Butterflies and beetles

We were looking for bugs in our school grounds in the wild flower meadow in the orchard
and we saw these butterflies: skipper, meadow brown, gatekeeper and marbled white.

The skipper is a short stout insects with shorter wings than most butterflies.  Their antennae end with thick hooks.  Skipper caterpillars are usually green or brown sometimes yellowish never brightly coloured.

A skipper butterfly in the orchard

Cerys dug out some facts about the marbled white butterfly.

1] A marbled white butterfly is black and white.

2] The marbled white is one of the most distinctive butterflies.

3] Marbled white butterflies live in long grass and plants.
4] A marbled white feeds on a wide variety of grasses.
5] A marbled white caterpillars are brown and green.
6] Marbled white butterflies are the only butterflies are the only black and white marking
7] The females have a slight brown tinge on the underside of their wing
8] Marbled white butterflies like sun bathing in hot weather.
9] The marbled white butterflies often is found in large colonies.
10] There are similar species to marbled white which come from Galatea in Spain and South France.

We also saw three different beetles: soldier beetle, swollen-thighed beetle and a two-spot ladybird.  Zoe found some information about the swollen thighed beetle.

The swollen-thighed beetle

1] Swollen-thighed beetles are a very common  in the summer and often found on bramble flowers.

2]Swollen-thighed beetles are a very hard creature to spot because they are very small about a centimetre long and camouflaged.

3]It is a feature of the males only so it may be some advantage when mating.

Tiny swollen-thighed beetle in our orchard

closeup of swollen-thighed beetle