🦗 bug hunter with a sketchbook. Blog and further artwork ↓
Joined November 2017
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Spurge hawkmoth (Hyles euphorbiae) larva from the Essex coast🤩 what an absolute stunner of a caterpillar!
#sphingidae #moths #lepidoptera #insects #entomology
Canthophorus impressus and its foodplant, Bastard Toadflax (Thesium humifusum) 😀
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #cydnidae #entomology
More Byrsinus flavicornis... What a lovely and very tiny little beastie! Not found in mainland UK though (yet).
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #cydnidae #entomology
Byrsinus flavicornis (left) vs Cornish Shieldbug (Geotomus punctulatus) from Jersey CI. Byrsinus is more squat and hairy, the difference is fairly easily observed with the naked eye. Both were a right pain to photograph though!
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #cydnidae #entomology #bugs
Best pictures under the scope for now but I managed to find 5 dead Menaccarus arenicola while trying to find Sciocoris in Jersey. A new species for me so certainly no complaints...
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #pentatomidae
Cornish shieldbugs (Geotomus punctulatus) were just about the only active bugs during a wet and windy Jersey morning...
#hemiptera #heteroptera #cydnidae
Hoplia coerulea is definitely one of the most striking little beetles out there🤩
#spain #chafers #melononthinae #scarabaeidae
Dryadocoris apicalis nymph, quite a rare shieldbug - no adults seen when these nymphs were found though. Feeding on Solanaceae. #spain #bugs #pentatomidae #hemiptera
Annie Northfield retweeted
This is amazing - I looked for this 30 yrs ago as a student in Yorkshire but never found it, obviously. I had this feeling to go north, but not north enough! Incredible what's out there waiting to be found! @BritishBugs
A new insect for Scotland?! 🪳
A visiting ecologist to Tireragan, Mull, recently found a rare type of juniper shield bug, thought extinct in the UK in 1925. This is believed to be the first record in the UK since then, and the first ever in Scotland.
Bug📸 Sam Newton
#Northwoods
ALT juniper shield bug (Chlorochroa juniperina) - a flat green beetle-like bug with a yellow band around its body
ALT A view from Tireragan on the Isle of Mull, looking out to sea and small archipelagos
Buthus sp. doing what it does best - glowing under UV light. As seen from the pieces of shed exoskeleton lying around, this guy was fresh and ready for action😄
#scorpions #arachnids #spain #entomology #invertebrates
The amazing Coptosoma scutellatum was quite a bit bigger than I expected! Very chuffed to find them in good numbers, on vetch next to a sunny roadside verge.
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #plataspidae #spain #insects #entomology
Myrmecophilus acervorum is possibly Europe's smallest cricket, and completely lacks stridulatory organs and wings, living inside ant nests. This was one of 10+ found in Spain in a Lasius nest under a rock.
#orthoptera #insects #entomology
The other Sciocoris (from this trip) - S. macrocephalus - feeding on Knautia fruit. The broader, longer head shape, pale shoulders and choice of foodplant seem to be fairly reliable indicators for this species. #shieldbugs #hemiptera #entomology #spain
Sciocoris maculatus from wild thyme. This one has several distinctive features including the head shape and large spots on the wing membrane. One of two Sciocoris species we found. #shieldbugs #hemiptera #entomology #spain
Brachynema purpureomarginatum, another beautiful shieldbug with rather limited records. Seen on Salicornia at the Ebro delta, a coastal hotbed for unusual species.
#shieldbugs #hemiptera #pentatomidae #entomology #spain
One of two huge flatbug nymphs from under a fallen beam, I believe these are Aradus versicolor. They were already 10mm long and not even fully grown yet 😄 #aradidae #hemiptera #bugs #entomology #spain
First shieldbug from eastern Spain, Psacasta tuberculata 😍 an understated species with a unique texture and shape that feeds on plants in the borage family, in this case Viper's Bugloss / Viborera (Echium vulgare). #hemiptera #scutelleridae #entomology
Phyllomorpha laciniata, the "golden egg bug". This species does sometimes lay eggs on the foodplant (Paronychia argentea) but will also stick its eggs to other individuals (both male and female) in order to increase nymph survival.
#coreidae #hemiptera #entomology #spain
It was great to see the stunning woodlouse Porcellio expansus in the wild. Those contrasting colours look gaudy outside its natural habitat, but break up the outline very effectively against rocks and leaf litter.
#isopoda #spain #crustaceans #entomology
