False Ladybird

A strangely warm and humid day, which was largely spent dealing with emails and record entry though Ben and I spent some time this afternoon trimming box and yew bushes, and hacking back our dogwood which has been getting out of control recently.

First thing  this morning there was a Humming-bird Hawk Moth on the Buddleia in the front garden, which stayed just long enough for me to get my camera and put the right lens on, and then flew off as soon as I was ready to take a photograph! The rest of the day proved to be very dull in terms of garden insects - a few Common Carder Bees and some white butterflies were all that I saw.

Luckily Chris still had a specimen of False Ladybird Endomychus coccineus, which was quite happy to pose on a bracket fungus, one of many I found growing on a stack of willow wood at the bottom of the garden. This strikingly coloured beetle is a  fungus eater living under the bark of dead or dying trees especially beech and birch. Once the photoshoot was complete we let it free in our garden where there should be plenty of suitable habitat for it.