On the winter’s coldest day so far, let’s look back to the summer for a while: here is Simon Knight’s picture of a golden-bloomed longhorn beetle sunbathing among the grass stems.
Black and yellow
In the world of invertebrates, black and yellow signals danger. It says to predators: I am poisonous or I will bite you.
Read on to discover more:Jerusalem artichoke
There are Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) flowering down by the Lambrok tributary stream. They have been there for three or four years now and are spreading along the bank.
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Insect losses
In the UK the populations of our more common butterflies have fallen by 46% in the last 50 years while the rarer species have declined by 77%. We have lost 60% of our flying insects in just 20 years. We have entirely lost 13 species of our native bees since the 1970s and fully expect more to follow.
Continue readingIvy flowers
The reserve’s ivy flowers between September and November; each plant’s flowering season is quite short but a succession of plants flowers all through the autumn. The flowers are small, green and yellow, and so insignificant-looking that many people don’t realise that that they are flowers at all.
Read on:Camouflage
A recent study has found that the best kind of camouflage, out there in the wildwood, is pretending to be an inanimate object.
Continue reading “Camouflage”Wasps
By the end of the summer, the workers in a wasp nest will have finished raising and feeding the new queen larvae. The larvae have spun caps over their cells and begun the process of pupation. This indicates a change for the nest.
Read on:Honey bees
Unlike common wasps, honey bees (Apis mellifera) don’t die at the end of the summer. The hive stores enough food for the queen and the workers to survive through the winter.
Continue reading “Honey bees”
European hornet
Clive Knight has finally found the European hornets’ nest we always knew was somewhere in the reserve and sent us this charming picture.
Hornets
Although we haven’t yet found a nest, there are always European hornets working somewhere in the reserve. Here is an astonishing video of hornets in flight.
Video by nature photographer, Lothar Lenz, published by Caters Clips.
Wasp time
There are six species of social wasp that are native to Britain and this is a good time of year to identify them.
Continue reading “Wasp time”
How to tell a grasshopper from a cricket
- The most visible difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have very long antennae while grasshoppers’ antennae are short.
Green nettle weevil
Another new identification for the reserve; a green nettle weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus) reported in May this year by Charles Land.
Continue readingGolden-bloomed longhorn beetle
Occasionally, we delve into our species lists for a closer look at some of the reserve’s more unobtrusive and less fluffy residents. Today it’s the turn of the golden-bloomed longhorn beetle (Agapanthia villosoviridescens), first identified and photographed by our wildlife photographer, Simon Knight, in the summer of 2020.
Continue reading “Golden-bloomed longhorn beetle”
Tree bumblebee
This fluffy bee is Bombas hypnorum, a tree bumblebee, photographed yesterday in the reserve by Clive Knight.
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Another ichneumon wasp!
Continue readingIchneumon wasp
This is an ichneumon wasp feeding on hogweed near Lambrok Stream.
Continue reading “Ichneumon wasp”Garden Bumblebee
This post was first published in July 2018
This is a garden bumble bee (Bombus hortorum) collecting nectar in a spear thistle flower at the edge of the large pond.
These photographs were taken by the late DKG in July of 2018
Continue reading “Garden Bumblebee”Light pollution
According the the Countryside Charity CPRE, light pollution is falling, dropping sharply during the pandemic lockdowns and continuing to fall as the cost of electricity soars. This is good news!
Continue reading “Light pollution”Queen wasp
This post was first published in June 2019
A queen wasp (Vespula vulgaris) in the hedge in Sleepers Field.
Continue reading “Queen wasp”
Weekend photography
by Simon Knight
The weekend of May 21st and 22nd was pretty special for me in the reserve.
Continue readingFig gall
This is a fig gall on an elm leaf in the hedge between Sleepers and Cornfield. It is caused by Tetraneura ulmi, an elm-grass root aphid with a very complicated and quite astonishing life cycle.
Continue reading “Fig gall”Small Tortoiseshell Caterpillars
The female small tortoiseshell butterfly lays her eggs on nettles. Every year there are small tortoiseshell caterpillars somewhere among the nettles next to the path as you walk up the hill through Simpson’s Field.
Continue reading “Small Tortoiseshell Caterpillars”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 