17 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
The adult Common froghopper (Philaenus spumarius), s/he that, when a tiny larva, blows bubbles out of its bottom to create the little blob of foam we call ‘Cuckoo spit’ to hide in, is brown, but not just one bland shade of brown. Its brown, which is also good for camouflage, ranges from light to dark: buff, mushroom, beige, ochre, cocoa, russet, sepia, chocolate – so many shades of brown.
14 Wednesday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
I’ve featured Lacewing larvae on here before (The Lacewing lifecycle, 29 September 2021 and More Lacewing larvae, 19 November 2022), but these are the first larvae I’ve seen carrying shields above their bodies, the same camouflage device used by tortoise beetles (also featured here previously: Thistle tortoise beetle larvae, 7 July 2022 and Fleabane tortoise beetle, 8 June 2024).
I couldn’t find any UK information about Lacewing larvae using these shields but I did find a post on the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee website, on their ‘Bug of the week‘ pages, that featured Green lacewings. As well as the following short paragraph, there’s a link to a video, which I highly recommend you watch. It’s brief – around 5 minutes, and includes some excellent video footage of these fascinating creatures:
Some species of Green lacewings have hairy/spiny, “trash-carrying” larvae – larvae that stick debris – and sometimes bits of dead prey – to their backs, creating a shield that they present to aggressors. Does the disguise help them avoid aphid-farming ants? Hide them from predators? Watch this very cool video.
13 Tuesday Aug 2024
Tags
British butterflies, British spiders, Crab spider, crab spider kills Speckled wood, Speckled wood, White crab spider
Me: ‘What on earth is that Speckled wood doing?’
Speckled wood: ‘ . . . ‘
Crab spider: ‘Yum! Lunch!’
11 Sunday Aug 2024
Posted in flowers, insects, wildflowers
Tags
British bumblebees, Buff-tailed bumblebee, bumblebees on Carline thistles, Carline thistle, Common carder
I love Carline thistles, their sculptural structure, the way they glisten in the sunshine, how lovely they look from the time of their bursting buds right through to the dried flowers that often last right through the winter.
And I’m not the only one who loves them. The flowers, which ‘open in warm, dry weather and close in the cool and wet’ (Flora Britannica), must be full of a particular nectar that appeals to our resident bumblebees (like this Common carder and Buff-tailed) as they love feasting on Carline thistles, and I rarely see other insects on them.
10 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
As well as the second broods of butterflies I blogged about on Thursday, there are three other butterfly species that have recently begun to emerge locally.** I didn’t include them in my previous post, as these species have different life cycles: they overwinter as adults, generally hibernating somewhere sheltered, though sometimes appearing briefly on unseasonably warm winter days.
Peacocks awaken in the Spring, laying their eggs during May, with the adults emerging from mid July.
The Comma’s life cycle is a little different. They also emerge from their winter sleep in springtime, but they usually have two broods each year, with the first eggs being laid between early April and mid May, and the second from late June to mid August.
The Brimstone is another British butterfly that spends most of its life as an adult, and enjoys the distinction of being ‘our longest-lived butterfly’ (Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies). It only has one brood per year, with eggs being laid between mid April and the start of June, with the adults emerging at the beginning of August.
** I would love to be able to include Small tortoiseshell in this blog, as they also overwinter as adults and their second broods should be emerging about now but, tragically, I have only seen one of this species in 2024, back at the start on April. And most of my butterfly-loving acquaintances have noticed a similarly disastrous decline in numbers, with some not having seen a single Small tortoiseshell this year.
09 Friday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
Generally speaking, female Common darters (Sympetrum striolatum) are yellow and males are red. However, as with so many things, the reality is not so black and white – or, rather, yellow and red.
Immature Common darters are usually yellow in colour, regardless of sex; and, as they age, the colours of both sexes often become dull, the males losing their vibrancy and looking quite brownish, the females turning reddish so they resemble males.
08 Thursday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
British butterflies, Brown argus, Comma, Common blue, Holly blue, Peacock, second brood butterflies, Small copper
After seeing very low numbers of the first broods of butterflies earlier in the year, I’m hoping that the second broods that are now hatching will have better luck with the weather and be able to breed successfully so that population numbers recover in 2025. These are some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve seen that have recently emerged.
Brown argus
Common blue
Holly blue
Small copper
05 Monday Aug 2024
Tags
British moths, Cameraria ochridella, Horse chestnut leaf-mining moth, Horse chestnut leafminer, Horse chestnut tree, leaf-mining moth larvae
As it’s very common, I’m sure you’ve all seen this damage on the leaves of Horse chestnut trees. These are leafmines, made by the larvae of the Horse chestnut leafminer (Cameraria ochridella) (see my blog Horse chestnut leafminer, 18 July 2018).
Until last Friday, I’d only ever seen the leafmines, never the adult moth. But, as I walked past this particular Horse chestnut tree, lots of tiny creatures were flitting around its lower leaves. At first, I wasn’t sure what the creatures were – they looked like little flies. Then one of them landed on a leaf in front of me and I managed to get a closer look – a moth, not a fly, and very prettily marked too.
I must have stood watching for 15 minutes or more, waiting for a moth to settle and snapping a few quick photos before it zipped off … and again … and again. It was a good test of my patience, and I’m really glad I was in the right place at the right time to see these beautiful moths.
03 Saturday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
British hoverflies, egg-laying hoverfly, egg-laying Melangyna umbellatarum, hoverfly eggs, Melangyna umbellatarum
My guide book, Britain’s Hoverflies (Ball and Morris, Princeton, 2015) says the Melangyna ‘is a challenging genus with several species which are very difficult to identify’, and I thought ‘Just my luck! I might as well give up now’.
Fortunately, I didn’t, and, as this particular species has a shiny thorax and pale, almost white abdominal markings, it proved easier than expected to identify my first ever hoverfly from this genus. This little beauty has now been confirmed as Melangyna umbellatarum, a female that was egg-laying on Hogweed in Cardiff’s Heath Park last week.
You may just be able to spot one of her tiny white eggs above her head in the top photo, and I was able to get a close up (photo above). This was also the first time I’d observed a hoverfly laying her eggs.
02 Friday Aug 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
British flies, flies, Fungus gnat fly species, Fungus gnats, Sciara hemerobioides, Sciara species
When I first noticed these little flies feasting on the nectar of Wild carrot flowers, I thought perhaps they were sawflies but, when looking at my photos on my laptop later, I realised their heads were far too small.
Turns out these are some kind of fungus gnat though, according to the NatureSpot website, there are several species with the same bright yellow abdomen. So, although these flies look very like the Sciara hemerobioides shown on that website, I’ve recorded them as Sciara species. As you may have worked out, it’s the larvae that feed on fungus, whereas the adults prefer umbellifers and other flora.
earthstar 
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