A jewel of a cuckoo wasp...

Another day, another blog update and although I like to think that all of my finds are special, every so often something amazing appears and then it's down to me to try and do it justice with my photographic skills.

Imagine then how pleased and excited I was to see this beautiful little wasp...

It's a ruby-tailed wasp. Ruby-tailed wasps belong to the order Hymenoptera, that includes sawflies, bees and wasps. Here in the U.K. we have a number of species that are difficult to tell apart with any degree of certainty.

They are all are beautifully coloured, red, blue, green and bronze metallic colours. Their abdomens are usually a ruby red colour which gives the wasps their name ‘ruby-tail’. These wasps are solitary meaning they do not live in large social nests.

Being barely 10mm in length, they can be difficult to spot. You can often see them running over walls and tree trunks. This one I assume may have been sleeping when I spotted it on oak fencing, as it had its antennae tucked underneath. I have seen them before but struggled to get pictures as they are usually very fast.

As a parasite they require another species for part of their life cycle, mainly mason bees and other solitary bees.

The wasp reverses into the hosts nest hole and lays its eggs next to the host eggs. The wasp eggs hatch into larvae, which eat the newborn host species. The unsuspecting adult host returns to seal its nest hole, never knowing what is inside! This is why this wasp is also known as a cuckoo wasp. The larva complete their development inside the nest and the adults emerge the following spring.

Pebble prominent moth caterpillar

A close-up of that face

And a cropped version

This larva of the moth Notodonta ziczac (great name) is quite common and one I see most years feeding on willow (Salix) with its tail end held up in a characteristic pose that has the effect of making it look like the head end.

It can get to a reasonable size, I made a point of attempting to measure this one and at full stretch it was close to 40mm.

24-Spot ladybird larva

If you thought 'ziczac' was a great name then check this one out-the 24-spot ladybird has this splendid moniker:Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata, now that might be a very intelligent and descriptive name but I doubt I could even pronounce it-as for remembering how to spell it...or even just remembering it!

The ladybird itself is our only vegetarian species, not only that, it is our only hairy, vegetarian species.

Eurygaster testudinaria

These large shieldbugs are often known as Tortoise Bugs. Again, I find these most years and increasingly they are appearing locally. What interested me about this couple is that I have not photographed them in cop before and allied to that, what struck me was that it's the larger female here that has the really striking markings and colour.

And....that then got me wondering if all the previous finds of colourful individuals amounted to them all being females? I know the colour and intensity can vary quite a lot but I am going to be as observant as possible with future finds to put my theory to the test.

Kybos cf. betullae 

I have been seeing a large number of hopper nymphs of late; it's that time of year again. Some are very tricky to try and identify though, as is the case with the one pictured above. It is one of those that requires dissection to be sure but it was found on willow which is a help, although not sufficient to be completely sure of a full ID.

Here's another, maybe this is the same species? They were both on birch...

This little one seems to have picked up a rather gruesome parasite...

 More hopper nymphs...

This one is Javesella species, very small, about 3-4mm and probably an adult rather than a nymph...

Whilst sorting through some old photographs for another project recently, I came across the following picture of a grasshopper that I'd forgotten all about and so,I'll share it here as my final picture for this update...

Until the next time then...

(My latest contribution to Magnet magazine is HERE)

A neglected Kentish orchard...

Immediately behind our house is an area of land that was once a thriving apple orchard, but has now been neglected for a number of years.

As nature reclaims the orchard, the habitat is gradually improving for insects and bugs. Until such time as the land is needed it makes for a great hunting ground, right on my doorstep.

I thought that I'd dedicate this blog entry entirely to creatures that I've found in this area in the past few days. Armed with my pith helmet and machete I ventured into the jungle...

This sawfly larva seems to be around in good numbers and I did find quite a few in a fairly small area of the old orchard.

I'm never sure on identity with these sawflies and so won't even attempt a guess here but I can show you another example of the same species-this one has some little hitch-hikers in the form of mites...

