My eye was drawn to this particular Creeping thistle by the presence of four Urophora cardui galls on the plant’s stems (for information on what those are, see More galls, part 2, 4 October 2017) and, when I leant down for a closer look, I noticed this tiny creature, my first ever lacebug. (There were also lots of aphids lurking amongst the leaves, as you can see.)

I’m fairly sure I’ve identified this correctly, as the black tips to its antennae are apparently diagnostic, but, for some reason, it’s living on the wrong species of thistle – this is the Spear thistle lacebug (Tingis cardui). I think you can see why it’s called a lacebug – the intricacy of the structure and patterning of its body is really quite exquisite. You can read more about this beautiful bug on the British Bugs website here.