Leafhopper: Graphocephala fennahi

21 Thursday Aug 2025

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British leafhoppers, Graphocephala fennahi, leafhopper, leafhoppers in Bute Park, rhododendron leafhopper

What a stunning leafhopper this is, don’t you think?

This is the Rhododendron leafhopper (Graphocephala fennahi), an immigrant from the USA. After being introduced to Europe in the early 1900s, it somehow made its way across the Channel to the UK (probably on plant matter, as the UK is exceedingly lax with its border controls), and can now be found throughout much of southern Britain.

The only colony I know of is in Cardiff’s Bute Park and, though I’ve looked for it since my interest in leafhoppers has been reignited, I’ve not managed to find it during the past few summers. I’m not sure why that is – the weather perhaps, though last week the day was occasionally overcast, with frequent drizzle, and I still saw them. The wrong time of year? I don’t think so as I had checked when I had seen them in the past and gone looking around the same time – the adults are active from around July through to the middle of autumn. Whatever the reasons for not having found them in the past, suffice to say I was very pleased to find them last week, and spent quite a bit of time watching their antics.

If you’re wondering about that last image, it appears the leafhopper has suffered some damage to its wing cases, which probably means it can’t fly but it certainly had no trouble leaping away when I got a little too close looking at the vibrant orange of its abdomen.

Five in one day

20 Wednesday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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autumn bird migration, autumn migration, bird migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Spotted flycatcher

We may still be complaining about – or enjoying, if you like the hot temperatures – this summer’s heatwaves but, for our local birds, autumn migration is already well underway. I haven’t seen a Swift for a couple of weeks, most of the Sand martins have already left, and a lot of the local House martin nests are empty now too.

The birds that nest further north of my locale have also begun to head south; last Monday, 11 August, I saw my first Redstart of the season and my first Spotted flycatcher. And, amazingly, my new garden held a Spotted flycatcher the following day; I had the joy of watching it from my flat window for at least a couple of hours as it was flitting out and back from the trees and shrubs.

My best day of watching the migration in action so far this season was last Friday, the 15th, when I saw not one, not two, but a terrific total of five Spotted flycatchers during my walk around the paddocks at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. This is a magical time of year for those of us who love birds, as you neither know which species, nor how many birds, you might see, so there’s always a sense of expectation and excitement every time you go for a walk. I hope all of you get to experience these magical migration moments as well.

Three Ichneumon wasps

19 Tuesday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British ichneumons, British wasps, Ctenicheumon panzeri, Heteropelma amictum, Ichneumon wasps, Ichneumon xanthorius

Two things:
Firstly, my records of these three Ichneumon wasps have not yet been verified so, although I’m fairly confident of their identification, I’m not 100% certain.
And, secondly, I decided to write this blog after someone replied to one of my social media posts, saying – supposedly jokingly – that they had scurried away after seeing one of these creatures, a female with a prominent ‘stinger’ (the implication being that they were frightened of the wasp). So, just to be clear, these wasps will not harm humans; the ‘stinger’ is an ovipositor, for depositing eggs in to their hosts; and many Ichneumon wasps are large, colourful, and really quite beautiful creatures.

At 10-15mm, Ctenichneumon panzeri is a medium-sized Ichneumon that can often be found on umbellifer flowers, as you can see in my photo. As with all Ichneumon wasps, they are parasitoids; Ctenicheumon panzeri deposits its eggs in the larvae of moths of the Noctuidae family.

Heteropelma amictum is one of the larger (20-30mm) and more spectacular ichneumonids, with a long narrow body and equally long back legs, both of which are very prominent when it flies (my flight photo is blurry but I wanted to show you how it holds its body erect and dangles its legs below). Heteropelma amictum uses moth pupae, rather than larvae, as its larval hosts.

Ichneumon xanthorius is another medium-sized wasp, and one I see more often than other species, when it’s feeding on umbellifer flowers or perching on shrubs and bushes. Its larvae feed on the pupae of both moths and butterflies.

