Life and death in the pond

I came across this brutal scene in the pond today - a grasshopper had made the mistake of leaping into the water and was being attacked by a pack of diving beetles who each had a fierce grip on the doomed orthopterid.

New family - Digger Wasps

I'm fairly sure that this is a wasp, reasonably convinced it is a digger wasp and minded that it is Ectemnius cephalotes but that is as far as I am willing to go. I have a constant source of insects flying into the house whenever it is sunny and the french windows are open but identifying them is not so easy.

July verges (2)

On the way to Monmouth is a tiny corner verge that has a delightful display of flowers including the increasingly uncommon Field Scabious. This is the bit of verge that I lobbied to be protected after the Scabious was cut down in full flower last year. Thanks to a sympathetic ear in the Highways department this area is now protected. I should go and do a survey to record the range of flora that can exist on a tiny patch of land that if it is left to flower each year.

July verges (1)

Whilst Monmouthshire County Council have not managed to follow through on the major reduction of unnecessary verge cutting they were planning, there are still a number of valuable verges around. This show of Common Spotted Orchids from a verge near the village is not supposed to be one of the formally protected ones but it has managed to escape the cutters this year. A few yards further along where the verge is protected there are many more orchids and also Rough Hawkbits, Knapweed and other delight.

New family - Cuckoo Wasps

I found a tiny insect that had expired in the house and couldn't find anything like it in my generalist insect books. With some help I understand it is a Cuckoo Wasp (the Chrysididae family)although I am not sure what species yet. They are mostly kleptoparisites laying eggs in their particular host's nests and then their larvae can feed on the host's eggs/larvae/foodstore. It has an iridescent metallic green abdomen - which made me think it was a beetle. The thorax however is a vivid violet blue and the head and wings made me think it was a fly. It is also tiny so the photo above is taken with my USB microscope.

Orchids 61 and 62 surprise me

I had settled on 60 orchids as the total count for 2015 but deep in the long grass some distance from other orchids I came across two more. That tips us over 25% as the increase on last year so a satisfactory year for orchids at least.

New species but not sure which....

I found a dead bee in the house and decided this was an ideal opportunity to nail down the bee species and add it to The Beeches species list. Not so simple. It turns out that the workers of Bombus terrestris and Bombus lucorum are to all intents and purposes identical short of dissection and that is precisely what I have.

The Marbled White arrives

This is for me the iconic butterfly of meadows in Monmouthshire. Its strong and distinctive flight and its striking colouration is usually around for just a couple of weeks in July. This year has arrived appropriately on 1 July which is earlier than previous years. Hopefully that means we shall have them around for most of the month.