NFY: Large and Small whites

15 Wednesday Apr 2026

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British butterflies, butterfly, Large white, Large white butterfly, Pieris brassicae, Pieris rapae, Small white, Small white butterfly

Monday 6 April dawned bright and sunny, the breeze was light, and the temperature quickly warmed to the high teens Celsius. Conditions were perfect for there being butterflies on the wing in my local parks, so I went out to explore. The first two locations didn’t turn up much – too many people and dogs, but my final stop was just perfect. I saw 14 butterflies of 6 species, two of which were new for the year.

A Large white (Pieris brassicae) (above) appeared first, followed fairly quickly by a Small white (Pieris rapae) (below). Although a Large white is generally larger than a Small white, the size of both species can vary, and the way to positively identify these species is though the size of the dark markings on their wing tips.

A loveliness of ladybirds

14 Tuesday Apr 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects, ladybird

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10-spot ladybird, 14-spot ladybird, Adalia decempunctata, British ladybirds, Chilocorus renipustulatus, Kidney-spot ladybird, ladybird, Propylea quattuordecimpunctata

I googled to find out what the collective noun is for ladybirds and read that it’s ‘loveliness’, which seems perfectly appropriate. On Easter Saturday, I went for a short mooch around a local park, hoping that the occasional sunny spells might produce butterflies. Unfortunately, the sun was far too occasional and a cool wind blew, but I did find a loveliness of little ladybirds: two 10-spots (Adalia decempunctata)

a 14-spot (Propylea quattuordecimpunctata)

and a Kidney-spot (Chilocorus renipustulatus).

Hairy-footed flower bees

13 Monday Apr 2026

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British bees, Hairy-footed flower bee, Anthophora plumipes, sexual dimorphism, sexual dimorphism in bees

They’re chunky, aggressive, and speedy, and a delight to watch as they zoom around the flower beds, tongues poking out in anticipation of the next slurp from a flower, chasing other flying creatures for no apparent reason, hovering well enough beneath the tubular flowers they prefer to easily be mistaken for a hoverfly.

They’re Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) and, yes, the males really do have long hairs on the lower parts of their legs – maybe they should be called Hobbit bees! Rather than the long hairs exhibited by the male of the species, the females have orange pollen brushes on their hind legs and, in fact, the males and females are very different from each other in appearance – sexually dimorphic, to give this its scientific name. The males are orange-brown, whereas the females are black.

In flower now

12 Sunday Apr 2026

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Cardamine pratensis, Common fumitory, Common Stork's-bill, Cornsalad, Cuckoo flower, Erodium cicutarium, Forget-me-not, Fumaria officinalis, Hairy violet, Honesty, Lamium purpureum, Lunnaria annua, Myosotis species, Red dead-nettle, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Valerianella locusta, Viola hirta

It seems every time I step out the door now I notice new, different wildflowers in bloom. These are some of this week’s finds; for no particular reason, I seem to have focused on the blue / pink colour tones.

The grassy area on Cardiff Bay’s Barrage is full of Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium), looking very lush.

Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta) is blooming in many of the local areas of waste ground, proving those areas are not really a waste at all.

Just in time for the emergence of the Orange-tip butterflies that use this wildflower as one of their larval plants: Cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis).

One of the Forget-me-not (Myosotis) species, possibly Common (M. sylvatica), though the plant did seem very small.

A wildflower with a lot of variation in its flower colours, Common fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), also known by the vernacular name Earth smoke.

At this time of year, the east and west paddocks at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park are tinged lilac with the flowers of Hairy violet (Viola hirta).

Escaped from its original garden plantings and now adorning the edges of local lanes, Honesty (Lunnaria annua).

This was the scene alongside the bike / pedestrian path around the edge of Grangemoor Park this week, where swathes of beautiful Red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) are in full bloom.

A surprise Slow-worm

11 Saturday Apr 2026

Posted by sconzani in reptiles

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Anguis fragilis, British lizards, British reptiles, legless lizard, slow-worm

Though I do sneak a peek under any (not many) refugia I see on the ground, even in the dead of winter, when cold-blooded creatures might be expected to be seeking shelter, I usually find only ants and woodlice. So, it was with little in the way of expectations that I lifted the corner of a mat in a local churchyard last week, only to be shocked, in a wonderful way, by the presence of this Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis).