The British Natural History Museum has produced an excellent Beginner’s Guide to identifying British ichneumonids, which you can access and download by clicking on this link.

Leafmines: Stigmella viscerella

18 Monday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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British leafmines, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Wych elm, Stigmella viscerella, Wych elm

I’m often surprised when I find a new leafmine: how is it that I’ve not noticed this one before, and how many different leafmines can there be? The answer to the first question has to be that I haven’t been paying enough attention, and to the second that there are probably hundreds that I haven’t yet found.

Today’s new leafmines were made by larvae of the moth Stigmella viscerella, and the mines can be found on the leaves of Elm trees, in this case Wych elm (Ulmus glabra), during August and September. Now that I’m aware of them, I’ve managed to find the mines in two different locations on two separate days, which is why the elm leaves in the two sets of images look different in colour (one day was brighter than the other).

The epithet viscerella may seem odd – it comes from the Latin viscera, plural of viscus, and refers to the human body’s internal organs – but when I look at these mines, the twisting shapes of the frass-filled galleries do, indeed, remind me of human intestines. I presume that the adult moth is not often seen as the UK Moths website doesn’t have its photo but, if you’re curious to see what emerged from these ‘intestines’, I managed to find an image on the German Lepiforum website.

White melilot

17 Sunday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in flowers, plants, wildflowers

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alien flora, alien plants, British wildflowers, Melilotus albus, White melilot

When I first saw this plant, I thought it was some weird variation on a vetch. I was wrong – I frequently am! – but I did have the correct family. This is White melilot (Melilotus albus), a member of the pea family, the Fabaceae (or Leguminosae).

I’ve only ever seen it growing in this one location, an area of waste ground on the western side of Cardiff Bay, which leads me to wonder how it arrived there. In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey writes that it was ‘originally introduced to this country from Europe as fodder plants’ and is ‘now well naturalised at the edges of arable fields, on roadsides and in waste places’. That’s certainly one explanation but I wonder if this particular colony has a different origin.

I know from my time volunteering on the Mary Gilham Archive Project that, in the days of sail and the once very active docks that flourished around the Bay, ships often used sand as ballast. When they arrived at Cardiff, the ships offloaded their sand before loading up with a cargo of coal, and the sand was often dumped or used to reclaim land. That sand contained a huge variety of dormant seeds, which is why the land around Cardiff Bay – and the ports of other cities – often contain alien plant species. Whatever the truth of its arrival, White melilot is an attractive, if straggly little plant, which, I think, deserves to grow more widely.

Coleophora argentula

16 Saturday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants, wildflowers

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case-bearing caterpillar, case-bearing larvae, case-bearing moth larva, Coleophora argentula, moth larvae on Yarrow, Yarrow

These may not look like much – in fact, when looking at these images, you might struggle to see anything but fading flower heads of Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – but I’ve been checking almost every Yarrow flower I see, looking for these, since I first saw them mentioned on social media a few years ago.

These tiny brown tubes, camouflaged with a plant material covering, are the larval cases of the moth Coleophora argentula. From within their home-made protective covering, the little larvae poke their heads out to munch on the Yarrow flowers and on the seeds when they begin to develop.

According to the British Leafminers website entry on this species, the larvae are usually active from September through to May, so these are a little early; I’m finding many things are early this year, presumably due to the continuing warm weather. You can see the adult moth, a very pretty little thing, with pale brown and white stripes, over on the UK Moths website.

And now, have another look at the first photo. How many of the little brown cases can you find? Answers on a postcard. 🙂

Moorhen chickadees

15 Friday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks, Moorhen family

I thought we’d end the week with a massive dose of cuteness, with this gorgeous family of Moorhens I spotted yesterday in Cardiff’s Bute Park. At first, there were four tiny chicks, dwarfed by the huge Gunnera leaf on which they were standing.

Then a fifth chick appeared from behind the leaf and strode purposefully up the side of the Gunnera, standing with its massive feet apart, peering along the canal as if it was the nominated lookout searching for their Moorhen parents.

