Sunday 11 May 2014

Wildlife garden bug safari

After my encounter this morning with the basking Nursery web spiders, I popped back to the wildlife garden after a storm had passed and there was some promise of a sunny spell. The spiders weren't out, but I found a few interesting invertebrates about, including two new species for the garden.
A Peacock, which together with a couple of large whites were the only butterflies about.
 The first nice surprise were a couple of Green Thistle Tortoise Beetles (Cassida rubiginosa), which I had never seen before, both of them on knapweed:
Then I found some Rophalus subrufus, including a couple mating.
A Green shieldbug came out on the leaves to bask.
And then I came across some nursery web spiders, one of them a male prowling...
...demonstrating how agile they are moving across leaves, hiding behind them quickly if I moved a bit too fast or too close.
...and a placid female sunning herself on the oregano of the herb garden.
 Just before leaving, another new species for me, a very pale grass spider, Tibellus oblongus, contrasting with the green leaves.




2 comments:

Amanda Peters said...

Like the look of the Green Tortoise Beetle, easily mised I would imagine, had some good finds after the rain storms as they come out to warm up.
Great set of photos.
Amanda

Africa Gomez said...

Thank you Amanda, I would have probably missed it if I hadn't been looking for the spiders, quite cryptic, somebody said they look like a rain drop