resting on a rose, it is associated with Ragwort, of which there was plenty nearby.

A pale grey fly with black-marked wings folded back across its wings. It is resting on a rose leaf.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 26d

This evening I went for a walk and managed to find a Gorse Lacebug (Dictyonota strichnocera), one of my summer target species along with Broom Lacebug D. fuliginosa (which I also looked for but didn't find).

A Gorse Lacebug, a bug with a mesh-like edge and thick black antennae.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 27d

A Salix along Lakenham Way had some completely stripped branches, the result of some rather hungry sawfly larvae. Each year I have to remind myself which of the various similar green, yellow and spotty larvae feed on what plant, but I think these ones are Euura pavida.

Willow with one stem almost completely denuded of leaves.

A closer view of the willow branch showing that the leaves have been stripped off.

A sawfly larva with a black head, yellow area behind the head and a the tip and a green body with black markings, feeding on a willow leaf.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 27d

It seems to be a good year for Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, with quite a few sightings around Norwich this month. These ones near the inner ring road yesterday were my first casual find of them, having visited the known colony at Rosary Cemetery in the past. Mating and nymphs seen below Tilia.

A bright red-and-black bug running over some stony concrete.

A mating pair of red-and-black bugs amongst brown Lime tree debris.

A red Firebug nymph climbing up some concrete near to some old Lime tree seeds and leaves.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 27d

Highlight of my Norwich wanderings this week has been the plant bug Brachynotocoris puncticornis (www.naturespot.org/species/brac...) found on Ash. I didn't recognise it in the field - it is a relatively new species to the UK, although not new to Norfolk as @applewildlife.bsky.social has seen it.

A green plant bug with yellowy sides and edges to the prontoum. It is photographed on white paper.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· 28d

This is a couple of rows of natural history books from one of my bookshelves. For non-series books I group together by subject unless they are outsize. I don’t have an awful lot of nature writing style books, but they are just together in order I got them rather than subject or author.

Two rows of a bookshelf with natural history books and paraphernalia

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 13

I thought I'd pay more attention to Thrips this year, but it hasn't really happened yet. This Aeolothrips did land on my last week though - if I've keyed it correctly its a female Aeolothrips intermedius.

A small black and white banded Thrips in a glass vial.

A microscope image of a dark Thrips with dark grey and white banded wings.

A microscope image, this time of a cleared Thrips specimen so the dark areas are more brown-coloured.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 12

Slightly late for #WildFlowerHour, but some of the plants seen on a guided walk at Blakeney Point for the North Norfolk NWT group this weekend - Yellow-horned Sea Poppy, Sea Pea, Rock Sea-lavender and Sea Kale.

Yellow-horned Sea Poppy, yellow flowers with long pale green stems and seedpods on shingle.

Sea Pea - purple pea flowers on low, broad leaves .

Rock Sea-lavender - tall pale purple flowers on an upright plant, with thin leaves, some orangey.

Sea Kale - A large bushy plant with bluey-green leaves and dead-looking growth around it, growing on shingle.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 11

I think this is Long-bracted Sedge, Carex extensa, at Salthouse, but it seems quite a scarce one so I'd welcome a second opinion @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social

A picture of the sedge in situ, showing long bracts with seedheads.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 11

A strandline find by the group on the walk back along Blakeney Point, a pipefish - I think Greater Pipefish, Syngnathus acus.

A dead pipefish, a long thin relative of the seahorse, on shingle.

A closeup of the head of a dead pipefish, a long thin relative of the seahorse.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 11

Whilst on Blakeney Point I kept an eye out for Whelk-shell Jumpers, Pseudeuophrys obsoleta. Most whelk shells I found had been smashed up by the wave action, but Richard & Luke on the British Spider Identification Facebook Page think that this roaming individual is indeed P. obsoleta.

A small jumping spider with a pale brown body with darker brown markings. It is on a flint.

