False Ladybird

After several damp and dreary days, the weather gradually improved over the course of the morning. Desperate to stretch my legs, I went off to Bedford Purlieus, hoping to find some fungi. I failed on that front, though I met a couple of mycologists who seemed to have had more success. 

But there was plenty of autumn colour developing, with the wild service trees having turned a wonderful shade of orange (see extra). This local species of ancient woodlands is always easiest to see in the autumn, but before today I'd never realised how many there were. I think I must have seen about thirty trees and I only covered a relatively small part of the wood.

I eventually found myself back at the poplar trunk that Chris and I visited a few weeks ago. At that time it had been full of saproxylic insects, so I stopped for a while to see what was around. There were still many of the delicate crane-fly that we found previously, forming small swarms of mating pairs. This pair of false ladybirds were also concentrating on reproduction, having found a stump riddled with fungus - their ideal habitat. It's usually found from April to September, so this is quite a late record.