These are the last photographs from my usual stretch of hedgerow for several months. The day after I took these, the hedge was cut down to the ground to a distance of a metre from the road on each side for 200 metres. So there won't be anything worth posting from there until next spring. I don't know why the hedgecutter chose this totally inappropriate (and illegal!) time to do the cutting ("it's only weeds and bugs"), but we have to live with these decisions. Unfortunately, the wildlife can't.
Last year I showed a photograph of the capsid bug
Lygus rugulipennis. This is its nymph from exactly the same area:
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| Nymph of the capsid bug Lygus rugulipennis |
If you follow the link back to the original picture, notice how different the adult is from the nymph. This is typical in bugs, and makes identification of nymphs that bit more difficult, since it's normally the adults that are shown.
Udea lutealis is one of the larger micromoths, and is to be seen on practically every verge and hedgerow at the moment. The faint pattern diminishes as the moth gets older, and mature specimens (i.e. a few days old) appear to be a uniform cream in colour:
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| The micromoth Udea lutealis |
I spotted this larva of the Sawfly
Arge gracilicornis on Bramble. I had hoped to follow its progress for a few days, but that is no longer possible:
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| Larva of the Sawfly Arge gracilicornis |
I should also mention at this point that I will be unable to continue my 5 year study of the sawfly
Nematus pavidus this year, since the Willows were also threshed to ground level and won't have leaves until next year. I hope I can find some more specimens elsewhere.
The fungal rust
Puccinia graminis infects many different grasses. This infection is on a stem of False Oat grass:
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| Fungal rust Puccinia graminis on False Oat grass |
I haven't seen very many specimens of the wasp-mimicking hoverfly
Sericomyia silentis this year. This one was on Male Fern on the other side of a deep ditch:
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| Hoverfly Sericomyia silentis |
Earwigs are universally despised and, I think, a bit unfairly. They are quite unusual in that they tend to stay in family groups, whereas most other insects abandon their eggs/larvae. This is a male (the pincers are curved)
Forficula auricularia:
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| The earwig Forficula auricularia |
This one was photographed in my garden: I found it when checking a pot full of Fuchsia cuttings. Notice how small the wing covers (the squarish area next to the middle leg) are. Earwigs can actually fly, but I rather suspect that they are reluctant to do so because the wings have to be folded around 40 times to get them into such a tiny space.
New identification.