A small jumping spider with a pale brown body with darker brown markings. It is on a flint. Side view.

A small jumping spider with a pale brown body with darker brown markings. It is on a stone, with some dead grass stems nearby. Top down view.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 11

Runner-up for my favourite invertebrate of the day were these Agramma laeta, a member of the Tingidae found on a patch of sedge at Salthouse today.

Three small bugs with tan coloured bodies and black head & thorax are climbing a fine white mesh net.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 11

One of the highlights of a trip to North Norfolk today, the weevil Lixus scabricollis, found on the foodplant Sea Beet. This species is established further south in England but was first recorded in Norfolk in 2022.

An elongated weevil, dark pink above with a pale edge. Top view.

An elongated weevil, dark pink above with a pale edge. Side view.

An elongated weevil, dark pink above with a pale edge. Top/front view.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 9

An interesting small fly found on my window at work today. I think its Melanophora roralis (Dark-winged Woodlouse-fly)

A small black fly with dark wings that have a white patch near the rear end.

A small black fly with dark wings that have a white patch near the rear end - shown against a grey background to show the white patches better than the previous photo.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 9

There seems to be some tree-pruning going on around Norwich at the moment. In Waterloo Park this am I noticed some ant activity on a newly-visible Beech trunk. I suspected aphids, but they were hard to find. Fortunately I did find a few, confirming they were immature Lachnus pallipes. #NorwichAphids

Two adjacent Beech tree trunks with a cluster of dark Lasius aphids near the centre and a pale brown aphid circled in red.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 9

It’s a bit too hot for beer, but fortunately the local Spar has £1 cans of Peregrine cider, which is better than I expected #birdsandcider

A cider can, black near the bottom and yellowy-orange at the top, with a picture of a bird of prey and Peregrine original written below.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 7

A very pleasing find after work in Norwich today, & very similar to the scene found elsewhere by @andrew-jewels.bsky.social recently. I noticed a small Oak pocked with yellow, which indicates Phylloxera glabra presence. Underneath were many larva and one adult Oak Scymnus ladybird, Scymnus auritus.

A bunch of Oak leaves in dappled sunlight. Although green they are extensively speckled with yellow.

Underside of an Oak leaf held between finger and thumb. There are lots of yellow and orange very small organisms distributed across the leaf, with one spiky white larva.

A close up of an Oak Scymnus ladybird larva, an oval shape coated in thick triangular white spines. It is feeding on the Phylloxera, small orangey-yellow ovals.

An adult Oak ladybird, a very small ladybird, mostly black but with an orangey-brown tip to the tail and also on the front of the head. It is on the underside of an Oak leaf being held between finger and thumb.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 3

A nice Otiorhynchus weevil from Norwich this morning. Having gone through the excellent online guide to this genus I think it is O. aurifer (untoothed front femur, textured not pitted pronotum, reddish tarsi, abundant golden hair scales including at the rear of the elytra).

A large round-bodied weevil, black with patches of golden hair-like scales, photographed at the bottom of a plastic pot on top of a ruler to provide scale.

A front on view of the weevil from the previous image. Front views show the front femur to check for the presence of absence of a toothed projection (absent in this specimen).

A microscope photo showing the texture of the pronotum and first part of the elytra. Both have a texture appearance of small black bumps, with lots of short golden hairs.

A view from behind the weevil, showing that the elytra are tapered at the rear with abundant golden hair/scales.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 3

On my way into work today I noticed some larval webbing on some Fat Hen plants. Looking closely I noticed that the occupants were still present and were micro moth caterpillars. I think they are Scythris limbella, which makes sense as I found an adult nearby back in 2018 (the first VC27 record).

Seeds and leaves of Fat Hen spun together with loose silken webbing. Several caterpillars are visible but hidden cryptically across the plant.

