The beholder's eye

By uniqueandlovely

A stripy customer

I had an amazing day today. A few weeks ago now I was speaking to a spider expert on Flickr, and he suggested I might like to join the British Arachnological society field meeting at Iping Common today.
Now I love Iping common at the best of times, and acid heathland is one of my favourite habitats, as it is so rich in species, so needless to say even my cold couldn't keep me away!
We found loads of different spiders, some really quite rare and it was so good for me as they usually make me a little nervous, but today I was handling them like a pro!!! no fear at all!
We didn't only find spiders though, we also found larvae of the pine Hawkmoth , fox moth, Beautiful yellow underwing and Knotgrass , and a very late larva of the Emperor moth.
Several Bog bush crickets, a Speckled bush cricket, a Heath assain bug, and my subject of today's Blip A very beautiful Striped ladybird Myzia oblongoguttata. This is a new species to me so I was well pleased, it is quite large (up to 7mm), and lives in trees most commonly in mature Scots pine which could explain why we found this one under a pine tree!
I think it is really special, I hope you will enjoy too.

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