`Trawling` for insects....

This afternoon it was bloody hot, and although I had enormous amounts of things that I should have been doing back in the office, I decided to skive. Hastily grabbing Dave (our Saturday boy), Oll (the Ecologist(), and Mark (Assistant Director), I bundled them and a couple of butterfly nets and some jam jars into the car and set off...

It was Oll who suggested that we try this rather interesting variation of the old fashioned beatuing-net which served generations of entomologists so very well, and I have to admit that I was well impressed by what we managed to catch..

A shield bug (Coreus marginatus)

Araniella cucurbitina

We caught various other things including two species of bug, two small oil beetles, various click beetles,and some exquisitely beautiful iridescent flower beetles. They are all too small for me to photograph, but I hope that Graham shall be able to tomorrow..