Bang on time

I was thinking it was time to see the summer butterflies and, sure enough, I found Meadow Brown, Ringlet, 2nd generation Speckled Wood and 2nd generation Green-veined White all within a minute of each other.

The Meadow Brown is a grass feeder, but it frequently basks on higher plants:

The Ringlet is also a grass feeder. This shot shows where it gets its name from:

That brings the number of butterfly species on this short (80 m.) section of hedgerow to 7 for this year:

• Green-veined White
• Speckled Wood
• Orange Tip
• Small Copper
• Meadow Brown
• Ringlet
• Small Heath

There's still time for Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Painted Lady and Red Admiral, all of which have been spotted here before. Green Hairstreak is also a slight possibility.

I have found this Bramble-eating sawfly larva for a couple of years, now. I'm still working on an id:

The first of the Ichneumonids with the longer ovipositors have started to appear. These lay eggs into moth or fly larvae in grass seedheads or in composite flowerheads such as Thistle or Knapweed. They tend to feed for a couple of days before I see them laying, so I expect to get some oviposition shots by next week. The very long rear legs on this one suggest something close to Lissonota sp., which use the long legs to keep the abdomen clear of the seedhead when swinging the ovipositor into position on grasses.

Round-up

The Spotted Orchids have reached maturity now, with nearly all the flowers open. I prefer them in the early stages, but I'm still delighted to have any at all.




This is the pupa of one of the Ladybirds. Due to the size (around 6 mm.) I'm plumping for 14-spot, but I have it in a container and I'll let it go once I've made the correlation.


Ringlets are a July species and I'm seeing a few every time I'm out. The underside shot shows clearly where the name comes from.


One of the labyrinthine twists in my personal history is that I failed latin at an early age and wasn't able to pursue my first choice career in biology - I went into computers instead. Nowadays I use more latin than most people. A couple of years ago I coined a (deliberately) bad piece of latin to announce my first encounter with the fungus Ergot. 'Cogito Ergot sum' : 'I think I have found some Ergot'.

It's the dark purple bit on the Sweet Vernal Grass, by the way.


This very small (10mm.) Tachinid is everywhere at the moment. Keep in mind that every Tachinid is produced at the cost of a moth or butterfly caterpillar, and I see tens - perhaps hundreds - of these flies every time I'm out.

A (little) bit of sun

This bumblebee has taken up quite a bit of my time. It has 3 yellow bands, a white tail, long antennae, black hair above the eyes and no pollen baskets. The body hair is also long. I reckon it's the male of the cuckoo bumblebee - Bombus bohemicus. I showed the female back in April.

No identification problems with the Ringlet butterfly. These have been appearing as singles for the last week or so.

This Ichneumonid looks like Ablyteles armatorius, but so do 100 others.

This is the larva of the 14-spot ladybird. It's about 5 mm long.