A missed opportunity!

This gorgeous specimen of a bug was spotted in amongst my Geraniums a few weeks back. Was it a Firebug? Nope - not the right shape & different markings. After a bit of detective work I found out that it was in fact Corizus Hyoscyami, aka a Cinnamon Bug.

Well, I took a picture (a blurry one I must admit, but at that point my macro filters were winging their way to me via Royal Mail, so I was unable to pick him out in all his glory) & found out that they are pretty rare in the UK, never having been found any further north than Liverpool.

I thought that was it, but whilst idly googling the other day I came across a fact that I was completely unaware of until that point - that the Cinnamon Bug is so called because it SMELLS OF CINNAMON! Aaaargh! Well it was long gone & I'd missed my opportunity to have a good sniff - boo-hoo!!

So, why are bugs so brightly coloured? 

Aren't they picked off more easily by birds if they are so obvious? No - why? Because to a hungry bird that bright colouring means "Don't eat me, I'm poisonous" even if the bug is not! 

Plus, as a female bug looking for a mate, you want to choose the best male to father your offspring & the brightest colours & the most symmetrical markings are a sign of being strong & healthy.

I feel bad I didn't get a good whiff & I don't feel my photo has done this lovely chap justice, but hey it's another species added to the list & a rather special one at that. 

A pocket of perfection

Our little rill - the very first day...

Our little rill - a year on...

...but just look at it now!

Blooming with colour, not just from the flowers on the fence & the submerged plants within the water, but from the beautiful damselflies who choose it as a prime spot to meet their mates, lay their eggs & live out their nymph stage within the water. 

On a sunny day we are honoured to be visited by up to 13 individuals at any one time! The Large Reds & Common Blues take centre stage & it is fascinating to watch them dart about & to watch the female being clasped by her mate & laying her eggs in the pond weed.

Not to mention our Hoverfly, who seems to think it is ALL his territory!

And the beautiful bees - one day I'll work out which species they all are.

And when you start to explore the water you find a little self sustained eco-system (or maybe even a few) - we have seen so many species from pond snails to dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs to newts, newtlets to freshwater shrimps, bloodworms to Pond Skaters. 

And the most amazing thing of all is, they chose OUR little rill to live in, reproduce & die. They've chosen to spend all their precious days in our little rill. I feel very honoured. 

Lovely (?) Lily Beetles

The Lily Beetle is a bit of a love-hate-love critter for me. Beautiful and fascinating it's hard to dislike them until you try to grow your own Lilies...

This one here, along with all her posse has managed to all but destroy my beautiful white lily plant. Three years after receiving it as a gift from hubby for our Wedding Anniversary, it's a shadow of it's former self.

However, as insects go, they are pretty cool. Firstly, that scarlet red colour is very exotic and I love the way they drop from the leaves onto their backs the moment you touch them, skillfully disguising their bright colour and pretending to be dead. Apparently they squeak too, if you try to handle them, but I have surprised myself by not attempting to try it yet.

Their larvae are brilliant in that they disguise themselves as dollops of bird mess by covering themselves in their own poo!! Utterly gross, but wow, it'd put anything off!

I may have to try that squeaking thing... gently of course.

Autumn already?

I'm getting the idea that the wildliife around these parts have decided it's Autumn. It's only August!

Mainly it's the spiders. I've found two or three male house spiders in the last few days, all in the bathroom. Actually maybe it's the same one... I do chuck them out, but they try to get back in.

You can tell they are (or "it is") male because of the enlarged palps, the mouthparts.

Autumn is the House Spider's mating season and the males start moving out from their hiding places in search of females.

I would love to shrink to spider size and watch the hunts and scavenging that goes on in my house of a night! We have countless wolf spiders in our garden, around our patio. They like to sun themselves. A couple have found their way into the house and made little silk funnels in dark corners.

We had one that lived just outside the shoe cupboard and one that lived under the tumble dryer. I would see them quite regularly waiting for their dinner to step onto their territory.

Late at night I've seen Silverfish racing across the floors and found a Daddy Long Legs Spider carrying a dead one up a wall the other week! It made me think of a scavenging hyena. After all, Daddy Long Leg Spiders are scavengers too.

Can you imagine what it must be like at night, like a Kenyan desert plain, an epic of life and death! I'd love to see it.

Snail Sexy Time

Apologies for the use of the following irritating phrase, but there is no choice;


Oh.   My.   God.


I have just seen a snail's sex organs...


I should set the scene before I launch into a fascinating description.


Sultry August Sunday afternoon, cousin's beautiful Victorian cottage garden, impending summer BBQ, the girls are arguing over a snail...

And so it begins. To appease my rowing children and save a poor lowly snail from becoming an innocent bystander mutilated during a riot, I started to hunt for more snails and spotted two in an old pot behind the shed. They were stuck together and I presumed sheltering in a cool spot away from the heat of the sun... but I was wrong.

I pulled them apart and at first I thought they had parasites growing on them, before I twigged that actually I had just interrupted a passionate mollusc moment.

It was utterly fascinating. Each one had a white growth protruding from the side of its head (some sort of lady bits) and what looked to me to be a piece of fishing wire next to it (a snail penis!). It was one of those scenes that you can't help but keep looking at even though it makes you feel a bit queasy.

They had realised their sexual liaison was over, so I quickly called the girls over and we watched them sucking their own sex organs back inside their bodies and turn once again into a couple of innocent snails.

What can I say? It was a brilliant afternoon. The BBQ wasn't too bad either.

Talking of Bloody-Nosed Beetles...

I mentioned that one of my many favourite insects is the Bloody Nosed beetle. I've only ever seen one, but I was mesmerized by it.

It walked cumbersomely along my window sill and straight into a spider's web. Luckily there was no spider in it, but it slowly squirmed and tried to pull itself free, but I had to help it in the end. Such a delicate operation. I was terrified of damaging it, but it escaped scot free with a bit of cobweb trailing from one of its back legs. You could see it was well aware of the extra weight and it tried in vain to kick it off!

Every time my shadow passed across it and it could sense my close presence, it ducked its little head back! It moved so slowly that I was able to go and get my insect identification book and we (me and the girls) worked out that we had found a Bloody Nosed Beetle, which, according to my book, is flightless and (cue oohs and noises of great interest) "gets its name for its habit of releasing a drop of blood from its mouth when disturbed".

Well... I had to give it a little go... I gently knocked it and wobbled it about, but it just kept walking as if it was totally unaware (or maybe, bless it, that was lightening speed for a terrified Bloody-Nosed Beetle), but nothing happened and I gave up because I felt rather guilty for trying to upset it. I moved it over to a grassy area where it could hide away from birds and cats and we watched it clamber slowly away..

I researched it further that evening and found out that they only release the blood when they are very stressed... ooh dear. Oh well, at least I hadn't upset it too much. You never can tell with a beetle.

However, the next day it was back where I'd first found it, about 6 metres away from where I'd "thoughtfully" placed it out of harms way the day before. The poor thing had probably spent the whole night getting back there. It must have been heading for somewhere in particular! This time, my 4 yr old had found it first and as I went to pick it up... a drop of blood... oh the guilt. I left it alone and it crawled under the door and hid safely away.

Now that's one cool beetle!