Richard Jones

Word of the day, fossulet, a short groove. You’re welcome.

Sent from S. Carolina. Railroad worm, larva of beetle, genus Phrixothrix, family Phengodidae. Orange spots are luminescent organs. Glows like rail-carriage lit from within, lights shining out through windows. Preys on similar-looking millipedes. Sadly none in East Dulwich.

That’s the thing. Unmistakable. Widespread in France. A couple of British localities in last few years. But I’ve not seen it here yet. I’m hoping it will spread.

Homoptera nymphs are often tricky, but there’s no mistaking this beast — Centrotus cornutus. Not rare, but I don’t often see it. Maidstone earlier this year.

First time I’ve ever been asked to identify a bug from a doorbell camera. Male oak bush-cricket, Meconema thalassima most likely. Curved things are cerci, antenna-like tail appendages, probably used in mating. Makes a change from photos of parcel thieves or doorstep scammers.

I will never win any prizes for setting insects. But I got just enough leg and antennal spread to identify this 2-mm weevil as Pseudoperapion brevirostre. Still rare, but apparently spreading since first found in Britain, in Essex, in 2008. Purfleet, Essex, Monday.

It’s spreading. It’ll be on street linden trees in London soon.

New to me. Pyrrhocoris apterus, the firebug, Purfleet, Essex this morning.

Anax imperator, emperor dragonfly, early instar nymph. Always nice to find something that stops you in your tracks and makes you think: “What on Earth is that thing?”. Tower of London moat new landscaping project.

I’m thinking Stratiomyidae, soldier fly, larva. Unless anyone else knows different. Tower of London moat, which now, after more than a hundred years, has a bit of water in it. They’re landscaping it to have some ponds and flowing water for a wildlife zone.

Mother and babies. The unlikely named Pirata piraticus or something similar. Tower of London moat, which now, after more than a hundred years, has a bit of water in it. They’re landscaping it to have some ponds and flowing water for a wildlife zone.

Though it seems unlikely I will ever visit Polynesia, this fascinating book by @cathomps.bsky.social has made me an expert on Pacific Ocean travel, remote island anthropology, and post-colonial historiography. Thoroughly recommend.

Helmet hair.

The first Pyrrhocoris apterus was too fast for me as it dashed over the gîte patio, but I found this one from earlier — 1774 Jan Van Os, Still life with flowers and fruit, Musée des Beaux Arts d’Orleans. The fly I’m not trying to identify.

Playing peekaboo with the rhododendron leafhopper Graphocephala fennahi. Exotic-looking thing.

Those pale shapes on the edge of the gîte lawn are swirling vortices of thousands of tiny midges. Not sure which family. Each only 1.5mm long. Either that or ectoplasm.

Harsh!

My first Halyomorpha halys, marmorated shieldbug. Crushed underfoot on one of the ponts across the Loir at St Denis Les Ponts, Lanneray, France.

I thought this was a pine cone when I picked it up off the gîte lawn. Nest of Polistes paper wasps. Brought down by very heavy rain two days ago? Dead and smelly now.

Enjoyed Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas ⁦‪finished in the middle of France, about as far from the sea as you can get. Going to sketch some fresnel lenses now, and contemplate frictionless mercury troughs. @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

European map, Araschnia levana, the black summer form prorsa in the gîte garden, Lanneray, France. I always thought this a likely colonist to Britain in the next 10 years. It has spread north into Germany and Scandinavia during last two decades. Small but distinctive.

Large numbers of Stomorhina lunata in the garden of the holiday gîte, Lanneray, France. Parasitoid/ obligate predator of grasshopper egg masses.

I’ve not seen it this year. Often on London brownfield sites.

What’s going on here? A willow tree in Lanneray (Loire, France) is attracting large numbers of Vespa velutina, V. crabro, Vespula vulgaris hawking about the leaves. A few aphids but not much honeydew, but lots of galls Pontania and others. Never seen anything like it before.

Rare to me. Pronounced Pooh-phagous or Poe-off-agous?

A sad end to a magnificent beast, Volucella inanis. Huge blunt larvae in wasp nests, feeding on the brood and dropped prey items. I refuse to acknowledge any English name like empty hoverfly of inane hoverfly. Disused cattle water trough, Maidstone.

Carline thistle, Carlina vulgaris, is something I hardly see these days. A plant from my youth, which I spent running semi feral over the South Downs. But none in south-east London.

I think this is going to be Ectophasia crassipennis. New to me. Spreading inland from south and east coasts of England. Recent colonist from Europe. Near Maidstone today. Several seen.

A fine crop of broad-leaved helleborine , Epipactis helleborine, in the woods near Maidstone today.

I didn’t notice in particular. Just sweeping a railway embankment.