Category Archives: insects

Glistening bronze and green

13 Saturday Jun 2026

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In Fauna Britannica, Stefan Buczacki explains that ‘“Chafer” is a Middle English word, perhaps meaning “to gnaw” and possibly related to the word “chaff” for the husks of grain’. The several species of chafer eat plants, in particular the roots of plants, so they can be serious pests, of crops and, in the case of the species shown here, the Garden chafer (Phyllopertha horticola), of the plants in your garden. Various species of bird have also learnt that chafer larvae are nutritious, so they can cause damage to lawns and turf when poking about trying to find them.

As I seldom see chafers and don’t have a garden, I was nothing but delighted when I spotted not one but two Garden chafers, their metallic green and bronze colours glistening in the sunshine, in a Cardiff park. As these were quite hairy, I believe that means they had very recently emerged from their pupae; the hairs rub off as they age. The two I found were both in a wild area, of scrub and trees and overgrown Bramble bushes, but chafers are good, if bumbling fliers, so they did have the potential to cause damage to local gardens. Sorry, gardeners!

Galls: Eriophyes similis

12 Friday Jun 2026

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I think I’m safe in saying that not many, if any of my readers spend as much of their time staring at, turning over, or fossicking among leaves as I do. So, you may not have noticed that, at this time of year, many of the leaves on Blackthorn (or Sloe) trees (Prunus spinosa) develop lots of little lumps and bumps.

These are galls, caused by the tiny mites Eriophyes similis. My Field Studies Council guide to galls explains that ‘mites are small enough to pierce and feed on individual plant cells, and by so doing to cause surrounding cells to enlarge and multiply.’ The galls start out green and gradually turn a pinkish colour., as shown in my photos, and are often found around the edges of the leaves. This mite species appears to have had a recent change of name, as many older publications label them as Eriophyes spinosae.

Black-clouded longhorn beetle

12 Friday Jun 2026

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During a recent check of which critters might be lurking on the railings of a local park, I found this, a new beetle for me, a Black-clouded longhorn beetle. That reads like a decisive statement of identification but I’m sure you know now how these things work – when I got home and looked up my new find I found it has quite recently been determined that there are two extremely similar species and they can only be separated when, as the Naturespot website states, ‘the necessary genitalia examination has been carried out by someone with suitable expertise’. The two species are Leiopus nebulosus and Leiopus linnei; Naturespot advises finders to record these as Leiopus nebulosus agg., but, when I recorded my find, I discovered that the only option was Leiopus linnei/nebulosus.

As you can see, this little longhorn beetle (‘longhorn’ refers to the length of the antennae) has dark grey/black markings on a paler background, hence the name ‘black-clouded’. Longhorn beetles are wood eaters, and this one is most often recorded in the proximity of Alder, Lime and Oak trees. And, as I think the photo below shows, it can move quite quickly; this lovely little beetle was not a willing subject for my camera.

The larval webs of the Apple ermine moth

10 Wednesday Jun 2026

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This is the time of year when we regularly see shrubs, bushes, even whole trees draped in what many people assume are massive spiders’ webs but are actually the larval webs of various species of moth. I’ve blogged previously about the webs I see most often, those of the Spindle ermine (June 2021, and again From larva to adult moth, June 2022) and shown you some of the several species of ermine moth, all of which look very similar (More moth appreciation, September 2025).

These latest webs, however, are a new species for me, and their presence on the Apple trees in the community orchard at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park was something of a surprise as, due to the area being sheltered by a surrounding hedge, I pop in to the orchard quite frequently to search there for butterflies, dragonflies and other insects.

Not surprisingly given the trees they’re living on, these are the larvae of the Apple ermine moth (Yponomeuta malinellus); the UK Moth website warns that the adult moths are difficult to distinguish from the other ermines ‘even by genitalia examination’, so the larval foodplant is the most reliable way to identify them. UK Moths also mentions that, once fully grown, the larvae pupate inside ‘white cocoons [which] are arranged neatly side by side in a web beneath a leaf or twig’. Now that’s something I’ll have to look out for.

