Downdetector is a handy website if you want to know if it's just you or whichever site you're trying to reach. :)

A furry black and yellow bee hangs upside down from a red flower with a background of blue sky and a brick-built house. This is one of the UK’s largest bees, which makes it awkward for them to access nectar from runner bean flowers. Sadly, they have discovered the simpler technique of biting their way in at the base of the flower to get that prize, which kills the flower… so I have no bean to harvest.

Bumble bee (probably Bombus terrestris)
#bugoftheday

Bees are generally regarded as valuable pollinators. A few years ago I noticed this is not always true.

@ineslauradawson.bsky.social

A white ball of silk is held in a loosely woven net of a golden thread. It is backlit and darker patches suggest a cluster of eggs inside the silk ball. Found attached to a fine wood fibre on a split log, this could almost be a Christmas decoration but for its size, it’s just 3.5mm across. Pirate spiders are nocturnal and prey on other spiders by tickling a web to attract the attention of the owner, then quickly biting a leg and retreating while the venom takes effect.

Egg sac of a Pirate spider (Ero tuberculata?)
#bugoftheday

I’m not a fan of most roses. While the flowers are attractive, they’re usually poorly presented at the end of long bare prickly stems.
That, however, is one I’d like if I had the space. And if it was available in the UK. 😅

Apologies to any sightless visitors, I had neglected the visual descriptions for some shots. The butterfly has its wings folded showing the greenish undersides and is still straightening the tips The eyes are particularly fascinating, the dark spots seem to have a slightly three dimensional quality. Also visible is its neatly coiled tongue.

While the wings stiffen the butterfly can only walk and can be picked up easily, so here it is sitting on my wrist.

Now thoroughly late for work, I transferred the insect to a flower stem in the oregano patch to let it complete the process undisturbed and with nectar to hand.

For about a week freshly hatched butterflies emerged, mostly from cocoons that were so well hidden that I was still finding the empty husks years later. From my initial estimate of about eight caterpillars on the leaves I had brought in, the final tally was closer to fifty. All safely released, doubtless to inflict more damage to the vegetable patch.

Large White butterfly (Pieris brassicae)
#bugoftheday

Metamorphosis part three
An adult at last! The final bit of unfurling, followed by about an hour where the insect recovers from its exertions and waits for the wings to become stiff enough to use.

It's rear is still attached to the surface, as is the safety belt. It was thrashing vigorously despite those constraints.

Half an hour later it had managed to split the case at "shoulder" level and the struggle continued.

It was clearly a tiring process, but it was free at last. Also, I was getting late for work, but stuck around to watch the wings unfurl.

What I hadn't expected was the drop of poop it expelled. That it had accumulated some waste to get rid of after ten days was not surprising, but it was bright red, exactly like fresh blood.

Large White butterfly (Pieris brassicae)
#bugoftheday

Metamorphosis part two
After about ten days I spotted a pupa twitching on a loose bit of laminated chipboard, so took it outside where the light was better in the hope of seeing the butterfly emerge.

After a few weeks and many kale leaves the larvae were quite large and my kitchen was horribly malodorous. At this point they stopped feeding and showed a desire to wander, the next morning I discovered caterpillars clinging to surfaces all over the room… and that I’d underestimated their numbers.

The caterpillar, having selected a suitable spot, glues its rear end down and creates a silk safety cord (around its middle and secured to the wal). Annoyingly, I missed that part of the process, so maybe it makes the loop of silk first and reverses under it?

The next stage was to shed its skin and wriggling that down to its tail end where, after a lot of thrashing about, the exuvia finally broke away. It seems odd this is necessary as it seemed unlikely that the old skin would have been in the way, but I guess they know best.

With everything tidied away to its satisfaction, the chrysalis forms its characteristic shape, hardens and darkens.

Large White butterfly (Pieris brassicae)
#bugoftheday

Metamorphosis (part one)
One June I brought in a few leaves of kale from the garden which were being eaten by a few Large White butterfly caterpillars. I monitored their progress over the next few weeks…

A large (40mm) very hairy dark brown caterpillar with an orange stripe running down the centre of its back. One of the fastest caterpillars it could move quickly enough to make photography awkward. As the name suggests the adult is a beautiful furry-bodied moth with white wings speckled with black.

White Ermine moth larva (Spilosoma lubricipeda)
#bugoftheday

Cellar spider (along with craneflies and harvestmen, commonly called “daddy-longlegs”) hangs upside down from a sparse and untidy web. Only about 8mm long in the body, it has disproportionately long legs and a slender abdomen. It carries a large egg sac in its jaws. These are a very common indoor spider and, despite their weak venom and delicate appearance are effective predators of most other spider species. Their spindly legs and fast movements mean even giant house spiders have little defence against them, simply being overwhelmed by the cellar spider’s rapid silk production. They have the habit, when disturbed, of demonstrating their speed by jiggling so fast they seem to vanish.

Cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides)
#bugoftheday

A pair of mating earthworms stretch right across frame, hind ends securely attached to their respective tunnels and front ends bonded from head to saddle. Famously hermaphrodite, both will lay eggs. When ready to lay, the worm sloughs off the clittelum (saddle) depositing the eggs and sperm in it and forming a cocoon where fertilisation takes place and development starts. In spring the minute young worms emerge and will reach adulthood in around six to eight months.

Common Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris)
#bugoftheday

I narrowly avoided this amorous couple one damp summer night after work. Hopefully, the brief flash from the camera didn’t disturb them.

Not as good as the US fixing their abysmal tax legislation that makes renunciation so appealing for Americans who live permanently overseas, but at least buying their freedom is now less punitive.

Too late for me as it’s not a retrospective change, but good news for anyone wanting to renounce US citizenship: the fee for doing so is being reduced to $450 (from $2350).

