Tag Archives: Soldier Beetle

Hutchinson’s Bank, Grey July Day, Brilliant!

Toadflax Brocade moth caterpillar on Purple Toadflax
White-Tailed Bumblebee on Greater Knapweed
A Spotted Hoverfly on Weld
Crab Spider on Pyramidal Orchid
Soldier Beetles on Wild Carrot
Soldier Beetles Mating
Marbled White
Six-Spot Burnet Moth
Kidney Vetch
Female Small Skipper
Marjoram, a characteristic flower of Chalk Grassland
Parasitic Wasp
Chrysomelid Flower Beetle on ? Rough Hawkbit
Plume Moth
Pyramidal Orchids in Chalk Grassland
In the evening, I gave my ‘Urban Nature Reserve’ talk to a local group

Insects (and Flowers) of Chalk Grassland at Aston Rowant

6-Spot Burnet Moth side view with proboscis nectaring on Marjoram, antennae iridescent blue. Extremely flighty on a really hot day!
6-Spot Burnet Moth on Marjoram, Red on Iridescent Green (like the related Forester Moth, which flies here earlier in the year)
6-Spot Burnet Moth on Marjoram, same insect, looking Red on Black. The brilliant conspicuous coloration is evidently aposematic, more or less honestly warning that the insects are toxic, containing cyanogenic glucosides. A recent article finds, however, that the most toxic burnet moths are not more aposematic, i.e. there is no quantitative relationship. (But wouldn’t the less toxic moths evolve to look like the most toxic ones, as it’s safer…)
Moulting Grasshopper
Hoverfly on St John’s Wort
A magnificently large Parasitic Wasp on Hogweed
Soldier Beetle on Hogweed
Pyrausta nigrata: a beautiful chocolate-brown Micro Moth of downland with a wavy wing bar, among the wild Thyme (that’s how small it is)
Common Blue butterfly on Self-Heal
Marbled White on Scabious
Dark Green Fritillary (with quaking-grass above). Not only rare, but very flighty! I was happy to get this long shot through the grass.

There were also Small Whites, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, Small Skippers, and possibly Chalkhill Blues about.

A magnificently short, gnarly Beech getting a good toe-hold on the Chalk
Well this probably is a Chiltern Gentian, the flowers are large, and showier than the Autumn Gentian; pinker than the camera has made it look, too