Often new, but seldom true...

There's an old proverb that goes something like this: The mature fruit is cooked in August and dished out in September.

Well I certainly feel like mature fruit, or even, slightly overripe! But it is true that this month sees nature's crops ripening. Just the other afternoon I was out walking on yet another day of high temperatures, and having forgotten to take a drink with me, was able to pick a few juicy blackberries. I noticed lots of brightly coloured berries on the rowan trees too...

Enough preamble, let's get on with this August update. In fact, how about beginning with a conundrum...

NO! That as you well know is  carborundum! I said...oh never mind; take a look at this photograph...

I found several of these 'things' attached to the buddleia in the garden one day. I have no idea as to what they might be. What I do know is that they all disappeared almost as soon after. Any ideas as to what they might be?

A clue to what comes next? Okay, how about this...

No, it's not Moeen Ali; although the clue would still have worked had it been him. How about this then...

Yes, I am talking about Gryllidae or Crickets to be common about it. I found two species of cricket inside the house recently; and neither were House Crickets, mainly because we don't have them here in the UK. Unless you have bought some dry roasted, to consume! 

Meconema thalassinum - a male Oak bush-cricket

Conocephalus discolor - A female Long-winged conehead cricket

As you can probably tell, I put them both outside to photograph. I assume that the oak bush-cricket being arboreal, was the reason I found it upstairs in the bathroom, with the conehead downstairs in the living room. 

I've probably mentioned this before, but for as long as I can remember I have had this mantra about bug hunting; it says that if I find just one interesting thing whilst I am out looking, no matter how long it takes, I consider it to have been a good day. 

And so when I spent a morning at a local nature reserve recently and came home with a lot of poor photos (my own fault) I wasn't phased. I had one superb find, and so even the frustration of spoiled images was not enough to damper my enthusiasm. Well, okay it might have just piddled on it a bit, but not enough to notice!

More of that in a moment; first this...

Elasmucha grisea - A Parent bug nymph

On a rare, rainy day, I went out in search of shieldbugs. It is something I rarely do, limit myself to one subject, because it is often doomed to failure. And so I wasn't really surprised when having been out and about for an hour or so, it began to rain again and at this point I had found nothing, zilch, nada, bugger all! 

So...I sheltered under a tree for a while, to escape the rain. What to do to pass the time until resumption of my bug hunt? I know, WhatsApp a friend. I hadn't been chatting long, when I got distracted by something crawling over my hand; would you believe it? Well would you? You might if I tell you that it was (assuming you are not ahead of me and have already guessed) a shieldbug nymph, of all things. Yes, a flippin' shieldbug nymph, after all that searching, one lands right on me! 

I'll spare you any further dialogue on the subject as this is already becoming quite verbose, save to say that it was the Parent bug nymph you see in the picture above. 

Yes M'am...because later that very same day, look what I went on to find...

Only a whole family of these lovely creatures. And what a family eh, what are there, 25 nymphs? These were in a different area to my first find and were on the underside of a birch leaf. 

Interestingly, an article I read by the Wildlife Trust, states that these are largely restricted to silver birch trees. My own experience differs from that though. I have found many of these, along with numbers of adult insects, and more often than not they have been on alder. True, birch is also used.

These bugs get their name from the habit of sitting on their eggs and babies to protect them from things like parasitic wasps.

 

An adult bug caring for its offspring

There are good and bad sides to the exciting find I mentioned earlier: good in that it is something that I have only ever witnessed twice before. Bad because I know that some of you wimps don't like spiders.

I'll ease you in gently with this phone photo that I took from a distance...

This is Argiope bruennichi, a species of Orb-weaver spider that has the common name of Wasp Spider. They are very large, probably the largest spider you will find in the UK, although they are not originally native.

This from BBC Earth:  In 1922 the first wasp spider  to be seen wild in England was found at Rye in East Sussex. These brightly coloured spiders are common in Continental Europe where they enjoy the warm weather they need to feed and lay their eggs.

Over the next few decades wasp spiders spread, becoming locally common in counties along the south coast of England where average temperatures are higher. More recently they’ve been recorded in inland areas, especially in south and southeast England, and some have even reached as far north as Shropshire and Derbyshire.

I rotated this photo for easier viewing

This is a female by the way; males are much smaller and brownish in colour. They are most likely dead too, eaten by the big female! 

 This shows the zigzag 'stabilimentum' on the orb web.

A wasp spider's web contains a band of thicker silk called a stabilimentum. This might act as a warning to birds not to fly into the nest which could destroy it. Or possibly as a lure for insects that are drawn to the ultra-violet light it reflects. It may even be a way of dumping excess silk – its exact purpose is still baffling scientists.

Meanwhile this special publication...

was upholding its usual standards by proclaiming...

"Exotic wasp spider that bites 

swarming across England"

The article eventually had this tidbit of useful information "They are a prickly, spiny spider so if you pick one up it can feel like you have been bitten. But they are harmless."

As somebody once said: "What appears in newspapers is often new, but seldom true."