A close up of a moth caterpillar on a Fat Hen leaf. The caterpillar is a pale cream with extensive dots and lines along the body segments, then two dark markings either side of the head.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 2

Earlier in the week I was looking at a list of aphids previously seen in Norfolk, and I decided to look for Appendiseta robiniae (influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Appe...), a species associated with False Acacia. After checking a few trees I found it this evening. #NorwichAphids

A False Acacia (Robinia) leaf, held between finger and thumb. Some small, pale-green aphids are visible near the midline of the leaf.

A closer-up view of the aphids pictured in the first photo. Two are large and winged, with the one in the centre of the image having two white waxy stripes down the thorax. Some smaller ones are close to the midrib on the right hand side of the photo.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 1

I doubt I would have noticed these tiny Red-banded Birch Aphids (Callipterinella tuberculata) in Waterloo Park this evening if it hadn't been for the sight of aphids running along the leaves & catkins. #NorwichAphids

A green birch leaf with tiny aphids, visible as yellow speckles, and two black ants.

A grey birch twig, with two thin greeny-yellow stems leading to catkins. There are some small aphids and ants on the stems.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 1

Usually its ladybird or hoverfly larvae that are eating the aphids I'm trying to identify, however on the Oak I was looking at today I found the nymph of an ant-mimicking bug, Pilophorus perplexus. I potted it to photograph, and within a few hours it had moulted into an adult!

A small dark bug nymph with a white bar on thw abdomen.

A reddish-orange bug with several white markings.

A reddish-orange bug with several white markings., starting to darken ro brown near the rear.

A mostly dark-brown bug, with some faint white markings on the abdomen.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 1

I noticed a small, ant-attended colony of Variegated Oak Aphids, Lachnus roboris, today on Holm Oak (influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Lach...). Amongst them were several alates (winged adults), which have strong black patterning.

A large dark bronzey aphid with orangey legs, photographed on some white paper.

A dark aphid with strongly marked black and clear wings, resting on the edge of a red pot lid.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jul 1

An unexpected sighting in Norwich city centre this morning, a terrapin (probably Red-eared Slider but too distant to be sure) basking jn the river just upstream of the New Mills pumping station.

A large terrapin basking on a stick in the middle of river.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jun 29

Walking past a sallow on Lakenham Way this morning I noticed a large colony of Small Willow Aphids, Aphis farinosa (influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Aphi...), which had already been found by ladybirds. This species has very variable colours, but they typically appear together in large colonies.

Some wrinkled sallow leaves covered in white aphid husts and black-and-orange ladybird larvae.

An adult ladybird and some multi-coloured aphids on sallow leaves

A close-up photo of some aphids on the underside of a sallow leaf.

A close-up photo of some aphids on the underside of a sallow leaf. They are green, yellow and orange.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jun 28

This is a map of verified sightings of Lejops vittatus from the past two years so far, so plenty of places with similar habitat still to check, albeit large areas with not much access away from the rivers.

Map of East Norfolk with Lejops vitattus locations marked with blue circles, taken from iRecord.

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jun 28

The coast might be out of range, but based on the NBN Atlas map for Sea Club-rush there is a decent amount inland in the Broads. Not sure how much is accessible, any thoughts on places to try by bike from Norwich @tim-hodge.bsky.social ?

A distribution map for Sea Club-rush taken from NBN Atlas https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NBNSYS0000002381

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jun 28

It’s noted in the Essex Field Club page (with the reference to the Stubbs & Falk Hoverflies guide) that they feed on Sea Club-rush pollen www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal.php/p...

A section of species text about Leo’s citrates taken from https://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal.php/p/Species+Account/s/Lejops+vittatus

James Emerson@norwichbirder· Jun 27

Lejops vittatus is a rare hoverfly associated with Sea Club-rush (see Roger Morris's blog stamfordsyrpher.blogspot.com/2017/11/lejo...). Today @tim-hodge.bsky.social & I found it at Bure Park, Yarmouth. Tim is keen for a wider search effort for this species if you know of an area with Sea Club-rush.