Grayling and other Insects on Sutton Heath (near Sutton Hoo)

Grayling, Sutton Heath, this afternoon

We have been exploring what for us is a new corner of Suffolk this weekend. We know the Sutton Hoo site pretty well, but had never discovered the lie of the land at nearby Sutton Heath ... until yesterday. We liked what we found so much that we returned this afternoon and were treated to a remarkable aerial display by Grayling butterflies. 

The Grayling is not a butterfly we see very often at all; and in this year of C-19, I had begun to think that, along with other wild things such as bluebells, tadpoles and demoiselles, it was going to be just one more species that would have to wait for a future year. How wrong I was. But I had almost forgotten just how camouflaged these Graylings can be when they are not on the wing against a blue sky.

When you visit a new place, I always find it helpful when there is a ready made guide. This information board may have been a bit faded, but it told us about Nightjars, Adders and about the different kinds of heather that one might encounter on this site in the Suffolk Sandlings.

We followed the marked-out trail and were soon heading into the forest, where we saw conifers, rowan, oak trees, chestnut, silver birch and holly.

After a short time we found ourselves in dappled sunlight, and began to wonder if the forest was about to give way.

Having seen an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar near our home on Friday, we checked the Rosebay Willowherb carefully, but failed to see this distinctive larva on the heath.

We came across a Buddleia, presumably a self-seeded one, in a clearing with benches, and there beside it was this Red Admiral.

This grasshopper was spotted in the same place, hopping about on these dead oak leaves.

The butterfly in the photo below is a Small Heath, a species we see not infrequently in this part of the world. It is very small.

I mentioned above that Rowan was one of the species of tree we noticed.

The view below gives an impression of this mixed habitat, with heather giving way to bracken, which in turn gives way to more heather and bracken before you reach a stand of silver birch. There is also a large conifer, and what looks like an oak in the foreground.

These may not be the Scottish moors, but we can't really complain, can we?

We were keeping a sharp eye out for more Grayling butterflies when we noticed this sand wasp, possibly the Red-banded Sand Wasp. We see these from time to time, but had not seen one for ages.

I'm not quite sure what it was doing on this bit of dead vegetation...

I particularly like the way in which the Grayling in the photo below barely shows up beside the pine cone. In a recent post I featured the Spider Wasp, with its unmissable yellow stripes. How strange that that particular insect should protect itself by mimicking a very visible wasp while this butterfly should use camouflage. 

Look for the legs in the photo below...

The undergrowth here on the sandy heath is made up of dead bracken, old acorns, bits of bark and old stalks.

In total contrast, this tiny caterpillar could hardly be missed! Is it a species of (?pine) sawfly?

We noticed two snails (or shells) in close proximity to one another.

It was a joy to watch the butterflies in a little glade. We had not seen Small Coppers (below) for some weeks.

This is certainly a place we are glad to have found. And it feels good to add the Grayling to my list of butterflies seen in this strange year. 

First 2020 Comma in the Garden

We were having a mug of coffee this morning when we looked out and noticed the flutter of wings. On closer inspection it was the first Comma we have seen in our garden this year, and its arrival was the cause of much excitement! Most of our bushes and shrubs are green, but I'm guessing there is something in the butterfly's DNA that led it to these golden leaves where it could absorb the sun, safely in camouflage.  

Showing the comma mark

I am logging the sighting on the Garden Butterfly Survey.

We prepared some soil and planted the little packet of wildflower seed that came as a gift from our local branch of Butterfly Conservation. I do hope the seedlings survive our slugs as it would be lovely to entice more butterflies into the garden. Watch this space!

Eye-Catching Insects: Red-and-Black Froghopper at Carlton Marshes

We spent part of the weekend at Carlton Marshes, a nature reserve under the care of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust near Lowestoft. I am always on the look-out for Ladybirds, and as I scanned the grassy verge at the edge of the car park, a red insect caught my eye. I could see immediately, even from some distance, that it was not a Ladybird. I grabbed my camera for a record shot, before moving a little closer.

I have only seen one of these insects once before - and that was at Sutton Hoo last year. The insect is, I believe, a Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata). I saw the Sutton Hoo one on 6 June 2012, so around the same time of year.

This insect is one of our largest Homopterans. These bugs are close relatives of our Hemiptera: both classes of creature have piercing-sucking mouthparts. Those Homoptera that have wings are graced with ones that are uniform in structure, hence their name, Homoptera, meaning “same wing".

It is rare to see the larvae as these develop inside solidified 'cuckoo-spit', tucked away underground on the roots of plants.  

As I mentioned, I like to keep an eye out for Ladybirds. I also enjoy seeing other brightly coloured insects. You can see three here that caught my attention when I was in the Peloponnese back in 2010.  

A question has arisen in my mind. We all know that brightly coloured insects or amphibians often use their colour as a warning (Aposematism) to potential predators, and indeed some may be toxic in some way.

Why is it safer or more effective, I wonder, to stand out from the crowd in a fiery coat

 than to be hidden in the verge with grass-green elytra for 'background matching' camouflage? 

Camouflage or Cryptic Coloration, of course, is itself essentially a form of visual mimicry. The Froghopper here is presumably protected to some degree by warning coloration.

Scientist have identified several kinds of warning coloration in the natural world, including ...

• Batesian mimicry, when a harmless mimic poses as harmful
• Müllerian mimicry, when two or more harmful species mutually advertise themselves as harmful
• and Mertensian mimicry, when a killer mimic resembles a less harmful but lesson-teaching model.

You might be interested in this National Geographic article on the subject of camouflage.

Rider: my fascination in these insects (and indeed on most items on this blog) is purely from the perspective of an interested amateur. If readers spot inaccuracies, please feel free to leave a comment and point them out! I blog because I love to discover more about the natural world. 

Herpetofauna (4): Common Lizard near Snape

Common Lizard

We were a few metres from the car at Iken Cliffs, on a walk back from Snape Maltings, when something caught my eye on an old tree stump. It was a female Common Lizard. She wasn't exactly basking in the sun, but I suspect she had been lured out by the warm temperatures. She was fairly well camouflaged, in her shadowy spot. These lizards are also known as Viviparous Lizards: they bear live young in cold areas and lay eggs in locations where the climate is warm. They tend to choose habitats with a mixture of sunlight and shadow, with open space to bask and cover for protection.

 I love the way in which the scales of her skin blend with the markings of the bark.

I wished I had had a bit longer to observe her, but there were other people coming up behind us on the narrow path, so we had to make way for them. This was my first lizard of 2012 ... and a fine specimen!

The iconic reedbed landscape between Iken Cliffs and Snape Maltings, Suffolk, England