On Common fleabane: bugs and crickets

21 Friday Aug 2026

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Adelphocoris lineolatus, British bugs, British crickets, Common fleabane, Common froghopper, Conocephalus fuscus, Coreus marginatus, Dock bug, Dolycoris baccarum, Hairy shieldbug, insects on Common fleabane, Long winged cone-head, Lucerne bug, philaenus spumarius

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.

202/366 More misc minis

20 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Tags

bonking neetles, British butterflies, British crickets, British grasshoppers, Common red soldier beetle, Green-veined white, Long winged cone-head, Meadow grasshopper, Nettle weevil, Small copper, weevil

Some snippets from the insect world around me:

200720 common red soldier beetles

A sure sign that it’s now high summer, Common red soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) can be seen everywhere, especially on the flowers of umbellifers, demonstrating why they are often called bonking beetles.

Also caught copulating, these Green-veined white butterflies (Pieris napi) were being annoyed by a third of their kind, trying to get involved in the action.

200720 small copper

On the subject of butterflies, the second brood of Small coppers (Lycaena phlaeas) is now on the wing. This stunning specimen was only the second Small copper I’d seen this year, so was a very welcome sighting.

200720 nettle weevil