This rather fantastic beetle was sat on the kitchen windowledge this afternoon. It must have flown in from the garden, but what a beast!

Taking advantage of a sunny late afternoon, I headed to a new site for me - the beautiful Chambers Farm Wood near Lincoln. Little Scrubbs Meadow was awash with Common Spotted Orchids and Ragged Robin and it was minutes before I located the first of two Marsh Fritillaries. This brighter individual was very confiding, landing on my hand. A second (?female) was pale and translucent - apparently one old name for this species was Greasy Fritillary as their beauty is so transient.

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Most of my moth trapping has taken place in my own garden, over the last 4 years or so. Catches have been pretty rubbish so far this year, but the garden list is up to 766 species of macro and micromoth.

Other inverts often come to the light too and this is one of my favourites - the mighty Ledra aurita. One of the biggest and most spectacular Leafhoppers in the UK, it is thin on the ground and always a great species to see. There is a narrow belt of oaks down the road from the...

On a quiet afternoon at work, I managed to slip away for an hour to do some invert hunting at the excellent Besthorpe Nature Reserve on the side of the Trent. The converted gravel pits here mean a high diversity of habitats, but as is so often the case it was hard to get more than a few metres from the car. 

Sweeping the extensive patches of White Dead-nettles along the river produced large numbers of both Pied Shieldbugs (the cutest shieldbug going?) and the dazzling leaf beetle Chrysolina fastuosa. These really are spectacular, with emerald green, sapphire blue and ruby red elytra...