LEPTOPHYES PUNCTATISSIMA

I am the blipper in the family, but Mr. HCB gets just as excited when I take a photograph of something like this - and of course, mention the word "cricket" and he's away!

I had met my friend, Linda, for coffee this morning and then rang Mr. HCB to come and collect me so that we could go and do some shopping.  I wanted to walk down Marlborough Road, not only for the exercise, but I knew there would be some pretty flowers in the gardens and wanted to find something small for today, my first entry for this challenge.

I stopped to photograph this flower, spied this little creature, and thought it would fit in well with Tiny Tuesday.

When we arrived at Waitrose, on the outskirts of Swindon, next to the Wilts and Berks Canal, there was a beautiful bank of flowers which included ox-eye daisies and pink clover, and as I had been looking for daisies for a few days, I was excited too.

Having got home, I showed Mr. HCB my photographs and he said he had never seen one of these creatures before and immediately looked it up in his British Wildlife book, and found it is a Speckled Bush-Cricket also known as Leptophyes Punctatissima.  As it is only 14mm long, it obviously qualifies as "tiny". 

So - two happy people - and my contribution for Tiny Tuesday.

It is not summer
     until the crickets sing.
Greek proverb