iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

@chrisraper.bsky.social @gavinbroad.bsky.social This one looked different. Very yellow. To use the technical jargon. Any suggestions? Thanks. East Sussex Weald today.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Cool or yuck? I think this is Dermacentor reticulatus the ornate cow tick, or marsh tick. Either it’s very localized in Britain, or there aren’t many tick recorders out there. It’s known from the West Country, Wales, and Essex. These were on the outskirts of Basildon today.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Britain’s largest shieldbug, Rhaphidigaster nebulosa, spreading out since its first UK discovery in Peckham in 2010. Basildon today.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A once common butterfly from my youth. Wall brown, Lasiommata mergera named for its habit of resting on brickwork. Now seriously declined and vanished from much or ifs former range in the last 40 years. The is the first one I’ve seen in at least a decade, possibly two. Basildon.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New to me. Since its British discovery in East Anglia in 1997, Sphragisticus nebulous seems to have started to spread widely. Loads near Rochester, Kent, a couple of weeks ago.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Kent Coleopterist John Parry used to wander round with one dangling from his teeth, keeping both hands free for net, knife, tubes or whatever. A dog walker seeing him commented: “Oh, you poor man, do you always have to wear that thing?”

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Always check no-spot ladybirds just in case Cynegetis impunctata ever turns up in Britain. You have to look at the claws, which are not bifurcate, but simply with a small basal tooth. But as usual it’s still the slightly larger 24-spot, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Pooters? I hope pooters were involved.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, just after its final moult into adulthood, but before the distinctive black markings have been laid down. East Dulwich this afternoon, part of a large colony on a street lime (linden) tree.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

It’s mini, but it’s still a Bug Hunt. Tomorrow 14:00-16:00.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Why do harvestmen have long legs? Because they have no antennae. Instead they use their limbs as 8 radial trip-wire warning sensors against danger approaching from any direction.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This is now becoming a regular, firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, and like all the specimens I now see it is not apterous (wingless) but fully winged. Rochester today.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

New to me, Sciocoris homalonotus, one of several, including nymphs, swept near Maidstone yesterday.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A hazel leaf cigar, it must be the leaf roll of the hazel leaf-roller weevil Apoderus coryli. This one is quite large and loose, I’ve seen them smaller and neater.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Just got bitten by Zoropsis spinimana. Picking out chicken poop from the nest box I felt a scratch on my finger tip as if I’d picked up a piece of dried thistle leaf. Very faint tingling now. Quite the novelty. I’ll let you know if swelling, necrosis or ulceration sets in.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Two extremes of tar spot fungus, Rhytisma acerinum, on sycamore today. The ‘low’ infection was 3 metres from a busy A road. It is inhibited by SO2 in the laboratory, but apparently air pollution levels show no real correlation. The ‘heavy’ infection was only 20 m from the road.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Agreed, not the best photo, but clearly Acinia corniculata, Tephritidae, once considered an endangered red data book fly species, but increased in range and abundance in the last 25 years.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

A good day for lygaeid ground bugs yesterday, many hundreds (thousands maybe) of Emblethis denticollis in a former arable field near Rochester, under mignonette and other low-growing plants. They run like the wind.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Agriphila geniculea? Just flew in from the garden.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It’s lucky that you can identify a 1-mm beetle by counting its antennal segments. Sericoderus brevicornis, which is ironically named since it actually has one more antennal segment than S. lateralis.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

First proofs of New Naturalist — Woodlice arrived. And if I’m now an old naturalist, I put my enquiring spirit down to a combination of curiosity, frivolity, and an overwhelming awe at the natural world.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

That’s the thing. Seems to be spreading widely now. It’s a regular in London brownfield sites and also on chalk.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Just been sent these pictures of a crimson underwing type thing in South-east London, but can anyone offer an opinion on exactly which Catocala species it might be?

