23 Wednesday Sep 2020
When I got home from today’s walk, I discovered I had a hitchhiker, tucked up snugly in the hood of my jacket. I presume this Hawthorn shieldbug got brushed off its bush and on to me as I pushed through the snagging branches of some young Hawthorns earlier in the day. After a couple of quick photos, I placed it on the window ledge and off it flew in search of the nearest Hawthorn.
17 Thursday Sep 2020
Posted in insects, wildflowers
Tags
British butterflies, British hoverflies, British insects, butterflies, Devil's-bit scabious, hoverflies, insects on scabious
One of the side benefits of searching the scabious for rare bees (see yesterday’s piece, Searching the scabious, 1) is that my search also revealed how many other insects were enjoying the essential late summer-early autumn food supply provided by the beautiful wildflower, Devil’s-bit scabious. Amongst them were these five butterflies and a moth: Large white, Red admiral, Small copper, Small tortoiseshell, Small white and a Silver Y.
And also these five hoverflies: Eristalis intricarius, Helophilus trivittatus, Sericomyia silentis, Volucella pellucens and Volucella zonaria.
13 Sunday Sep 2020
Tags
British butterflies, British insects, Common ragwort, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, importance of ragwort as food plant, insects on ragwort, Ragwort
My title says ‘inspection’ but I was tempted to invent a new word and write ‘insection’, as my inspection was really a personal challenge to see how many different insects I could find on the copious number of Common ragwort plants currently in bloom at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. All except three of these photos were taken during one 45-minute period on Wednesday – the Small copper and two flies were seen the following day. The broad diversity of species just shows how important Ragwort is as a late summer food plant for insects.
05 Saturday Sep 2020
Tags
beetles, British insects, Brown-tail moth caterpillars, Brown-tail moth webs, Buff-tailed bumblebee, Emperor dragonfly, Knopper gall
Actually, it rained before my walk, during my walk and after I got home, but ‘Small creatures between showers’ was a bit long for a title. Here, then, are the said creatures …
First up, these beetles were cosying up in an umbellifer flower head. I couldn’t see enough to identify them and wasn’t going to disturb their comfort to find out more.
This is a web of Brown-tail moth larvae, the ones some people freak out about because their hairs can irritate the skin. The solution to that problem is, of course, easy: look, enjoy, wonder, admire, but don’t touch!
There weren’t many flying critters about but bumblebees will fly whatever the weather, as shown by this gorgeous queen Buff-tailed bumble.
Perhaps the littlest creature, though I didn’t look in to investigate, was the one that was lurking in this Knopper gall (spot the antennae!).
And, the prize for the most magnificent, was this male Emperor dragonfly. I had to linger a while, waiting for him to settle, and then sneak up behind the bushes, but His Imperial Majesty was definitely worth the wait. What a handsome creature he is, despite his somewhat ragged wings.
25 Tuesday Aug 2020
Posted in autumn, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
British galls, British insects, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, galls on wild carrot, Kiefferia pericarpiicola, midge gall, Wild carrot
I was looking around at the various wildflowers yesterday at Cosmeston, seeing what insects might be about, when I noticed these odd growths on some of the Wild carrot flower heads. I split one open with my finger nail and a miniscule orange blob fell out; turns out that was the larva of a midge with the long-winded name of Kiefferia pericarpiicola.
The galls start off green (below left), before turning pinkish and eventually brown. According to the Nature Spot website, these galls can be seen from late summer through to autumn, after which the larvae will leave the gall and drop down to the soil to pupate. The midge only occurs in southern parts of Britain at the moment – and I only found two previous records in the Welsh biodiversity database – but perhaps that will change as our climate continues to warm and the midge flies further afield. It’s also possible, of course, that this insect is under-recorded – it seems the midge itself is almost never seen, only its gall creations.
