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. The dorsal view above 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.