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I’m still learning by my mistakes. In fact, given that the mistakes are coming faster and thicker, I must soon be approaching genius level.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A few moments of confusion while I try to run this small black wasp through the usual identification key. I realize I’m in the wrong family. It’s Mutillidae, velvet ants — a male Myrmosa atra. It’s usually the velvety wingless females I find. Rochester, back in June.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Grass fairy, or glow-worm as some people insist on calling them. Always a delight.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

In my garden today Isodontia mexicana, Mexican grass-carrying wasp, so called for habit of lining its nest with stands of grass, and stocking the tunnel with grasshopper nymphs. Arrived in UK about 2016; most UK records are from the London area. A large and impressive beast.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Reptalus quinquecostatus (formerly Oliarus panzeri) is a seemingly uncommon plant hopper. Distinguished by its five, rather than three, pronotal costae. A regular on Thames Estuary brownfield sites. This from Rochester last month.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

At 1.8 mm Tachys bistriatus is one of the more diminutive British ground beetles, but fairly distinctive under high magnification. Only the third time I’ve seen it this century. Rochester last month.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Rhopalapion longirostre, hollyhock weevil, not quite new to Gloucestershire, but on the extreme edge of its current British distribution at Moreton-in-Marsh. No doubt soon to be all of southern England since its UK landfall in East Dulwich about 20 years ago.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Exit holes of Sesia apiformis, the hornet clearwing, at the foot of a large aspen tree. And the clincher — empty chrysalis shell. Maidstone today.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Lasius fuliginosus is always a delight. Very distinctive shining black ant species with large broad heart-shaped head. Maidstone today. On and in a sycamore tree.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Cool beetle of the day Ablattaria laevigata, snail-hunting made easier by its long narrow head. Gallions Reach.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

When it rests on a leaf the Jersey Tiger moth stands out, but its ‘tiger’ pattern is good camouflage in dead stems and twigs.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Aestivating garden snails. There ought to be a name for these knots, sealed together by their epiphragms of dried mucus. If one doesn’t exist already, may I suggest mucluster.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The moment the baby woodlice, mancas, are released from the marsupium brood-pouch.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Marpissa muscosa, under bark near Ascot. Handsome beast.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I don’t think I can have been looking very hard, but this is the first time I’ve found a solitary bee making its nest in an empty snail shell.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Sorry for awful phone picture down the microscope. Platynaspis luteorubra larva. First time in ages I’ve found this secretive ladybird. And first time ever I’ve found the strange round flat larva.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

My, what long pincers you have Mr Earwig. Macrolabic male of common earwig. Twice as long as normal for not any well-known reason.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Liorhyssus hyalinus (Rhopalidae) is usually pinky red so this straw yellow one foxed me for a minute. Until about the 1990s this was a scarce vagrant, but it’s now well established in South-east England. Rochester yesterday.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I don’t see this ‘puddling’ behaviour, common in tropical butterflies, very often in Britain. Half a dozen green-veined whites were later joined by a painted lady. Also in abundance Lasius fuliginosus, the jet black ant, desperately seeking moisture for the colony.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

This three-quarter-sized painted lady confused my eye in the garden earlier because it was registering as small tortoiseshell in my brain. It spent a lot of time gentle fluttering low over the patio, quite unlike its normally powerful flight style.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Although I did find Polyphylla decemlineata in Guatemala a few years later.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

The engravings in the famous multi-volume Biologia Centrali Americana 1879-1915 are exquisite but I’ve only ever identified one species from it — Adistemia watsoni (top right) which I found on a mouldy wall in a rather dank Holborn office in the early 1980s.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

No mistaking the Jersey tiger, Euplagia quadripunctaria, which ought to be renamed the South-east London tiger since it is so widespread and common in the area.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I really like the Tephritidae (=Trypetidae), one of the groups of ‘pictures-wing’ flies, and there are good identification keys and an active recording scheme. This one always makes me look twice — actually a snail-killing fly, Sciomyzidae, Well named Trypetoptera punctulata.

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Richard Jones @bugmanjones.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Antherophagus pallens, supposedly called a small silken fungus beetle, and although adults are usually found on flowers it apparently breeds in bumblebee nests. Widespread, but uncommon. I seem to come across one specimen from this genus every 8-10 years.

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