Tags
azure damselfly, blackfly aphid, blue-tailed damselfly, brown hawker, burnet moth, buttercup, comma butterfly, Essex skipper, feverfew, greenbottle, helicopter, ichneumon wasp, insects, July, meadow brown butterfly, migrant hawker, oedemea nobilis, peacock butterfly, Red Lily Beetle grub, rhagonycha fulva, Ringlet butterfly, robber fly' bindweed, ruddy darter, sawfly, small skipper, Small Tortoiseshell, small wolf spider, speckled wood butterfly, spotted crane fly, Suffolk, white butterfly
I realise that we are now a week into August but better late than never. There were so many different insects about last month that I will have to make more than one post to cover them. I have also included some photos of insects that I saw during June most of which were still about in July. I will list the insects in the order in which I saw them or was able to photograph them. I am not including the dragonfly, damselfly and butterfly photos that I have already posted but I may include different photos of the same type of insect.
The Speckled Wood shown above had a little bit of its wing missing but was quite a bright, new-looking insect. The next photo is of something none of us want in our gardens.
These nasties chomp their way through lilies and fritillaries and do it very quickly too. They cover themselves in their own excrement.

A male Oedemera nobilis – only the males have the swollen hind-legs. They feed on pollen and this one is eyeing up his next meal
The next two photos are of the same unidentified insect and the photos aren’t that clear either. Ichneumon wasp or sawfly?
Note the extremely long ovipositor!
I realise that spiders aren’t insects but I’m still including this one here nevertheless. Because these spiders do not make webs and live a nomadic life, the female has to carry her eggs around with her. Some wolf spiders even carry their spiderlings about with them too. When the spiderlings are due to hatch, the female spins a large ‘nursery web’ in the vegetation and puts the egg sac there. Wolf spiders run down their prey like their namesakes.
Here are some more little insects that gardeners could do without. This photo also shows how good feverfew is at attracting them.

Rhagonycha fulva I thought at first that this was a Cardinal Beetle but they have different antennae and are much redder.
The Small and the Essex Skipper butterflies are very similar. The difference is that the Essex Skipper is greyer underneath and its antennal tip is black underneath. I don’t think I will ever be able to tell the difference.
There will be more insects in the next post.
Never thought I could find a post about insects fascinating. But I did!
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Thank-you! Some of them are extremely difficult to like!
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Your photos and knowledge of insects are both very good!
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Thank-you. I am trying to improve my knowledge of them this summer but I’m finding that some insects/type of insects are so difficult to ID. The resources I have aren’t detailed enough – so frustrating!
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Pingback: Meadow brown, other Texel butterflies | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Thank-you!
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Great photos. I could feel myself almost hissing and booing pantomime style at the lily beetle and black fly.
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Oh, how funny!
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Great post. Thanks! You are clearly much much more knowledgeable about insects then am I but I think that last picture is of a cabbage white butterfly. At least it looks a lot like the cabbage white butterflies that frequent my property Indiana, USA. Cheers. 🙂
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I believe you are right. My problem now is to decide whether they are Small Whites or Large Whites as they are very similar!
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What a lot of small things you managed to spot. I am envious of your good eyesight and extensive knowledge.
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Thank-you! Mainly luck more than anything else.
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Hi Clare, Second part of this post led me to the first one (As the saying goes; “The order of the factors does not alter the product”)… Beautiful set of photos… my favorite is the one of the Meadow Brown butterfly. So lovely ❤
Best wishes to you, Aquileana 😀
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You are so kind, thank-you and best wishes to you too.
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