Monday 29 June 2015

A bad day for Shieldbugs

A Garden Spider Araneus diadematus spent most of this afternoon dealing with an unfortunate Hairy Shieldbug Dolycoris baccarum. I took occasional trips outside to catch up with its progress, and by the evening the prey was secreted away.

Garden Spider Araneus diadematus with Hairy Shieldbug Dolycoris baccarum

I also managed to clear up a mystery today. I have been regularly seeing a fawn-coloured and quite hairy beetle in the garden, and thinking that I should to have a stab at identifying it (even after recent trials with trying to get beetle identificaiton to species level), afterall, perhaps there were not too many beetles of a similar colouration. I found one today on a Wild Carrot (Daucaus carota) and in the end identification seems to be relatively straightforward as an Orchid Beetle Dascillus cervinus. This is a locally distributed species, and one I will ask the county recorder about to confirm my identifcation.

Orchid Beetle Dascillus cervinus





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