9 Sep 24 - I Don't Spend Enough Time Looking At Grasshoppers

I don't spend enough time looking at Grasshoppers as I should. Plus their identification isn't easy & I know I'm going to need some time reading the book to figure out the species involved. In reality, that's how many of us started out with other groups of wildlife, before we learnt the common species well enough to not need a field guide for them. I saw this Grasshopper on the path to my house & grabbed a photo with the mobile. On this occasion, I thought this individual was probably going to turn out to be a Field Grasshopper, which I confirmed after checking the excellent Photographic Guide to the Grasshoppers & Crickets of Britain & Ireland by Evans & Edmondson. Maybe some of the commoner Grasshopper species are finally sinking in.

Field Grasshopper: I remembered the pale stripes on the pronotum were one of the key features to focus on, albeit I couldn't remember what I needed to note about them

The key features of Field Grasshoppers are: they are a medium-sized Grasshopper with sharply angled pronotal side keels. The pronotum forward of the sulcus is shorter than the length of the area behind it. Put in English, this is the white line on the top of the thorax is kinked and shorter in front than behind. Also, the dark wedges on the pronotum do not reach the rear edge (there is a grey band separating the dark from the start of the abdomen). Additionally, the wings reach beyond the hind knees. There are a few similar species:

• Heath Grasshopper: This also has the sharply angled side keels and the dark wedges reach to the rear of the pronotum. The habitat also helps,; as I don't live close to any heathland

• Mottled Grasshopper: They are smaller than Heath Grasshoppers. The males have clubbed antennae and the females have thicker antennae

• Rufous Grasshopper: They have pale-tipped clubbed antennae

• Woodland Grasshopper: They have distinctive contrasting white-tipped palps

• Common Green Grasshopper: They have moderately incurved side keels and they do not have any orange or red on the abdomen.

20 July 14 - A Few Coastal Butterflies

Popped out for a few hours this afternoon to look for Essex Skippers at St Aldhelms. I don't know they are here, but assumed they would be. But in the end, I struggled to find many Skippers with only a handful of Small Skippers & Lulworth Skippers seen, as it was cooling down by the time I started to look for the Skippers. Still a good selection of other common Butterflies seen, along with several Oak Eggars. Also the chance to submit my first count for the Big Butterfly Count. It takes 15 minutes to do & a couple of minutes to upload your sightings & you can even do it on a smart phone, if (unlike me) you chose an area with mobile coverage. So give it a go. They are only interested in the 21 commonest Butterflies & day flying Moths & full details are on the Big Butterfly Count site.

Peacock: A stunning upperwing pattern

Peacock: The underwing doesn't give any indication of how great they are when they open their wings

 

Painted Lady

Oak Eggar: Male. These were flying around very fast & erratically, like a demented Painted Lady on speed. I assumed they would turn out to be one of the Eggar species, but it took quite some time to finally see one land. Note, they are not dependent on Oak trees, but they get their name from their acorn-shaped cocoons. Perhaps they should have been called Acorn Eggar

The walk out from the Renscombe car park goes past a number of arable fields. One field still has a couple of male Corn Buntings which have been just hanging on at this site, although the numbers have declined from when I first started to watch the area over 25 years ago. Yellowhammers are another species which are still hanging on here, but in better numbers locally than the Corn Buntings. Either species brighten up the walk out to the headland.

Yellowhammer

Finally, it's getting to the time of years when the Bush Crickets & Grasshoppers start getting a lot commoner. Again a group I've been trying to get into for a number of years. The Bush Crickets aren't too hard to work out, but I find the Grasshoppers to be a trickier as some species come in a variety of colours.

Field Grasshopper: Nymph. Adults are generally brown, grey or green, but some nymphs come in this distinctive pink colour

Field Grasshopper: Nymph. The v shaped white marking on the pronotum (thorax area) is sharply angled and the pronotum forward of kink is shorter than the area at the rear

Field Grasshopper:This is what adults more typically look like (Langton Matravers, 27 June 10)