The next find was this very cool hopper. I think this one might be Aphrodes bifasciatus but once again not completely sure, as it's a variable species-I think it's safe to say that it's Aphrodes species though.

This species belongs to the cicadellidae family of leafhoppers.They feed by sucking plant sap from grass, shrubs or trees. This one was under 5mm in length.

My plant knowledge is pretty bad but I'm confident that this hopper is on Ribwort Plantain, there, that's left myself open to correction!

    

A couple more views

Each time I walk this particular area my footsteps are accompanied by the sound of crickets/grasshoppers calling but for some reason I've not got around to trying to photograph any-until now that is...

Roesel's Bush-cricket

I caught this one in full sun and it was quite lively, staying in one spot just long enough for a snap. It is Roesel's Bush-cricket (Metrioptera roeselii) a cricket that is separated from the similar Bog-Bush cricket by the pale yellow, or green border that edges the pronotum.

The song consists of long bursts of sound, said to resemble a dentist's drill.

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR LARGE VIEW

I'd have to say that this little grasshopper pictured above was something of a star find for me. Not because it is anything special by way of rarity or form but just that I was amazed by the facial markings that appeared when I put the macro lens on it. I've said it many times now but this is what makes macro photography so special for me-the unexpected detail revealed through the lens.

It'd be obvious to choose the mottled grasshopper as an identity for this one but in truth, I have no idea which species it is! It was only around 10-15mm and found in an area of long grass beside water.

Edit: Since posting this image I've been told by a flickr contact that it's actually a cricket rather than grasshopper and could even be the same species as the one in the first picture (Thanks Neil) and so probably best to ignore what I've written about a possible identity!

The water  is actually a small pond and the pond is home to a host of insects and bugs. The dragonflies that I've seen in reasonable numbers previously, have been hit badly by our awful weather this year and numbers are way below what I would expect.

There have been some though as this empty larval skin shows. I spotted this prehistoric looking thing whilst searching for damselflies at the water's edge.

If the dragonfly skin looks like a monster to you then here's something I found that demonstrates the other extreme. The world must look like a pretty big place to this little turtle bug I spotted...

A Turtle Bug- Podops inuncta

Leptopterna dolabrata

Leptopterna dolobrata is a common species of large grass bug (Miridae) and the males are always fully-winged but females are usually partly-winged, as in the photo of a female above.

I said that the grasshopper/cricket was a star find for me and it was, but I was equally excited by another stellar spot-this time a beetle. Not just any old beetle though, oh, no!

This stunning creature is a beetle from the Buprestidae family. Known as jewel beetles for obvious reasons, sometimes also as metallic wood-boring beetles. I don't find these too often, I think this may only be the third in all the time I've been bug-hunting and so it was quite a treat.

CLICK ANY PICTURE FOR LARGE VIEW

Butterfly sightings in the old orchard have been limited to mostly meadow brown and ringlet. A few small skippers have begun to appear though and I also spotted a couple of comma's on nettle. I once overheard two gents discussing species and heard one say "Oh no, I don't like skippers, they're not a pretty butterfly" well, firstly to me that sounds a ridiculous statement, and secondly, I don't agree-I think they are very nice and I love the subtle colours.

This fly, pictured above is not the sharpest of images but was taken very early one morning in the orchard. I was trying to get some natural light shots hand-held but the light was poor and even dragging every drop of light I could into the camera, it still required a low shutter speed. It was windy too and has made me decide that before I attempt a similar excursion, I must get a device to hold foliage steady for me.

Anyhow, I wanted to include this one as it's quite an interesting looking fly and has great eye colour.  I think these are marsh flies.

Sometimes you have to look underneath leaves to find insects and bugs and that's how I came to find this strange looking critter. It was underneath a willow leaf.

I have seen something similar to this with ladybirds where the ladybird has been attacked by a parasite-I'm pretty sure that this is an aphid that has suffered a similar fate.

On that final gruesome note, I'll put an end to this update. Quite a lot of finds then for a small area that I didn't really spend much time in. I may add to this at a later date with an update of anything else of interest that turns up.

Until the next time...