A Mid-Morning Mooch...

A mid-morning break from my desk to the area of Brogdale Farm around the play area revealed:

Two Apionid weevils: Aspidapion aeneum and Malvapion malvae on the Common Mallow. Also present was the Hollyhock rust mould Puccinia malvacearum.

Rambur’s Pied Sheildbug (Tritomegas sexmaculatus) the recently arrived shieldbug associated with Black Horehound (Ballota nigra) was easily spotted amongst the herbage.

Crawling through the undergrowth was a splendid Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa coccinea) along with three 14-spot Ladybirds (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) one of which was riding on the back of a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)!

A likely Nomada flava female was seen briefly along with an Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria), Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) and one of the social wasps (we get both Vespula vulgaris and V. germanica here).

A sickly looking patch of Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) was found to be infected with the gall forming rust mould Puccinia lagenophorae with its distinctive orange cup-shaped structures.

A stroll past the kitchen garden of the catering company on-site produced Solomon’s-seal Sawfly (Phymatocera aterrima) eying up the food plant of its larvae, whilst on the Sage was the attractive but tiny leaf hopper Eupteryx melissae.

Not bad for 15 minutes!