John, Paul, George, or Ringo?

During a rare dry spell we did some gardening this afternoon. There were a lot of butterflies around (Gatekeepers, Small Tortoiseshells, and Ringlets) but there was also a beetle.

Now I'm not very good at identifying beetles, but I thought given the iridescent purple strip down either side of it's body and the iridescent blue markings on it's head that for once I would have no problem finding out what it was. Unfortunately I can't seem to identify it from any of the books we own or the internet.

Anyone have any ideas what it is?

Insect Cases

When I blogged about my moth and butterfly collection, Helen noticed that there were some strange insect cases in one of the boxes that I hadn't mentioned. I can't remember what they are and there isn't a label in the box. Here is a better picture so that hopefully someone can help identify them for us.

I think they were collected from a rocky riverbank on a hot sunny day at Linton in the Yorkshire Dales, but that's quite a hazy memory so could be wrong!

An Uninvited Guest

So, having explained why I'm going to blog about Rob and Rhona's wedding, let's go back to the start of the festivities.

The wedding invite suggested (brides are supposed to be fashionably late) that the ceremony was due to start at 1pm at Lains Barn. Lains Barn is in the middle of nowhere so we arrived by taxi. We actually asked the hotel to book the taxi for noon not knowing quite how long it would take to get there. The taxi was early and we arrived at Lains Barn just after noon. Other than the groom and his best man (Barry, who I also went to University with) I think we were only the second people to arrive. Being early did have the advantage of us being able to appreciate the place without it heaving with people.

The main room (where the wedding and reception were held) is on the left, the bar and a small seating area are in the middle, and the hog (for the evening celebration) was roasted in the open air section on the right. So who was the uninvited guest that we bumped into before entering the barn?

Okay, so it wasn't a guest as such but rather a non-native species of ladybird that I spotted crawling around on a potted evergreen by the main door. Specifically a harlequin ladybird, Harmonia Axyridis Spectabilis. I've seen harelquin ladybirds before (both in the garden and in Herefordshire) but they have both been red varieties that looked more like our native ladybird. Unfortunately, while harlequin ladybirds look interesting they pose a very real threat to the native species.

So having paused to take quite a few photos of a ladybird we eventually made it into the barn (and almost straight to the bar) but that will have to wait for a later post.

Cercopis Vulnerata

Have you ever wondered what hides inside cuckoo spit? Well a few weeks ago my father-in-law blogged a photo of a froghopper larva that had been knocked out of some cuckoo spit in his garden. Interestingly just a day or so before I'd actually seen and photographed an adult red and black froghopper, Cercopis Vulnerata, in our garden.

Wessington Pasture

After wandering around Broadmoor Common we all jumped back in the cars and made a second attempt at finding Wessington Pasture. This time we were successful. The reserve is a mixture of woodland and open pasture and we saw quite a lot of wildlife.

We didn't see much in the wooded section (apart from a quick flash of a green woodpecker) but again we saw lots of Marbled Whites in the pasture. In fact one of the first things we spotted was a pair of mating Marbled whites. The nicest thing about seeing this pair is that we can tell the difference between the sexes -- the female has slightly orange tinted underwing.

When I got bored photographing the Marbled Whites I moved on to a rather aggressive spider that Bryony had found. No idea what species of spider it is but if you got anywhere near it's funnel like web it would shoot straight out at you. On one occasion it nearly jumped onto the camera lens. Having previously been bitten by a spider (slight tinkling and a little swelling) I decided to escape before it could do me any damage.

The last new thing I photographed at the pasture was a charming little Common Green Grasshopper (or at least that is what I think it is from looking at Bryony's field guide). He was very patient and just sat there for ages while I took a number of photos some, like this one, using the camera's macro function about 2cm from him! On the way back to the car I spotted only my second Harlequin Ladybird to add to the day's species list.

Note that if you visit the pasture please don't park on the road. If you open the gate you can drive down to a small car park. We left the cars on the road as it wasn't obvious there was a car park and came back to find a pleasant note from the farmer asking us not to park on the road in the future.

Evicting the Squatters

Well today was eviction day. You may remember that we had squatters (i.e. wasps building a nest in a bird box) in the garden. When they were minding their own business I wasn't too bothered by them. On Saturday, however, I was cutting the grass when one of them launched an unprovoked attack leaving me with a very sore arm.

So I called the council on Monday to arrange for them to be moved and I was told no problem they will be shifted on Wednesday. Well the guy just came. He spent longer suiting up than he did destroying the nest. In fact he was so fast I didn't have the chance to take a photo to accompany this post. Hopefully we won't have any more problems, although apparently if they come back and start nesting again this year then the council will send someone out free of charge to have a second go -- hopefully that won't be necessary!

Squatters

We have a problem with squatters in the garden! Actually they aren't bothering us too much but I'm guessing that at least one pair of small birds are homeless this year.

Fortunately for us the bird box is not that close to the house so the wasps aren't causing too many problems, although I should probably get on to the council to come and deal with the nest before it outgrows the bird box.

Don't Get Too Close!

Don't get too close! is good advice when taking photos like this one. I don't know if it was inhabited or not but given that it could contain quite a few wasps I wasn't going to get too close to it.

To be on the safe side we even sat at the other end of the hide to the nest. When it comes to flying insects that can sting I don't think you can be too careful!