Monday the 28th June – perfect day to watch invertebrates, very warm, bright and still. The nature reserve was absolutely buzzing with life. I saw several species of Dragonfly and Damselfly, loads of butterflies and lots of bees, wasps, beetles and other winged creatures.
Butterflies included the Comma, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, moths were plentiful but not always easy to identify but some are not too much of a challenge such as the Cinnabar Moth. This is a day flying species with red and black warning colours, the forewings are black with red spots on the outer edge, the hind wings are red. The caterpillars have black and orange stripes and can be found feeding on plants such as Common Ragwort.
The Five-spotted Burnet is very similar, but with a slightly different wing shape and five crimson spots on the upperside forewings, their caterpillars are found on Bird's-foot Trefoil or other low growing plants and are yellow with black spots. Red-tailed Bumble Bee, Hoverflies, the Wasp Beetle and large crane flies were also seen.
I took these pics on the day.
In decending order - Large Red Damselfly, Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly and a small but plucky butterfly, the Small Skipper.
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