NFY: Brown argus

09 Tuesday Jun 2026

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May 28th was a very good day for wildlife spotting. Prior to seeing My first Four-spotted chaser of 2026, as I walked around the mostly people-less (this was the school half-term holiday so anywhere people-less was hard to find and a godsend!) outer fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, I checked the locations where I had previously found Brown argus (Aricia agestis), and I was lucky in both places to spot my first and second specimens of the year.

These are gorgeous butterflies but quite tiny so, when they flit up in front of you, you need to watch them closely to see where they land. Many’s the time my eye’s been distracted by another butterfly, or other insect, I’ve lost sight of the Brown argus and not managed to re-find it, so canny is the wee beastie when it comes to disappearing in among the long grass and wildflowers. Fortunately, I’ve learnt that lesson quite well, and these two neither escaped my eye nor my camera lens.

My first Four-spotted chaser

08 Monday Jun 2026

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I usually see my first Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) earlier in the year – they often appear in late April and can be on the wing right through till mid September – but this year’s weather has been so extraordinary – or perhaps the ‘new’ ordinary i.e. uncharacteristic and unpredictable, with weeks of wet weather followed by a record-breaking heatwave followed by another week of rain – that the emergence dates of everything from odonata to lepidoptera to almost every wildlife species have this year varied wildly from the norm. So, I was rather relieved, on 28 May, to watch this beauty fly up from its grassy perch in the community orchard at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, and even more relieved when it settled again quite quickly and in a location where I was able to get some photographs.

NFY: Large skipper

06 Saturday Jun 2026

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It was Monday 25 May, a public holiday in the UK and forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far, so I was up at 5.30 and out the door at 7am to try to get a walk in before the heat got too much for me (I do NOT like the heat!). To take advantage of the slight sea breeze and as the timing seemed about right, I decided to walk along the cliff-top coastal path, thinking I’d check the area where I found my first Large skipper butterfly last year. Et voilà! It wasn’t the exact same place but it was close, and I was able to scuttle home before I melted.

Cranefly: Tipula fascipennis

05 Friday Jun 2026

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Despite this supposedly being a widespread and locally common species, I had never knowingly seen Tipula fascipennis, the White-barred long-palp cranefly, until very recently. And, though many craneflies are difficult to identify, this one has some very distinctive characteristics. According to Alan Stubbs in British Craneflies, ‘the discal cell is unusually short’, ‘the male genitalia are very prominent’ and ‘the female has a very short ovipositor’. While I might notice the latter, I’m not likely to pick up on the previous two features, but, fortunately, there is one other very obvious characteristic: ‘the wings are unique’ due to the fairly obvious white bar across them. Tipula fascipennis adults can typically be seen between May and August, peaking in late June, in meadows and along the edges of woodlands.

NFY: Marsh fritillary

03 Wednesday Jun 2026

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They emerged a few days later than last year but, as the temperatures rose – if you haven’t caught up with the news, the UK has just experienced a heat wave, with the hottest May temperatures ever recorded, the Marsh fritillaries began to fly at the local nature reserve where a colony was illegally established three years ago.

These butterflies shouldn’t exist where they do but they certainly are a stunning sight to behold.

Fly: Sicus ferrugineus

02 Tuesday Jun 2026

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With a long cylindrical body that curls under its own abdomen, this fly looks rather odd, as do all 25 British species belonging to the Conopidae family of thick-headed flies, the family of beegrabbers and waspgrabbers. The rust colour of this particular species has led to its common name Ferruginous beegrabber (Sicus ferrugineus), and it really does grab bees.

Female beegrabbers linger on and around flowers, waiting for their prey – in this particular case, various species of bumblebee – not to eat the bumblebees but to grab hold of them and, using their ovipositor, inject an egg into the bumblebee’s abdomen. After hatching, the beegrabber’s larva develops inside the abdomen of the bumblebee while it’s still alive, though the bumblebee does eventually die and the larva pupates inside the corpse.

Sicus ferrugineus is common throughout most of Britain and Ireland, and the adults can be seen from May to September. Look for specimens sitting patiently on flower heads waiting for some unsuspecting bumblebee to fly in.