Bugs Galore

To ring the changes - just a little - I visited Foxhill Farm today.  In the flowery pastures were millions of bugs. The term 'bug' is used very casually today: we have hospital bugs, bugs in our computers and sometimes security systems depend upon bugging techniques. But I use the term in a precise entomological sense. A bug is an insect which can only take food in a fluid state and for this reason its mouth parts form what is in effect a sharp drinking straw. With this apparatus it can pierce flesh as in the case of the Bed Bug, Cimex lectularius, or plant tissues. Aphids are also a type of bug.

Bed Bugs are on the increase in Britain but thankfully I have never

encountered one.

Most of the bugs I encountered today were immature specimens in one of their five or so instars. Bugs have no pupal stage as in a butterfly (the chrysalis) or a house fly but go through several stages each approaching adulthood. For most of the bug species I saw today the last instar is the fifth and then finally the adult appears.

Bugs have various defence mechanisms but two are fundamentally important. Bugs usually possess stink glands and the presence of bed bugs is often first suspected by the characteristic smell they produce. My nose often tells me that there is a bug in my net because of the pungent scent they release when alarmed.

Their second line of defence is camouflage of various forms. Today I found a Bishop's Mitre Bug, Aelia acuminata, in my net. With the pale brown and cream markings on its body it is cleverly concealed among dry grass stems.

The Bishop's Mitre Shieldbug has a shape resembling a bishop's headgear

Foxhill Farm, Badby, Northants. 29 May, 2020

Today I also found a specimen of the Tortoise Shieldbug, Eurygaster testudinaria, in my net and again I had not been aware of its presence prior to securing it. Testudo is the Latin name for a tortoise, gaster refers to the belly and eury means wide or broad. As Roger Hawkins has pointed out, its name in full could translate as Fatbelly Tortoise-bug. (Hawkins, 2003). If disturbed this creature can drop to the ground and then becomes extremely difficult to locate. They are widespread but being difficult to spot are not often recorded - at least, not in Northamptonshire. A specimen I took last year, also from Foxhill Farm, may have been the first record for the county.

Eurygaster testudinaria is hardly a colourful insect.

Foxhill Farm. 29 May, 2020

Interesting though these bugs are, other insects caught my attention.  This scorpion fly is a species of Panorpa,  Colin Plant (Plant, 1997) believes that Panorpa communis is the commonest species in Britain but this female specimen took to the wing before I could confirm it (very sensible too, for I would have needed to dissect its reproductive organs).

Probably Panorpa communis. It has previously been recorded from

Foxhill Farm. 29 May, 2020

Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, is flowering more profusely than ever and today was attracting literally dozens of Red-tailed Bumblebees, Bombus lapidarius.

There are now swathes of Bird's-foot Trefoil lighting up hillsides near

to Newnham Windmill. Foxhill Farm, 29 May, 2020

Hogweed was doing its bit too but, rather than bumblebees, it was being visited by Ashy Mining Bees, Andrena cineraria. The females are particularly distinctive, being larger than most Andrena species; a shiny black abdomen and bold black and grey furry thorax make this very common species unmistakeable.

The Ashy Mining Bee is perhaps the commonest of our dozens of Andrena

 species. On hogweed, Foxhill Farm, 29 May, 2020

I arrived home sweaty and with a bloody shin having misjudged the height of a stile (Is it my imagination or are fences and stiles higher than they once were?) but reasonably happy with my day's efforts.



 

References


Hawkins, Roger D. 2003 Shieldbugs of Surrey  Surrey Wildlife Trust


Plant, Colin W. 1993 A key to the adults of British lacewings and their allies  Field
Studies Council