It ain't half hot Mum

A sweltering day, but Chris and I were determined to go out. I'd had my pills and so was fit to go whilst Chris had packed her bags to go to the Buddhist Centre at Thornby. So medication and meditation were the order of the day.


I swept a fine Red-legged Shieldbug from an oak tree just inside Kentle Wood. It was such a dark specimen that I at first though it was a different species but no, Pentatoma rufipes it was.

This was a particularly dark example of the Red-legged Shieldbug

Kentle Wood, Daventry. 16 July, 2019

The black and white chequered connexivum (just showing, left, rear) and the bright yellow tip to the scutellum are distinctive. A handsome beast!


There were quite a few butterflies on the wing but only four species were represented: Meadow Brown (lots), Gatekeeper (a few), Skippers (just one, too fleeting to be identified) and one Marbled White. The last species paused long enough for a photograph.

As this was the only Marbled White I saw it was lucky that it paused long

enough for a photograph. Kentle Wood, 16 July, 2019

Like the Meadow Brown and the Gatekeeper, its caterpillars feed on grasses. No shortage there. 

As is often the case the Gatekeeper (once known as the Hedge Brown) refused to play ball and kept its wings closed, but the double white dots on the forewing is distinctive.

Gatekeepers were very common so I ought to have done better with my

photograph. Kentle Wood, 16 July, 2019

Oak leaves are now getting extensively mined. They aren't always pretty but they are pretty useful (see what I did there?) in establishing what insects are present. So this distinctive mine shows that Dyseriocrania subpurpurella is around.

The mines of Dyseriocrania subpurpurella were extremely common on oak.

Kentle Wood, 16 July, 2019

It's another case of a tiny moth bearing an inordinately long 'Latin' name. Its English name is the Common Oak Purple, but I doubt that many people actually call it that.

Almost the last sweep of the net landed a pair of Hawthorn Shieldbugs. I let them go for their good work to continue. Bless!

Hawthorn Shieldbugs.  Need I elaborate? Kentle Wood.

16 July, 2019