23 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
British butterflies, British insects, British wildflowers, Common fleabane, fleabane, insects on fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica
The local fields are ablaze with Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica), which the Plantlife website says has a
‘curious scent, with hints of carbolic soap and chrysanthemum, [which] is an insect repellent. In the past it was kept in houses specifically for the purpose of driving away fleas. Bunches were dried and burned as a fumigant or hung in rooms.’
Well, it may be the bane of fleas and it may act as an insect repellent when it’s been dried but, from what I can see, when it’s alive and fresh, most insects love it!
As well as that Speckled bush-cricket, I’ve found 9 species of butterfly and 1 moth nectaring on Fleabane flowers.
And then there are the hoverflies and assorted other flies, bees and bumbles. It’s more like a magnet than a repellent.
11 Tuesday Aug 2020
Posted in insects, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
Arctium minus, Banded burdock fly, British insects, Common Green Shieldbug, Lesser burdock, Palomena prasina, Terellia tussilaginis
Lesser burdock (Arctium minus) seems to be having a good year as I’ve been finding lots of vigorous, flowering plants during my local walks, and they’re home to some interesting mini-beasties. One I always look for is the Banded burdock fly (Terellia tussilaginis), and it also seems to be thriving locally.
And, on one particular clump of burdock, I found a bounty of Common green shieldbugs (Palomena prasina), as I’ve done before (see my previous post Keeping it in the family, from September 2017). Once again, these were a mix of juvenile stages, 3rd and 4th instars, I think.
Of course, there are lots of other mini-beasties that also find Burdock flower nectar delicious – these two bees are just a couple of examples. What beasties have you seen on Burdock?
08 Wednesday Jul 2020
Posted in insects, nature, plants, wildflowers
Many people would consider the thistle – any thistle, all thistles – to be a weed but one look at these photos will show just what a diverse range of insects find the humble thistle an essential source of food. From flies and hoverflies, bees and wasps, to beetles and butterflies, the Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a favourite of them all. And when the flowers are finished, it will be the turn of the birds to find nourishment in the thistle seeds. What an amazing wildflower this is!
04 Saturday Jul 2020
Tags
British insects, Common Green Shieldbug, Grypocoris stysi, harlequin ladybird, Ichneumonid wasp, Orange ladybird
These are a few recent insect that have caught my eye …
First up, the 4th instar of a Common green shieldbug that was walking along the outside of a building as I passed. These mini-beasties go through five different instars (stages) before becoming adults. For more see A (shield)bug’s life, September 2016.
A flower bug that loves umbellifers, Grypocoris stysi. You can read more about him/her in my previous blog, Get a Gryp-o!, July 2016.
I found this Orange ladybird browsing on leaves covered with a white mould, their favourite food. See more on these little cuties in A Blast of Orange, July 2017.
I’ve been spotting a lot of Ichneumonid wasps this year. Most are quite difficult to identify, as you need to photograph them from several different angles to capture all the identifying features and I find they don’t usually stay still long enough.
And, last for today, what I think is a Harlequin ladybird, judging from the patterns on the now-empty pupa case. When newly emerged, ladybirds are often pale coloured and dot-less – the colours darken and the spots emerge in their first few hours as adults.
27 Wednesday May 2020
Tags
British insects, Cardinal beetle, Eristalis nemorum, hoverfly, Nettle weevil, Swollen-thighed beetle, weevil
When you’re bright red, it’s hard to hide in the grass but it was still a nice surprise to spot this lovely Cardinal beetle, and it didn’t seem to mind me picking it up for a closer look.
I was looking for the pupa cases of moths on a Wych elm when I spotted this weevil. It looked to me like a Nettle weevil, so it was a bit of a surprise to find it up in a tree.
Speaking of weevils … As my eyesight is not very good, I sometimes don’t notice very small creatures, and this is a case in point. I had spotted the hoverfly, Eristalis nemorum, so took a few photos of that and didn’t spot the teeny weeny weevil until I looked at the photos on my laptop when I got home.
And the same is also true of the smaller bug in this wild rose. I saw the Swollen-thighed beetle, on the right, but not the other creature, until later. I love these little surprises from Mother Nature.
