Here's a wacky one from the garden today 😳
Fairly sure this tiny, fast-moving beetle is a purple scale predator or scale-eating ladybird (Rhyzobius lophanthae).
Native to Australia, it was introduced to the US in the 1890s to manage olive scale, & has also been found in Europe in the past 20 years.
Most observations on iNaturalist for this part of DE were made this year.
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Turns out that you can buy this beetle here in Germany & use it to control the scale insects in your garden.
I mean, given that it's here already, perhaps that's ok, but I still get the heebeejeebies when I think about the way we've spread non-native animal species around the world, almost willy nilly.
Deckelschildläuse biologisch bekämpfen mit Rhyzobius lophanthaeDie Käfer von Rhyzobius lophanthae ist sind etwa 2 mm groß, schwarz mit braun behaarten Flügeldecken und länglicher Körperform. Kopf und Körper sind dunkelorange. Die Larven sind graubraun m…
Another rapidly moving insect on the ivy, so apologies for the poor photos.
This seems to be a larva of a species in the Conwentzia genus, the dusty or waxwing lacewings.
From the colouration along the back, perhaps C. psociformis, the common wax-wing (Staubhaft in 🇩🇪), but again, take that with a pinch of salt – there aren't many good pictures on the net.
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This was a tricky customer, hiding in the undergrowth – I couldn't get a good angle without fear of shaking the plants & having it fly away.
But the colouration & curved upwards shape of the end of the abdomen with a spike coming out, suggests a fly in the Tephrochlamys genus.
iNaturalist proposes T. rufiventris, but T. flavipes & T. tarsalis look v similar.
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I've seen this rhopalid species in the garden many times, but for some reason, have never posted a photo or added it to my list.
That ends today.
I'm pretty sure that it's a banded rhopalid (Stictopleurus punctatonervosus).
But there's a bit of uncertainty, as you'll see in the next post.
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Here's the oddity.
Near the adult banded rhopalid (S. punctatonervosus) in the previous picture, there were some nymphs.
The larger one's a decent match for pix of late-stage nymphs of that species, but the two smaller (younger?) ones have me stumped – the body colours are similar, but the seven white stripes on the head don't resemble any rhopalid nymph I can find.
Anyone?
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Mark McCaughrean
Corvus corax