Something Usually Turns Up..

Had a wander around the garden, thinking about fungi, though the only ones I've spotted since we got back are tiny ones in the grass. The sun on the shrubby chestnut picked out the leaves in various stages of colouring, so they seemed worth investigating. Unfortunately the breeze was interfering with my plan, so I tried the low-down leaves around the back, which were more sheltered but also shaded - & that's when I spied this beauty.

I'm pretty sure it's a Hawthorn Shield Bug, though all the usual pictures & descriptions show it to have dark reddish-brown, not purple, areas. I think it was the way the shaft of light caught it, reflecting metallic purple - I did go back for a second look & it was still there, looking much more like the way it was supposed to. It also has the correct number of antennal & lower leg segments. We have a long hawthorn hedge along the road side of the garden, which, again, fits.

PS - it was on auto white balance, so maybe that also had an effect, though the leaf colour looks about right for that particular leaf.