A dandelion crammed with tiny bronze-black beetles. Our favourite entomologist emailed us:
They’re pollen beetles. Getting a positive ID is going to be impossible without sending me a specimen (and they’re too small!) but this time of year the most common species is the Common Pollen Beetle Meligethes aeneus.
Continue reading “Common pollen beetle”
Most of the Friends of Southwick Country Park are retirees, all of us inclined to begin sentences with: When I was a child….
Continue reading “Splatometer”
While exploring in our species lists, we found a report of a white letter hairstreak butterfly (Satyrium w-album), reported in 2017 by an expert observer. This is a real rarity, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species.
Continue reading “White letter hairstreak”
We have added three species of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) to our species lists this year. They have raised our total to a round dozen.
Continue reading “2019 review – part 4”
The temperature is dropping and we have already seen the first frosts. The park’s invertebrates are preparing for hibernation.
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Ian Bushell reports on cutting back the set-aside on the northern edge of Village Green with brush cutters.
Continue reading “Wet Wednesday cont.”
Pictures of a peacock butterfly taken by DKG during the summer.
This is a drone fly (Eristalis tenax), named for its mimicry of a male honeybee.
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A speckled wood (Pararge aegeriais) on hawthorn berries photographed last weekend by DKG.
Continue reading “Speckled wood”
Yesterday’s picture of an artichoke gall among oak tree leaves produced questions and enquiries from our readers via Messenger, Facebook and our website’s below-the-line comments column. Here is more information about oak gall wasps.
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By Ian Bushell
One of the quintessential sounds of summer is the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera). They are found all over the park, but probably the best places to see them are those areas of longer grass or bramble beside the many paths.
Continue reading “Orthoptera”
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”
Skippers are a family of Hesperiidae in the order of Lepidoptera; because they are diurnal, we generally called them butterflies but many authorities class them as a group intermediate between butterflies and moths. They are called skippers because of their rapid and darting flight.
Continue reading “Skippers”
There are funnel shaped webs low down in the dense vegetation of the park’s hedges and edges; what lives in them?
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Lepidoptera is the name of the order that butterflies and moths belong to.
Click here for five fascinating facts about lepidoptera
