Very strange… these feeds do seem to have a mind of their own sometimes!

Interesting. Maybe I should be dissecting the females then. Fortunately the vast majority (>90%) that I catch are males.

FWIW in males November Moths peak earlier than Pale November Moths. Round here are least Pale November Moths are outnumbering November by now. Females peaks could be later I suppose but suspect most of them will be Pale by now too. Autumnal too scarce here to compare seasonality.

I’ve always assumed that these cannot be identified by genitalia (see for example butterfly-conservation.org/sites/defaul...), only by the males’ 8th sternite. I’ve therefore always aggregated females and not dissected them but interested to hear of possible differences in female genitalia.

Populus tremula I believe, but it seems that’s known simply as Aspen by most UK authorities (UKSI and BSBI at least).

I did wonder if I was getting this right recently when I wrote about Aspen (which I’d identified to species) and birch (which could have been Downy Birch or Silver Birch - I hadn’t checked). Running Aspen and birch together did look a bit clumsy. What would you do there @graemelyons.bsky.social?

I suspect the problem partly stems from or is perpetuated because of non-specialist editors/writers not understanding the difference.

I think it should depend if you’re referring to a generic robin or blackbird of undetermined species or if you’re referring to the particular species Erithacus rubecula (Robin with a capital R) or Turdus merula (Blackbird with a capital B).

They’re increasing here in Norfolk but never abundant - I’ve only ever caught singles. 6 between 21st June and 14th July and 10 between 15th August and 21st September, two generations I think. All since 2017.

For males you don’t need to kill them if you get some ethyl acetate (I’m told nail varnish remover will do but I’ve never tried). I anaesthetise them, check them and release them and they fly off unharmed. If the 8th sternite is worn you might not even have to do all that.

This wouldn’t be a good one to select for checking the species: the broad rounded shoulders and strong markings indicate it’s a female. I occasionally mis-sex them using this method but probably not when they’re this clear. It’s easy to confirm the sex with a hand lens.

I’ve not done many of these but I think cerasicolella would have shorter subapical spines and more marginal bristles.

Both look good to me 👍

50 species per square meter of soil… yeah, I guess that’s quite diverse!

Amazing diversity among certain groups of mites with some really colourful and distinctive-looking ones too (perhaps not the orbatids though?). Would love to know more about them, but decent references seem hard to find. They stretch the limits of my microscopy a bit though!

But still - at least in the admittedly very short segment that I heard later on - focusing entirely on adapting to it and not on reducing it. Might have missed the latter? Anyway, better than pretending it isn’t happening or doesn’t matter.