Category Archives: insects

Lifer: Lulworth skipper

16 Monday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This was another new-to-me butterfly, the Lulworth skipper (Thymelicus acteon), and this was the butterfly that I really hoped to see during my visit to Weymouth. Clearly, I was not disappointed.

This was another find in the sculpture park that is Tout Quarry on the Isle of Portland, and I saw my first Lulworth skipper almost as soon as I arrived. At first glance, they could easily be mistaken for Small skippers, but Lulworths are slightly smaller and generally darker, often turning an olive-brown colour as they age. The females also have a series of golden marks that form a notable circle on their wings, though that didn’t help me. As is common amongst butterfly species, the males emerge first, and I saw no females.

However, by sheer good luck, I also spotted my first Small skipper of the year as I explored Tout Quarry, which proved a very good comparison for the Lulworths I was seeing. I’ve included a photo of the two species below; this is not precise as to their size relationship but does, hopefully, give some idea of their colour differences (Lulworth on the left, Small skipper on the right).

The Lulworth skipper is named after the Dorset town of Lulworth, where it was first found in 1832. Though these butterflies have expended their range a little in the intervening 190 years, they are still only found in locations along the south Dorset coast. I had expected to have to catch a bus to Lulworth until I read the butterflies could be found on Portland, and I booked my little break away as soon as I heard they were on the wing. So, it was a real treat to find them so quickly and easily, and then to spend perhaps 90 minutes in the quarry, enjoying all the butterfly species, the local plants, and, yes, I did also look at the stone sculptures.

Lifer: Silver-studded blue

14 Saturday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

I’ve just returned from four wonderful nights in Weymouth, on England’s south coast, my days full of walking and wildlife. I may see a lot of wildlife where I live but part of the reason for my recent house move was so that I could afford to have a few short breaks away to explore new areas and see different wildlife while I still have the energy and mobility to do that, and also while being as low-carbon as possible in the process, of course, so travelling by train and/or bus and with a lot of walking as well. So, there will be a few blogs in the next week or so, covering some of the things I saw while away.

First up, in an old disused quarry on the Isle of Portland, were my first ever Silver-studded blue butterflies (Plebejus argus). The ‘silver-studded’ part of the name comes from the way the light is reflected off the light blue scales on the underside of the adults’ hindwings, making them shimmer like silver. And the ‘argus‘ epithet in its scientific name is a nod to the multi-eyed shepherd of Greek mythology, a reference to the spots on the undersides of the wings.

Silver-studded blues are rare and only seen in a few isolated areas around the southern coast of England, in Pembrokeshire and around the Great Orme in Wales, and in a couple of coastal locations in Norfolk and Suffolk. From those locations, you can perhaps guess that they prefer heathland, sand-dune systems and limestone grassland, in particular sheltered sunny spots where their companions, the black Lasius ant species, thrive. As is seen in several butterfly species, ants provide the butterflies with protection from insect predators throughout their life cycle.

Tout quarry provides the perfect environment for the Silver-studded blues. Quarrying has hollowed out large areas of ground, making it a sun trap and leaving stony areas where specialist wildflower species have managed to seed and flourish, though the vegetation does have to be managed to ensure the more aggressive plant species don’t overwhelm large areas of ground.

I was extremely lucky with the timing of my trip as these butterflies had only just emerged in the few days prior to my arrival, and that’s why I only saw the vibrant blue male butterflies; the females are brown on both the upper- and undersides of their wings. To see them is the perfect incentive for a return trip!

Five big hovers

12 Thursday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I’ve come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that large hoverflies are like buses: you don’t see any at all and then they all come along at once. At least that has been my recent experience (it’s probably more to do with the weather and the time of year, but I like my buses theory). The five big beasties shown here were all seen over just four days, between 29 May and 1 June.

With its black-and-yellow striping, it’s easy to see that Chrysotoxum cautum is one of the wasp-mimicking hoverflies. The eight British species of Chrysotoxum all have quite long antennae, and it is the relative lengths of the segments of those antennae that are used to differentiate between the five most similar species.

