Continuing our occasional series on carpet moths, here we have the common garden carpet Xanthorhoe fluctuata:
I saw this little brown blob on the outside warehouse wall, but without my glasses I couldn’t work out whether it was a live insect, a dead insect, or just a piece of crud stuck to the wall. I took a photo anyway, and it turned out to be a brown lacewing. There are several species, all very similar, so I won’t hazard a categorical ID, but the little fella is only 7 or 8mm long.
I also found this brightly-marked crane fly. Again, there are various species in the genus Nephrotoma, and I think this is different from the last one I photographed back on Tue 14/08/18. That had the black wing smudges that marked it out as Nephrotoma quadriferia, but this one, being clear-winged, I think is Nephrotoma appendiculata.
The factory site is liberally sprinkled with false widow spiders, mostly tiny, although we have a couple of chunky ones every year. It’s a bit early in the season for full adults, but the one on the previous page is getting towards half size. A nice specimen anyway.
On the way home, I dallied in the overgrown fringes of Church Walk. The footpath is getting overwhelmed, so I suppose someone will be down there to chop the fringes back at some point, but for now the nettles are home to some leaf-rolling caterpillars. I unfurled this leaf and found, not a caterpillar, but a pupa, so I have secreted it in the shed to see what emerges. I am betting on a mother-of-pearl moth.
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