In which I lose a screw...

I thought I would begin this latest update by sharing some of the smaller bugs I have found over the past few days.

Which reminds me, last week I crashed into the back of a car at the lights. This really short guy got out and was quite irate; he shouted "I'm not happy..."

I said, "Well which one are you then?"

Heigh ho, Heigh ho, it's off to blog we go...

This teeny spider is Araniella cucurbitina. Or is it? There is another very similar species called Araniella opisthorapha. The problem is that they are almost impossible to tell apart in the field; even worse, I didn't find this one in the field, it was in the garden! Let's settle for Araniella species shall we.

Then there was this amazingly Lilliputian, cuter than a Putto, weevil...

You can get an idea of just how small this was by looking at the thumbnail of....my thumbnail. S-M-A-L-L eh? So small was it, that I had to get the macro lens on it to even be sure it was a weevil. I doubt I will get to fully identify this one, although I am sure there will be somebody who can do so, I just doubt it will be me!

Back to spiders now 'cos I know how popular they are with you all 🤞🏻You can't beat a good spider is what I always say: well, you could with a length of willow I guess, but I don't advise it...

I mean, c'mon...even you cannot be frightened of this little bugger? That is the head of a screw behind it and be honest, it's dwarfing it. I found this Salticid (jumping spider) in the house, although I cannot for the life of me remember exactly where that screw is now; well, you've seen one screw, you've seen 'em all? 

I suspect it may be Evarcha species, but then, I suspected George Warleggan was a nice person. 

Enough of the minutia, although, I like to think they are important. Here's a short video I took on my phone in the garden. It features a solitary bee being seen off by a bumblebee.

The usual reminder that this video may not show in the email version of my blog, you will need to view the online version...

         

I know what you're thinking, these updates are so dour that time seems to slow right down? No, no, no, that was in slow-motion! Did you see the bumblebee waving its leg at the solitary bee to warn it off? 

Not the same one I hasten to add (I didn't really hasten, I took my time) but here is a different bumblebee, that was finding pollen aplenty on the Gaillardia flowers in the garden...

With all of this hot, sunny weather we are having just now in the UK, the photos from the garden, are full of bright colours and so I thought I'd mess around with the next one and try to give it a colder/wintry feel. I am not sure how well I did, I'll leave you to be the judge.  It was only a bit of fum anyway, so don't be too hard on me. A bit of fum? What the bejeezus is fum? Is it having a jolly time with a maternal relative perhaps? OK, OK...the picture!

Know what it is? Correct, a Woundwort Shieldbug: Eysarcoris venustissimus from the Pentatomidae family, for the pedants (sorry Maria). 😂

One more garden find? A Hairy Shieldbug this time; well, a nymph of same anyhow...

Dolycoris baccarum nymph

Having started this update with the tiny bugs, this now looks positively gargantuan by comparison right? Actually this is just a fairly late instar (although I am not sure what it was late for) and the adults are only around 10mm or so in length. This one seems to have antennae damage. 

By the way, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have seen that small, pinkish area just above my copyright 'thing', which I have included to try and prevent theft of my pictures (you and I both know it's a futile exercise, but I always knew exercise was futile so why not) and that pinkish splodge, is actually my thumb again. Yes, even though it was hotter than hell when Beelzebub is having a barbecue, it was also windy and I was attempting to hold the plant leaf steady. 

I think I might wind this blog up here, well why not, I have wound everyone else up with my metaphorical...

Before I go though, I will leave you with two things; the first is this thought, I have lots, and I mean lots, of strange dreams, but never, not once, have I been asleep in my dream, why is that I wonder? 

Secondly, what the heck the first thing has to do with my blog I have no idea, but anyway, secondly, these final pictures are of one of my very favourite plant-hoppers. It's one of the first I ever found, and I seem to come across the nymphs and adults quite regularly...

Issus coleoptratus

That's all - don't bang the door on your way out please...

Nigel the leafhopper...

