You can't make an omelette...

...without breaking an egg, or so the saying goes (an excuse for many an act of political malfeasance). In this case the context was Byfield's pocket park, for when I arrived there this morning I had something of a shock.

Drastic control measures in Byfield Pocket Park. 24 July, 2019

About 150 square metres of vegetation had been cut down, leaving around half a doves young trees standing. But to be fair the rampant growth of hogweed, nettles and rose-bay willow herb did need clearing and the work has been done sympathetically and the most valuable patch in terms of wild flowers had been saved. This consisted of a strip of land on the south of the patch containing black knapweed, St John's wort, medick and some hogweed.

The most floriferous area has been spared.

Certainly lots of insect life remained. It consisted of, for the most part, commonplace species but I gathered a few specimens which, for the most part, I suspected would be new records for the site.

The Swollen-thighed Beetle, Oedemera nobilis, was common, and if the thighs (femorae)

look slim it's because this is a female.

The females of Oedemera nobilis lack the swollen thighs of the male.

Byfield Pocket Park, 24 July, 2019

Bugs were common too, almost to the point of abundance. Most people are probably not familiar with bugs but some are stunning insects. They differ from beetles in several respects but perhaps most distinctively in their mouthparts, a bug having a syringe-like mouth for piercing a plant (or animal) and extracting fluids. The species shown below seems to be Closterotomus norwegicus, strangely called the Potato Capsid Bug, though with no obvious links to taters.

Potato Capsid Bug on Black Knapweed. Byfield Pocket Park.

24 July, 2019

So, drastic management measures have been taken but the consequences should, given time, be beneficial.