Inchresting

Yesterday afternoon, while we were out in the village, R and I took the Boy Wonder to Tilly's field, because the area around the entrance gate is currently seething with grasshoppers and crickets in various stages of development, and I thought B would like them. And to be fair, I think he would have liked them, if they hadn't pinged away every time he rushed towards them, but they did, and he quickly became frustrated.

I was gently explaining the need to move slowly and quietly, so as not to frighten the tiny creatures, when he suddenly flung up his hands and said, "No! Stop telling me! It's not inchresting!" "Oh!" I said - nearly as surprised by his articulacy as by the sentiment. He gave me the ferocious scowl of a child who doesn't necessarily quite mean the thing he just said, but has no intention of backing down now, and then stomped past me, growling, "It's not inchresting."

At 10am today R and I handed back the Boy Wonder and all his baggage to his doting mother in a car park in Monmouth, and returned home to a house that seemed much too quiet and calm. After some tidying up, R went off out, while I wandered round the garden with the macro in search of insects. This wasn't the prettiest one I found, but I'm going to assert that it was by far the most inchresting.

It's a planthopper, and it's only about 6mm long - which (excuse incoming!) made it annoyingly hard to photograph, in poor light and a strong breeze, as it perched on this swaying montbretia leaf. When I began to try to identify it, I quickly decided that it was one of the Cixiidae, which are sometimes known as lacehoppers. Most UK Cixiid species have three longitudinal ridges, or keels, on the scutellum, but this one has five, and as far as I've been able to establish, we only have two five-keeled species in this country. These used to be called Oliarus leporinus and Oliarus panzeri, though both have recently suffered name changes.

Oliarus leporinus (now called Pentastiridius leporinus) is a coastal saltmarsh species that's found on marsh grasses, which makes it an unlikely candidate; plus, its head is longer front to back than it is wide, and though you can't see it from this angle, this hopper has quite a broad head. Oliarus panzeri (now renamed as Reptalus quinquecostatus) has a wide vertex, and is strongly associated with ground that cracks open in summer - which looks much more like this specimen, and sounds far more like my garden.

However, quoting British Bugs: "The ecology of this species remains obscure, although it is often associated with grasslands in which the ground has a tendency to crack during the summer. Since the nymphs are root-feeders, this perhaps allows the adults to lay eggs below ground. Although restricted to southern England and designated as scarce, it is a fairly common species in the London area." I'm always nervous when something I think I've found is designated scarce, and the Shire can hardly be described as southern England. iNaturalist shows no records west of Hounslow, but there is one in Cambridgeshire, which seems to show the hopper spreading northwards, at least.

Earlier I posted my four acceptable photos (out of more than forty) to two entomology groups on Facebook, and asked for help with the identification. As of now, the only helpful response I've received has come from AJC, who said that it does look like Oliarus panzeri, and suggested I should submit it to iRecord and wait for the verdict of the Auchenorrhyncha Recording Scheme.

Watch this space!