Seconds later, one of the parents appeared with a nibble of food. Although only one chick benefitted from that, they all seemed to realise that they needed to follow that parent if they had any hope of getting fed themselves so hopped one at a time into the water, paddling frantically to keep up. They were so very cute to watch.

Red-veined darter

14 Thursday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British dragonflies, dragonfly, immature Red-veined darter, migrant dragonflies, Red-veined darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii

Last week I celebrated my tenth anniversary of life in Wales with a lovely long walk around the local areas I’ve come to know so well. And, almost as if Nature was gifting me an anniversary present, this gorgeous creature flitted up from the grass next to the path in front of me, before settling again very near to me. I knew immediately, from the half blue eyes, that this was something special.

This is a Red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii). As you can see, it’s neither red, nor does it have red veins in its wings. The dragonfly is named for the colouring of a mature male but this golden beauty is an immature dragonfly, which you can tell from the black collar across the front of its thorax. I think it’s a male but my photos don’t show enough detail to be sure.

Red-veined darters are migrants from southern Europe. They are reasonably common in southern Britain but the numbers vary from year to year, presumably depending on conditions in Europe and on the weather conditions – warm southerlies or sou’easterlies would help them fly our way. I saw three in 2019, and, when I was comparing notes with one of my birding friends who also likes dragonflies, he agreed that, for some reason, that had been a bumper year for them. Neither of us has seen one locally in the six years since them, until now. I am, of course, hoping for more, especially as I’ve yet to see a strikingly vibrant male Red-veined darter.

Three shieldbug nymphs

13 Wednesday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, British shieldbugs, Bronze shieldbug, Bronze shieldbug nymph, Cyphostethus tristriatus, Hawthorn shieldbug, Juniper shieldbug, shieldbug, shieldbug nymphs, Troilus luridus

I’ve found some nice nymphs of our various shieldbug species during recent walks so thought I’d share a few of them. The nymphs almost always look quite different to the adults of the same species; if you’re unsure which shieldbug or which stage (instar) of nymph you’ve found, the British Bugs website has a page full of excellent drawings showing the various instars of all the British shieldbug species.

As this was only my fourth ever sighting of this species, I was particularly pleased to spot this Bronze shieldbug nymph (Troilus luridus), though it would have been difficult to miss as its metallic colours sparkled in the sunshine.

To illustrate how much these bugs change as they grow, I’ve included two photos of Hawthorn shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale), the top image shows early instar nymphs and below that is a mid instar nymph.

It was just a couple of months ago that I saw my first Juniper shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) and I wrote then (Juniper shieldbug, 3 June) that I was intending to return to the site to look for more, adults and nymphs. I did, and I have; this is one of two nymphs I found recently, a bug that’s just a stunning as the adult, in my humble opinion.

White grasshopper

12 Tuesday Aug 2025

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British grasshoppers, Field grasshopper, grasshopper, Isle of Portland grasshoppers, Orthoptera, white Field grasshopper, white grasshopper

Except, perhaps, for a post about local flora, this will be the last of my blogs about what delights of Nature I discovered during my recent visit to Weymouth, and this is definitely my most unexpected find, an all-white grasshopper. It didn’t have pink eyes so I don’t think it qualifies as albino but it was certainly unusual.

I wasn’t sure what type of grasshopper it was, as it’s a nymph not an adult, and they can be tricky to identify, but I received some valuable assistance from the National iRecord verifier for Orthopteroid insects when I posted a photo on social media. David wasn’t sure either at first but I used Photoshop to fiddle with the light and contrast in my image so as to show the features a little more clearly and, from that, David could tell: ‘There is a fair amount of kink in the side keel, shown pretty clearly … Given that it actually looks most like Field GH, that they are the ones likeliest to be nymphs now & that they are also one of the most variable spp, the chances of it being anything else are slim.’ So, Field grasshopper it is!