Hopping mad

There's more to this photo than may meet the eye.

These are the little guys I've been itching to Blip but I'm glad something has come up before otherwise I'd have given up watching them.  It took me 'til 2pm to extricate myself from the chair and take Little Dog for a walk.  I'm a bit jaded to say the least!  But, we've had a magnificent near 3 hour walk on the moors.  It's been a slow stroll really and a lot of it was watching bugs.

I'm rather excited by this picture as I've been watching the little male planthoppers, often in pairs, tapping the bottoms of the big females.  (I say big, they're still only around 3-4mm long).  I was guessing it was something to do with mating but as I watched this pair today, doing the same tapping bottom exercise, the female's undercarriage suddenly dropped down like the rear ramp of a Hercules.  Now I'd seen that bit before but it was the next bit that amazed me.

In a split second, out fired what I can only think was an egg - you can see the white blur firing through the air over the female's head.  I watched this happen five or six times and only managed to catch the blur it was so fast, despite trying a higher shutter speed.

So, my question is, do the males play a supportive role during egg laying or are they just eager to see their offspring out in the open?

My next bit of fun was gathering wool off the moors for my needle felting project.  I'd never really thought about it before but Liz spotted loads in the fields on our cycle ride the other week so I thought I'd see if I can make something from it.  The odd sight of my great hand of wool generated a few new conversations on the moors including one couple who have sheep and told me they only get 80p per fleece. 80p! I couldn't believe it! They kindly said they'd save me a bag too!

Anyway, my legs are feeling better for a stroll and I've fed myself silly.  Now for a bit of relaxing with Downton Abbey - we're hooked!