Where all the ladybirds have gone

Went to the allotment to pick broad beans and found where all the ladybirds have gone – happily feeding on the blackfly!:

Loads of native 7-spot ladybirds and only one harlequin:

 

Ladybirds still here

Walked round the park this evening and spotted 2 ladybirds.

1 native 7 spot:

and 1 harlequin:

and then a harvestman (rilaena triangularis?):

 

Harlequins still here

When I saw this ladybird I thought that its black and white head made it a native, but it seems it is another harlequin. Far too many spots.

 

Horse chestnut infestation update

After some research on the internet it appears that my horse chestnut tree is infested with the Horse Chestnut leaf miner ( Cameraria ohridella).

The infestation originated in Wimbledon in 2000/2001 and has now spread across the South East of England.

Although it looks devastating it has no long-term effects on the tree.

 

Identified at last! (Maybe – see comments)

I’ve seen this bird of prey in the field before, but today was the first time I was able to get a picture. I finished up taking a movie and caught her flying off. The following pictures are from the movie and confirm that it is a female or juvenile sparrowhawk (accipiter nisus). I find taking photos and then checking the books a great way of identifying birds, insects and flowers. Felt a bit like Deckard in Bladerunner!

 

Nettle capsid bug

I spotted these bugs on a patch of nettles on Saturday.

Nettle capsid bug

It turns out that this is a common nettle capsid bug (liocoris tripustulatis). So is this one – they are quite variable in their markings:

 

Ladybird update

It appears that at least the yellow ladybird is actually a harlequin ladybird (rather like finding what you thought was a red squirrel is actually a grey squirrel!). I rather suspect that some of the others are variations of harlequin. Must report sightings to the harlequin survey. For a picture of a real 22-spot ladybird see here.

 

Lots of ladybirds

    

I spotted all these ladybirds in Clewer Park on Sunday.

 

Horse Chestnut

There is a large horse chestnut tree at the edge of the wood which is just forming conkers

It seems to be suffering from some sort of infestation which causes the leaves to die off early. This has happened for several years and seems to be a problem everywhere

 

More of the ladybird life cycle

No wonder there are so many different types of ladybird!