Treehopper

What do you mean, ugly? How very dare you?? I think she's gorgeous. Or he. I have no idea how to tell the sex of one of these bugs, and given that most photos of them on line don't mention it, I suspect that few other people do either. Presumably another treehopper would know though, which is rather more important than that we should.

Anyway, this is either a male or a female Centrotus cornutus, which is one of just two species of treehopper we have in this country. I posted a shot of one as an extra about three weeks ago, but commented that I wished I'd taken more photos while I had the chance, and maybe captured its stylish little horned helmet. Today, knowing that the entire world was out hunting Purple Emperors, I decided that instead of joining the mêlée I would take myself back over to Trench Wood for a quiet rummage around, and that I'd make a special effort to find another treehopper, and spend more time with it if I was successful.

You can imagine, I'm sure, how pleased I was with myself when I spotted this little chap(ess). The treehopper - which could easily be the same one as I photographed last month, because it was in almost exactly the same place - was almost certainly less happy, but surprised me by stoically sitting tight and simply waiting for me to go away. There's a dorsal view in the extras, which shows the crazily shaped pronutum even better; but having managed to get eye-to-eye with him or her, I couldn't resist using the face shot as my main image. For some reason it keeps putting me in mind of The Lord of the Rings.

Overall, I had a pretty good time at Trench today, though it was a little too hot for comfort, and I arrived home looking as though I'd been boiled. I've put together a selection of my favourite finds and posted them to Facebook, if you'd care to take a look. This evening Worcestershire Wildlife Trust began the publicity releases for their 2023 calendar with the runners-up, which include my photo of a Common Darter on blackberries. And I've been watching a recording of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at this year's Glastonbury Festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed.