It took me about 20 minutes to get an identification for this wonderful Leaf Beetle, Chrysolina staphylea.
It's about the same size as a 7-spot Ladybird.
The Orange Tips were roosting for the night. This one's on unfurling Broad Buckler fern :
And this brought a smile to my face. These are the micromoth Micropterix calthella on the bud of Creeping Buttercup. Micropterix calthella feed on Buttercups all summer, and this is the first local flower of the year. They just cannot wait for opening time tomorrow morning.
3 comments:
"And this brought a smile to my face." And mine :-)
I saw several buttercups with loads of (presumalby) these little moths today - but interestingly only on certain plants - I guess where the micros had just emerged. Do they eat buttercups leaves as larvae - miners? The ones I was watching were milling around rather aimlessly on the flowers, possibly after the pollen - certainly not eating the petals.
In common with all species of Calthella, the larval stages are 'unknown'. Another project....
They can't be leaf-miners, though, because someone would have found them by now.
...the larval stages are 'unknown'...
I'm not totally surprised, they're going to be pretty insignificant aren't they? Unless they were miners, as you say.
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