21 Friday Jul 2023
First I saw one distantly in the Oak trees opposite Lavernock Nature Reserve, and I was glad.
Then I saw one very close in the Oak trees at Casehill Woodland (as it flitted right on to the leaves in front of me), and I was overjoyed.
They’re Purple hairstreaks, of course, and they are beautiful, and I was very lucky.
19 Wednesday Jul 2023
Posted in insects
By sheer coincidence, on the very morning I got the email notification that I had correctly identified my first Graphopsocus cruciatus species of barkfly, found on 4 July at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, I went out and found two more of the same species. And it was particularly nice to find one that was sitting next to its clutch of eggs, kept secure beneath a net of silken threads.
These are tiny flies that I never even knew existed until late 2021 (A Barkfly, 24 November). Many are quite common but you need to turn over leaves to spot them lingering underneath – or, at least, that’s where I find them. I’m sure they spend time on tree trunks too, hence the name. You can read more about them on the National Barkfly Recording Scheme website, where there is an excellent gallery of photos that makes identification much easier.
18 Tuesday Jul 2023
Tags
British moths, caterpillar on Poplar, Laothoe populi, moth caterpillar, Poplar, Poplar hawk-moth, Poplar hawk-moth larva
The leaf-staring story I related yesterday didn’t end with me seeing my first Poplar spiral galls – oh no! There was a bonus sighting that was much more exciting. Lurking behind one of the leaves I turned to more easily photograph a gall was this caterpillar, the larva of a Poplar hawk-moth (Laothoe populi). What a magnificent beast it was!
17 Monday Jul 2023
Tags
aphids on Poplar, British aphids, gall, gall-causing aphid, galls on Poplar, Pemphigus spyrothecae, Poplar
During our recent wet and windy weather I’ve taken to leaving my good camera at home, going out in wet weather gear with just my point-and-shoot camera tucked in a jacket pocket. As that camera is really only good for macro shots, I’ve been forced to look at things more closely – no bad thing, and, given the frequent heavy showers, I’ve been spending more time than usual sheltering under trees. And that, of course, means I’ve been looking at trunks and branches and leaves, which is how I came to notice these odd swellings on a Poplar tree in a local park. The aphid Pemphigus spyrothecae causes the leaf petiole to twist two or three times, forming a chamber in which the aphid’s larvae can develop. I didn’t open any of the galls but, if you want to see images of what’s inside, and read more about the life cycle of these aphids, the Influential Points website is the place to go.
14 Friday Jul 2023
All that’s missing from this illustration of the life cycle of the Dock beetle is the pupation stage but I’m not going to disturb their underground pupae to show you that. Though common, I still find them fascinating and, because they’re common, they’re a good insect to show children how a beetle’s life cycle functions.
n.b. There may be an extra insect in the photo of the larvae. I suspect those tiny white dots might be hoverfly eggs, as the larvae of some species enjoying feasting on various leaf beetle eggs and larvae. I’ll be doing more leaf-turning to check.
12 Wednesday Jul 2023
When you read the words ‘tiger moth’, you probably think plane, after the flying machines engineered by Geoffrey de Havilland (the first of these was designed with foldable wings, so as to fit into a small space – hence the name moth]. I hadn’t realised until I read up about him that de Havilland designed lots of planes, with variations of the moth name – no surprise then to read he was apparently an enthusiastic lepidopterist.
However, I digress. In this blog, the tiger moths are actually moths not planes, Scarlet tiger moths – in fact, the two Scarlet tigers seen during last week’s perambulations. The Scarlet tiger is the tiger moth I see most often, though it is only one of six tiger moths regularly seen in the UK – the others are Ruby, Wood, Garden, Cream-spot and Jersey tiger.
10 Monday Jul 2023
Posted in insects
Though I’m generally very fortunate with my butterfly sightings, sometimes my luck’s just not in. Twice now I’ve visited the woodland where I usually see lots of Silver-washed fritillaries and manage to get reasonable photos of those I see. My first visit was on a windy day, with lots of big clouds rolling through – not ideal butterfly weather and, though I did see several fritillaries, they were mostly flying strongly along the woodland rides, only settling out of sight behind the shrubbery. This was my best shot from that visit.
Last Friday I tried again – it was warm and sunny with little wind. Conditions should’ve been perfect yet, once again, the butterflies just weren’t cooperating. I really enjoyed seeing those gorgeous vibrant fritillaries that zoomed past me but, once again, they weren’t stopping, so this is the best of few images I managed to get. Still, there’s always next year …
08 Saturday Jul 2023
Tags
Aproceros leucopoda, Elm zigzag sawfly, Elm zigzag sawfly cocoon, insect cocoon, leaf damage by Elm zigzag sawfly larvae, Wych elm, Wych elm leaves
At this time of year, whenever I spot a Wych elm tree, I spend a bit of time staring at the leaves. I look for two things in particular: the first is to see if I can spot any White-letter hairstreak butterflies flitting around, usually at the top of the tree but also lower down; and the second is to see if anything has been nibbling at the leaves. My searching paid off last week when I spotted the distinctive signs of leaf damage caused by the larvae of the Elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda), not necessarily a good thing as this is an invasive species, which I found new to Wales in October 2021 (Zorro comes to Wales) and which is now slowly spreading westwards. But, more interestingly in this particular case, I found one of the cocoons the larvae pupate in, a very delicate, woven-silk structure (you can see an occupied cocoon on the Forest Research website). This one was empty so I guess that’s one more adult sawfly helping to spread the species further.
07 Friday Jul 2023
Posted in insects
At first I thought this was just a scrap of dried leaf or something similar, but then I looked more closely and could see that the two white bits sticking out one end were in fact tiny legs. It was a moth, a Lesser tawny tubic (Batia lunaris), hands down the smallest moth I’ve ever seen.
According to the UK Moths website, it has a wingspan of 7-10mm, is present throughout England (it doesn’t mention the rest of the UK but, obviously, it’s here in Wales!), and can generally be found in woodland areas – if you can find it at all, that is. I’m so glad I decided to check it out rather than ignore it.
06 Thursday Jul 2023
Posted in insects
Tags
British shieldbugs, Gorse shieldbug, Gorse shieldbug instars, Piezodorus lituratus, shieldbug nymphs
I’ve blogged about Gorse shieldbugs (Piezodorus lituratus) before, in particular the adult bugs and their amazing little barrel-shaped eggs (in A bug and its eggs, April 2022) but I’ve only once before seen one of the intermediate stages of the nymphs between egg and adult (a second instar – see A shieldbug selection, September 2021). Until last week, that is. And these Gorse shieldbugs, of various instars, were actually grazing on Broom rather than Gorse. (The British Bugs website has both photographs and a chart of the diversely coloured nymphs, if you’re interested in more information.)
earthstar 
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