Rosy...

Thankfully today was more relaxed, with a pleasant afternoon walk round Swaddywell Pit with the local wildlife group, followed by a delicious slow-roast beef with all the trimmings, part of Ben's birthday celebrations.

The weather was perfect for the walk and there was lots to be seen including this rather beautiful bug, Calocoris roseomaculatus. This species is found throughout Britain in dry grasslands, where both adults and larve feed on a range of legumes such as bird's foot trefoil, restharrow, salad burnet and kidney vetch. The rosy patches on the forewings are characteristic, with the pale scutellum bisected by a dark line. The head, pronotum and legs may also be rose-tinged and the 2nd antennal segment is shorter than the 3rd and 4th combined.

I only took the macro lens, but when I got there I realised I'd left the SD card in the computer, so this was taken in the evening. Actually, in a way it was quite nice not to have the camera as I was able to spend more time chatting without the underlying pressure to capture that elusive perfect image! There were a couple of ovipositing emperor dragonflies in their new pond, so I may well return on my own, armed with a telephoto lens!!