Not so Dingy Skipper

Most observers agree that the dingy skipper Erynnis tages is a declining butterfly, so it was encouraging to find a small colony at the base of the cliffs at Hawthorn Hive last weekend. This butterfly has two key requirements - bird's foot trefoil as a caterpillar food plant and bare ground for the adult to bask on. Its colour scheme makes it hard to spot but under close scrutiny it's far from being dingy, with those beautiful mottled shades of brown and even a hint of pale blue in the fringe around the edges of the wings. I'm intrigued by those tufts of 'hair' on the hind wings, near the abdomen. I think this is a male - apparently distinguihed by that line of yellowish scent scales along the leading edge of the fore-wing.

A Flower for our Financial Times?

These delightful sea pinks Armeria maritima were beginning to come into full bloom along the Durham coast at Hawthorn Hive at the weekend.

The alternative common name of sea pink is thrift, although no one seems quite sure why this came about. Richard Mabey, in his Flora Britannica, suggests that it may have been because its tufted leaves were economical with water in the windy locations where it's commonly found.

Those, like me, who are old enough to remember pre-decimalisation currency will recall that some of the old 12-sided brass threepenny pieces carried the botanical embled of a thrift plant on the back, as a reminder of the importance of being prudent with money. Bearing in mind the current economic predicament of the country, maybe it's time to use the same emblem on today's currency?

Stalking Tigers

The crumbling magnesian limestone cliffs along the Durham coast are excellent places to find these tiger beetles Cicindella campestris. There were scores of them running over the rock-falls at the base of the cliffs at Hawthorn Hive today.

Their exoskeletons are beautifully iridescent, shot-through with a purple sheen when the sunlight strikes them and their movements are distinctive too, rapidly running over the soil surface in a state of constant agitation and often taking to the air for short flights when they’re disturbed.

These insects are ferocious hunters, like most ground beetles, running down their prey and impaling it on needle-sharp jaws (double-click bottom image for a better view of these). When she was a child my daughter made the mistake of catching one of these jewel-like beetles in her cupped hands and instantly regretted it when it sunk its jaws into her finger. Twenty years later, she still remembers the pain it inflicted. Their jaws have a very wide gape and these pictures reveal a possible reason - the male uses them to cling onto the female when they're mating, grasping her at the narrow junction between her thorax and abdomen. The jaws of the larvae, that live in vertical shafts in the sandy soil, are equally impressive and are held level with the soil surface, ready to snap shut on any small insect that blunders too close to the burrow entrance.

For some pictures of another ground beetle in unfortunate circumstances, take a look at http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2009/07/food-that-fights-back.html