Another new arrival, found on the rosemary bush in our garden today. A rather pretty beetle, just under 1cm long, with maroon and metallic green stripes. It is a rosemary leaf beetle Chrysolina americana and feeds on rosemary and lavenders causing damage to the leaf tips see link. Despite its Latin name it seems to be an inhabitant of the Mediterranean coast of southern Europe and N Africa.
This beastie was brought in by two of our volunteers yesterday, having been found dead on Camber shore about ten days ago. It is a Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis). The ‘mittens’ are a layer of soft hairs on the claws (somewhat matted on this individual). As the name suggests this is a native of China which has spread around the world, with the first record in Britain in 1935. It is now common in the estuaries of the Thames and Medway and has been recorded as far north as the River Tyne, and closer to home, at Dungeness and Shoreham. This species has the potential to become something of a pest in Britain, undermining river banks with it’s digging and possibly posing a threat to native species. In other countries where it has turned up it has even made a nuisance of itself by ‘invading’ properties and premises close to water! For further information, click here
To those of you who have not been, as well as being a wonderful garden full of innovative horticultural ideas, Great Dixter is also a great place to view wildlife, particularly species associated with meadows. It is closed for the winter, but opened briefly on Mothers Day. During our visit we spotted displaying great crested newt, with lots of eggs of this species laid on water soldier Stratiodes aloides, found a queen buff tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris disappearing down what looked like a nest entrance and also found a pine ladybird Exochomus 4-pustulatus. This small shiny black ladybird with 4 red spots (the front two kidney shaped) and a slight flattened rim around the edge of the wing case has not been recorded before from this ten kilometre square.
With the ongoing invasion of harlequin ladybirds there has probably never been a more important time to submit records of the British ladybirds, and you can do this on this website (click link) that also has some useful information on identification and good photographs/distribution maps of each species.