One Tree Hill Invertebrates

Fly, Bibio species, on a Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

I saw several invertebrates at One Tree Hill.  This is a Bibio species, related to the larger St. Mark's Fly that is usually so common at this time of year.  I am not good enough to get the species of this one.  It looks particularly slim and alien from the side! 

Hawthorn Shield Bug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This shiny creature was spotted by Sue Buckingham on a Cherry Laurel.  It's a true bug, with sucking mouthparts. Those shoulders look very aggressive.

I always like to photograph hoverflies; there is a wide variety of them, and most of them look pretty impressive.

Hoverfly, Cheilosia species, with one deformed wing.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Unfortunately, I don't think this fuzzy fly will do very well with that malformed wing.  It probably didn't expand properly when the adult emerged.

While I was photographing the hoverfly, I was called to exercise my mothing skills on this creature, which was crawling around in the grass:

Adela reamurella.  Male.  Micromoth.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It's a shiny micromoth and has very, very long antennae, which means that it is a male.  The males need long antennae to sense minute quantities of the female mating pheromones.  I hadn't seen one of these since last summer, so I had to look it up on my iPhone to bring its name back to mind.

We only saw two butterflies. One was an Orange Tip, which I didn't manage to photograph, but Sue pointed out one of its eggs on the larval food plant, the Cuckooflower:

Cuckooflower or Lady's-Smock, Cardamine pratensis, with one egg of an Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines.
One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The single orange egg is on the leaf petiole just right of centre, the highest of those with no petals left.  Unlike many butterflies, the Orange Tip works on the basis of one plant, one caterpillar.

The last invertebrate of the day was this woodland moth:

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

A pretty creature, and quite well camouflaged when it settles on a footpath or among dead leaves.

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

You can often see pairs of males battling in woodland glades.  They're usually quite wary, and when they settle it's usually with wings spread, so I was doubly pleased to get this shot of the underside of its wings.