Category Archives: insects

Two lacewings

04 Thursday Sep 2025

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This is one of those posts where I need to add a cautionary note at the beginning: the species of these lacewings have not yet been verified. In fact, I don’t think any of my lacewing records have ever been verified, which likely means that there is no lacewing expert able to volunteer their time for this task (I must add that I am full of praise for those experts that do volunteer their time as local or national recorders/verifiers) and also that it may not be possible to definitively identify these creatures without microscopic examination. Still, they are beautiful, and I felt them worth sharing.

So, after looking closely at the markings on their wings and checking they were in habitats where they might be expected to live, I think these are both Hemerobiidae (Brown lacewing) species, and I have tentatively labelled the lacewing pictured above as Hemerobius micans. The Naturespot entry for this species states that it ‘has wings which are quite yellow in colour and which have dark dashes on some longitudinal veins, not dots as in some similar species’ and is found ‘with deciduous trees, especially mature oaks’, which is consistent with my findings for this specimen.

I am even more wary of naming this second lacewing but I wonder if it might be Hemerobius humulinus. After once again consulting the Naturespot website, I found one particular image which shows the wing venation and this appears consistent with what I can see in my photograph. Both these species were found in deciduous woodland, which also fits the species description.

Nb. I did find a Lacewings and Allies Recording Scheme website but it has thus far been populated with very little information; there is a link to a winter 2024 newsletter but many of the pages are relatively empty.

Closterotomus cousins

03 Wednesday Sep 2025

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This is a tale of two Closterotomuses – Closterotomi?

The first is Closterotomus norwegicus, also known as the Potato capsid, though I’m not sure why it has that common name. The British Bugs website says it ‘feeds on a wide range of plants, especially nettles, composites and clovers’, with no mention of potatoes. It’s a handsome little bug and quite common, though can be confused with other similar mirid bugs – the British Bugs page lists some of the distinguishing features to look out for.

This second Closterotomus species is C. fulvomaculatus – no common name that I’m aware of. It can be seen between June and August, so we’re right at the end of its date range now but there may still be time to spot it on scrub and in hedgerows where it feeds on nettles and meadowsweet. Apparently, it’s also quite partial to hops, but we don’t have those in my local area. It looks like just another brown bug until you look more closely and notice the lovely golden hairs that cover its upper body.

A good year for Jersey tigers

30 Saturday Aug 2025

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In the summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020 one of the local nature reserves near me held what seemed like a healthy population of Jersey tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria), then they vanished. I don’t know why this was but several people have looked for them at the reserve in the intervening years and, though the occasional single moth has been sighted, the healthy population is no more. Away from that reserve, I would struggle to see any Jersey tigers, and saw none at all in 2021 and 2022.

So, this year, it has been an absolute delight for me to have enjoyed many, seemingly random sightings of these beautiful moths. By random, I mean that there haven’t been any large numbers concentrated in any specific location or area; instead, either I’ve spotted them lurking on trees and bushes, or my passing has disturbed them, there’s been a flash of their vibrant orange underwings as they’ve fluttered out and I’ve seen them once they’ve resettled.

And it seems my experience of seeing greater numbers of Jersey tigers this year has not been unique. This is a species that is included in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, and, even before the count had ended, with 7 of the count’s 24 days remaining, that organisation had noted a ‘whopping 78%’ increase in reported Jersey tigers this year compared to last year. Butterfly Conservation’s blog post speculates that the dramatic increase was due to this summer’s record-breaking high temperatures.

As Dr Richard Fox, BC’s Head of Science is quoted as saying

The increase we’re seeing in Jersey Tiger moth sightings is a striking example of how climate change is reshaping the distribution of wildlife.
While it’s a delight to spot such a vibrant moth in gardens, parks and green spaces, it’s also a reminder of how rising temperatures are altering our natural environment.

Emerald damsels

27 Wednesday Aug 2025

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This is the final blog in my short series about the dragonflies I saw during last week’s rail journey up the south Welsh valleys to Maesteg. Today’s subject is the Emerald damselfly (Lestes sponsa), a species I’ve seen only twice before, in August 2017 and in September 2021. I’ve looked for them a couple of times at the 2021 location, Parc Penallta, but the small ponds there quickly dry out in hot summers and dog walkers allow their charges to splash about in them, displacing more water and polluting the water with the dogs’ chemical flea treatments. These are probably some of the reasons why the population of this damselfly species has been in steady decline since the 1990s.

Emeralds are relatively large for damselflies and rest with their wings outspread, hence their European common name, Common spreadwing. Their bodies are metallic green, though the colours of some parts of their abdomens vary depending on whether they are male or female, immature or aging. Emeralds favour shallow standing waters, like bog pools and ponds, especially when these are surrounded by tall grasses, rushes and sedges.

Keeled skimmers

26 Tuesday Aug 2025

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Here’s another of the stunning dragons I saw at the ponds in Maesteg last week. And this is another species I’d only seen once before, back in 2017 on a birding day out to the Lliw Reservoirs north of Swansea.

These gorgeous dragonflies are Keeled skimmers (Orthetrum coerulescens), also known in Europe as Heathland skimmers, which gives a very clear indication of their preference for the acidic conditions of heathland waterways and the drains and ponds of peat bogs. The Maesteg ponds provide the perfect habitat for them, except perhaps for the locals who allow their dogs to swim there.

These beauties were quite easy to find when I wandered around the ponds as, according to my guide book, the males hold quite small territories, with a favourite perch from which they flit out to see off any intruders. So, once I found their perches, I was able to stand a little way off to watch their flights and grab photos once they settled again.

I only saw male Keeled skimmers during this visit to the ponds, so I’ve yet to see one of golden yellow females. These dragonflies are usually active from mid June to mid August so I may have missed seeing the females this year but I will certainly be visiting this location again next year.

