Thunder thighs

Male

Here's another insect that has been everywhere so far this summer, though somehow, I'd never seen one before this year. It's a Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) — identified as a male by those distinctively swollen back legs. The female is thinner and lacks those big "thighs" (known as "femora" in insects), though she shares the pointed elytra (a fancy word for the hard coverings that protect the wings) with the noticable gap in the middle. They're found in a variety of open habitats and feed on pollen, so we're seeing plenty in the flower borders at the moment, crawling over anything that's blooming. The larvae live in herb stems. Widespread in southern and western Europe, this species has been rapidly expanding its range in England since 1995. It flies from April through August, so we'll be seeing a lot of them for a while, I think.

Female

Red Admiral

One of our most common butterflies so far this year has been the handsome Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). Though they overwinter as adults further south in Europe, they don't do so successfully very often in Britain, so most (or all) of the ones we see here are migrants from the mainland. According to Collins Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe, these butterflies spend a lot of time basking on walls (like the one I photographed was doing) and rock faces. They lay their eggs on the tip of a leaf (preferably one in a sunny spot), and once the larva hatches, it rolls the leaf up and feeds from within the rolled-up tube. They're one of the reasons we leave a bit of Common Nettle standing in a corner or two of the garden; that and various pellitory species are among the host plants for the larvae, while the adults love any nectar-rich flower. We'll be seeing them right through October — or even later, if it stays warm enough!

Labyrinth

While working in the garden yesterday, I found this rather fearsome beastie chopping up a caterpillar that had strayed onto its web. It's a Labyrinth Spider (Agelena labyrinthica), which builds a big sheet web with a large funnel low in the vegetation. According to Britain's Spiders, they often build their webs in gorse, heather or brambles, but this one had chosen an as-yet-unidentified plant along the edge of the flower border. (It's only in leaf at the moment, and we can't remember what we planted there!) The Labyrinth Spider is a widespread species in southern England and Wales, but only rarely found north and west, and missing completely from Scotland and Ireland. It's not QUITE as big as it looks here; its body was probably only about 1/2 an inch (8-9 mm)  long, though its long legs made it seem much bigger. Its dark abdomen with the pale medial stripe and pale chevrons is distinctive, as is its carapace (the front end) with the alternating bands of light and dark (light on the lateral edges and the center, with darker stripes between). The large pedipalps (those "boxing gloves" extending from the front of its body) suggest that it's a male. These appendages, which are used in sperm transfer, are considerably larger and more swollen in shape in males than in females.

Shepherd's Purse

Most of our Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) is going to seed now, the tiny, rather insignificant white flowers replaced by eye-catching heart-shaped seed pods. Supposedly, those seed pods look a bit like the tiny purses people used to hang from their belts, which is how the flower got its common name. This weedy wildflower is an archeophyte — that is, it was introduced to the British Isles before 1500. It may not have been a deliberate introduction; instead the seeds may have been carried in on clothing or livestock fur or wagon wheels from mainland Europe, where it is widespread. However, it has been widely known as a medicinal plant since the time of the Romans, so it may have been transported for that reason. (Pliny the Elder, for example, called the seeds an important laxative and aphrodisiac.) The plant is still used in herbal medicines in parts of Europe and Asia, its leaves are added to salads or cooked as vegetables, and its peppery seed pods are sometimes used as a replacement for mustard seeds.

Yorkshire Fog

Now that summer is here, our "meadow" is really coming into its own. Calling our relatively tiny patch of tall grass a meadow is a bit of a stretch, but the mix of gracefully swaying grasses with wildflowers nestled among their stems is delightful to look at — and we're finding lots of small invertebrates thriving there, including some that are in serious decline across most of Britain. The lovely pink grass flowers pictured here are Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus), which flowers from June to September in Britain. It's widespread across the country as it can tolerate a wide range of soil types; it can become a problem in cereal crop fields and drier pastures, where its resulting hairiness makes it less palatable to livestock. This perennial forms tufts and can crowd out other species, reducing species diversity, so we'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure that doesn't happen in our garden. Right now though, we're enjoying the "fog"!

