I've seen these lovely looking insects before and never found out what they are. But thanks to the Edinburgh Natural History Society I now know it's a Grypocoris stysi. I saw these ones in Colinton Dell (by the Water of Leith) late this morning during a wonderful sunny period with five species of hoverflies and five species of bees also flying round not to mention a speckled wood butterfly, which was, like all the others I've seen so far, shy of being photographed.
Plus I saw a kingfisher for the 2nd time in 2 weeks, a dash of blue along the river.
7 comments:
What a smart insect, and not one I have encountered, Juliet. We are just back from Skye and Kintyre ... where insects (even midges for the most part) were lacking on account of the slow spring. More snow on the mountains than ever at midsummer ... and bluebells and primroses (as opposed to the more seasonal ragged robin and campions etc. - though we saw these further south).
Interesting post, I've never seen these insects before.
Kingfishers are neat birds (I wonder if there is any difference in the specie between here and Scotland?)
Looks like wearing a shirt for some famous football team!
Hi Caroline, Skye with the midges, now that must have been nice! Hope you had a lovely time up there.
Ian - apparently they're quite common, but I've only seen them once before.
Sage - there are several species of kingfisher, not sure if yours is the same as ours
Rabbits Guy - excellent!
Those insects are totally new to me as well, used to seeing red soldier beetles perched on all the summer flowers here!
Hi Simon, me too! In fact at first glance i thought this might be a strange new type of soldier beetle.
Post a Comment