Tag Archives: British bugs

Bug: Stictopleurus species

24 Monday Aug 2026

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There’s one more bug I’ve spotted while out surveying all the Common fleabane flowers in my local vicinity that I want to talk about here. I didn’t include it in the more general bugs blog, On Common Fleabane: bugs and crickets, as I was hoping to get confirmation of its exact identity. It seems now that’s unlikely to happen and I will shortly explain why. But first, let me introduce Stictopleurus, of which I found both an adult (first photo) and a nymph (second photo).

There are only two Stictopleurus species in Britain, S. punctatonervosus and S. abutilon, but, like so many creatures, the two are not easy to distinguish one from the other. The British Bugs website explains:

The two species are very similar and best separated with reference to the fine detail of the pronotum. In S. abutilon, the dark marks behind the anterior margin take the form of two full circles (half circles in S. punctatonervosus). There is also a narrow impunctate band in front of these markings. Note that these characters are not always easy to discern [my emphasis].

That sounds relatively easy, right? The website pages for the two species even have sketches of those magic circles. But that last sentence is crucial: ‘these characters are not always easy to discern’. I fiddled with my clearest photo in Photoshop to try to see those full or half circles more clearly, and I think I see half circles (so Stictopleurus punctatonervosus). What do you think?

On Common fleabane: bugs and crickets

21 Friday Aug 2026

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The subjects of today’s blog about those insects managing to survive this over-heated summer by feeding on Drought-tolerant Common fleabane are bugs, and two examples of one cricket species, because I managed to find both male and female. Let’s begin with bugs …

Two Lucerne bugs (Adelphocoris lineolatus), pretty little things but both trying to hide from me.

I actually saw quite a few Common froghoppers (Philaenus spumarius), and in several of their wonderful variety of brown-and-cream pattern variations.

Clad in its brown armour-like skin and looking ready for a fight, a Dock bug (Coreus marginatus).

An adult Hairy shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum). (I’ve found quite a lot of nymphs of this species recently and feel they deserve their own blog – you’ll see why soon.)

And now for the crickets. These are Long-winged cone-heads (Conocephalus fuscus), a type of bush-cricket. I’ve just realised that this species has only featured on this blog once before, in July 2020, when I included a photo of a nymph in the post 202/366 More misc minis. The first photo shows a female, though, unfortunately, her impressive ovipositor is mostly obscured; the second image is the male, with a much smaller appendage.

Bugs like buses

12 Wednesday Aug 2026

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It seems that bugs are a bit like buses – you look for ages and only find two, then they all appear at once.

On Monday I caught the train to north Cardiff on a mission to find something special (more on that tomorrow) but, before looking for that creature, detoured through Heath Park. The woodland there is usually quite damp, even in the middle of summer, but neither a drop of water nor a squelch of mud remained.

The only water I could find was in Nant-y-Wedal, a narrow stinking stream that runs across one of the fields (I’m not sure what causes the smell, but there are permanent hazard notices warning of bacteria).

If you can ignore the noxious smell, the wildflowers and trees growing along the stream are always worth a look I’ve found, and so it was on Monday. Some leaf-turning and fossicking amongst the Alders was especially rewarding.

Not only did I find two Red-legged shieldbugs and a Hawthorn shieldbug, but there were several Parent bugs, a couple sitting on their own, plus three guarding their eggs, and what I think are tiny first instars, just in the process of hatching (not sure where their parent had gone). This is obviously the perfect time to see them as I also saw more on the Alders around Roath Park Lake, my subsequent destination.

Only two bugs

10 Monday Aug 2026

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One of the highlights of last year’s many hours spent staring at vegetation and leaf-fossicking was the number of bugs and beetles I found, many of them new sightings for me. You may have noticed that this year my blog posts have hardly included any insects, which is because I’m just not seeing many. To give you an example, this past weekend I spent about four hours, totally focused on looking for bugs and beetles. The two shieldbugs shown here are all I found, the Parent bug (Elasmucha grisea) on Saturday, the Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) yesterday.

As with so many other things, I’m beginning to think this is due to our over-heated summer. It may be that some insects are unable to survive the heat, or perhaps the plants they rely on for food are either not providing their usual levels of nourishment or have died in the dry conditions. It’s also possible that those insects that have survived the heat and drought are being heavily predated by hungry birds, and other predators, that are struggling to find enough sustenance. Living in Wales I never thought I’d be saying this (and I hope I’m not jinxing the coming winter’s weather) but we really need rain!

Cymus glandicolor nymphs

13 Monday Jul 2026

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Back in May 2024 I wrote about my difficulties in identifying a New bug: Cymus glandicolor.

In the intervening two years, I’ve rechecked the seed heads of other Pendulous sedge plants, and the same plant on which I first found this bug, many times but have never seen other populations or, indeed, any single specimens of this ground bug, until a week or so ago.

