IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
The Brackens, COLCHESTER, CO4 9SD

This pupa was on a blade of grass and obviously close to emerging.

Two exceptionally small specimens (possibly due to problems feeding in the cold and damp last year) watched vying for territory over a nettle bed. Between sparring bouts they rested sunning on the nettles.

This photograph follows image number 3431396 the pupal case being that depicted in that photograph. Here the adult beetle has emerged showing the wing cases as an orange colour not the deeper red that comes sometime after emergence.

This photograph shows a 7-Spot Ladybird that has been attacked by Dinocampus coccinellae, a parasitic wasp. Adult wasps inject the beetle with a single egg. The wasp larva hatches and lives inside the ladybird eating its non-vital organs until it is ready to pupate. It paralyzes the ladybird, eats its way out through the underside – all while the ladybird is alive - then spins a cocoon between the beetle’s legs and pupates there while the still living host stands guard over it.

Working in the garden it was noticed that there was strange looking aphid on a rose leaf. In fact it was the empty skin of an aphid with a white disc underneath.The disc was the chrysalis of a tiny parasitic wasp, of the Praon species. An adult lays its egg on the young aphid and its grub develops inside it. When the grub is mature it emerges cutting a hole in the aphids under body and attaches the aphid to the leaf on which it is living. It then uses the corpse as protection of its chrysalis from predators.

On patrol looking for my best plants