An exciting find in Comfort's Wood...

The way I have been updating this blog seems to have become just an annual thing these days. However, I do still visit the woods at every possible opportunity to soak up the undoubted mental lift it offers.

It's funny though, how as my eyesight worsens with creeping senility, I am seeing  more and more bugs! 

Here's an example...

Yes! This Comma butterfly was actually nothing more than dead plant matter.

And then there are the times when you miss your target altogether...

Missed the bugger!

Well at least I still have most of my faculties: I keep them locked away in a box at home!

Let's then swing from the ridiculous to the sublime; after decades of photographing and recording the invertebrates of Comfort's Wood, it is a rare thing to be able to add a new species to the long list. 

But...on the 25th of May this year, I spotted something very exciting. I'll share its scientific/Latin name first, and while you are figuring out how to pronounce it, I'll add a few images.

'Agapanthia villosoviridescens'

I have photographed this beautiful species of beetle locally

 before but never here in Comfort's Wood.

They can be found in wet grasslands,

 woodlands, places where there are herbs. On  warm days in late spring and summer, you may see them sitting on wildflowers, cow parsley or hogweed. They are 10-15mm in length with their antennae being longer than the body.

Most longhorn beetle larvae develop inside woody plants, but these grow in herbaceous plants instead. Females chew a hole in the stem of a host plant and lay an egg inside. After hatching, the larva feeds on the inside of the stem.

On the same day, I found these eggs. I am fairly sure that these will be Green shieldbug eggs. They looked healthy enough at this stage too.

Unlike these ones, which I found a few days later...

It's just possible that they are closer to emerging, or that they are a different species; but I don't like the colour of this clutch. When I have found them looking like this previously, it has been the work of a parasitic wasp.

A couple more photographs from the same visit now: this is the larva of a Common Quaker moth...

  

And a large, female Horsefly...

     Then an Oak bush-cricket (Meconema thalassinum}

      

Finally, I think this is a Pea-weevil. But it was smaller than any I have found before.

My next visit to the woods was on Friday  May 30 when I found this Vapourer moth larva...

 

And this Oak leafhopper nymph (Lassus lanio)

Also a White-legged damselfly. I seemed to miss out on seeing the blues and reds this year, although there are still some around...

My final visit to Comfort's Wood for this update took place just a few days ago on June 11th.

Another Vapourer larva was my first sighting this time. In a different part of the woods, and so not the same one that I saw on May 30 

Swiftly followed by this Coxcomb-prominent larva... 

Then a Dark Oak Bush-cricket...

A Common Froghopper..

And a plant bug: (Grypocoris stysi) 

This is a conspicuous bug found widely throughout the UK, usually on nettles in woodland, and sometimes umbellifers. The adults and larvae feed on both flower heads as well as small invertebrates such as aphids. Adults appear in June/July, but rarely survive beyond August...

Lastly, a Large Skipper butterfly...

That's about all for this update; other than to apologise if some of the text, or photographs seem a bit...Higgledy-piggledy'. I have been very careful to align everything correctly, but sometimes 'Blogger' decides it knows best!

 

Blackthorn, bluebells and buzzards...

Another spring is making its presence felt in Comfort's Wood and Monday 27th of March 2017 turned out to be blessed with cloudless blue skies and warm temperatures. Time to dust off the camera and see what can be discovered on this one particular early spring day...

The surviving ash trees are flowering now

The blackthorn is looking great too

The first beeflies of the year are enjoying the wood anemonies

And there are plenty of them this year. It really does look stunning in the woods right now...

They are also attracting other insects to nectar...

This is a tiny hoverfly

The bluebells are about to burst into bloom

The primroses are already in full flower

For a lot of the time I spent walking around the woods today, I could hear the constant calling of buzzards from high above. This won't be of interest to you but I only had the macro lens on this day. The macro is for real close-up work and so there was no way I would be able to get even a half decent photograph of the buzzards who were a good 200 feet above me. Even so, I wanted to record the fact that they were there and so pointed the camera skywards and hoped. This was the result. Not good but at least I have a record of them being there to share...

I couldn't resist trying to snatch a picture of this robin either...

Back on the ground, I spotted this fungi along one of the rides...

There are plenty of celandine in flower too

A comma butterfly sunning itself

Cuckoo-flower

The cuckoo-flower seems sparse this year compared to others, but even so, there is enough to attract one of my favourite springtime butterflies...

An orange-tip butterfly (male)

It also attracted this large white butterfly

Little violets are flowering right now

The hazel is just starting to come into leaf and quite a few insects seem to find it attractive...

I shall be expecting to see the delightful, red leaf-roller weevils any day now. Meantime, and I think this was my favourite find of the day by a country mile; I discovered this bright blue weevil...

A Blue Weevil (Byctiscus betulae)

And that is about all. Not bad for a couple of hours wandering the woods...