It's a bit of a play on words. The story is that I noticed an interesting hairy caterpillar on one of my rose bushes up against the side of the house. Off I went to get my camera, but I thought I'd grab my reading specs too as anything close up is a blur without them, and sometimes I'm quite amazed at what I do spot when I put them on. I was not disappointed as I couldn't believe just how much buggy life there was on just three rose bushes that I would never have noticed had I not taken a really good look!
This is the rather handsome looking caterpillar that I first saw, and it's thanks to someone on G+ who posted one a little while ago that I knew the ID! This caterpillar usually feeds on the foliage of all sorts of trees, but also roses, and quite surprisingly, ground elder - that nuisance weed that is hard to get rid of. They are welcome to that plant!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Dagger
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| Grey Dagger Moth caterpillar (Acronicta psi). |
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| Here it is again from all angles. Top left is its back end, right is its front end. |
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| Knot Grass moth (Acronicta rumicis) caterpillar. Note the spider in the background! |
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| Knot Grass caterpillar again walking across the ground. It is related to the Grey Dagger as they are both Acronicta species. |
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| Unknown hairy caterpillar - can't find it in my insect book. Edit: probably an early instar Oak Eggar Moth caterpillar. |
As well as hairy moth caterpillars I have found two different kinds of sawfly larvae on the roses as well! Now this kind of larvae can be a real pest in large numbers; most people will know them if they grow gooseberries as gooseberry sawfly larvae can defoliate the leaves practically overnight! But the odd one on a rose is not a big deal.
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| Sawfly larvae on a rose leaf on the ground. |
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| The same larvae looking a lot cuter curled up having a nap! Also a few aphids in the background. |
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| These spotty ones are more common and I see similar kinds on all sorts of plants. |
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| Typical rose pest - aphids! |
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| I also saw this cricket. I know it's a female because of the banana shaped ovipositor at the end of her abdomen; but what the brown thing is above that I'm not sure. I can only guess she's having a poo! I also saw a male on this bush too. |
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| There were spiders too of course. Here's a cute little Zebra jumping spider (Salticus sp.) with a little fly that it had caught. I didn't have the right camera for a tiny spider like this. |
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| This is Metellina segmentata with a perfect orb web. The stem in the background is another rose bush around the front of the house and those are Black Eyed Susans (Thunbergia alata) in the background. |
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| A closer up view of it; I'm 99% certain it's the same species but hard to be sure when looking back through my photos! |
All in all quite a surprising number of bugs just on one kind of plant. It really pays to have a close up look as you will be surprised just what you can find!
