Big Butterfly Count
Yesterday was the first day of the Big Butterfly Count. Here are some of the park’s butterflies to encourage you to sign up.
Southwick Country Park’s BUTTERFLIES 2019 list
big butterfly count
Every year since 2010, Butterfly Conservation has conducted a survey of the country’s butterflies using thousands of volunteer citizen scientists. Last year over 100,000 volunteers took part.
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This extraordinary creature is the nymph of a speckled bush cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). It is an inadvertent portrait: the photographer was focusing on the flowers of the common vetch and only found the bush cricket when the picture was enlarged for detail.
More tiny creatures here:
Peacock butterflies
Four nests of peacock caterpillars have been photographed in the park this year and we hope there are more. Those caterpillars will be pupating soon and we will begin to see the new adults this month.
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Six-spot burnet moth
Six-spot burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae) seen in Village Green. The adults feed on the nectar of the thistles and knapweed that grow there. They lay their eggs on the caterpillar’s food plant, birdsfoot trefoil, among the grass.
![birdsfoot trefoil by Horia Varlen [CC BY 2.0]](https://southwickcountrypark.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/birdsfoot-trefoil-by-horia-varlen-cc-by-2.0.jpg?w=736)
Mail from DKG
” Took these early this morning whilst the butterflies were still resting. A Gatekeeper and one other which may be a Meadow Brown or may not. There were so many of them in The Triangle near the picnic area.”
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.….. and a small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris), which is number sixteen on our list.
Image: Creative Commons
Three more butterflies for our 2019 list and two more peacock nests; things are finally looking better.
Continue readingPart two of Ian’s walk
After he had polished the mud off his glasses, Ian Bushell continued his survey of the park:
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Here is a fascinating little video of a peacock butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. We know that there are at least two nests of peacock caterpillars in the park so, by the end of July, we should see these beautiful adults.
A new species seen in the park on two occasions last week: A cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopus) spotted, identified and photographed by Ian Bushell.
Continue readingAsian hornets
Click here for facts rather than tabloid fictionsAsian hornet warning: Hundreds of killer insects set to plague the UK this summer
Daily Express
A buff tailed bumble bee collecting nectar from hogweed at Puddle Corner while, in the background, the Friends of the Park clear a fallen willow from the path.
Nettle bed safari
If you look closely enough, you can see that the nettles are beginning to flower. If you look even closer you will find a whole miniature ecosystem living in the nettle bed: sap suckers, nectar feeders, predators and terrifying creatures that hunt the predators.
Read onMeadow brown
Lots of meadow browns yesterday morning among the long grass. Added to our 2019 butterfly list, they are the eleventh species of butterfly seen in the park this year.
Continue reading “Meadow brown”Another new species
A yellow-barred longhorn moth (Nemophora degeerella) found and photographed in the nettles near the park’s main entrance by Ian Bushell. It is a new addition to our species lists.
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