Richard Jones

I love the way woodlice moult their shells, first the rear half, then, a day or two later, the front half. These both under the same piece of fallen bark, Nunhead Cemetery today.

Peribalus strictus is everywhere in southeast England now. Adult and nymph from Barnes Common Bug Hunt today.

I found this grid at the entrance to a housing estate at Elephant and Castle in South London. It’s much smaller than those you see in more rural locations used to stop horses, sheep and cows escaping, so I think it’s probably to keep squirrels or rats out.

For anyone wondering what a gooseberry bottle has got to do with woodlice, you can get the full low-down when the book is published later in the year.

The indexer working through my book on woodlice is doing a very thorough job.

Harmonia quadripunctata, the cream-streaked ladybird. Not rare, but I hardly ever see it. Deepest Surrey today. The last field visit of the year.

@chrisraper.bsky.social @gavinbroad.bsky.social This one looked different. Very yellow. To use the technical jargon. Any suggestions? Thanks. East Sussex Weald today.

Cool or yuck? I think this is Dermacentor reticulatus the ornate cow tick, or marsh tick. Either it’s very localized in Britain, or there aren’t many tick recorders out there. It’s known from the West Country, Wales, and Essex. These were on the outskirts of Basildon today.

A once common butterfly from my youth. Wall brown, Lasiommata mergera named for its habit of resting on brickwork. Now seriously declined and vanished from much or ifs former range in the last 40 years. The is the first one I’ve seen in at least a decade, possibly two. Basildon.

New to me. Since its British discovery in East Anglia in 1997, Sphragisticus nebulous seems to have started to spread widely. Loads near Rochester, Kent, a couple of weeks ago.

Always check no-spot ladybirds just in case Cynegetis impunctata ever turns up in Britain. You have to look at the claws, which are not bifurcate, but simply with a small basal tooth. But as usual it’s still the slightly larger 24-spot, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata.

Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, just after its final moult into adulthood, but before the distinctive black markings have been laid down. East Dulwich this afternoon, part of a large colony on a street lime (linden) tree.

It’s mini, but it’s still a Bug Hunt. Tomorrow 14:00-16:00.

Why do harvestmen have long legs? Because they have no antennae. Instead they use their limbs as 8 radial trip-wire warning sensors against danger approaching from any direction.

This is now becoming a regular, firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, and like all the specimens I now see it is not apterous (wingless) but fully winged. Rochester today.

New to me, Sciocoris homalonotus, one of several, including nymphs, swept near Maidstone yesterday.

A hazel leaf cigar, it must be the leaf roll of the hazel leaf-roller weevil Apoderus coryli. This one is quite large and loose, I’ve seen them smaller and neater.

Just got bitten by Zoropsis spinimana. Picking out chicken poop from the nest box I felt a scratch on my finger tip as if I’d picked up a piece of dried thistle leaf. Very faint tingling now. Quite the novelty. I’ll let you know if swelling, necrosis or ulceration sets in.

Two extremes of tar spot fungus, Rhytisma acerinum, on sycamore today. The ‘low’ infection was 3 metres from a busy A road. It is inhibited by SO2 in the laboratory, but apparently air pollution levels show no real correlation. The ‘heavy’ infection was only 20 m from the road.

Agreed, not the best photo, but clearly Acinia corniculata, Tephritidae, once considered an endangered red data book fly species, but increased in range and abundance in the last 25 years.

A good day for lygaeid ground bugs yesterday, many hundreds (thousands maybe) of Emblethis denticollis in a former arable field near Rochester, under mignonette and other low-growing plants. They run like the wind.

Agriphila geniculea? Just flew in from the garden.

It’s lucky that you can identify a 1-mm beetle by counting its antennal segments. Sericoderus brevicornis, which is ironically named since it actually has one more antennal segment than S. lateralis.

First proofs of New Naturalist — Woodlice arrived. And if I’m now an old naturalist, I put my enquiring spirit down to a combination of curiosity, frivolity, and an overwhelming awe at the natural world.

Just been sent these pictures of a crimson underwing type thing in South-east London, but can anyone offer an opinion on exactly which Catocala species it might be?

A few moments of confusion while I try to run this small black wasp through the usual identification key. I realize I’m in the wrong family. It’s Mutillidae, velvet ants — a male Myrmosa atra. It’s usually the velvety wingless females I find. Rochester, back in June.

Grass fairy, or glow-worm as some people insist on calling them. Always a delight.

In my garden today Isodontia mexicana, Mexican grass-carrying wasp, so called for habit of lining its nest with stands of grass, and stocking the tunnel with grasshopper nymphs. Arrived in UK about 2016; most UK records are from the London area. A large and impressive beast.

Reptalus quinquecostatus (formerly Oliarus panzeri) is a seemingly uncommon plant hopper. Distinguished by its five, rather than three, pronotal costae. A regular on Thames Estuary brownfield sites. This from Rochester last month.

At 1.8 mm Tachys bistriatus is one of the more diminutive British ground beetles, but fairly distinctive under high magnification. Only the third time I’ve seen it this century. Rochester last month.

Rhopalapion longirostre, hollyhock weevil, not quite new to Gloucestershire, but on the extreme edge of its current British distribution at Moreton-in-Marsh. No doubt soon to be all of southern England since its UK landfall in East Dulwich about 20 years ago.

Exit holes of Sesia apiformis, the hornet clearwing, at the foot of a large aspen tree. And the clincher — empty chrysalis shell. Maidstone today.

Lasius fuliginosus is always a delight. Very distinctive shining black ant species with large broad heart-shaped head. Maidstone today. On and in a sycamore tree.

Cool beetle of the day Ablattaria laevigata, snail-hunting made easier by its long narrow head. Gallions Reach.

When it rests on a leaf the Jersey Tiger moth stands out, but its ‘tiger’ pattern is good camouflage in dead stems and twigs.

Aestivating garden snails. There ought to be a name for these knots, sealed together by their epiphragms of dried mucus. If one doesn’t exist already, may I suggest mucluster.

The moment the baby woodlice, mancas, are released from the marsupium brood-pouch.

Marpissa muscosa, under bark near Ascot. Handsome beast.

I don’t think I can have been looking very hard, but this is the first time I’ve found a solitary bee making its nest in an empty snail shell.

Sorry for awful phone picture down the microscope. Platynaspis luteorubra larva. First time in ages I’ve found this secretive ladybird. And first time ever I’ve found the strange round flat larva.

My, what long pincers you have Mr Earwig. Macrolabic male of common earwig. Twice as long as normal for not any well-known reason.

Liorhyssus hyalinus (Rhopalidae) is usually pinky red so this straw yellow one foxed me for a minute. Until about the 1990s this was a scarce vagrant, but it’s now well established in South-east England. Rochester yesterday.

I don’t see this ‘puddling’ behaviour, common in tropical butterflies, very often in Britain. Half a dozen green-veined whites were later joined by a painted lady. Also in abundance Lasius fuliginosus, the jet black ant, desperately seeking moisture for the colony.

This three-quarter-sized painted lady confused my eye in the garden earlier because it was registering as small tortoiseshell in my brain. It spent a lot of time gentle fluttering low over the patio, quite unlike its normally powerful flight style.