Blue Bug

I spotted this very aptly named Blue Bug Zicrona caerulea on the floor of a disused sand quarry in Suffolk, one of the rather few insects that I saw during a very hot and sticky day of site monitoring. It's a predatory species, favouring blue-metallic leaf beetles in the genus Altica, a case of aggressive mimicry. The leaf beetles feed on willowherbs, one of the few types of herbaceous plant coping with the drought.

Unsurprisingly, both Chris and I recorded significantly fewer species than expected - many insects seem to have completed their life-cycles early, and there was certainly no trace of any spring-flowering plants in the desert-like conditions of the more open parts of the site. Nevertheless, we gathered enough data to demonstrate that the site is still likely to be supporting the full range of the previously recorded flora and fauna. The sound of a Turtle Dove purring in the distance was an added bonus.