Insect News 2012

7-spot Ladybirds... More large numbers of 7-spot Ladybirds found on the growth tips of small Pines at Warsop Main Pit Top (27/01/12) with 2, 088 adult 7-spot Ladybirds counted, along with 15 Adonis and singles of Harlequin, 2-spot, 10-spot, Pine and Kidney-spot Ladybird.

Record count of 7-spot Ladybirds... A walk along the southern and eastern edges of Hare Hill Wood near Kersall on January 17th, led to a minimum count of 1 278 adult 7-spots and a single Harlequin Ladybird. Some brief searching under Elm bark also produced single records of the Carabid Dromius quadrimaculatus and Hawthorn Shieldbug.

Over-wintering Harlequins at Cuckney Hay Wood... A walk around Cuckney Hay Wood on January 13th, to monitor the numbers of two large groups of over-wintering Harlequin Ladybirds found back in early November 2011, revealed that (since last being checked) counts had risen by over 80, to a present total of 348. This was despite the fact that since our last count, someone had turned the log on end to make a comfortable seat! The full count of Harlequins found was 475. Over 300 7-spot Ladybirds and four Adonis Ladybirds were also counted during the walk.

Some early coleoptera ... 7-spot Ladybirds have often been active over the Winter period so far and small groups can still be found tucked into Thistle heads and other dead vegetation. Our first walks around Sherwood Forest recorded a few Nalassus laevioctostriatus and the active workings of the impressive Minotaur Beetle commonly at Clipstone Old Quarter, whilst a single Tetratoma fungorum was disturbed from a Birch Polypore at Sherwood Forest CP.

New Year spiders ... With the incredibly mild Winter so far (still just three nights of frost at Market Warsop by January 11th) finding invertebrates has been relatively easy. Around in good numbers are the spiders Zygiella x-notata and Nuctenea umbratica both common pretty much anywhere, whilst several female Metellina segmentata were recorded during late December 2011 and into the first week of January 2012, at Market Warsop and Sherwood Forest CP. These would normally have been killed off by the first Winter frosts. Two Harvestmen still around till Christmas were small numbers of Dicranopalpus ramosus and Paraligolophus agrestis on fences and walls of the visitor centre at Sherwood Forest CP.