This was essentially just a long hot walk. Apart from butterflies, greenbottles, flesh flies and the odd hoverfly, as well as the continuing Red Soldier Beetle invasion, there was very little insect activity today. The grass of the common is already beginning to take strain under the baking heat, which is forecast to last for at least another 10 days.

The Gatekeeper is still by far the most abundant of the 13 butterfly species seen, with several hundred on the wing. Meadow Brown and Ringlet are still fairly prominent, but Marbled White numbers seem to be dropping. I noted a few Small Copper, Brown Argus (Aricia agestis), Common Blue, Chalk Hill Blue (Polyommatus coridon) and Small Skipper, plus single Purple Hairstreak (Favonius quercus), Red Admiral, Dark Green Fritillary and my first Large White this summer. Not a single Brimstone was seen.

Another first for the summer was the day-flying moth Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae).

A bumblebee presented a bit of an ID challenge. From the very ragged state of its wing margins it was obviously an individual close to the end of its short lifespan. However, the colours of its banding matched none that one expects in a fresh specimen, so assuming the banding had faded and going only on the positioning of the coloring suggested that this was a male Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).

The leaves of one Common Hogweed showed multiple leaf mines, which are probably those of the larvae of the Agromyzidae fly Phytomyza spondylii (or P. pastinaceae, as the mines of these two closely related species are identical).

One new plant was noted, no doubt a garden escapee, the invasive species Spiraea douglasii, Rose Spirea. Its rather attractive pink flowers are nevertheless a big attraction for bees.

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