Leafmines: Stigmella lemniscella

25 Monday Aug 2025

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I discovered today’s new leafmines the same day as I found last week’s (Leafmines: Stigmella viscerella) and, considering how much time I spend leaf-fossicking and simply staring at trees, was also amazed I’d not noticed these very distinctive mines before.

The larvae of the moth Stigmella lemniscella munch away within the leaves of Elm trees (Ulmus species), in this case Wych elms (Ulmus glabra), and their galleries often follow the edge of the leaves, looking like a zigzag pattern. These moths are bivoltine so are active during July, and again in September – October. The adult moth is a pretty little thing – there’s a photo on the UK Moths website, which has the common name of Beautiful elm dot.

Black darter

23 Saturday Aug 2025

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Before Thursday’s trip to Maesteg, I’d only ever seen a Black darter (Sympetrum danae) once before, and that was a fluke sighting at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park back in 2017. I say fluke because, like yesterday’s Common hawker, the Black darter is a dragonfly that prefers the acidic conditions of peat bogs, moorland ponds and ditches. How one got to Cosmeston I have no idea.

I was lucky to find several male Black darters at Maesteg ponds and, as you can see, they really are almost entirely black, with just a few yellow markings on the sides of their thorax and abdomen, and on top of their lower abdomen.

I was also extremely lucky to find a single female, basking on a patch of grass. As the photo below shows, she looks very different from the male, with much more yellow than black. At around 30mm long, both of these darters are quite small, about 10mm smaller than the Common darters that most of us are very familiar with. Now that I know about this location, I’ll be back to visit them again next year.

Lifer: Common hawker

22 Friday Aug 2025

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Yesterday I took myself off on a little adventure, on an hour’s train journey from Cardiff to Maesteg, high up in the south Welsh valleys, a place I’d not been before. I decided to go after seeing a post on social media about some ponds in a Maesteg park that held dragonflies that thrive in acidic heathlands and bogs so these are not species I see in my coastal location.

Despite a favourable weather forecast, when I first arrived it was mostly overcast and there was a cool wind blowing – not ideal conditions for seeing dragonflies. Remaining hopeful, I thought I’d use the time until the clouds cleared to explore and try to find dragonflies that might be perched around the area.

Almost immediately I heard the tell-tale rustle of dragonfly wings and saw movement amongst the reeds in the nearest pond. Dragon! And not just any dragon – this was a female Common hawker (Aeshna juncea), and she was moving slowly around the ponds, stopping here and there to lay her eggs amongst the vegetation. She was my first ever Common hawker, so I was over the moon to have found her so quickly and easily.

Later, when the sun did come out and the dragonfly action got a bit frantic, I saw another large dragonfly cruising back and forth over the ponds. I think it was a male Common hawker but he wasn’t stopping for photos, and soon disappeared. Having enjoyed such excellent views of the female, I wasn’t too disappointed about missing him, and I saw several other dragon and damsel species, which I will feature in forthcoming blogs.

Leafhopper: Graphocephala fennahi

21 Thursday Aug 2025

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What a stunning leafhopper this is, don’t you think?

This is the Rhododendron leafhopper (Graphocephala fennahi), an immigrant from the USA. After being introduced to Europe in the early 1900s, it somehow made its way across the Channel to the UK (probably on plant matter, as the UK is exceedingly lax with its border controls), and can now be found throughout much of southern Britain.

The only colony I know of is in Cardiff’s Bute Park and, though I’ve looked for it since my interest in leafhoppers has been reignited, I’ve not managed to find it during the past few summers. I’m not sure why that is – the weather perhaps, though last week the day was occasionally overcast, with frequent drizzle, and I still saw them. The wrong time of year? I don’t think so as I had checked when I had seen them in the past and gone looking around the same time – the adults are active from around July through to the middle of autumn. Whatever the reasons for not having found them in the past, suffice to say I was very pleased to find them last week, and spent quite a bit of time watching their antics.

If you’re wondering about that last image, it appears the leafhopper has suffered some damage to its wing cases, which probably means it can’t fly but it certainly had no trouble leaping away when I got a little too close looking at the vibrant orange of its abdomen.

Three Ichneumon wasps

19 Tuesday Aug 2025

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Two things:
Firstly, my records of these three Ichneumon wasps have not yet been verified so, although I’m fairly confident of their identification, I’m not 100% certain.
And, secondly, I decided to write this blog after someone replied to one of my social media posts, saying – supposedly jokingly – that they had scurried away after seeing one of these creatures, a female with a prominent ‘stinger’ (the implication being that they were frightened of the wasp). So, just to be clear, these wasps will not harm humans; the ‘stinger’ is an ovipositor, for depositing eggs in to their hosts; and many Ichneumon wasps are large, colourful, and really quite beautiful creatures.

At 10-15mm, Ctenichneumon panzeri is a medium-sized Ichneumon that can often be found on umbellifer flowers, as you can see in my photo. As with all Ichneumon wasps, they are parasitoids; Ctenicheumon panzeri deposits its eggs in the larvae of moths of the Noctuidae family.

Heteropelma amictum is one of the larger (20-30mm) and more spectacular ichneumonids, with a long narrow body and equally long back legs, both of which are very prominent when it flies (my flight photo is blurry but I wanted to show you how it holds its body erect and dangles its legs below). Heteropelma amictum uses moth pupae, rather than larvae, as its larval hosts.

Ichneumon xanthorius is another medium-sized wasp, and one I see more often than other species, when it’s feeding on umbellifer flowers or perching on shrubs and bushes. Its larvae feed on the pupae of both moths and butterflies.

The British Natural History Museum has produced an excellent Beginner’s Guide to identifying British ichneumonids, which you can access and download by clicking on this link.