Aloof

R and I went into Stratford this morning, in the rain, to meet up with our co-grandparents for coffee, cake and Boy worshipping. It was great fun sharing anecdotes, and congratulating each other once again on how clever we all are to have produced his parents and married them off to each other.

Back at home the garden surprised me once again, when I spotted this little guy posing on a persicaria stem. It's an Alder Spittlebug (Aphrophora alni), a species I see regularly though infrequently at Trench Wood, but hadn't expected ever to find here because we don't have any alder in the garden. This just shows though that I ought to read my own blips occasionally: when I posted this Trench Wood specimen last year, I noted that adult Alder Spittlebugs feed from a range of bushes and deciduous trees, but the larvae actually prefer herbaceous plants (such as persicaria, perhaps), and therefore this is where the females generally lay their eggs. 

The adult is almost twice the size of a Common Froghopper, and while they're not crazy about being looked at by humans, they're usually a bit less hysterical about it. This one maintained such an aloof demeanour that I was able to photograph it from several angles across a couple of minutes, and I only realised that it was in fact taking exception to this when I glanced at the camera to check my images, then looked back at the stem and discovered that it had left.

My second-favourite image of the day is a Lesser Thorn-tipped Longhorn Beetle which I found on one of the cotoneasters this afternoon. I've posted him to Facebook, if you'd care to take a look.