The riverside here has a good diversity of insects - and we hope to increase the diversity. Native insects in general are beneficial and essential to the ecology - the country as a whole is suffering a huge decline, especially of pollinating insects such as bees - but we should not forget the beetles!
This is a male Flower Beetle - Oedemera nobilis (or thick legged beetle if you are looking at a male)
on a river bank Bramble flower (June 2016)
On 17th June 2016 it was overcast with more rain, warm and humid but with glimpses of sun now and again. A rather puzzling white butterfly was seen on the riverbank vegetation - it clearly had no spots on its wings and continued basking with wings spread - preventing me from seeing its outer wings. Usually it's the other way round, where butterflies remain closed.. In shape and size it was similar to a Green-veined White but having only seen these with black spots, one on each wing, I discounted it and also discounted the possibility of it being a female Orange tip or a Large or Small White.
A butterfly expert however, immediately identified it as a Spring brood male Green-veined White
which was good, as Green-veined Whites (spring brood) have been very scarce this year.
Spring brood male Green-veined White
on Cleavers - no - it wasn't stuck and swiftly flew off!Moving on from the river bank into the wild field, the grasses were outpacing any other plants in the continuously damp weather, but hiding amongst the grasses were substantial clumps of Lesser Stitchwort:
Lesser Stichwort (Stellaria graminea) growing strongly through the meadow grasses
As soon as the sun appeared, bees thronged the flowering plants alongside the stony path - here a Garden Bumblebee attracted to the White Clover moving very fast from flower to flower:
Garden Bumblebee Bombus hortorum on clover
No comments:
Post a Comment