This medium-sized ground beetle is distinguished by it’s red-coloured legs and antennae and the yellowish hairs covering its back giving the wing-covers a dull appearance. It is quite a common beetle found under stones, logs, etc. This one was on the top of my moth trap, but I’m not sure if was attracted to light or just exploring.
#943 Strawberry Seed Beetle (Harpalus rufipes)
Four new moths in and around the trap on Sunday morning out of a total of 40 species, showing that there’s still plenty of new ones to catch - especially at this time of the year. All of these fly in a single generation in the summer.
Maiden’s Blush is a species favouring Oak woodlands, while Small Emerald is quite restricted in range on the chalk/limestone areas of southern England where its larval food-plant is Traveller’s Joy (Clematis vitalba). Blue-bordered Carpet and Common Groundling are fairly common and widespread in England, food-plants are Hawthorn & Blackthorn.
One of each species of Elephant Hawk-moth in the trap this morning. Always a very welcome catch.
One of my favourite weeds, which I’m more than happy to have in the lawn, with orange flowers and hairy leaves Orange Hawkweed (Pilosella aurantiaca) is not actually native to UK (it is a long-time import from Europe). It is commonly called Fox & Cubs, due to its orange colour, but has a host of other country names including Devils Paintbrush and Golden Mouse-ear.
I snapped this mason wasp exploring a hole in the limestone wall. These wasps cache caterpillars in holes in wood or masonry for their caterpillars to eat once their eggs hatch. Usually several cells are created with earth walls between each compartment, each cell containing an egg and food for the growing wasp larva. There are several species of very similar wasps, but I believe this one is Ancistrocerus nigricornis, which is one of the commoner ones, often using bug hotels.
It seems like 2023 is a bumper year for aphids. Nearly all the trees and bushes in the garden are covered in aphids and sticky with honeydew. This time the plum tree is heavily infested with Mealy Plum Aphids; another new species for the list as I didn’t record these before. Hopefully it will also be a bumper year for things that preys on aphids too, like ladybirds. The blue tits from our nest box are trying, but struggling, to keep on top of the problem.
#933 Mealy Plum Aphid (Hyalopterus pruni)
A lot of moths today, 95 individuals of 35 species, including lots of waves, pugs, grass moths and other micros to sort out (which took me a while). Amongst it all, three new species taking my garden count to 936.
I found this beetle when checking the moth trap this morning, under the trap actually, so I doubt it was attracted to light. It’s a click beetle, doing its thing of pinging itself up in the air with a load click when stressed. This all-black one is I think Melanotus castanipes or the very similar M. villosus. It’s a first for the garden and my second click beetle species.
My first Shield Bug of the year flew in and landed on the window. Hawthorn Shieldbug, with its pointy shoulders, is a colourful and common bug in deciduous trees. They over-winter as adults and appear each Spring with a new generation appearing in August/September. I usually see a few each summer.
#427 Hawthorn Shield Bug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale)
This is another pseudo-wild flower that’s found its way to the garden. Non-native, but a common escaped garden plant, Garden Lady's Mantle is a perennial plant with yellow flowers. This one sprung up at the edge of my lawn somehow.
#931 Garden Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)
Dark Arches is one of the commonest moths in the moth trap during the summer, but its light-coloured relative is less common and its believed less attracted to light. As such, this Light Arches moth, with its very fine mohawk, was a new garden species (#930). Both are grassland species, their caterpillars living on grass stems and roots.
Blood-vein (Timandra comae, #929) was a new species for the list; a pretty moth with a red line and pink border to the wing, its larval food-plants are docks & sorrel. Buff-tip (Phalera bucephala) is a regular summertime looking like a snapped-off birch twig. Narrow-winged Grey (Eudonia angustea) is normally an autumn flier, but a few, like this one, emerge earlier. Small Magpie moth (Anania hortulata) is a common moth in June/July too, especially around nettles.
A beautiful hawk moth in the trap this morning; my first this year. This one is an Eyed Hawk-moth, which is not a species I’ve caught before in the moth-trap. My previous garden record was one that was caught, and mostly shredded, by the cat back in 2020. This moth is not especially rare, though it’s not the commonest hawk moth here. Its caterpillars are found in sallows, apple and crab apple trees.
This large and rather scary parasitic wasp trapped itself in the greenhouse. At 40 mm long, excluding an ovipositor longer even than the body, it’s an impressive bug and UK’s biggest parasitic wasp. The females (like this one) detect beetle larvae deep in dead wood, and their ovipositor can pass through the wood to lay eggs in or near the grub. The wasp larvae then eats the beetle larva. This species is normally found in woodland with dead logs, so it is a good find for my garden which is not very near a wooded area.
Another cold night, another lean morning in the moth trap. Only 9 moths of 8 different species, compared with 24 moths of 15 species on the same date last year (3 June). This Peppered Moth was not something I catch that often. The species has a pale form (like this), one with darker grey markings and one that is nearly black. In polluted areas where the trees are blackened by soot, etc, the darker forms predominate - but no issues with air quality here, just currently with night-time air temperature.
A large beech tree shades a chunk of the garden, plus it is being used as a roost for woodpigeons which crap all over the patio (just how much does a single pigeon produce in a day!?). Anyhow, cutting some low hanging branches in the hope the pigeons find a new roost site, they were all sticky and the under-sides of the leaves covered in clusters of fluffy white insects. These are Woolly Beech Aphids (Phyllaphis fagi, #927), which secrete copious honeydew. I didn’t notice them previous years, or that the tree was buzzing with insects attracted by the honeydew.
#927 Woolly beech aphid Phyllaphis fagi
Not much flying last night too, as the nights remain cold. This Pale Tussock was the most interesting catch; a very fine moth with very freaky looking caterpillars later in the year.
#740 Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda)
Not terribly exciting, but a new aphid species for the garden that I must have overlooked previously. I found these green-coloured Common Nettle Aphids while doing some gardening.
#925 Common Nettle Aphid (Microlophium carnosum )
It took me an effort to work out what this tiny seedling that popped up among the bluebell plants was. It’s a baby Beech Tree (Fagus sylvatica). The first pair of leaves really doesn’t look like anything to do with a beech tree, but if you look closer at the young leaves forming in the middle, those do. The plant didn’t make it: now gone, presumably eaten by something.
Adult Yellow Dung Flies son’t eat dung, they just lay their eggs there, where their larva eat other insect larvae. The adult too are carnivorous. This yellow-coloured, male dung fly was eating a smaller fly it had caught.
#127 Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
Passionate about nature, based in Gloucestershire UK; this site is about creating a wildlife friendly family garden and exploring the diversity of animal & plant species that share it with us.
As a nature lover and wildlife gardener I started wondering about the biodiversity in my backyard and just how many species from plants to insects to birds to mammals might live in or visit it.
Much of the wildlife in my small, village garden has been present right under my nose for years without my really appreciating it, so on the way I am learning a lot about different species and how to make a wildlife-friendly environment for them; also getting engaged more in conservation activities around Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the Cotswolds.
My garden species tally started from zero on June 1st 2018, the target was 1000 species, which I eventually hit in June 2024. But there’s still plenty to see and learn about.
I'm very interested in your comments & advice: whether it's about the blog, some help with identification or just how to make my own little Eden better for wildlife. So please leave a comment or drop me a line if you feel like it!
Graham Tompsett
microedenproject@gmail.com
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