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Tag Archives: red-legged shield bug

Beetles, bugs and spiders

03 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Beetles, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Insects, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, North Wales, plants important to wilflife, spiders, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

crab spider, flowering in July, froghopper, green shield bug, harebell, hogweed, mating red beetles on flowers, Nursery Web spider, red soldier beetle, red-legged shield bug, spider that makes web tents in grass, strangalia maculata, sulphur beetle, wild thyme, yellow and black beetle

July 15th

In the woods I spotted this extremely tiny froghopper, but only because he was struggling to extricate himself from a spider’s web built in ivy climbing up a tree trunk.

Tiny froghopper
Tiny froghopper
Tiny froghopper enlarged
Tiny froghopper enlarged

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (10)-Nursery-web spider 1In the meadow, the Nursery-web spider would probably have escaped my notice too if I hadn’t been trying to get closer to a butterfly in the brambles. More used to seeing this species web ‘tents’ on the ground in the grass, I wouldn’t have realised who had built this one if I hadn’t seen her guarding it.

Nursery web spider on brambles

There are some lovely wildflowers in bloom in the meadow amongst the grass, my current favourite are the delicate-looking harebells,

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Harebells 1

although I have always been fond of the sunshine yellow Lady’s Bedstraw

150712-46-Bryn Euryn-lady's bedstraw patch

but then there’s the Wild Thyme that is looking spectacular this year where a large patch of it cascades down the limestone rocks.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Wild Thyme 1

There’s a Cat’s Ear plant near that spot too, which nicely demonstrates both the flowers and the seedhead ‘clocks’ simultaneously.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr-Cat's Ear 1

Hogweed works at another level and is an invaluable food source for a whole host of insects from beetles to butterflies.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-flwr&vw-hogweed in long grass

Some of the insects feasting on the flowers today were Sulphur beetles, including dozens of tiny ‘baby’ ones

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (15)-Small Sulphur beetles on hogweed 1
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (19)-Sulphur beetle cloe-up
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (21)-Sulphur beetle on hogweed

A 7-spot ladybird, a so-far un-named brown beetle

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-7-spot ladybird-Coccinella 7-punctata (3a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (22)-no ID beetle

There were dozens of Red Soldier Beetles, many in the act of procreation as these beetles always seem to be. There was a little moth there with them, but again I haven’t discovered what it is yet.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (24)-Red soldier beetle
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva (7a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva (3a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Red soldier beetle-Rhagonycha fulva mating

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Crab spider victim trussed up

Whilst photographing a pair of mating Red soldier beetles, I noticed another beetle caught up in spider’s webbing. As I looked closer I spotted the head and front legs of a spider creeping up over the edge of the flower, then she darted out and begin to drag her victim backwards to where she had appeared from. This was a Crab spider, mistress of camouflage and deadly to insects that stray into her path regardless of their size. Cruel, but fascinating and quite a feat as the beetle was as least equal in size to her.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (26)-Crab spider dragging victim to edge of flower
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (27)-Crab spider with victim 1

Crab spiders are able to change their body colour to match their background. The process can take a few days, but they can appear white, yellow or green. The  irony of this scene struck me; a beetle life ended in full view of a pair of his kind in the act of procreating the species….

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (29)-Crab Spider rear view
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-Adder's Field (28)-Spider crab securing victim

The Crab spider show would take some beating, but my ‘discovery of the day’ was quite definitely a splendid large yellow and black beetle, Strangalia maculata, that surprisingly doesn’t appear to have a common name.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (1a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (10a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Strangalia maculata (7a)
150712TG-Bryn Euryn-btl-Yellow & black beetles 1

On another flowerhead another spider lurked, this time a small brown one, much enlarged in the photograph.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-bug-Shield bug 1In the long grass I spotted an insect flying and managed to keep an eye on where it landed, otherwise I would never have found it; a Gorse Shieldbug.

A bright fresh bronzy-coloured forest bug was more easily spotted.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn -bug-Forest bug-Red-legged ShieldbugPentatoma rufipes (1a)

Red-legged shield bug-Pentatoma rufipes

A peek at the oak trees revealed tiny acorns. The ones I photographed belonges to a  Sessile Oak – the acorns sit flat rather than hanging on stems as those of the Pedunculate Oak. Hopefully this will be a better year for them than last year was.

150710tg-Bryn Euryn-tree- Sessile Oak-baby acorns

Rain clouds were gathering – is it really summer?

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-view (3)

Highlighted text for Shieldbugs are links to more details about these insects in my ‘Species Collections’.

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‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

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