Category Archives: insects

Number 20

20 Thursday Jun 2024

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Butterfly species 20 for 2024 took some finding. I usually see a few of these little beauties when I visit Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve looking for fritillaries but, perhaps due to our exceedingly wet spring, butterflies everywhere have been thin on the ground this year. So, when my second visit to the grasslands failed to turn up any butterflies at all, I decided to try the adjacent coal spoil tip, thinking that the shingle and scree surface might be both drier and warmer. And so it proved. And there, in a small sheltered area, I found my first three Small heath butterflies of the year.

A day of golden dragons

19 Wednesday Jun 2024

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Last Saturday was a day of golden dragons …

240619 black-tailed skimmer

my first Black-tailed skimmers (Orthetrum cancellatum) of the year (unfortunately, the male didn’t stop for a photo),

240619 broad-bodied chaser

a female Broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa), and …

240619 four-spotted chaser

a Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata).

Leafmines: Agromyza albitarsis

17 Monday Jun 2024

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I hadn’t found any new leafminers for a while so was delighted recently to find two within five minutes of each other. These two mines were the first I spotted, here on the leaves of White poplar (Populus alba), though they can also be found on other Poplar (Populus) and Willow (Salix) species.

240617 agromyza albitarsis

These are the larval mines of the little fly Agromyza albitarsis – you can see what the adult fly looks like by clicking on the ‘images’ tab on the National Agromyzidae Recording Scheme website. I couldn’t actually count how many larvae were present in these mines but have read that they often feed communally, forming large green blotches that eventually turns a dark brown-black colour.

Brown and orange

15 Saturday Jun 2024

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Time for an update on the butterfly front …
Usually I see Large skippers before I see Meadow browns but this year it was the other way around, with the local Meadow browns emerging slightly earlier than usual. Who knows why – maybe something to do with the crazy weather we’ve been experiencing – warm one minute, cool the next. My first Meadow browns were seen fluttering over the wildflowers in the meadows at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on 3 June.

240615 meadow brown

And, despite a keen breeze and large fluffy clouds frequently obscuring the sun, I spotted my first six Large skippers basking on Bramble and other shrubs along the leeward side of a coastal hedgerow two days later, on 5 June.

240615 large skipper

A horsefly’s eyes

14 Friday Jun 2024

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This was my first horsefly of the year, never a welcome sight as I react quite badly to their bites.

240614 Haematopota pluvialis (1)

She had just settled on my forearm (they have such a light touch that you often don’t notice they’re there until it’s too late), and was focused on her next task of slicing open my skin so that she could feed on my blood. But, before I fell victim to her bloodsucking, I made a quick grab for her and, amazingly, managed to get hold of one wing. That allowed me to get some reasonable close-up photos of her vicious mouth parts and those incredible eyes!

240614 Haematopota pluvialis (2)

The BBC Wildlife website reports that horseflies’ eyes ‘are packed with hundreds (or thousands) of individual light-sensitive columns known as ommatidia (only the near-circular lens facets on the outside are visible)’ and also that the ‘hues are created not by pigments but by the light-refracting qualities of neighbouring groups of facets, determined by the densities of the lens cuticles.’ These particularly stunning eyes may belong to a female Haematopota pluvialis (only the females bite) but I haven’t yet had that identity confirmed.

The hatchling, and family

12 Wednesday Jun 2024

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My little alien has hatched. As I had begun to suspect, it’s the most gorgeous Figwort weevil (Cionus scrophulariae).

240612 figwort weevil (1)

I’ve just returned from delivering my tiny miracle to the small group of Figwort (Scrophularia nodosa) plants near where I first found its cocoon.

240612 figwort weevil (2)

These are two other Figwort weevils I found on those plants; they are probably some of its siblings. Aren’t they just delightful creatures?

240612 figwort weevil (3)240612 figwort weevil (4)

A colony of Woundwort shieldbugs

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

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I was actually checking the Hedge woundwort plants growing alongside our local coastal path for leaf-mining moths (of which there were none) when I spotted first one Woundwort shieldbug, then another, and another, and then two mating.

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (3)

In fact, I eventually counted eight, which is more than I’ve ever seen in one spot before. Hopefully, this means their numbers are increasing generally as they are very handsome little bugs.

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (2)

As well as feeding on Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica), the Woundwort shieldbug (Eysarcoris venustissimus) is also partial to the Lamiaceae species of plants, especially White dead-nettle (Lamium album).

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (1)

On the Oxeyes

09 Sunday Jun 2024

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Perhaps because they are so common and abundant I am guilty of ignoring both the beauty and the usefulness of Oxeye daisies.

So, during my walks over the past few days I have been taking more notice and taking photos of the creatures either using the daisies as perches or feeding on their pollen.

If the weather had been more cooperative, without the constant breezy conditions, I probably would have got more photos.

Still, it was nice to see such a variety of invertebrates: bees and hoverflies, ladybirds and their larvae, several species of spider, grasshoppers and froghoppers and tiny beetles.

Fleabane tortoise beetle larvae

08 Saturday Jun 2024

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If you’ve been here a while (for which, sincere thanks!), you might remember the bizarre larvae of the Thistle tortoise beetle that employ a faecal shield as a protective device, carrying their own excretions above their backs as a disguise (Thistle tortoise beetle larvae, 7 July 2022). Well, earlier this week, while checking the leaves of Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) for leafminers, I found another example of this behaviour.

240608 fleabane tortoise beetle larva (2)

These are Fleabane tortoise beetle larvae (Cassida murraea), which, like all other members of the tortoise beetle family, the Cassidinae, use a combination of their own frass and moulted skin, secretions and plant material to create the cryptic disguises they carry around behind and above their vulnerable bodies.

240608 fleabane tortoise beetle larva (1)

This particular species has not been recorded locally before and I’ve never seen the adult beetles so I’ll be poking about in the fleabane in the coming weeks to see if I can find any.