I have blogged about the Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes) before, or the Forest Bug, as it was always called until a fairly recent name change. They belong to the Pentatomidae family and are a fairly common species across the UK in wooded areas. The insects look like this...

Top left is an early instar, top right a final instar and below is an adult bug. For anybody who doesn't already know by the way, an instar is just a developmental stage of an insect between each moult. The number of instars an insect undergoes depends on the species.

Bugs need to moult to be able to grow. They have a sort of external skeleton. Called strangely enough, an exoskeleton, which they shed in a process called ecdysis. Once shed, a new, larger covering is formed. The remnants of the old, empty exoskeleton are called exuvia.

Way back in 2010 when you and I were a lot younger than we are now, I found one mid-moult...

Well a few days ago I came across another of these adult bugs that had just moulted and the adult still had its teneral colours. For anybody that doesn't already know by the way ☺️ 'teneral' is, and here's the dictionary definition: of, relating to, or constituting a state of the imago of an insect immediately after molting during which it is soft and immature in colouring. 

                                                 

I know! For anybody that doesn't already know by the way ☺️ 'imago' is the final and fully developed adult stage of an insect, typically winged. So what you're saying then JJ is that it is basically an adult? Yeah, I suppose I am. So why do you feel the need to go over-complicating things? Sorry, some folk like to know the entomological terminactitude. Did you just invent that word? May have done 😬 Can we just get back to the plot please? Okay...here's what I found...

You should be able to click on these images for a larger view, but I don't know how much more detail there will be, because I stopped using high-res images on my blog when I found people were stealing them. 

As you can see the exuvia (you know what that is don't you) is still just behind the bug. Here's a photo of that...

And a close up of the adult shieldbug...

I have other photos, I could have gone on photographing it for ages, in fact I did! But there is such a thing as overkill, I will just add one more here that I took a while later when it had just begun to acquire some colour...

Very subtle isn't it, but it has started the process which will result in the brown colouration of a fully hardened shell that will allow the bug to fly and start feeding again.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, the buddleia has become home to an increasing amount of little creatures. I am always, well not always, I sometimes, complain about name changes of insects; well in this instance I can see that the new moniker of 'Hairy Shieldbug' is much more apt that its predecessor of 'Sloe Bug'. Take a look at this nymph I spotted on the buddleia, for anyone that doesn't already know by the way ☺️ a 'nymph' is an immature form of an invertebrate before it reaches maturity. I think the difference between a nymph and an instar, is that an instar relates to the different stages of a nymph, first, second, third instar etc. Still awake? Okay, the photo...

A Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)

It is hirsute  eh. And, in all the years of observing bugs, I have yet to find a single one of these on blackthorn. For anyone who doesn't already know by the way ☺️ blackthorn and sloe are the same plant. Apparently, a survey of 55 different plant species was carried out in Surrey and not one of these shieldbugs was found on sloe. 

Here is a really early instar which is also quite hairy even at this stage...

I have read that even the eggs are supposed to be hairy! I don't know about that, I only found my first ever batch of eggs this year and as far as I could tell, there were no obvious hairs.

I haven't seen too many dragonflies this year yet. But I did see this fresh one drying its wings before its maiden flight. I think this is probably a male.

A Common Darter Dragonfly (Sympetrum striolatum)

On the other hand, there have been plenty of these 'bonking beetles' as always at this time of year...

There are also quite good numbers of skipper butterflies floating around in the long grass now...

A Small Skipper Butterfly (Thymelicus sylvestris)

Whilst I was down on bended knee, having a little genuflect, I also spotted this intriguing hopper...

I haven't been able to put a name to it yet, so let's just call it Nigel for now shall we.

Then finally, there was this 'nest' that I suspect is the work of a spider...

It might not be though; that's the thing about nature, it is always throwing up things that you haven't seen before and then it is down to research. My research on this one has only thus far turned up a similar looking construction made by an  Araniella species of spider.

Okay then...

Pack away your books and leave in an orderly fashion please. I will see you all back here soon for more of the same.