rice before in my larder, over a period of many years, but thought I had eventually dealt
with them by throwing out infested items and putting all new flour bags etc into plastic
bags and sealing the tops; this seemed to work. This particular jar had not been used for a
decade, I guess, and these tiny insects had clearly been eating this rice and breeding in it
for that time. I was surprised, as I thought this jar was airtight. Each insect was really tiny;
only about 1mm long, and much less wide. With my l0x hand lens I thought they looked
superficially like ants, with light brown bodies, no wings or hard casing. Needless to say,
I first contacted Peter Harvey. So I collected a few hundred from the bottom of the jar and
pickled them. But, so impatient was I, that 1 did some rough drawings (I am no artist) using
the microscope, and emailed these to Peter. His reply was extremely rapid; he gave me a
website dealing with Psocids, of which I had never heard. The Order Psocoptera includes
many tiny insects, and is closely related to termites rather than ants. Sure enough, my one
was there, illustrated and described. It was a Booklouse, which is not a louse and does not
usually live in books, but there you go, as they say! My one was Liposcelis bostrychophila,
which is a long name indeed for such a tiny beast. 1 now know they are common kitchen
pests, can be found in well-run hygienic kitchens as well as grotty ones, that they prefer
places with poor air circulation (ie inside my plastic jar, or even my larder) and are
particularly noticeable in old stores as they breed rather slowly. But stopping them getting
into other things will be a continuing task, as my larder is full of old nooks and crannies
where the insects can hide between feasts. But please do not let this story prevent you
from coming to our home for meals!
On 15th December, which was a beautiful sunny day and warmer than of late, we went
for a long walk in the middle of the day down into Hornchurch Country Park, one of our
favourite haunts. On the way back we saw 3 Jays all together, flying across the path in
front of us. We got a full view of their wonderful, gaudy plumage. Kingfishers are not
commonly seen round here, but people fishing, who stand still for hours at a stretch, do
seen them in the Ingrebourne. Kingfishers and Jays must surely take the prizes for birds
with tropical rain-forest looks in the British Isles.
The next day was even warmer (11°C) and we walked in Belhus Woods Country Park,
where there was a brisk breeze and lowering clouds. My husband found two big specimens
of Field Blewit, also called Blue Leg, in scrubby grassland. These substantial fungi (up
to about 20 cm diameter) have a thick ivory to pale beige cap, with gills the same colour,
but stems that are flushed purple-blue; they are unmistakable in rough grass by hedges
and woodland edges, particularly preferring Hawthorn or Sycamore. These made an
excellent aromatic addition to our evening meal, as indeed their brothers had already
done earlier in the season. We have not found them in December before.
A day or two later it was back to cold anti-cyclonic weather again and the thermometer
showed -7°C as the minimum recorded the previous night. And it is still not the winter
solstice, and we usually get much colder weather after it than before. At about the same
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 50, May 2006
5