A morning when I all I wanted to do was get home and process my images as my first sighting of the day was, I was sure, a butterfly species that I had not seen before.

I did locate a rather extensive and particularly dense patch of Red Bartsia, so tried my luck at Red Bartsia Bee (Melitta tricincta) photos again, as I could see that there were good numbers swarming around this patch of flowers. I say around, but it was more like inside, with very few clear glimpses of individual bees. I had to settle for a slightly out of focus shot on one in flight, which I got by accident as I’d been focussing on the flower it had been on.

There are still huge numbers of Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) about. They are particularly drawn to the Wild Marjoram and Common Knapweed.

Now to that butterfly, it was indeed a new species for me. Found feeding on a Wild Parsnip flower, it was from its pristine condition a recently-emerged female Brown Hairstreak (Thecla betulae).

On the stem of an adjacent Wild Parsnip I found aphids attended by Lasius ants. All the aphids were apterous (wingless), with a mix of adults and nymphs. There was also a mix of black individuals with white wax spots on the dorsum, which are probably Black Bean Aphid (Aphis fabae) and green individuals with pale rears and brown siphunculi (the paired tube-like structures on the upper back part of the aphid’s abdomen). These do not appear to have any wax spots. It is possible that this is a mixed species group as the green aphids could possibly be a Dysaphis sp. The ants in attendance are a Lasius sp., possibly Jet Black Ant (Lasius fuliginosus).

I also noted a mine on a Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) leaf created by a larva of the Hawthorn Leaf-miner (Phyllonorycter corylifoliella) moth. The food plants of the larvae extend beyond Hawthorn to other members of the Rosaceae.

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