One of the UK’s most spectacular butterflies with colourful wings spanning about 65mm. The body has a brown furry appearance and the head sports a pair of antennae about 14mm long with clubbed tips. Forewings are mainly red, but the forward tip has a red and black patch in a white circle on a black background giving an eye-like appearance. The outer edge is bordered with a greyish brown band and the leading edge has a speckled black and white band near the head. The hind wing follows roughly the same design, but the ‘eye’ is better defined. They are quite common and can be found in temperate regions across Europe and Asia as far as Japan. Adults feed on nectar from a wide variety of flowers, Eggs are usually laid in nettles and develop into black spiky caterpillars.

Peacock butterfly (Aglias io)
#bugoftheday

A slender fly is at rest, facing left. The abdomen is covered by the neatly folded wings which are banded light and dark brown. The head and thorax are a glossy black and the eyes are a dark red. Aside from the prominent palps which almost look like extra legs, the main feature is the pair of unusually long antennae which are striped yellow and black, the left is swept back at an angle, the right one is at roughly ninety degrees and extends to the top of frame. They are approximately 25% longer than the body of the insect. This is one of many species of caddisfly in the UK. Most of their life is aquatic, with just head and legs protruding from a protective case made of silk with bits of grit and sand stuck to the outside.

Grouse Wing Caddisfly (Mystacides longicornus)
#bugoftheday

Like a tiny crocodile, ladybird larvae are fearsome predators, albeit of aphids. Harmonia, the Asian ladybird, is invasive in the UK, though I’m always happy to see them.

To pupate, the larva glues its rear end to a suitable surface and wriggles the final moult down to that end. The fresh surface hardens to form a protective carapace within which the metamorphosis to adult form takes place.

Larva of Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)
#bugoftheday

A fly with large eyes, black thorax and an abdomen with stripes of pale yellow and black sits on a blue flower of Ithuriel’s Spear (Triteleia laxa). This colouration and pattern has evolved to mimic that of wasps to deter predators. The eyes are well separated, in common with most species of hoverfly this denotes a female, males have eyes that almost meet.

Common banded hoverfly (syrphus ribesii)
bugoftheday

View shows the fly on a yellow corn marigold flower. It is facing away giving a clear view of wing venation and abdomen striped in yellow, white and black. In 2021 I dug over my front lawn, which has always been full of weeds/moss and sowed some wildflower seeds. It was very successful that first year and attracted a lot of insects. I had high hopes for it, but in subsequent years flower numbers and variety declined. Last year it grew little aside from couch grass so over winter I turned the soil over again and reseeded. Things are starting to emerge, hopefully the weather will cooperate, a lack of rain in spring was really what caused last year’s failure.

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
bugoftheday

Human chain equipped with buckets?

A green caterpillar initially, they become darker as they grow and usually hide in soil or leaf litter during the day. The caterpillar reaches about 40mm length and after pupation becomes one of the UK’s larger moths. A pest of brassicas, though I found this one on dogwood.

Cabbage moth caterpillar (Mamestra brassicae)
#bugoftheday

I know I posted an example of the species a while back, but this one that I accidentally picked with a raspberry has fewer scales worn off. Also the casual butt scratch amused me.

Another nettle weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)
Managed to post the wrong image yesterday, this was the one I'd intended :)
#bugoftheday

Victorian church in Berkshire with steeple refurbishment underway as an airliner on the downwind leg to Heathrow flies by in the distance. The old shingles had endured decades of weather and the attentions of woodpeckers resulting in holes that gave access for rooks to nest.

A church near me is having its steeple re-shingled.

Had a bit of a problem with depth of field due to the angle, but it’s good enough to show the colouration. One of the orb weaver tribe, usually making a neat web of about 30cm diameter, though this may be suspended by much longer lines The small abdomen and large “boxing glove” palps indicate this is a male.

Garden/Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus)
#bugoftheday

Not a large cranefly species at about 15mm body length, but one of our prettiest with a yellow and black colour scheme. The male (left) is relatively small. Eggs are laid in soil and the larvae (leatherjackets) eat plant roots.

Tiger craneflies (Nephrotoma flavipalpis) mating
#bugoftheday

Quite an old photo taken on a 3 MP Canon compact zoom to which I’d bodged an 35mm Pentax wide-angle lens, mounted backwards so the “film” end was towards the subject to minimise lens distortions. Zooming the camera’s lens to maximum avoided vignetting and gave a surprisingly crisp image.

Angle Shades are pretty moths, but this larva had been parasitised by an ichneumon fly (probably Apanteles glomeratus), the first larvae of which have emerged to form cocoons.

Parasitised Angle Shades moth caterpillar (Phlogophora meticulosa)
# bugoftheday

Spotted resting on the wall of my house one evening, the long “nose” and neat delta shape reminded me of Britain’s cold war Vulcan bomber.

Snout moth (Hypena proboscidalis)
# bugoftheday

Glossy green and yellow slug-like larvae, each about 4mm long, feed communally on the underside of an oak leaf. They have scraped each leaf cell leaving the upper membrane intact as a pale brown “window”. “Sawfly” is a very general term for insects with a saw-like ovipositor. Tenthredinidae narrows the choice down to about 400 species in the UK, these are probably in the Heterarthrus genus which covers 23 species, but identification of larvae is unreliable as they have fewer distinguishing features so tend not to be covered well in the literature.

Oak Sawfly larvae (Tenthredinidae/Heterarthrinae sp?) 
# bugoftheday

I saw Ramin Nakisa’s podcast interview with fund manager Jasmin Yeo of Ruffer yesterday, then looked at the fund’s performance. It was marginally better than shoving cash under the mattress. Which I guess was why discussion of actual results hadn’t featured heavily.