Hedge and Frog-hoppers...

I think it was Homer (Simpson, not the Greek bloke of The Iliad fame) who said "If it wasn't for bad luck, I would have no luck at all."

That's how it feels some days anyhow. Days when you think that if they invented a pill for everlasting life, you'd die swallowing it!

Here then is my tale of bad luck: but in the best BBC manner (not) I shall try to create a balance by regaling you with one of good fortune (hopefully) too. 

I am not even sure this woeful fable is down to luck at all; and having done my utmost to research in every manner possible, (I even probed my annals) I am still none-the-wiser. Wanna know what this concerns then? Of course you do: you only have an 8 second attention span, and that ran out about...8 seconds ago!

YES...the dreaded female mosquito. I try to love all insects equally, but when I hear the high-pitched whine of an approaching mossie it tries my patience to say the least. But why do I keep getting bitten lately? For years and years, they didn't pester me at all. What has changed, or is it down to luck?

A few years ago I suffered a nasty bout of pneumonia, and I think that could be relevant! I'll expound on my theory shortly, but firstly here are some known reasons why you might be a target:
Tall people, overweight people, females in general, wearing dark clothes, and something I need to check out myself, your blood group can be an indicator, and I have no clue as to what my blood type is. Type O seems to be favoured by the little blighters.

The following clip from an article I read seemed quite harsh...

Non-attractive indeed!

I'll press pause on the mosquito rant there: it's already getting too wordy. Let's indulge in some bug photographs for a while...

Philaenus spumarius - A Common Froghopper

I often see the little froghoppers that make this 'cuckoo spit', but usually they are much smaller and yellow in colour. Once adult, they no longer need the protection of the foam bubbles. My guess is that this one had just completed its final moult and was still the pale, teneral colour of a freshly emerged adult hopper. 

A fully mature Common Froghopper

2019 has again proved to be quite a poor year for sightings of true bug nymphs. I have seen and photographed a few, but numbers have been well down for a few years in a row now. I was lucky enough to spot this character though: this is a late instar nymph of Rhabdomiris striatellus which is usually associated with oak.

Grypocoris stysi - A Mirid Bug

This little bug is found widely throughout the UK, usually on nettles in woodland, and sometimes umbellifers. The adults and larvae feed on both flower heads and small invertebrates such as aphids. 

I've found adults of this species too; this was in my garden on the cosmos flowers...

Grypocoris stysi (adult)

Miris striatus next: the nymphs of this species are rather ant-like and are quite dark in contrast to the striking adults...

Miris striatus nymph (Miridae)

I have seen lots of these Fencepost Jumping Spiders over the years, but never one quite as long as this one...

It really was like a stretch-spider! I guess one spider is probably one too many, and so let's move on to something much nicer shall we. How about a bug carrying its own excrement on its back...

Cassida viridis larva

Yum! Well I suppose the idea is to put off any would be predator; it would certainly make me think twice about making a meal of this one. Here's what the adult looks like, much better huh...

Cassida viridis - A Green Tortoise Beetle

I still have to tell you about my stroke of good fortune, don't I. Firstly though, let's return briefly to the mosquito story. Doctor Jonathan Gray, a medical entomologist, says that your metabolic rate could be a prime factor in making you attractive to the local mosquito population.

He concludes that mosquitoes use CO2 as their primary means of identifying bite targets. “All vertebrates produce carbon dioxide, so what better way could there be for a mosquito to cue in on a host?” Physically exerting yourself raises your metabolic rate, he adds. 

My theory is that since having pneumonia a while back, I know that my lungs have never fully recovered, and that means I can get short of breath much faster than before. A raised metabolic rate makes me irresistible to females! Female MOSQUITOES that is of course.

And the good news is?

By the way, I never did understand that song by Hedgehoppers Anonymous: 'It's Good News Week'

Lyrics: 

It's good news week

Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere

Contaminating atmosphere

And blackening the sky

It's good news week

Someone's found a way to give

The rotting dead a will to live

Go on and never die have you heard the news...

Irony I guess? Anyhow, I digress, my little bit of good fortune was finding this on one of my early morning walks with the hound...

A FIVE-leaf clover...count 'em...FIVE!

I've found a number of four-leaved across the years, but never five. I needed to find out more and so I plucked my Googling finger from inside my shirt, where it had been scratching my ever so itchy mossie bites, and got typing. That isn't my question at the top of this article by the way, that's just what came up when I put 5 leaf-clover into Google...

The good news then is that I am one in 20,000 (and I always thought I'd been won in a raffle). Surely by default this means though that I will need 20,000 more walks before I find another? No time like the present then; I'm away to cut that down to 19,999 walks required. One last photo to complete this update...

Long-jawed orb-weaver - Tetragnatha extensa

Burning up at the bioblitz...

It's Wednesday August 23rd and looking like a lovely, late summer day. Today there is a 'Bioblitz' in a local village:coordinated by the Medway Valley Countryside Project, who's stated aims are:

• Create, Sustain and Enhance Kent’s Landscape & its wildlife
• Develop, Manage and Support community-based environmental initiatives
• Develop, and Promote life long outdoor learning
• Encourage and Enhance greater access in the outdoors and the corresponding health benefits.

I thought a visit would be apposite...

It was a great way of engaging the children (of whom there were many) and the guided walks seemed popular. I decided against them though, and instead had a short walk of my own to see what I could find. Half a dozen of my finds are shown below. Nothing out of the ordinary, but there were quite a few more that I didn't photograph, and it all added to their overall tally.

I have had several early morning walks with the camera recently. Mostly for the purpose of getting some long-exposure tripod shots: I think it would be fair to say that the results have been, variable and on Monday August 28th all I managed was the following shot of a crop field, and that was taken with my phone...

Just two days later, the same destination of Frittenden, saw the highest temperatures in the whole of the UK for that day: 29.3 deg or 84+ if you prefer Fahrenheit. Here is one of the photographs from an early morning session that I can share...

A Grass Moth

And a tiny Green Shieldbug nymph too...

The Comma butterfly is a real success story, in that it seems to have been able to reverse its decline and is now wide-spread once again. Named of course for the white comma shape on the underside of its hindwings. The jagged edges of the forewings are the reason behind the other common name of 'Angelwings'. 

A Comma Butterfly - Polygonia c-album

Having found the adult butterfly, I was pleased when I spotted a caterpillar; however, once again, as with the puss moth larva I found a while ago, all was not well. On close inspection, I could see an unwanted visitor...

It was this tiny parasitic wasp, which I managed to remove. Yes, I was interfering with nature in some small way, but I wanted to see if I would be in time to save the caterpillar and allow it to form a chrysalis. As you can see in the next photo, it did go on to suspend itself from a nettle soon after. The inset picture is a closeup of the wasp...

It wasn't too much later that it had indeed become a chrysalis, and so if my hunch is right, I may yet get to see the adult butterfly emerging.

All of which brings me back to my last update about the puss moth parasitic larvae. Having seen most become pupae, one remained fairly active and amazingly, seemed to survive without a food source for another 15 days. After which it gradually became increasingly yellow in colour...

It's still around but not looking good now!

I can also now confirm the identity of the 'dancing chrysalis' featured in my last update. It eclosed last week to reveal a fabulous herald moth...

I haven't featured spiders for a while, and as you all love them so much and September (spider month) is just around the corner, I thought I would add a couple of pics of a teeny, juvenile, fence-post jumper. A first for me; not seen anything other than adults until now...

I guess I shouldn't really leave you with images of spiders...nightmares and all that! Here then is something much prettier, they are (empty) lacewing eggs and these are another 'first' for me. Despite searching each year, I have never been lucky until now..