Merodon equestris comes in a variety of colour forms, each of which mimics bumblebees. The one pictured above is a rather worn specimen of form validus, which has a totally dark thorax and a grey-buff coloured bottom.

These final three are all members of the Volucellini, of which there are five British species. Like Merodon equestris, Volucella bombylans is a bumblebee mimic; which bumblebee it is attempting to mimic depends on which of the colour variations you see. This yellow-and-black form mimics Bombus lucorum, the White-tailed bumblebee, but there is also a mostly black, orange-bottomed variation of Volucella bombylans that mimics Bombus lapidarius, the Red-tailed bumblebee.

I was particularly pleased to see Volucella inflata as I’ve only found it once before. With its vivid and very distinctive markings, its round body, and protruding yellow snout, it’s a stunning hoverfly to encounter. Sadly for those of you in northern Britain, it’s mostly found in the southern counties and south Wales.

Volucella pellucens, on the other hand, is common and abundant throughout Britain, often seen hovering around head height along woodland rides and forest tracks. Due to its black-and-white colouring, it’s also known as the Great pied hoverfly.

Rhabdomiris striatellus

10 Tuesday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Here’s another bug that I’d never seen before this year and I’ve been lucky enough to find both a nymph and an adult. This is Rhabdomiris striatellus, one of the UK’s 200-plus species of plant bugs in the Miridae family. (I’ve probably only seen about a tenth of them so I’ve got plenty more discoveries yet to make.)

As this bug’s larvae feed on unripe catkins, it is usually found on or around Oak trees, and that’s certainly where I found the adult bug, shown below. The nymph above had probably fallen out of an Oak tree, or had decided to go walkabout to find a neighbouring Oak; I found it on the railings of my local park, where I’ve found so many invertebrates.

Rhabdomiris striatellus overwinters as an egg, hatches out in mid Spring, then passes through a series of instars until it reaches adulthood. The adults can then be seen from May through to July. Those timings certainly fit with my discoveries; I found the nymph on 25 April and the adult, in a different location, on 3 May.

Leafmines: Coleophora paripennella

09 Monday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects, plants

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

When I got home and checked my photos of this Coleophora, much head scratching ensued. From the British Leafminers website, I could see that there are only three species of case-bearing moth larvae known to feed on Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) and this case didn’t look like any of them. The case of Coleophora conspicuella is described as black and glossy, and has a peculiar almost keel-like shape. Coleophora peribenanderi mostly mines thistle species, is only occasionally seen on Knapweed, and the larvae is active from August to October. Coleophora paripennella‘s case looked the most likely, but is also usually much darker, almost black. So, I ‘phoned a friend’.

And my friendly expert from British Leafminers also ‘phoned a friend’, checking with another moth larvae expert. Their opinions concurred: this was Coleophora paripennella, just with a much lighter-coloured case than usual. Like C. peribenanderi, C. paripennella uses both thistles and Knapweed as larval plants, but in this case, those larvae that use thistle are fully grown by the autumn, whereas those that munch on Knapweed, top up their larval development by feeding again from April to May/June. You can see the sleek and glossy adult moth that eventually results from all this leaf munching on the UK Moths website here.

Grassland pearls

07 Saturday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Wednesday’s weather wasn’t the best for trying to find butterflies – a constant westerly wind was keeping the temperatures low even when the sun did manage to peak out from behind the constant parade of big clouds rolling through, but my friend Shar’s optimism proved well founded.

Though even her sharp eyes didn’t manage to spot any Marsh fritillaries (as they seem to have emerged early everywhere this year, we were probably too late for them at this site), we did find a few gorgeous Small pearl-bordered fritillaries (Boloria selene), the species I was really hoping to see that day. Initially, we thought we had two but on checking my photos at home later, I realised from the wing markings that we’d actually seen three.

As usual, we were conducting our butterfly hunt in the habitat most favoured by these fritillaries, the damp grasslands of the Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve, where the butterflies particularly enjoy flowers like common violets and bluebells, Marsh thistles and Ragged robin. The reserve is also home to a large population of orchids, both Common and Heath spotted-orchids, as well as Cross-leaved heath, Tormentil, Devil’s-bit scabious and Knapweed, amongst other wildflower species, making a wander around its fields a pleasure even when you don’t see very many butterflies.

