Category Archives: insects

Green-veined whites

27 Tuesday Sep 2022

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I don’t know what it’s like where you are but there seem to be gazillions of Small white butterflies around here at the moment, which is why, when I noticed a single Green-veined white butterfly, it stood out like a sore thumb. And then it occurred to me that I hadn’t really covered the various whites much on the blog this butterfly season. So, before all the butterflies fade away for the year, I am going to remedy that, and I will start by showcasing the Green-veined whites (Pieris napi), which are so much easier to identify precisely because of their ‘green veins’, which, the UK Butterflies website reminds me, are not actually green at all but rather ‘an illusion created by a subtle combination of yellow and black scales’. And here they are …

220927 green-veined white

Leafmines: Stigmella speciosa

20 Tuesday Sep 2022

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While searching out Sycamore tarspot fungi on local Sycamore trees, I’ve also been keeping a look out for leafmines, specifically for the mines of the Barred Sycamore Pigmy moth, Stigmella speciosa. (You can see the very attractive adult moth on the UK Moths website by clicking here.)

220920 stigmella speciosa (1)

Although I’ve found the tarspot fungi, in varying quantities, on almost every Sycamore tree I’ve seen, the leafmines, though supposedly common, are not so easily spotted. Despite checking over a hundred Sycamore trees now, I’ve only found Stigmella speciosa mines in one location, where there were just three mines within the limits of my visibility. Perhaps more will turn up as I continue my search for Sycamore tarspot.

220920 stigmella speciosa (2)

A surprise Holly blue

15 Thursday Sep 2022

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Well, this was a surprise sighting during today’s walk! Holly blue butterflies have two broods each year (very occasionally three in the right conditions) but even with a second brood, the adults have usually disappeared by the beginning of September. This female did look quite faded and a bit bird-pecked but she was still flying strongly. Butterflies continuously amaze me!

220915 holly blue

Pearly underwing

13 Tuesday Sep 2022

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I start to put on my jacket before heading out on my daily walk when something flutters on the sleeve. It’s a moth, this moth, and I have no idea how it got there. Did it land on me during yesterday’s walk and spend the night on the jacket that I’d just flung over the back of a chair? Or did it creep in through the gap in a barely open window during the night?

220913 pearly underwing

A moth expert on Twitter tells me it’s a Pearly underwing (Peridroma saucia), a moth that doesn’t breed in Britain but migrates here from Europe, most often during September and October. No wonder it’s looking a little faded after such a long flight. I keep it inside during the day and release it after dark, hoping that will help it avoid any hungry birds.

The aphid munchers

06 Tuesday Sep 2022

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Today’s focus is on one of the smaller things in life, specifically every gardener’s friend, one of the aphid munchers, the hoverfly larva.

220906 syrphus sp

In fact, not just one larva, but many, and from more than one species, feasting on aphid-infested Wild parsnip plants. The larvae in the photos above have been identified as being one of the Syrphus species of hoverfly, while those below, according to an expert, are probably Melangyna compositarum agg / umbelltarum. All would need rearing to adulthood for more precise identification.

220906 Melangyna sp

It’s worth checking the stems, leaves, seedheads of plants with aphid infestations as hoverfly larvae are almost certain to be lurking there somewhere.

Companions

31 Wednesday Aug 2022

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As our hot dry summer draws to a close, flowers are in short supply so, sometimes, hungry critters just have to share. Here, a male Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), left, shares with a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum). (Yes, I know the Red-tailed doesn’t actually have a red tail and it certainly doesn’t look like the images I had been searching through when trying to put a name to it, but my friendly local Twitter expert tells me ‘males get sun bleached rather quickly’ and assures me this identification is correct. This is precisely why I don’t really ‘do’ bees!)

220831 Bombus lapidarius MALE n Bombus pascuorum

Final instar Hawthorn shieldbugs

25 Thursday Aug 2022

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My walk of the fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park hadn’t turned up any migrating birds so I was having a poke around some trees before heading home when I found these two huddling together amongst the leaves. They’re Hawthorn shieldbug nymphs (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale) in their fifth and final form (instar) before they become adults. (You can see the various instars on the superb British Bugs website.)

220825 hawthorn shieldbugs final instar