JJ's vocabulary gets a little groovy...

People keep telling me (well, at least one did) that I should drag myself into the 21st century, and start making my blog updates more inclusive by using, for example, more 'text speak', or 'textese' as us techies call it! You know the kind of thing - SMS shorthand. 

I have to say my personal view would tend to lean towards being more of a prescriptivist, than descriptivist, but bugger it! I'm willing to give it a go...

So then, B4 we take  'deep dive' into nature, which will be GR8 BTW; I am BAK and it will be BAU. I've even got a BG at the thought of what I can share with you. Hopefully it'll encourage you to CAS too, unless you CBA? 

Anyhow, enough of this because FICCL and I know you're MFI, so let's get started proper...

It's been a bit grey lately, hasn't it...

A Gatekeeper Butterfly


I found this fly t'other day; it seems to have its hairy butt hanging out of its stripy pants? I am going to say tentatively that this is 'Eriothrix rufomaculata', but there are other very similar species to consider. 'Aphria longirostris' to name but one.

Lots of Green Shieldbug nymphs around right now...

I think we have some pretty cool insects here in the UK, and there are some extraordinary looking harvestman. This one is 'Dicranopalpus ramosus' and I photographed it in my local woods...

And then there's 'Megabunus diadema'. This photo is actually just a screenshot from a blog post in 2014, so not much detail; again, the original photograph was taken in my local woods...

But what about this next, tropical species. Photographed by the wonderful (and sadly now deceased) Andreas Kay: this is the Bunny Harvestman...

More nymphs now: these are all Dock Bug instars (Coreus marginatus)...

How about a Froghopper next?

NO! Not a frog hopping! A Froghopper...

'Philaenus spumarius' The Common Froghopper. Sometimes also called the Meadow Froghopper, or Meadow Spittlebug. Now here's a thing: the genus name can be translated as 'foam lover'. The larvae are well known for the self-generated foam nests which can be observed during spring in meadows (especially on cuckoo flowers, hence most folk I guess know them as cuckoo-spit.

If you aren't familiar with the term 'Exuvia', here's a pictorial example...

It's a bit like the ghost of a hopper? But actually, an exuvia (plural exuviae) is the cast-off outer 'skin' of an arthropod after a moult.

A very cool ladybird larva? Certainly...

A 22-Spot Ladybird larva

Not to be confused with a Ladybird pupa; which looks like this...

What about a skipper next...

CMIIW but IDTS, NT, but you know that's NWIM?

THIS is what I meant...

One last photo then; I think this is probably 'Apion frumentarium' the Red Rumix Weevil. They are quite small and can be found on dock or sheep sorrel.

SMS GLOSSARY:

B4  Before

GR8  Great

BAK  Back at keyboard

BAU  Business as usual

BG  Big grin

CBA  Can't be arsed

FICCL  Frankly I couldn't care less

MFI  Mad for it

CMIIW  Correct me if I'm wrong

IDTS  I don't think so

NT  Nice try

NWIM  Not what I meant