BUGS !
Very little to report locally ,butterfly-wise ,my usual Autumn walks in Orlestone .........ended abruptly about ten days ago ,when all the rides /open areas were mown flat ..................So any hope of Autumn butterflies came to a quick end ! the local circuits also seem completely devoid of butterflies ! And then after two and a half years of avoiding the dreaded lurgy (Covid ) the whole family came down in one foul swoop ..........me first ! Luckily i,m past the worst now and just had to get out yesterday ,so decided to visit Dungeness ,and keep away from everyone !
Thought i,d try to find the very attractive (and pretty scarce !) Ornate Shield bug ..........a few have been reported close to the observatory .
Also around in the same open area of scrubland were quite a few of the Ornates close relatives ,Brassica bugs along with numerous Nymphs.
As i was wandering around ,head down ,i hadn,t realised that i,d been joined by the obs; warden (Dave Walker ) and i warned him to keep his distance
as i was on the last knockings of Covid ,he asked me if i,d found any Shieldbugs ,and that he,d show me a "few" Firebugs in the Obs ; garden ,couldn,t quite believe what i was seeing .....................there were hundreds !
But David had saved the best till last .............an extremely rare Shieldbug ...................the very tiny "Petite Shieldbug" known only from the shingle at Dungeness . unfortunately never got a pic of this one !
Allan.W.