Bugs

The glorious weather continues (although the nights are still on the chilly side) and it was a trip to the garden centre, followed by strenuous work catching up on some of those put-off tasks. The lawn now has a 'meadow' section, that is to say, left to its own devices! Invertebrates found there today included Green Shield Bug,  Hawthorn Shield Bug and two of the pyralid moth Pyrausta aurata - all first records for the year. A male Xysticus cristatus (a c.6mm 'crab' spider) was turfed out of the kitchen in to the berberis shrub where, no doubt, it will prey on the pyralid, or, strangely enough, the ants which run up and down the Honeysuckle stem growing through said bush.

Garden moth trapping last night revealed:

•  648 White-shouldered House Moth -1
• 1906 Brimstone Moth - 1
• 2187 Common Quaker - 1
• 2190 Hebrew Character - 2

Hawthorn Shieldbug

Green Shieldbug

1361 Pyrausta aurata

Xysticus cristatus

1906 Brimstone Moth