Drought Day 53.

It seems like many insects have just given up. Walking along the woodland paths even three days ago you would see swarms of midges/gnats/mosquitoes, or hoverflies hovering. Gone. Apart from a few Meadow Brown butterflies and a single Speckled Wood, virtually no other airborne insects on these paths.

Three days ago, you would have seen large flesh flies, tachinid flies or greenbottles resting on bramble leaves and some of the larger tree leaves like sycamore. Gone. Hardly one seen this morning.

Even my usual go-to stands of Hemp-agrimony were extremely quiet by their usual standards. No bees, greatly reduced numbers of flies and butterflies. One stand, though, was hosting about 10 very fresh-looking Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) butterflies, presumably a new brood. By contrast, although Meadow Brown is still the dominant butterfly they are starting to look very ragged and worn and may well be reaching the end of their season. It was nice to see my third Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) of the summer, so at least they are still around.

Apart from the butterflies mentioned so far, I saw many Small Heath, a few Small White and a single Brown Argus. That’s a total of only 7 species. No ‘true blues’ at all, Common, Chalk Hill or Holly. Perhaps the Chalk Hill Blue season is coming to an end, but definitely past its peak.

One Lepidopteran that did seem quite abundant this morning around patches of Hemp-agrimony and Stinging Nettle was Common Purple-and-Gold (Pyrausta purpuralis) moth, all fresh-looking specimens, so there must have been a recent eruption of these.

I also located a queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), from its vivid colours it must be newly-emerged.

It was far easier today to see where insects have been rather than where they are. With the ultra-dry conditions leaf mines are much more obvious on plant leaves. Two that I found were formed by moth larvae, the Apple Leaf Miner (Lyonetia clerkella) and Maple Dot (Stigmella aceris).

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