Some insects from the wildlife group's trip to Rattlinghope last week: Golden-ringed Dragonfly, Bombus rupestris, female Long-winged Conehead and newly hatched Hairy Shieldbug nymphs.
David W. Williams
@vc40orthops.bsky.social
Amateur entomologist, naturalist & photographer. Shropshire County Recorder & national iRecord verifier for Orthopteroid insects. Author of 'Orthoptera and Dermaptera' & co-author of 'Micro Ladybirds of Britain and Ireland' FSC Publications AIDGAP Guides.
VP this morning pristine juv Common Gull, 2 juv LRP, 4+ Green & 2+ Common sands, Snipe, 12 L Egret incl colour-ringed juv, 7 Grey Heron, 55 BHGull, Tufted, 9 Teal, 330 Greylag, Green Woodp, 2 family parties of Whitethroats, Redstart, juv Song Thrush, 3 Bullfinch etc #shropshirebirding 🪶 #ukwildlife
Great rarity today - a twitch! To Glos with @janettem34.bsky.social for the long-staying first-summer Long-tailed Shrike, only the third for Britain. Showed very well at times and was catching what looked like Orthoptera. Missed it catch a vole before we arrived. Heat hazy pics #ukbirding 🪶
You wait ages for one, and.. Lovely surprise this morning. I did see 1 of them in the trap during the early hrs. Also, 2 Tree-l. Beauty, Cydia amplana (a long overdue lifer for me), 9 SMW & 30 Jersey Tiger.
It was lovely to find a teneral Scymnus auritus (Oak Ladybird) in SE Shropshire yesterday! I do love a teneral! 🥰 #VC40Ladybirds #MicroLadybird
Mating pair of Blue-winged Grasshoppers (Oedipoda caerulescens) at Reculver in Kent. Big difference in sexual dimorphism. #Orthoptera
Found 34 adult and one early instar nymph of Striped Shieldbug (Graphosoma italicum) on the main part of Town Mead, Waltham Abbey today 3rd August. TL378003. All on dried stems and seed heads of Hemlock. #EssexWildlife #UKBugs
Tetrad-bashing for Orthoptera at @kentfieldclub.bsky.social's meeting last weekend, as it was in an under-recorded part of the county. So even finding common species was a great result - such as this Common Green Grasshopper and Lesser Marsh Grasshopper. #KentNature #orthoptera
I’m not sure if this is a first for Nottinghamshire, but I can’t find any records on NBN or iRecord! Metopoplax ditomoides - it landed on my window today.
From David Bentley: "Castle Water, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, is buzzing with grasshoppers and crickets. This is Roesel's Bush-cricket, with its cream-coloured, curved edge to the pronotum ('collar')."
Also from yesterday's mooch in SE Shropshire, Nephus quadrimaculatus (Ivy Ladybird), Rhyzobius chrysomeloides (Arboreal Ladybird), Scymnus interruptus (Red-flanked Ladybird), and Clitostethus arcuatus (Horseshoe Ladybird), amongst others! #VC40Ladybirds #MicroLadybird
Nice grasshopper seen today... Still trying to get these in my garden!
A lovely mooch in SE Shropshire yesterday, finding Rhyzobius litura (Meadow Ladybird), R. lophanthae (Bristly Ladybird) with a tiddler! Scymnus auritus (Oak Ladybird) and Stethorus pusillus (Dot Ladybird) #VC40Ladybirds #MicroLadybird
#LadybirdYearList Species #23: a Kidney-spot Ladybird (Chilocorus renipustulatus) tapped out of a Euonymus shrub in my Waltham Abbey garden this morning 2nd August. Only my second garden record. #EssexWildlife #UKLadybirds
A Mullein plant at NWT Sweet Briar Marshes, Norwich yielded some nice finds today - Mullein Aphids (Aphis verbasci), Ant Nest Ladybird (Platynaspis luteorubra) and Lacebug Acalypta parvula. I have seen lots of reports of the ladybird this year so it was really great to find one (only my second).
Clockwise from top left: Donacia marginata, Ptychoptera lacustris, 11-spot Ladybird, Oplodontha viridula, Berytinus minor and Rhyzobius litura from a site outside Navan, Co. Meath during the week.
Not being able to walk temporarily (field trip - rabbit hole - broken leg) has a few consolations. Yesterday 11 Clouded Yellow flew through the garden. Today, this one stayed awhile, nectaring on knapweed
Always good to find a Troilus luridus (Bronze Shieldbug) nymph! From north Shropshire yesterday #Pentatomidae #Asopinae #Shropshire
Tapped this Mottled Shieldbug (Rhaphigaster nebulosa) nymph out of ivy in Upshire on 23rd July alongside an Ivy Ladybird (Nephus quadrimaculatus) dwarfed by comparison. #EssexWildlife #UKLadybirds #UKBugs
Some Micro Ladybirds from yesterday pm’s mooch in north Shropshire, Nephus quadrimaculatus (Ivy Ladybird), Coccidula rufa (Red Marsh Ladybird), Scymnus auritus (Oak Ladybird) and Stethorus pusillus (Dot Ladybird) with Ivy Ladybird and Oak Ladybird #VC40Ladybirds #MicroLadybird
Some ladybird larvae from Denbigh earlier this week, Rhyzobius lophanthae (Bristly Ladybird), Myrrha 18-guttata (18-spot Ladybird), Scymnus auritus (Oak Ladybird) and Stethorus pusillus (Dot Ladybird) #Coccinellidae #MicroLadybird #Wales
The largest and 2nd largest invertebrates of yesterday's wildlife group trip on the edge of the Long Mynd above Ratlinghope. The rather unwelcome but spectacular Signal Crayfish and the very welcome and only a bit less showy Golden-ringed Dragonfly on Jim's chair. #ukwildlife #odonata #crustacean
Three of very many Mottled Grasshoppers seen at Heswall Dales NR on The Wirral last week during a Tanyptera Trust recording Day.
Also from yesterday's jolly to Denbigh (north Wales), Nephus quadrimaculatus (Ivy Ladybird), Stethorus pusillus (Dot Ladybird), Scymnus auritus (Oak Ladybird) and S. interruptus (Red-flanked Ladybird) #Coccinellidae #MicroLadybird #Wales
A good 'jolly' to Denbigh (north Wales) yesterday, finding Rhyzobius litura (Meadow Ladybird), R. chrysomeloides (Arboreal Ladybird), Scymnus suturalis (Conifer Ladybird) and R. lophanthae (Bristly Ladybird) #Coccinellidae #MicroLadybird #Wales
Three of the six Blue-winged Grasshoppers found at Reculver (North Kent coast) on 25th July.
A new ladybird for me - Ant-nest Ladybird (Platynaspis luteorubra) at Covert Woods, SE Kent, 29th July.
A couple of Scymnus frontalis found at Covert Woods, SE Kent, 29th July.
Yesterday's @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting overlapped with a monad targeted for revisiting for Orthoptera by BRC: connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/targeting_re.... And with a bit of effort, we were able to record a pretty good 8 species. #KentNature #orthoptera