Ynys-hir has been buzzing with invertebrate life recently, the mix of habitats and careful management means we get a wide variety of insect life across the reserve. Many of the species are familiar to the wardens but every year, often completely by accident we come across interesting insects that challenge our ID skills.
Whilst checking the Ponies a week ago I heard a faint, unfamiliar buzz coming from a dry ditch area, it clearly wasn’t a grasshopper and was too quiet to be either of the more familiar bush cricket species that also occur nearby (Bog bush cricket and Roesel’s bush cricket). Eventually I tracked down the source of the sound and took some photos, back at the office I went through some books and identified the insect as a Short winged Conehead, one of the bush cricket family. It has been years since this species was last recorded on the reserve, a good lesson in always taking the time to look closer if you see or hear something that isn’t familiar.
It is familiarity with the commonplace that is often the foundation for finding rarities. Out on the wet grassland I see dozens of Wall brown, Gatekeepers and Meadow browns at this time of year but when I caught a glimpse of a much brighter orange/yellow butterfly this week I knew straight away it was something rarer. When it finally settled, I was shocked to see it was a Clouded Yellow, not a species we see very often at all at Ynys-hir and the first time I’ve ever seen one in Wales. Clouded Yellows are migratory butterflies, arriving in Britain in varying numbers every year, it may be that 2022 will be a good year for them so keep your eyes peeled!
The best was saved until Monday afternoon though, over the weekend a large Oak had fallen across a track on the reserve. Jimmy and Mark were having a look at how best to tackle it when they noticed a small wasp like insect land on the rotted base of the Oak. Not immediately recognising it, Jimmy took a closer look and realised it was actually a clearwing moth, after checking some ID guides online they identified it as a Yellow legged clearwing. Clearwings are small, day flying moths and so often go unnoticed and are not documented by moth recorders using light traps at night. When we checked the records, we found this was the first time the species had ever been recorded on the reserve and one of only a tiny number of records for the whole of Ceredigion.
All of these examples are a great lesson in why it’s so important to spend time outside, listening and looking, making yourself so familiar with the everyday that the exceptions stand out.