Longhorn

Say "longhorn" to a Texan, and they're likely to picture a cow with some really long, pointy horns — the kind that could do some serious damage if they decided to stick you with one. Say "longhorn" to a naturalist, however, and they're liable to picture something else entirely — namely a group of insects with very long antennae. We had our first longhorn show up in the garden earlier this week. Agapanthia villosoviridescens, also known as the Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle, is a bit of an eyeful, with a bright yellow thoracic stripe and short yellow hairs all over its wing coverings. And how about those stripey antennae?! The whole insect measures 10-25 mm (i.e. the biggest is just under an inch long), not counting those extraordinary antennae. This species is pretty restricted in Britain, occuring regularly only in East Anglia and a few adjacent counties. Its larvae develop in the stems of various herbaceous plants (particularly thistles, and we have a boatload of those at the far end of the garden) and the adults feed on flowers, generally in damp places. According to Collins Complete British Insects, we can expect to see them from May through July.

Smooth

While clearing some taller grasses from along a planter near the house last evening, Mike discovered this little Smooth Newt huddled under some piled flagstones. It didn't move — never even blinked — during the minutes that we watched and photographed it. This is probably a female; during the breeding season, which runs from February to June, males develop a wavy crest along their backs, and this one showed no sign of that. Though I always think of newts as water creatures, they're often found on land outside of the breeding season, though typically they still haunt damp places (under piles of stones and leaves, for example). They hunt invertebrates, both in the water and on land. This is Britain's most widespread newt, found throughout most of the islands. It's declining in the north and west, however. We've been talking about putting a small pond in, somewhere in the garden. I guess we'd better hurry up with that!

Hunter and hunted

It's a jungle out there. The drama of life and death is happening in our garden every day, with some of its residents hunting down and eating others. This particular drama was taking place on one of the gnarled old branches of an apple tree. The white "fuzzy stuff" is a pile of Wooly Apple Aphids (Eriosoma lanigerum), a bothersome little pest that sucks the juice (and the life) out of apple trees across the world. It's actually native to North America, but was accidentally introduced to Great Britain back in the late 1700s. Equally unfortuitous introductions have been made to virtually every other apple-producing region of the world, and this little insect is proving to be a serious problem for apple growers. Fortunately for us, help is at hand. Ladybirds, including the Pine Ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus) lurking in their vicinity in the photo above, are aphid specialists. Many ladybird species eat literally thousands of adult aphids during their relatively short lives — and that's after they've eaten hundreds more as larvae.

Pine Ladybirds are widespread in southern and central England, and more local north and west. We've seen a lot of them around lately, particularly on the apple tree, where they appear to have found the buffet table. Generally, adults overwinter in the foliage of evergreen trees and shrubs (hence their common name), but during the rest of the year, they're found on a variety of trees. Here's hoping they like what's on the menu and stay awhile!

Immigrants

Today, like much of the rest of eastern England, we were inundated with Painted Ladies. They've been coming for days, fluttering north across Europe (where they were reported in their thousands on the eastern Mediterannean islands and in eastern Europe), pushed by southerly winds. This is a migrant species in much of Europe, moving progressively north from Africa as spring advances, eventually reaching as far as the Arctic Circle in some places; some years, they've even made it as far as Iceland! Some of them have clearly had an arduous journey; the photo below shows one that's missing much of both hindwings and a considerable percentage of its scales. It was still flying strongly though. This is an incredibly widespread species, found nearly everywhere in the world, though not in South America. Its larvae use a very wide range of host plants, but thistles are a favorite — and we have a corner of the garden full of them. It's nice to know we're doing our part to help ensure a further generation of these beautiful creatures. From one immigrant to another, I say "Live long and prosper"!

We've got the blues

Right now, much of one of our flower beds is stuffed full of Field Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis). It's a wild plant, an annual or (more typically) biennial that thrives in a variety of habitats, including fields, meadows, rocky outcrops, yards and gardens. As you can probably see from the pictures, it's hairy on the leaves, stems and flower buds. The flowers themselves are small, but profuse and the smaller pollinators love them — which is why we've allowed the plants a toehold in the garden, even though they try very hard to take over. Once they've finished flowering, we'll thin them out a bit to allow the next wave of plants to emerge. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the show!