Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni), Small Blue (Cupido minimus) and Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterflies are still around in good numbers.

The Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) continues to support a wide variety of insects, with all of these seen within a few metres of each other – Cinquefoil Strider (Macrophya annulata), Flecked Strider (Macrophya blanda), Red-thighed Macrophya (Macrophya rufipes), Wayward Sawfly (Tenthredo temula), Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria), Flavous Cuckoo Bee (Nomada flava) and Trivial Plant Bug (Closterotomus trivialis).

Elsewhere, the Common Carder Bees (Bombus pascuorum) have now been joined by White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) on the Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) flowers. Black-striped Cranefly (Tipula vernalis) are particularly numerous and new additions to my Downs list today were the Soldier Beetle (Cantharis pellucida) and Buckthorn Roller moth (Ancylis unculana). 

The moth was on the leaf of a plant that I had not yet noted in my decade of Downs rambles, the apparently extremely poisonous Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis). New flowers appearing were Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) and Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata). Also found for the first time was a sapling of Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris).

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