A Black and Red Capsid Bug

Deraeocoris ruber, a capsid bug (family Miridae, order Hemiptera).

Photo taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-10.

Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moths

A horse chestnut leaf miner moth, Cameraria ohridella (family Gracillariidae,order Lepidoptera).  In the past few years these tiny (4mm long) moths have infested the horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) around our flats, causing their leaves to become covered with brown blotches each year from June onwards (a sort of premature autumn).  According to UK Moths, the species was discovered in Macedonia in 1985 and had spread to Britain by 2002.

Earlier this year I had hoped that the infestation this year might be less bad on the basis of the new horse chestnut leaves looking particularly green and blotch-free, and that I had only seen one or two of the moths on April 18th, and then none for the next two months.  However, by the end of June, most of the leaves had developed bad blotching and the moths were out in force, many coming in through our open windows.

Photo taken in Reading, UK, on 2009-07-08.

Here are a couple of photos I took during last year's infestation:

Photo taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2008-07-26.

Photo taken in Reading, UK, on 2008-08-16.

Dolichopodid Flies

A dolichopodid, or long-legged fly, one of many I saw in the irises on the north shore of the large lake. They were flitting about in the foliage along the water's edge and occasionally landing on floating leaves and even on the surface of the water. Normally it would be almost impossible to identify such a small fly to the species level just from photos but, in this case the dark band and white tips on the wings indicate that this is a male Poecilobothrus nobilitatus (family Dolichopodidae, order Diptera).  The white wing-tips seem to be used to signal to the the females during courtship, as shown in this video by Harry Rutherford.

A bit further along my walk, well away from the waterside, in an area of long grass and sparse woodland, I came across another dolichopodid fly (either a female P. nobilitatus or another species of dolichopodid fly) with a bright red parasitic mite attached to its leg.  In spite of its added burden, the fly seemed to get around reasonably easily.

Photos taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-10.

Moth with Four White Stripes

In the last couple of days it rained heavily after a long dry spell.  I thought that, as a consequence, there might be some more interesting insects about, and I wasn't disappointed.  One was this neat little tortix moth, Grapholita compositella (family Tortricidae, order Lepidoptera).  According to UK Moths, the larvae feed on clover of which there is plenty in Reading University grounds, although this adult specimen wasn't on clover when I found it.

Photos taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-08.

That 1969 Feeling

With the recent flurry of television programs on the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, it has been quite easy to imagine that we are back living in 1969.  However, I was a bit surpised when I saw the dates in the above advertisement for ScienceBlogs on the New York Times science page.  Presumably this is the result of a programming bug.  I am currently learning Javascript and web programming, and have been spending what seems like several hours per day for the past two weeks investigating similar bugs, so I am becoming rather sensitive to such quirks on web sites.

In what appears to be a reciprocal agreement, there is also an advert for New York Time science articles on the front page of ScienceBlogs, and recently this seemed to get stuck at only displaying a fixed set of articles from several months earlier.  Presumably this was also the result of a programming bug.