CitizenScience photos on Flickr

Current research by FWC biologists at Ocala National Forest includes quantifying optimal scrub habitat conditions and analyzing the movements of young scrub-jays. Florida scrub-jays are color banded on selected study plots to facilitate the study of their movements and survival.

Blue Shieldbugs found in the Carlisle area of Cumbria in 2015 by gillean55

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Blue Shieldbugs found in the Carlisle area of Cumbria in 2015: Overview.

I didn't have an agenda for Blue Shieldbugs this year, as I'd found a pair of them last December, and I wasn't particularly keen to find any more - mainly because they're so difficult to photograph! Nevertheless, as there were relatively few Cumbrian records for this species, I made a point of recording all of my Blue Shieldbug sightings, most of which were initially found whilst looking for other species that share the same habitat (Spiked Shieldbugs in particular). However, once the numbers started to build up, it struck me that it might be feasible to construct my own life-cycle histogram, in a form comparable to that used by RD Hawkins in Shieldbugs of Surrey. Consequently, later in the year, searches were specifically carried out for Blue Shieldbugs.

The results are presented above. It can be seen that each month is divided into three segments, the first two of tens days duration, and the third comprising the rest of the month. For the sake of convenience, the data for both adults and late-instar nymphs (the only nymphs found) have been included in the same figure. The inset images of a fourth-instar nymph, a fifth-instar nymph and an adult have been taken from my Blue Shieldbugs (Year 2015) album, which includes all of my Blue Shieldbug photos submitted to Flickr - although, it's noted that record shots were taken of all the specimens reported.

The most obvious difference between my findings and those reported in SBoS is the lack of a clear double peak in the adult population: the vast majority of my adult sightings occurred later in the year, whereas in SBoS 37% occurred before the mid-year dip. As already mentioned, this species was only targeted in the later months, which probably goes some way to explaining this apparent discrepancy. However, a less obvious factor is that as the year progressed I accumulated more and more information about the sites favoured by Blue Shieldbugs, and so I became much more proficient at finding them.* For this reason, the data don't give a true reflection of the variation in population levels over the cycle. (There are other factors as well, but I'll not bother labouring the point!)

The relatively high volatility of the counts is no doubt partly due to the fact that the data were accumulated over a single year, and so would have been influenced by the variations in the weather experienced over that one year. Blue Shieldbugs seem to be particularly partial to sunbathing, and - other factors being equal - counts were noticeably higher on sunny days; in fact, I can't recall a single sighting made under dull and cloudy conditions. I also feel obliged to point out that the dip in both the adult and nymph counts in mid-August was probably due to the fact that over that period some of the better days were spent hillwalking and not bug-hunting!

For the record, the numbers found at each site were as follows:

Kingmoor North: 55 (46 adults, 9 nymphs)

Kingmoor Sidings: 20 (6 adults, 14 nymphs)

Sowerby Wood: 13 (12 adults, 1 nymph)

High Stand Plantation: 7 (6 adults, 1 nymph)

Kingmoor South: 2 (both adults)

Scaleby Moss: 2 (both adults)

Orton Moss: 1 (nymph)

It's also interesting to note the sites where Blue Shieldbugs were NOT found, despite repeated visits:

Finglandrigg Wood (33 visits)

Burgh Marsh (22 visits)

Glasson Moss (20 visits)

Drumburgh Moss (11 visits)

Carlisle Cemetery (4 visits)

The lack of Blue Shieldbugs in Finglandrigg Wood was particularly surprising, as this nature reserve embraces a large range of different habitats. It's also interesting to note that I drew a blank on the South Solway Mosses at Glasson and Drumburgh, despite the large number of Spiked Shieldbugs, in particular, that were seen at the woodland edges of these mires (Spiked and Blue Shieldbugs share the same habitat in Kingmoor); Heather Bugs were also found at these locations, but in smaller numbers. The frequent visits to Burgh Marsh were mainly in connection with the monitoring of the Gorse Shieldbug population in the vicinity of Old Sandsfield, and in fact this was the only species of shieldbug found here.

Nymphs were recorded from 14 July (a fifth-instar at Kingmoor North) to 13 September (a fourth-instar at Orton Moss), and length measurements were taken in a number of cases:

Fifth-instars: 5.5mm (14 Jul), 6.0mm (25 Jul), 5.5mm (24 Aug)

Earlier instars: 3.9mm (24 Jul), 3.7mm (8 Aug), 4.1mm (13 Sep)

From the degree of development of the wing buds on the earlier instars, these were all judged to be fourths. (As in the case of the Heather Bugs, I'm assuming here that this species has five instars.)

Adults were found from 19 March (Scaleby Moss) to 27 October (Kingmoor North). In 2014 only two Blue Shieldbugs were found - primarily due to the late start - both in Kingmoor Sidings on 5 December, under mild and sunny conditions. Had the weather during November and December of 2015 been more typical, then I'm confident that more observations would have been made. However, if there were a combined index for cloud, wind and rain then I'm pretty sure that this two month period would have broken all records! So it's hardly surprising that there were no further sightings of this sun-loving bug.

* Note added 15 April 2016: For example, yesterday I found 7 adult Blue Shieldbugs in Kingmoor by concentrating my search on hotspots only discovered late last summer.

MSL 3383 MR by Neville Thompson

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Gigapan - www.gigapan.com/gigapans/228644

GIGAmacro - viewer.gigamacro.com/view/3Gt082o8aH45Q4jF?x1=44629.50&am...

Flickr Download - www.flickr.com/photos/nev-t/51894334041/sizes/6k/

Raw Images - mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw-images/?order=sol+desc%2...

Beautiful Mallards by Jonah P.

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PERSEVERANCE 153 by Neville Thompson

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GIGAmacro - viewer.gigamacro.com/view/gGIyv8WqeykhSc3p?x1=23180.02&am...

Gigapan - www.gigapan.com/gigapans/226694