Interesting insects

 

During a light shower of rain a few days ago I found this cinnabar moth sheltering on a ragwort stem.

Ragwort is the food plant for its caterpillars so the moth may have been laying eggs. I will keep an eye on the plant to see if the caterpillars arrive.

This female stag beetle may have been about to lay eggs too. She was just near to a rotting tree stump which would be just the place for her to deposit a clutch.

A new beetle for me! The violet ground beetle or rain beetle, carabus violaceus.

Both adult and larva feed on slugs and vine weevils so they are very welcome to stay in my garden.

Wildlife in June

There was a surprise for me when I looked in the pond this week.

A newt was sitting on the pond weeds and was in no hurry to go anywhere.

After a few photos I managed to identify it as a palmate newt by the orange stripe which extended along its back.

Then I came across an unusual looking longhorn beetle sitting on a calla lily flower.

It is a spotted longhorn beetle, rutpela maculata. The adults feed on pollen. There was plenty of that on the lily.

And my third surprise was this spectacular moth larva which was feeding on one of my garden mulleins. 

That's a good clue - it's the caterpillar of the mullein moth, most commonly found on the wild mullein plant.

More visitors

The pond was a popular place on this very hot day. There were several of the blue damsels I first saw yesterday, but today at least one pair had formed and egg-laying was taking place. I now know that they are, in fact, azure damselflies, not common blues. A much bigger visitor was a female broad-bodied chaser. She was also occupied laying eggs and never settled. I managed to get a picture of her in flight.
























Another unusual insect caught my attention this afternoon. This is a wasp beetle, clytus arietis. Their larvae live in rotting wood  and the adults eat pollen. They look scary but are completely harmless. They mimic wasps as a way of deterring predators.

Around the Pond

There were a lot of visitors at the pond today. Several large red damselflies had mated and were laying eggs. A few blue damselflies had arrived too - my first of the year.  None of them seemed to be paired yet. One of them is pictured below.

But the biggest surprise was this!

A grass snake had caught itself in the netting and I had to cut it free. It slithered off gratefully into the shrubs around the pond.

First Damsel

I have been off the blog for a while settling in to my new home and garden but I'm ready to get back in business now! The sight of my first damselfly of the year set me going.

So here it is. A large red damselfly on April 13th! That seems really early this year. It must be down to the mild winter we had - lots of rain but not much frost here. My pond never froze over.

We seem to be in for a good spring for butterflies and other insects so I'll be trying to get some good pictures.

Not just another white

One of the visitors to the nectar bar yesterday was this green veined white.

Bluebells seemed to be the target of most of its attentions but it stopped for a long drink at this geranium flower.

It was special for me because it's the first time I've seen one of these butterflies and it posed nicely for a picture!

Peacock and tortoise

But both are insects!

The onset of some real spring weather has brought the hibernating butterflies out. I've seen plenty of brimstones and a comma or two but this peacock cooperated by staying still for a while.

This little creature is a beetle classified as nationally scarce - Pilemostoma fastuosa. 

It is known as a tortoise beetle because its head is hidden beneath the shell of its thorax. These small beetles (about 4mm) live on chalk downland but they overwinter in woodland. My specimen seems to have stopped over here on its journey between the two. It has just a mile to fly to get to the nearby chalk downs.