"For now we are young let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see" Neutral Milk Hotel.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Ringstead flowers and insects

As the weather was sunny and reasonably warm I went to Ringstead Downs this afternoon to walk the butterfly transect. On the transect itself I had 18 Peacock, 3 Orange Tip and 1 Comma.  There were quite a few other insects flying around, especially visiting the large patches of flowering Ground-ivy. Red-tailed Bumblebees were numerous and there were a few Bee-flies. I found a small bright metallic blue/green shieldbug on the south-facing slope. Unfortunately it crawled out of sight before I could get a decent photo of it. It seems to fit the description of the Blue Shieldbug Zicrona caerulea although the habitat doesn't seem quite right.



Among the plants flowering were some small plants of Field Mouse-ear Cerastium arvense on the south-facing slope.  This one seems to have been nibbled!


1 comment:

  1. Wow! Looks spot on & habitat sounds OK.
    http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Pentatomidae/zicrona_caerulea.html

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