Bugs at Low Burnhall

Low Burnhall is a Woodland Trust reserve just south of Durham city, with new tree planting to link up fragments of ancient woodland. It will take a while to produce a continuous woodland canopy but in the meantime the existing woodland and large areas of open grassland are home to a wide range of interesting insects species.

Our best find on this visit was this handsome wasp beetle, Clytus arietis, an amazing example of mimicry. It not only looks like a wasp, it moves like a wasp too, with the same jerky walk. No sting, perfectly harmless. Breeds in decaying wood - we found it close to the rotting fallen branches of an old willow.

Our visit coincided with the hatching of scores of five-spot burnet moths.

Unhatched .....

..... and hatched five-spot burnet cocoons

Newly emerged five-spot burnets mating

Possibly the shortest courtship ever - these two five-spot burnets emerged simultaneously from the upper and lower cocoon and mated immediately

There were plenty of newly-emerged ringlet butterflies around. They even fly in light rain.

A very unlucky large skipper, caught by a spider. Maybe the two froghoppers will be luckier when they emerge from their cuckoo spit.

The caterpillar of the Timothy tortrix moth Aphelia paleana, which feeds on a wide range of plants including docks and plantains, as well as Timothy grass. Thanks to Colin Duke for identifying this for me, via the excellent iSpot web site

A capsid bug - I think this is the cock'sfoot bug Leptopterna dolobrata

A sawfly, which I think is a Tenthredo species , feeding on buttercup nectar

Forest shieldbug, Pentatoma rufipes, on an oak leaf.

Kentish snail Monacha cantiana, found inside a curled-up hogweed leaf. Thanks to Martyn John Bishop and Steve Gregory for identifying this for me, also via the excellent iSpot web site

Large Skipper

I took these pictures of a large skipper butterfly at the very beginning of June and forgot to post them, until I was prompted by recent reports that this spring has seen the exceptionally early appearance of many butterfly species.

A close look at these pictures shows that this butterfly must have been around for a few days by the time I photographed it, judging by some wear-and-ear on the wing edges and loss of some of the darker scales on the wing edges, so I'd guess that it must have emerged in the last week of May. I can't recall having seen a large skipper around here much before about mid-June, so this must indeed have been an unusually early example.

Butterfly Hot-Spot

A visit to Hawthorn Hive on the Durham coast at the weekend coincided with the recent emergence of several butterfly species, including this pristine male common blue and .....

.... and its rather more muted female consort.

The raised beach at Hawthorn Hive - a legacy of past colliery waste dumping - is covered with large patches of bird's foot trefoil, food for common blue and dingy skipper caterpillars, so this sheltered bay is a great spot to find both species - and also several others. The cliffs provide shelter from the wind, unless it's blowing from the East - and the prevailing wind is mostly south-westerley. Paradoxically, it's only the raised beach - produced by past industral activity - that protects this wonderful site for flowers and insects from being inundated by the waves. It's slowly being eroded and once it has gone the waves will be able to reach the base of the cliffs where.....

..... this green-veined whire was collecting nectar from bloody crane'sbill flowers...

...... while this large skipper basked on the same plant's foliage....

... and another .... amongst the grasses.

On the cliff tops above small heaths were flying in the grassland. They have a very distinctive way of sunbathing. Most butterflies orientate themselves with their back to the sun and open their wings to absorb the heat - like the common blues and large skipper above. Small heaths keep their wings folded but turn their whole body at 90 degrees to the sun's rays, so the underside of the wings on one side of the body only faces the sun.