I’m very good at finding insects, in fact I’m a professional. Books on shieldbugs, wasps, ants, dung, limericks. Shout ‘weird bug!’ to get my attention.
Joined September 2011
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May 18
Official publication date 14 May, so now available in all good bookshops.
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One and a half butterflies. The painted lady looks about 70% gone. The small tort freshly emerged. Rochester today.
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Jun 10
I know a few spiders. This one is very handsome. Tibellus oblongus. Widespread but local. Rochester.
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Jun 10
Coolest bug of the day, Variimorda villosa, no common name other than vague ‘tumbling flower beetle’. Scarce, mostly south-east England. Rochester.
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Jun 10
The good thing about damp cool after rain is that you can sneak up really close to otherwise rather flighty subjects — common blue. Near Rochester.
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Jun 10
I’d like to suggest this for worst bug picture of the day that still just about does the job. Athous bicolor. Near Rochester.
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Jun 10
Bug-hunter becomes the hunted — Haematopota probably pluvialis. Cleg. Blood-sucker. Targets wrists and neck. It has beautiful eyes.
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Orobanche minor, Common broomrape, I think. Always a peculiar sight. Likely parasitic in the bird’s-foot trefoil in the picture. Rochester yesterday.
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Sorry about poor photo down the microscope, but Stelis ornatula was new to me yesterday, North Dpwns near Maidstone. Rare SE England species.
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Glaphyra umbellatarum, only the second time I’ve ever seen this strange longhorn beetle with its extremely short wing-cases. Maidstone yesterday.
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Chrysolina oricalcia, nationally scarce but actually quite widespread, throughout England at least. Spreading I think. Always tricky to photograph a domed shiny dark blue beetle.
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Fave fly of the day, Tachina fera, internal parasitoid of various moth caterpillars. Has a distinctive direct darting flight from one flower to another, unlike the slightly lazy looking side-to-side sizing up of many flies, bees and wasps.
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Don’t see Cryptocephalus bipunctatus every day. Loads on the North Downs near Maidstone today.
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Richard Jones retweeted
Proof prints have just arrived for what will probably be my swan song. 4,000 illustrations of 2,000 species, edited with the greatest expertise by Phil Sterling & Mark Parsons. Proofs look fantastic, published 26 November 2026. bloomsbury.com/uk/richard-le…
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May 30
Just been sent photo of this lovely beast from Majorca. Timarcha balearica? Endemic to Balearics. Shinier and greener than T. tenebricosa large and T. goettingensis small we get in British Isles. Large was a childhood favourite of mine on the South Downs 55 years ago.
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May 28
Gothic beast, mating pair Sicus ferrugineus, bee-grabber flies, internal parasitoids of bumblebees. Ovipositor is a tin-opener, used to pry open abdominal segments of the host to lay an egg inside. Grub eats bee alive from inside. Not all nature is cute and cuddly, folks.
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May 28
No spot ladybird, a more discreet form of the harlequin, Harmonia axyridis.
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May 27
Lovely to see Agapanthia cardui again near Maidstone. Several localities in the area now.
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May 26
I wasn’t able to catch the large male stag beetle Lucanus cervus which went flying past the end of the garden 15 minutes ago. But I was able to catch this lesser stag, Dorcus parallelipipedus flying over a few minutes later.
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May 26
Rhopalus subrufus in the shade, so not really showing off its pretty colours and pattern.
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