Rhopalus subrufus

06 Friday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I felt a bit like a voyeur watching these handsome bugs doing their private business but I’d never seen their species before and, with them being preoccupied, it was the perfect opportunity to take a closer look and get some photographs. Rhopalus subrufus is one of four species in the genus Rhopalidae but, fortunately, R. subrufus is relatively easy to identify by the light and dark banding around the edge of its body (that flange is called the connexivum). The location where I found these two is typical of the habitat they favour: on low scrubby vegetation near trees or woodland.

Cool cats, 2

05 Thursday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

When I’m out walking at this time of year, I always keep a look out for leaf damage as that’s often the way to find invertebrates, whether they be weevils or beetle larvae or moth caterpillars or many other things. Today I thought I’d share some of the cool caterpillars I’ve been finding, most of which are relatively common and easy for everyone to identify. (I’ve linked each name to the relevant page on the UK Moths website so the curious amongst you can see what these cats will look like as moths; it always amazes me how different the adults are from their progeny.)

Having said that most of these are relatively common, I’d never actually seen a Common quaker (Orthosia cerasi) caterpillar before but found several recently on one Oak tree. Judging by how plump they were, all had been feeding well, and would be pupating quite soon after I saw them.

As you can perhaps see in my photo, this Lackey (Malacosoma neustria) caterpillar had just moulted (that’s the shed skin on the leaf next to it) and so was looking very vibrant. The Lackey is mostly found in southern parts of Britain and is a good example of how different the adult is – really quite drab.

Do these Mottled umber (Erannis defoliaria) caterpillars think their twig impression will deter hungry birds? Perhaps so. Judging by the fact that I spotted more than 20, of varying sizes and with slight colour variations, on a group of Lombardy poplar trees, their disguise was working.

I have to admit that I wasn’t the first to spot this lovely little Ruby tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) heading purposefully across a local footpath. A young boy, who was out with his parents and their dog, had seen it and was trying, unsuccessfully, to feed it Dandelion leaves.

You may recall that, back in January, I blogged about finding a Vapourer cocoon and eggs. Well, though I found this particular caterpillar in a different place entirely, this is what would eventually have emerged from those eggs, the wonderfully flamboyant caterpillar of a Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua).

Juniper shieldbug

03 Tuesday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

This is a bug I never thought I’d see locally as I don’t know any locations where Juniper trees grow. Fortunately for me, and as stated on the British Bugs website, the Juniper shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) has started living on Lawson’s cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) as well as its traditional host tree, the Juniper (Juniperus communis) for which it is named. And Lawson’s cypress is a popular planting in gardens and parks, which is where this tree was growing, alongside a path that runs around a local recreation ground.

British Bugs explains that adult Juniper shieldbugs, with the beautiful reddish-pink markings on their backs, can be seen all year round, though they tend not to be too active during the coldest winter months, like most of us. The nymphs that hatch from mid to late Spring feed on Juniper and Cypress berries and, like all shieldbugs, they go through a series of instars before reaching adulthood. The website has excellent, illustrated downloadable charts of the various stages of most shieldbug species for easy identification if you happen to spot a nymph and, now that I know where this Juniper shieldbug lives, I’ll have to go back and look for more, adults and nymphs.

Galls: Macrodiplosis pustularis

02 Monday Jun 2025

Posted by in insects, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

In my ignorance, when I first saw these folded-over leaf lobes on an Oak tree in a local park, I thought they had been created by leaf-mining moth larvae. Fortunately, there are much smarter people around than me and, when I posted some photos on social media, one of them popped up and told me what these really were: galls made by the larvae of the gall midge, Macrodiplosis pustularis.

Of course, once I knew that I had to return to the spot and pull up a couple of the folds to see the tiny larvae. The numbers inside can vary, apparently, from one to six or more. They are white when young but change to an orange colour as they develop.

The fold of the leaf is both a means of protection for the vulnerable larvae and also a food larder; they eat the leaf from the inside. Eventually, the larvae will drop from their leaf shelters, pupate and remain in the soil until the following Spring, when the whole process begins again.