Mystery Insect 2

Our latest mystery wildlife is an insect. When making a photographic record of wildflowers it was noticed that an oxe eye daisy had a small creature crawling on the flower. It has distinctive wings. Initially it was thought the wings had serrated edges, but close examination of the photo shows this was instead a distinctive pattern on the wings. The oxe eye daisy was seen on the edge of the North Kent Downs. It was growing a few metres from a wildlife pond, in late June, in full sun and on soil which is clay with flints

Can you identify it?

Mystery Insect 2

Female Lesser Stag Beetle: Dorcus Parallelipipedus

Thank you to Jill Tardivel and her colleagues for identification of our first mystery beetle. This is a female lesser stag beetle, "dorcus parallelipipedus". Like its elder cousin it is a dead wood feeder.. This was not easy to identify as the head is unseen and it seemed a little too small. However, the legs are exactly right in detail. Have a look at here to see another photo of the beetle, showing all the head.

Female Lesser Stag Beetle