Distressing Damsels

Early this evening I had a leisurely and relaxing amble around an area of what was wet grassland / marshland which has now been opened up and made accessible as a leisure area with cycle tracks/paths etc. It's also part of a complex associated with the building of the newly located Everards Brewery, and accordingly it's been named Everards Meadows. It's easily big enough to walk away from the flat grassy picnic area, cycle shop and coffee house and find nice open areas with potential. It runs into the Soar Valley and you could easily walk from there onto Aylestone Meadows.

I took a sweep net, but the camera didn't get any use. Although it was reasonably warm and sunny there wasn't a lot flying or active, but the sweep net yielded lots of hemiptera. In particular, I found lots of Damsels, the Nabidae. Having potted them, by the time I'd got home and eaten etc it was too late to try and photograph them properly, so I've had to anaesthetise them, plonk them on card and grab a shot with flash. You get the gist, but they're not pretty to look at and are more like damsels in distress.

Tree Damsel Bug - Himacerus apterus

Broad Damsel Bug - Nabis flavomarginatus

Field Damsel Bug - Nabis ferus

Which Nabis?

I believe it's a nymph, though it superficially resembles Marsh Damsel Bug - Nabis limbatus

And a couple of leggy Miridae, same shape different family:

Miridius quadrivirgatus

This turns up in moth traps a fair bit in VC55, but not sure there are any other 'in the field' records

Phytocoris varipes

The damsel distress didn't stop there either, as on checking whether I'd seen Nabis limbatus before I realised that I had Himacerus apterus listed twice. Arse, -1 for the list.

"I just wanted somebody to caress
   This damsel in distress
      I just wanted somebody to undress
         This damsel in distress
            I just wanted somebody to bless
               This damsel in distress"

Bugging Me

Time for some relief from moths, though nothing exciting bird-wise to post (haven't felt the urge to open the wallet, take time off of work and chase that crane all over the place, or to go and look at 'odd' Little Stints). I have noticed a couple of birdy things over the last couple of days though - c40 Pied Wags descending onto roofing at the Meridian leisure park on Friday evening, and a huge vis-mig movement of Skylarks SW over my garden yesterday morning (all seven of them).

These two are new for me (at least in the sense of taking the time to find out what they are). Both from the garden, and both from the moth traps one way or another ...

Tree Damsel Bug - found this sitting on top of my traps before I put them out on Friday evening

Birch Shieldbug - one of several in the trap on Saturday morning (and one I've definitely overlooked before)

In keeping with the theme of the post, here's are some excellent tracks from The Bug. Whack it up loud if your system can take it ....