23 Wednesday Nov 2022
This is my favourite time of year for leaf turning, not only because it’s the best time of year to search for leafmines but also because you never know what you might find lurking beneath. In this instance, a rosy red Parent bug (Elasmucha grisea), which overwinters as an adult bug, was hiding away beneath the leaves in a well-vegetated spot.
01 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
I cannot tell a lie – I didn’t find this bug, it found me. As I was wandering around a local field, I glimpsed something flit up from the flowers and looked down to find it sitting on my t-shirt. Very obligingly, it waited until I got my camera out of my pocket and was then persuaded to climb on to my hand for some photos. Meet Stenodema laevigata, another of the Miridae family of plant bugs. This species is much more common and widespread, with over 3000 records currently showing on the NBN Atlas webpage, or perhaps it’s more often recorded because its slim shape and singular markings make it easier to identify.
30 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in insects
At last a bug with a common name – Adelphocoris lineolatus is also known as the Lucerne bug, though it actually favours quite a wide variety of food plants and, as you can see, I found it sitting on Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica). This species is a little trickier to identify but its combination of paired lines and double spots helped me nail it down. As with yesterday’s mirid bug, records for this species are scattered and mostly to be found in southern Britain, though some adventurous individuals have been recorded in Scotland. (I have not identified the smaller bug in this picture – my photo didn’t show enough details and I suspect it might have fallen into the ‘too hard’ basket anyway.)
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in insects, wildflowers
High summer is prime time for spotting plant bugs. By keeping an eye out for insects on wildflowers, I’ve managed to spot three new (to me) species in the past week alone. This is one of them: a mirid bug with a mouthful of a name, Oncotylus viridiflavus. A lot of these bugs have very similar markings and can be tricky to tell apart but, luckily, this little guy has quite distinct colouration and patterning and, very helpfully, was sitting right where it should be, on top of its food plant, Knapweed. The records for this species are scattered throughout the southern half of Britain but there are a lot of gaps in the map – perhaps you can be the first to find one in your area.
21 Tuesday Jun 2022
It’s National Insect Week here in Britain so I thought I’d share a new bug I found while checking out life on the leaves of Oak trees. And if you think today’s bug looks a bit like last week’s bug, Leptopterna dolabrata, you’d be absolutely right. Meet Cyllecoris histrionius, another member of the Miridae family. This bug species overwinters as an egg, the larvae hatch in the Spring, then the adults are active from May to July. Oak leaves are their usual habitat; there they can be found munching away on aphids and other tiny insects.
15 Wednesday Jun 2022
Posted in insects
The Miridae family of plant / leaf / grass bugs is huge, with thousands of species worldwide. This one, Leptopterna dolabrata, is a species I often see in the local meadows at this time of year and, during a recent walk, I found a little colony of them, with several adult males and females, mating adults, and nymphs that I have tentatively identified from looking at their colouring as male and female, though I may be wrong about those. So, the photos below are, I think, female nymph (left) and adult (right), male nymph (left) and adult (right), and, most obviously, a male and female mating.
13 Friday May 2022
Posted in insects
“‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. What’s goin’ on ‘ere then?” I said to myself.
“We were out all evening flying about. Give us a break! We need some shut-eye,” squeaked the May bug, the Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha), trying to hide its eyes from the glare. I took a few pics, then carefully replaced the leaves so they could continue their snooze.
10 Tuesday May 2022
Posted in insects
During a recent meander around Cosmeston’s fields, I found a new bug – or, more precisely, a new bug found me. I had been poking around the leaves of a mixed bag of bushes, during which time it must have flitted from a leaf to my sleeve. Meet Tachycixius pilosus, a very handsome member of the Cixiidae family, which can be found on deciduous trees and shrubs between May and July.
16 Wednesday Mar 2022
Tags
British bugs, Common Green Shieldbug, Coreus marginatus, Dock bug, Dolycoris baccarum, Hairy shieldbug, Palomena prasina
The shallow bowl shape of the leaves of Winter heliotrope were perfect for the bugs enjoying Monday’s warm spring sunshine. In one small sheltered area I found several Common green shieldbugs (Palomena prasina) . . .
two Hairy shieldbugs (Dolycoris baccarum) . . .
and two Dock bugs (Coreus marginatus).
18 Tuesday Jan 2022
Here’s another recent surprise find, a Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) covered in early morning dewdrops. Obviously, it’s not green: these bugs overwinter as adults, changing their colouring from green to dark brown before the winter weather really sets in, usually around November. The British bugs website says these shieldbugs usually hibernate – perhaps this little beastie was caught out by the previously milder-than-usual temperatures.
earthstar 
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