My first Holly blue

10 Friday Apr 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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butterfly, British butterflies, Celastrina argiolus, Holly blue, first blue butterfly

Slowly, slowly, as the number of mild sunny spring days increases more and more butterflies are beginning to emerge. This beauty is a Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus), the first of our blue British butterflies to appear each year.

Alder flies

09 Thursday Apr 2026

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Alder fly, Alderfly, British alderflies, Sialis species, Magaloptera

During one of last week’s walks, my route took me along the edge of our two local rivers, first the Ely, then the Taff, and on vegetation along the riverbanks of both, I spotted my first Alder flies of the year.

Though I can’t be sure about which exact species of Alder fly these are – distinguishing between the three British species requires ‘examination of the external genitalia (males) or anal plates (females)’ (Naturespot website) – I can tell you that their species is Sialis, the genus Magaloptera, and they belong to the family that includes lacewings and scorpion flies.

The Naturespot website also relates that the ‘adults only last long enough to mate and deposit eggs which are laid in large masses on vegetation near to water’. These are not something I’ve ever seen but I found images of the eggs (and the larvae) on the UK Wildlife website, so I’m planning some leaf turning next time I walk by those two rivers. Fingers crossed!

Lily beetle

08 Wednesday Apr 2026

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beetle, British beetles, Lilioceris lilii, Lily beetle, Red lily beetle, Scarlet lily beetle

When you’re a bright red beetle, you’re probably trying to convince any potential predators that you taste so foul you’re not worth eating but it also means that it’s hard to hide from inquisitive humans, like me, especially when you’re sitting in plain sight on Alexanders flowers.

The gardeners amongst my readers may recognise this beetle and, if you grow lilies, you may have seen a beetle like this nibbling on the leaves of your lilies, hence its name: Lily beetle. The Naturespot website calls this insect Scarlet lily beetle but, when I recorded it, the insect’s name came up simply as Lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii).

As I don’t have a garden and don’t often visit ornamental gardens, the Lily beetle shown here was only my second ever sighting of this vibrant beetle in ten years of staring at plants. This is not particularly surprising though, as I’ve just been reading that this species only came to Britain in the early 1900s, presumably imported on lily plants, but, in the century since, it has managed to spread throughout Britain. That’s an impressive achievement for a beetle that’s only 10mm long.

First bee-flies

07 Tuesday Apr 2026

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Bee-fly, Bombylius major, Dark-edged bee-fly, British bee-flies, Bombyliidae

I’m sure, if you’re one of my British followers, that you’ve probably already seen your first bee-flies of the year.

Though four species of Bombyliidae can be seen in Britain (you can download an excellent identification guide by the Soldierflies and Allies Recording Scheme), in my local area we only see one species, the Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major). I saw my first, the fuzzy little beastie shown above, on 14 March in a local park.

And the very next day, in the small park just down the hill from where I live, I spotted two more of these busy little bee-flies.

The word cute is overused when it comes to many small creatures but it certainly applies to the appearance of bee-flies though they do have a dark side (see Bee-flies revisited, April 2023).

Bloody-nosed beetle

06 Monday Apr 2026

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beetle, Blood spewer beetle, Bloody-nosed beetle, British beetles, Timarcha tenebricosa

When I spotted this little character pottering slowly across a path along the top of King Barrow Quarry on Portland, it was just over ten years since I had seen my first Bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa); I wrote about that in The blood spewer, February 2016.

And I’d only seen them once in the intervening years, when I saw both an adult beetle and a larva (Botanising, with insects, May 2017).

So, it was a particular treat when I saw this handsome beetle, though it wasn’t easy to get a close look at or to take photos to show you all. This was a beetle on a mission, stumbling a little as it is made its way across small tufts of grass and lumps of sun-baked mud but always persevering, as if it had an urgent appointment and it was late. Or, perhaps, this is just how Bloody-nosed beetles live their lives, with focus and intention, ever onwards.