Blue shieldbug

I think summer definitely turned this weekend. I walked around part of the nature reserve with my daughter today and there were periods when it was sunny and quite warm. However, we only saw 9 species of butterflies. Given that we were chatting a lot, perhaps it would have been possible to record another couple of species. Five days ago, on a similar walk in similar conditions, I recorded 20 different species. Anyway, this experience today made me look a bit closer at some of the surrounding vegetation and I spotted this delightful shieldbug - Zicrona caerulea. It is one of the smaller members of this group and looks black from a distance, but when approached more closely it is a beautiful bright metallic blue/green colour. It is predatory on other small insects and I was intrigued to read, given its own colour, that it feeds particularly on blue flea-beetles. I think there is a bit of a style thing going on here!