The Beetles

Today's Blog pictures were going to be dominated by the glorious display of fruits and berries to be seen in the hedgerows right now. But as we walked around Shipley Park this morning, my attention was caught by large numbers of beetles on the leaves of various shrubs and the plans were changed.

These highly polished, metallic-looking beetles turned out to be Altica palustris a common leaf beetle.

These particular specimens were on the leaves of Poplars and Alder trees and by the look of the leaves, they have been very busy eating their way through them.

Almost every leaf had its attendant beetle on it, shining like burnished steel in the sunshine.

Close by and on the leaves of a few Alder trees again, large clusters of insects also caught my eye.

These colourful little beasties turned out to be final instar nymphs of the Parent Bug (Elasmucha grisea).

Bugs belong to the order 'Hemiptera' and differ from beetles or 'Coleoptera' in having piercing mouth-parts rather than the biting mandibles of true beetles, but other than that, they can appear to be very similar. Shield Bugs - the family to which Parent Bugs belong - go through several distinct stages of development known as 'instars' in which they moult, becoming more adult-like with each 'change of clothes'. These little beauties had reached their fifth and final stage before becoming full adults with the next moult.

So, that's two new ticks for the life lists!