On the same plant where I first spotted them, I located lots of these Cymus glandicolor nymphs. As they are about the same size as the sedge seeds and a very similar colour, they are almost inconspicuous but, after I’d noticed the first one, I soon realised they were quite numerous, just difficult to pick out.

While handling the seed heads, one of the little nymphs climbed on to my hand, giving me the opportunity for an even closer look at it. At about 3mm in length, they really are quite tiny, and easily overlooked, which is presumably why there are not a lot of records of this species on iRecord, though the British Bugs website states they are widespread in England and Wales.

Bug: Liorhyssus hyalinus

09 Thursday Jul 2026

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This is one bug I didn’t find by fossicking amongst or staring at leaves; it came to me, appearing one recent afternoon on the inside of my living room window. I only managed a couple of photos before it was off again, expertly flying through the gap of the tilted window, something most creatures don’t manage to do. This is Liorhyssus hyalinus, a new bug for me and one that is not often recorded. The British Bugs website explains:

Historically regarded as a rare vagrant to Britain, but has appeared much more frequently since the 1990s and become established in some areas, with a recent history of records from the coast of south Wales [my location], where the bug seems to be resident.

Though my photo isn’t great (and, yes, the outside of the window is dirty – the windows get cleaned every couple of months but living next to the sea and a woodland means they don’t stay clean for long), the markings on this bug were distinctive enough for me to identify it fairly quickly (and my record has now been verified). If you want to learn more about Liorhyssus hyalinus, you can read the entry – and see better images – on the British Bugs website.

Lifer: Box bug

27 Monday Apr 2026

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Sunday week ago, as I was meandering my way around the outskirts of my town, I found an area of shrubs that was warmed by the bright sun and also sheltered from the seemingly relentless cool easterly wind. Not surprisingly, it was alive with insects enjoying the warmth, and this little creature was one of those.

At first, I thought it was a Dock bug but, on closer examination, I realised it looked similar but with some significant differences: its body was slimmer than a Dock bug’s; its legs were smooth and pale; and, most tellingly, its ‘shoulders’ were angular and pointy. This was my first ever Box bug (Gonocerus acuteangulatus – note the epithet ‘acute angle’ that references those ‘pointy shoulders’), a rare find in Wales, where fewer than ten have so far been recorded.

I wondered about the reason for this bug’s rarity and found the answer on the British Bugs website:

Historically very rare and known only from Box Hill in Surrey, where it was found on Box trees, this bug has expanded its range dramatically during the last decade and now occurs as far north as Yorkshire and as far west as Devon. This range expansion has been aided by a shift onto numerous other foodplants, and it is now most frequently found on hawthorn and buckthorn.

Bug: Harpocera thoracica

22 Wednesday Apr 2026

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My local park railings have produced the goods yet again, this time in the form of three nymphs of the same bug, Harpocera thoracica. I found that a little surprising but a bug expert on social media pointed out that these nymphs can usually be found just as the leaves of Oak trees are uncurling, and the tiny nymphs are so light they get blown out of the trees by strong winds.

There are Oak trees growing next to my park railings, and the day before I found these, it had been blowing a hoolie, so the scenario fitted perfectly. And the nymphs are tiny; that’s one of my fingers in the shot below. I was trying to stop the little creature scurrying over the edge of the railing before I got a picture.

I’ve only seen an adult Harpocera thoracica once. I included a photo of it in a blog a few years ago (Gone insecting, June 2021), but I thought I’d include that photo again here. As you can see, they look totally different to the nymphs. And now I’m motivated to spend some time leaf-fossicking in local Oak trees to see if I can find any more.

Turtle bug

23 Monday Mar 2026

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I found this little bug dead when I was picking up small rotting logs to see what might be lurking beneath, in a meander around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park three weeks ago. I thought it was a Tortoise bug (Eurygaster testudinaria) and recorded it as such but my identification has since been corrected.

Turns out I had confused Turtle with Tortoise! This is, in fact, a species of shieldbug, a Turtle bug (Podops inuncta). Though I don’t think it’s clear in my photos, this species has ‘two small projections on the pronotum at each side of the head’ (thank you, Nature Spot).

The habitat in which I found it also fits with what the Nature Spot website says: ‘it is strongly ground-dwelling and rarely found unless searched for’; that explains why I’ve never seen one before, and encourages me to keep lifting up those small rotting logs.

Bug: Capsus ater

11 Wednesday Feb 2026

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This is another of my new bug finds from last year, found while leaf-turning wildflowers and scrub along a path in a wild area of a local park. Meet Capsus ater, from the Miridae family of British plant bugs.

I found this little fellow in early June, when the adults first appear; they can be seen from June right through till September. I was lucky to spot it higher up in the vegetation as they usually feed low down on plant stems, according to the British Bugs website.