A mirid bug

 Now this is a mirid bug, but as I am not an expert b*gger I'm not totally confident which species.  

It is a predatory bug, hunting and eating other insects, or rather sucking them dry with its rostrum or hyperdermic syringe carried under the abdomen..  I'm afraid the shadows make it look as if it has 9 or 10 legs but no it has the usual six for an insect

Like the shield bugs it is heteropteran with wings that overlap at the rear and some pretty impressive antennae.

I think it may be Campyloneura virgula but my Latin is not up to translating that.  Anyway, it's a bit too dark in colour.  Any advice welcome.

Red-legged Forest Bug

Here's a little fellow who likes to live in trees and suck the juice out of them.  The Forest Bug (Pentatoma rufipes) also known as th red-legged shield bug.

Shield bugs are so called because of their shape.  In the photo above you can see the distinctive square shoulders of this particular species.

And in the image below you can make out the light and dark brown pattern round the rear edge and perhaps the reddish tone of the legs.

These are not beetles but true bugs: instead of jaws to bite they have a rostrum tucked under their tummies, a sort of hyperdermic syringe to suck out juice from either plants or other insects.    True bugs are either homopterans where the wings do not overlap, such as froghoppers and aphids, or heteropterans where the wings do overlap at the back and usually show up as transparent.  You can see that the Forest Bug is a heteropteran.  They are quite good flyers, these, and apparently quite friendly!  This one seemed in no hurry to leave.

Mid-life beard crisis

Not yet ripened into the fluffy 'Old Man's Beard', the flowers of Wild Clematis have given way to delicate spidery seedheads waiting to pop.

A third name for the plant is Traveller's Joy: a joyful sight indeed.

Daddy or Mummy Longlegs?

I snapped this Crane Fly on a window.  He was outside and I was inside.  You can see that HE is a DADDY Longlegs because the end of his body is square.  The females have a pointed abdomen so that they can push their eggs into the grass roots where their larvae, called leatherjackets will feed all summer.

The adults emerge from the ground in September and drift about looking for mates.

As they are flies they only have two wings.  You can see that the second pair of wings, which most insects have, have developed into balance organs called halteres.  They look like tiny drumsticks on crane flies but don't show up quite so well on other flies, although they nearly all have them.

Nightshade but not deadly

These are the ripening berries of Bittersweet or Woody Nightshade.  Although the ripe red berries are tempting for children, it is the green berries that are more poisonous.  No-one has died from eating these since a girl in 1948.

Nonetheless it is not a plant to eat.

The plant scrambles over other plants and the purple and yellow flowers are quite attractive but easily overlooked.

Big butterfly count results

Red Admirals along with Small Whites are still fairly abundant this month.  They were the 7th most abundant butterfly in the Big Butterfly Count this year.

They are not so easy to see when they close their wings up

But this one was so intent on drinking the nectar from a sedum plant that it was relaxed enough for me to get quite close.

You can see the list of ther top 19 butterflies recorded in the link below.

big butterfly count results

Aspens

Aspen is a member of the poplar family with pale, almost silvery bark and leaves that are almost round with scalloped edges.  Because of their long stalks the leaves tremble in the slightest breeze.  Hence the botanical name Populus tremula.  

Aspens spread by sending up sucker shoots from the wide-spreading roots.  This means they tend to invade open areas and produce more and more trees.  Here you can see a group of sucker shoots invading the grassland at Filnore Woods.

We have several aspens at Filnore: some near the ruined cowshed and these up near post 3 opposite the memorial lime trees.  The big tree in the middle of the picture is the original tree that we planted 20 odd years ago.  But can you see that one of its children to the right has gone brown and may be dead.

 And in this picture there is a dead branch on a nearby oak.  No need to panic though.  Nobody lives forever.